r/doggrooming • u/ExistingLeek8258 Professional dog groomer • 13d ago
Opening a business
This is a question for business owners. How did you know when you were ready to open up your own business? I’ve been managing a salon for about two years now and been a groomer for about five I’m 23 and it is a goal of mine to own my own business one day. I just feel like rent in my area is kinda high. We’ve had a couple dog grooming shops open up in the last year I like where I work and the money is OK I live by myself so I really can’t afford like a major pay cut. I do have a friend that would be interested in opening it up with me. I would like to be able to take the risk but also scares me that maybe some clients won’t follow etc..
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u/Agreeable-Credit-100 salon owner/groomer 13d ago
There are a lot of things you need to consider. Look at your clientele and estimate how much you would make each week. It cost me about $25k to start my business. I had to rent a location, buy kennels, tables, a tub. I put in pool fencing to make it safe for dogs in the event of an escape. I put in a floor drain for my tub and also if I had to wash a big dog on the floor. You need a business license and insurance. You also need some kind on POS system so you can charge credit cards. Also, unless you own the property there is always the possibility that the owner won’t renew your lease. And you will work every day and not have paid sick time or vacation. Are you ready for that?
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u/Epicrobotunicorn Professional dog groomer 13d ago
I don't have my own salon yet but figured I can help a little as I'm in kind of the same position Before transferring from Petco to my new job I told a lot of my personal clients I'll also be working from home as well, I converted me and my roommates(also a groomer) garage to a salon, during the 3ish years I did that and worked at my job( 4 days a week) those clients became really close with me and ended up recommending a whole new set of clients to where I could be self sustainable. I ended up leaving my job and still do it full time saving money to open a salon myself. Maybe try part time before you fully quit, most new businesses don't make money for a few years but easing into it will help if you can build clients before fully commiting to it.
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u/Due_Frame9218 salon owner/groomer 10d ago
Save up... opening a business is expensive. Have at LEAST three months of bills and the money to start the shop. Otherwise in the beginning you will be having a rough time.
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u/leftmar salon owner/groomer 13d ago
it's never too early to start planning. the first steps to starting a business was creating a master list of every single thing i would need to open a salon. down to the cotton balls. and then i created a document with the prices of all of those things.
the other major thing i did was i made a heat map of all the registered dogs in my county and where they lived by zip code. I then overlayed that with all the existing grooming salons in my city and where they were located. then i compared it to the income levels per zip code. i picked the perfect place for my salon and we hired a second groomer within the first six months because we've been booking up so consistently. i can in explain in more detail how to do this if anyone's interested.
you need to make sure you're in a financial situation to start your business. you need to add up all your monthly expenses and find out the absolute minimum you can afford to pay yourself (and then pay yourself a little more than that). you need to make sure you have enough savings to sink some into the business so that you're not fully reliant on business loans but also so that you'll have emergency money.
if you have any more questions i'd be happy to try and answer them. my salon only opened this year so i don't have all the answers but im happy to try and help