Hayley’s Happy Paws

Hayley Davis is the owner of

Hayley’s Happy Paws in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. We spoke with her to find out what makes her business tick!

What can you tell me about your career?

I’ve been a dog groomer for 14 years, starting as a veterinary nurse. I decided on a career change and went to work alongside my mum and trained as a dog groomer.

I am a mum of five and, after having my youngest in 2020, I decided to work alone and become my own independent business to enable me to work around my babies’ needs. I worked from my mum‘s log cabin in her garden for a while and then bought an existing business in March 2022.

My salon is on a quiet street with a few shops, we are always busy with new and existing customers.

Tell me about your unique selling points.

I run the only salon in my area that has a background with veterinary nursing. I believe this helps me look at the dogs’ health more in-depth rather than just giving the dogs a haircut. The work I do in my salon is based on the health and welfare of all dogs, the pet care side of my business is a real passion of mine.

I am also taking my SQP qualification with AMTRA and Harper Adams University at the minute, which will allow me to provide my customers with preventative flea and worm treatments that are prescription only and not available in general pet shops.

I have also introduced the Emmi-Pet teeth cleaning system to help with the oral health of my doggy clients because dental disease can affect so much more than just the mouth, and I feel it’s really important to educate pet owners on this.

I’ve also added spa treatments to my salon to provide customers with alternative therapies for dogs with skin issues etc. I find I do build up a lot of trusting customers due to my experience and background.

How has your business grown over the years and where do you see yourself going?

When I took over my business a year ago it was just me and a part-time bather. Since then, I have taken on a full-time apprentice and I have a second apprentice starting in August.

I also have two other groomers that rent tables from me and are running their own little business successfully too.

The business has grown a lot quicker than I expected it to and it’s been nice to be able to mould it and make it my own as well as making it work for me and my family.

Over the next year or so, I will be working on setting up a dog grooming Academy. I previously also had Warwickshire Dog Grooming Academy with my mum and teaching is definitely something I want to get back into.

Initially, I will be putting my apprentices through the level three diploma and, once they are ready, they will take on the grooming side. I will then step back and teach students, and in the future, open up a separate grooming Academy.

In the meantime, I will be working on helping new groomers improve their grooming skills with some online tuition. I will also be adding more services next year, the main one being cat grooming.

Are you looking to compete and/or have you won any awards?

In my early grooming days, I did used to compete. I’ve won a few of my classes and placed in others. One of my favourite competitions has to be when I competed with a standard poodle. I didn’t place but I learnt so much.

I had tuition on the groom leading up to the competition and the feedback after the competition was really constructive. Learning as much as I did about the poodle has led to me being known in my area for grooming standard poodles. I may compete again someday, who knows?

What advice would you like to give to our readers?

The advice I would give to any groomer is to take a business course and get a mentor. We all go and learn how to groom and spend thousands on training but never usually invest in business training. My business would not be running as it is today without the training and mentoring I have had.

I was always put off having my own business because I’ve seen so many groomers work themselves into the ground. But, I knew there had to be another way. Finding the business program that I joined has helped me find the passion and love for grooming again.

Any general thoughts?

Dog grooming is an amazing career and has lots of potential to help you create a life you want. There are so many more aspects to this career that a lot of people realise and we are very lucky to be part of a continually growing industry. Visit hayleyshappypaws.co.uk