Grooming Excellence-How to Start a Thriving Pet Grooming Business

Are you someone who has unconditional love for pets, and being a pet parent gives you great bounds of happiness. Do you love spending quality time with pets and you usually prefer their company more than humans? Wink wink! You are in the right place then as we are about to take you on a journey towards an illustrative guide on how to start your pet grooming business?

If you find a place where you can find loads of opportunities to meet new pets every day and icing on the cake, this passion of yours can help you a good income too! Will you ever deny plunging for it? Imagine a part-time business, giving you immense happiness while you make money out of it.

Well, if you have ever come across the thought of opening up a venture where you can be passionate about what you love and earn an income from it, then you may think of opening up a pet grooming business. This guide on “how to start a pet grooming business” will guide you well on how to build a business plan and start your business.

According to the Bureau of Labor Stats [BLS], the pet industry has seen job growth of 11% from 2014. It is expected to grow by 20 percent from 2016-2026.

What are the Pros And Cons of A Pet Grooming Business?

Before you get to know how to start a pet grooming business, and how much is a pet grooming business profit, it is important to be apprised of the Pros and cons of a pet grooming business.

Pros of a Pet Grooming Business

  • With the number of pet parents increasing in recent years, a parallel increase in pet grooming services has been seen.
  • It’s a great opportunity to turn your passion into a business. You can earn doing what you love and as you grow, the pet grooming business profit will increase as well.
  • One can easily make it a mobile business with a well-equipped vehicle since having a location is not mandatory. You can also operate it from the front of a store.
  • A pet grooming business involves a simple business model and is quite simple to launch.
  • Business can be expanded with time by providing additional services.
  • This business also involves a good amount of daily physical activity like walking, running errands, and performing numerous tasks.

Cons of a Pet Grooming Business

  • Since it’s a growing business, the market has become a crowded space with a lot of competitors.
  • This hobby turned business may not fetch very high-profit margins.
  • Not just love for pets, but knowledge and expertise are required to run the business effectively and efficiently. One should be well versed in how to deal with different kinds of pets, otherwise, it can be harmful.
  • Insurance coverage is important in a pet grooming business to protect the owner from any liability

What Tools Do You Need to Start a Pet Grooming Business?

While you are still in thought and are surely confused about how to start a pet grooming business, we would like to throw some light on the tools and training you will be requiring to run the business.

Just as love and compassion remain the primary suitability. Knowledge and experience are a must to shoot the works. You can school yourself into a formal grooming program or get trained under an established professional. Several pieces of training are at one’s disposal to enhance your skills.

 Tools are the essentials one needs to run his business since only love and knowledge won’t work.

The future of your business will depend on the quality of equipment you will use. The quality of equipment has a huge impact on the services you offer. The use of the best quality equipment will help establish good relations with your client base.

We have listed some basic essential tools for a pet grooming business, costing averagely around $1000.

  • Slicker Brush
  • Greyhound Comb
  • pH balanced shampoo and conditioner
  • Shear tub
  • Clippers
  • Blades
  • Safety clippers
  • Hydraulic drier
  • Grooming table.

There are a number of brands that offer all the necessary tools. The cost of the tools differ from brand to brand. Average cost of the tools is $500 – $1000.

After registering the business, and forming a legal entity- sole proprietorship or partnership or LLC, you need to apply for certain business taxes and get the business insured against liabilities.

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There aren’t any particular pet grooming business licensing requirements and it’s an easy to go process.

What are the basic startup costs for a pet grooming business?

Have you been anticipating how much does a pet grooming business startup, cost? The statements below undergird our research about the startup costs of this business.

A pet grooming business startup cost is around $ 20,000. However, it may vary according to certain factors.

  • The basic startup costs are determined keeping note of some factors. For this, you first need to decide whether you are going to set up an entity, start-up at home or will it be a mobile business.
  •  Next up, the ongoing expenses like rent, electricity, insurance, salaries, etc.
  •  The equipment, ensuring the best quality for your customers.

How Do You Prepare for Launching a Pet Grooming Business?

Although a pet grooming business might seem a relatively easy business to start. The basic requirements for the business are love, compassion for pets, and schooling of required skills under a professional. However, the question of how to start a pet grooming business remains unanswered.

Since just the basic requirements will not run the business, you need to derive a proper pet grooming business plan and certain business strategies to stand out in the market and outshine the competitors. A business plan is very essential to incase you don’t have any internal funding or if you are planning to arrange finance. It need not be very technical but should be comprehensive enough to give investors a reason to invest in a pet grooming business!

After writing an impressive pet grooming business plan, you need to conduct market research, look for the target market, strategize marketing and advertising techniques.

Market Research

Conducting market research is a crucial step that helps you know about the potential customers in your community. Associate yourself with different people, gather information about pets and their breeds. The services and products the pet parents need for their pets’ grooming. All this information will help you succor the pressure points of your target audience.

Market research will help you come across challenges you might have to face and provide the best solutions.

Business Name and Logo

Branding provides a distinguished identity to the business. The owner should create a unique name considering the type of business he owns. Remember, a unique name will attract new customers as it will increase their curiosity to know more about the business.

A logo should be directly related to the product and services the business has to offer and should comply with the brand name.

The brand name and logo will do wonders to the business with well-strategized marketing and advertising.

Niche Selection

  • In a pet grooming business plan, there should be enough focus laid on niche selection. Niche selection is important to serve your skills on the best platter.
  • The owner can decide the types of pets and their breeds they wish to serve their grooming services on.
  • Dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits are some of the pets people are fond of keeping.

For example, if you are planning to open a dog grooming business, then you can also choose breeds if you wish to. Here are some:

  • Golden Retriever
  • Pug
  • German shepherd
  • Labrador Retriever
  • Siberian Husky

Target Market

Your target market will decide your product’s customer base. You should know about the needs and requirements of your customers. What they expect out of your services and how you will go about it. Marketing efforts should be 10/10 to find out the ideal market.

According to the 2019-2020 APPA National Pet Owners Survey, 67% of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to 84.9 million homes.

As people still think of pet grooming being a luxury and not a necessity, finding the right age group of people who will spend on grooming services is the main agenda of finding the target market.

The right kind of target market for a pet grooming business will be the teenagers and Gen Z. These are the kind of people who are more into a keep and take care of pets. Gen Z would love to spend on something like pet grooming so one should target the young people for their services.

According to APPA, in 2020, $103.6 billion were spent on pets in the  U.S.A. In 2021, it is estimated that $109.3 Billion will be spent on pets.

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Skillset

After drafting a pet grooming business plan, one needs to consider the skills required to run this business. To make the business profitable, one needs to ensure that the best services are being provided to the customers.

 As told earlier, to work in this business it is very important to have the required knowledge and experience to deal with pets and handle them with care.

Pet grooming is a skill and the owner and the employees working in this business should be well versed with it.

 This business requires skilled and trained personnel who can naturally deal with pets and cause them no injury. Not providing good quality services or causing injury to pets will cause damages and your business will be held liable.

If not equipped with the knowledge, one should school himself in some grooming programs or get trained under an established professional or learn through videos available on the internet.

Some skills that will help you become an efficient groomer are

  • Confidence to deal with animals and people.
  • Ability to understand body language and recognize warning signs in temperamental pets.
  • Animal health knowledge
  • Compassion and care for animals
  • Good business sense
  • Excellent pet skills which include communication skills with pets.

How to Source Raw Materials?

 From where do you procure your raw materials? Whom should you contact in a pet grooming business? How will you get the best from so that you provide the best services?

These questions must be running on the top of your mind when we first mentioned ‘how to start a pet grooming business.’

In a pet grooming business, raw materials are the inventory and tools required to provide grooming services to the pets and their owners. All you need is to get in touch with the right suppliers who will provide you with the inventory at an agreed cost.

To find the right suppliers, you will have to make an effort and get in touch with some of your competitors and people in your local area. Suppliers and their prices depend on the area and therefore, you will have to be in contact with the right kind of people. Services like AliExpress also offer a wide variety of suppliers for all industry types, you can get in touch with suppliers listed there, however, some basic research may be needed.

Here is a list of AliExpress suppliers you may find helpful-

  1. Zookaria Official Store  (96.5% Positive Feedback)
    1. QIANAOSE Store (97.7% Positive Feedback)
    1. Yonihom Store (94.9% Positive Feedback)
    1. Golden Pet Store (96.2% Positive Feedback)
    1. LanYing Pets Store (96.4% Positive Feedback)

How to Set Up the Price Structure?

Setting up price structures is one of the most crucial parts when we are discussing how to start a pet grooming business. You also need to study and analyze the price structure of your competitors to set your price structure.

It should cover your cost and draw a profit margin for you while giving a reason for customers to get services done from your store.

  •  While in a pet business, the price differs for the service you offer.
  •  Price structure involves costs of inventory, time taken and service offered.
  •  Grooming and other services differ for each pet and breed, hence there will be different prices for the same.

Do You Need an Office?

  •  While building a plan for how to start a pet grooming business, you need to pay a lot of attention to the location of your business.  Location is one such factor that breaks your business. You need to scout for different locations to make your business profitable.
  • The location also depends upon the density of the pet population in the area you have chosen to build your salon.  Preferably your salon should be at a site where the density of the pet population is more.
  • However, if you choose to start your salon at your home you will be cutting the cost of the expenses you will have to bear as rent.
  •  If you are planning to start a mobile business you will be needing a vehicle properly equipped to render services.

 Finance Arrangement

 How to start a pet grooming business without Finance? While writing down the business plan and calculating your pet grooming business startup cost, it is important to take note of the personal finances of the owner or wishes to arrange from external sources.

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Laying out strategies is pivotal to arrange finance for the business. A well-laid down strategy will give reasons to investors for investing in the firm sorting out finance arrangement issues.

One can also arrange Finance from personal assets or public sources such as loans, shares, and debentures.

Do You Need To Hire?

Hiring employees depends upon the scale of the business- large scale or small scale.

If the owner has skills sufficient to manage the store single-handedly, he doesn’t need to hire any people. This will also be an advantage to him since he can cut costs on expenses like salaries and insurance of the employees.

However, if needed, skilled and trained personnel should be hired for work in the grooming process. Hiring professionals is a necessity to ensure the safety of pets. The staff needs to be someone who the owner can trust with good care of the pets.

What Could be the Possible Hurdles in a Pet Grooming Business?

In times where industries are trying to get back on track, and competition is high, running a business is a complex endeavor. Making profits in this recovering economy is no easy feat.

  • The biggest challenge in the pet grooming industry is the competitors.  With the growing number of pet owners, the need for pet grooming services has increased simultaneously and is a growth seen in the number of competitors as well.
  • Another possible hurdle could be finance arrangement and Management. There is a possibility of not earning sufficient profits to cover your cost in the beginning. With dedication and consistency in your work, you will walk through the bridge.
  • You will be liable for any injury that is caused to the pets and this may harm your business. If your business is not insured you will have to pay the compensation cost which may lead to your loss.
  • In a pet grooming business, customer satisfaction is the top priority. You also need to keep the employees motivated to make them work effectively and efficiently.

Whole-hearted efforts nourished in love for animals and commitment to the work will ensure gross profits in this venture. As they say, “all problems in the world have their solutions” your hard work will recognize no hurdles and you will jump into the lake of success with your persistence and consistency.

CONCLUSION: How to Start A Pet Grooming Business in 2021

The guide on “how to start a pet grooming business in 2021” involves the procedure of setting up a business plan, turning your passion for animals into your business. Shalooka business guides have summed up the guide keeping in mind the requirements, income, and hurdles that you might face in the due course of the business. Establishing a business is no easy feat and success doesn’t come served on a dish. It will take time, effort, love, and knowledge for your business to grow and compete with already established firms in the highly competitive market. Your investment will start making returns with targeted marketing and advertising. Go with the flow and see yourself reaching heights.

By following the guide stepwise, you will be able to derive a business plan, understand the market, the needs, tools required for the business you wish to establish. From estimating the setup costs to set up your own pet grooming business, the guide will guide you well.

FAQs

  1. What is the estimated startup cost for a pet grooming business?

          The estimated startup cost for a pet groping business is $20,000.

  • Can you give some grooming tips that will serve as a guide?

Pet grooming tips that will serve as a guide are brushing, bathing, trimming nails, mouth massage, and cleaning ears.

  • Is the business profitable?

Yes, the business holds a good income potential and is profitable.

  • Are there any particular licensing requirements?

No, the business does not involve any particular licensing requirements. However it is advised to ensure the business to protect against any liability.

  • How much do dog groomers make?

Dog groomers can make about $28000 annually.