The Most Common Grooming Myths in the Business Side

Here are some of the more popular grooming industry myths presented but not backed with evidence in business plans. Opinions only weakens the plan. You have to reduce wage levels to cut payroll costs. Obviously if you reduce wage levels there will be savings for the employer. eGroomer Journal Copyright © 2011 Find A Groomer Inc. All rights reserved 15

The myth arises when we accept wage reductions as the only way to cut payroll costs. This user guide shows you how the organization of staff and grooming assignments reduces payroll costs up to 30 percent without loss of quality or humane pet care. In fact, you may be able to increase wage levels for full-charge (Continued on page 16)

groomers and still cut payroll costs by 10 percent. Medium or large grooming businesses favor quantity over quality. It is naïve to imply the size of a business indicates determines quality, or implies less concern for quality. Consider this predicament. There are small one person businesses where the groomers do 12 to 18 pets in an average work day without assistance including intake and outtake customer service. They are more common than you may think. They bathe several and then cage dry several at once. Rarely are any pets stretch-dried where it would best support the styles. HV drying does not replace stretch-drying requirements. That’s about 30 minutes per pet including big and hairy pets. The same pets in a large pet salon may average 60 to 90 minutes of hands-on, no cage drying grooming. So why do some groomers put down medium and large businesses? Are they on the defensive? Quality is determined by the owner and management of any grooming business regardless of its size. One groomer must groom pets start-tofinish or quality and humane pet care suffers. Some special care pets benefit from complete grooming by the same groomer. For the vast majority of pets, what is more important is the quality of the training and supervision of the groomers, assistants and bathers. Compassionate, well-trained staff can make pets feel equally accommodated regardless of them being groomed by two groomers. Many of the world’s best salons for people have separate shampoo staff. The critical issue is the attitude and training of the staff providing pet services, not their numbers. Commission wages originated from employee demand for them. Commission wages originated from business owners, not their employees. Today many groomers think it is just the opposite. It was the financial insecurity of business owners that led to commission wages. The same is true today of thousands of business owners with staff. In the mid-20th century most groomers worked in grooming departments within a pet care business, often kennels. In the 1960’s standalone grooming businesses started to populate Main Streets across the United States. They hired staff. Owners realized that piecemeal compensation was

not going to last long except for bathers, and even that faded away. They were uncertain if they could guarantee salaries. It actually increases the pressure on owners to take marketing far more seriously in order to be confident there will be adequate work to support guaranteed salaries. Commission was the solution for the insecurity of owners unwilling to create and maintain adequate pet owner demand keeping their salaried staff busy. As a result they transferred risk to their employees working on commission. We hired many of the best groomers in our area because they wanted steady paychecks guaranteed in the form of salaries. Today’s pet groomers are uninformed on the benefits of salary positions where the salaries are fair, even equivalent or more than commission wages. Every job offer must be examined. Salary or commission is no guarantee of earning higher wages. Yet thousands of groomers today believe that commission wages pay better. The salary basis does indeed offer the advantage of a steady income to meet regular household expenses. When pet groomers accept commission based wages they free their employers of risk meeting what would otherwise be salaeGroomer Journal Copyright © 2011 Find A Groomer Inc. All rights reservedry requirements. Groomers get paid 17

nothing extra for carrying the burden of that risk. Anyone paid by commission is an independent contractor. Commission is simply a formula for calculating wages. It is not a determinant for either employment or independent contractor status. A 60 percent commission groomer earns more than a 50 percent commission groomer. Sometimes this is true, and sometimes it is false. When a business paying 50 percent commission charges pet owners adequately higher grooming fees compared to a 60 percent commission wages business, the groomers paid 50 percent commission actually earn higher wages. In the chapters ahead we will provide examples of this often overlooked factor. An employed groomer owns the clientele they groom for their employer. Employees do not own the clients of their employers. The financial liability lies with the employer and therein due to the risk they are exposed to retain ownership of the clientele. If an employee brings established clients to an employer when hired, an exception may ex(Continued on page 18)

ist for those clients. An independent contractor generally owns their clientele list since they are self-employed. If the business contracting them provides them with leads the parties may decide among themselves who owns the clients originating in this manner. In all cases, employment contracts whether employed or independent contractor should state how ownership of clientele is determined, including what happens when employment ends. Employers should have confidentiality agreements signed by all employees making it clear who owns the clientele and their records, and access arrangements to the records during employment and after termination of employment. Groomers paid by commission control how many pets they groom. This statement is possible. However, an employment contract should be in place stating the expectations of the owner providing employment. Commission is not a determining factor. It is simply a formula to calculate wages. A job offer and agreement signed by employees is the determining factor and should state descriptions of the productivity expected of hired employees. Independent contractors generally have more freedom in controlling the num18 Copyright © 2013 Find A Groomer Inc. All rights reserved Subscribe www.egroomer.com

ber of pets they grooming because they are self-employed. However, a contract covering the arrangement between a business owner and an independent contractor may be able to state that the independent contractor groomer is expected to be on-site working “x” amount of hours or days of the week, or the business owner can terminate their contract. Commission paid groomers don’t have an equivalent hourly wage. Absolutely false, and we are going to show you how to calculate the average hourly wage of a commission groomer. Imagine that. Almost no commission paid groomers today know how much they are earning hourly. Once you know that average hourly wage you can make a salary offer knowing that no matter if they are paid hourly or by commission, their paycheck would be identical if they groom the same pets in the same time. Amazing, but true, this is a revelation for use in employment negotiations and converting commission groomers to salaries. They earn the same, what is the problem? Pet Grooming Business Owners That Don’t Groom Can Make Lots of Money in Grooming. (Continued on page 19)

Rarely is this true. When a business only sells grooming services it must be a large, efficient operation in order to offer the managing non-grooming owner a moderate return. It is more possible when the owner establishes a professional pet bathing department and substantial bath-only grooming demand, and all of the bath-only services are done by experienced pet bathers. As you will see in the chapters ahead, the gross profit of bath-only pets groomed entirely by pet bathers or assistants is typically double the gross profit of pet groomers grooming bathonly pets start-to-finish. Many of our consultation clients described as nongrooming business owners changed their financial fate by developing major bath-only pet demand and assigning the demand entirely to professional experienced pet bathers and assistants. We regularly recommend non-grooming business owners to forgo opening new grooming-only businesses. We guide them to consider multiple department formats, such as pet boutique with a grooming department. They should expect most of their personal income from the business to be derived from supplementary non-grooming department(s). Offering grooming services in eGroomer Journal Copyright © 2011 Find A Groomer Inc. All rights reserved 19

a multiple department pet business draws regular foot traffic from pet owners patronizing the groomers, and then spending more in other departments. Non-grooming owners going ahead to buy grooming-only businesses do best when they buy existing grooming businesses employing three or more groomers with positive bottom lines backed by solid financials and tax returns. These businesses should also demonstrate the ability to support expansion in the future. Independent contractors boost profits. Many states have limited or even eliminated 1099 basis for on-site pet groomers. We wish there was a way to send a shout out to every grooming business owner still employing independent contractors. Our message would be simple, “Do you realize that independent contractors can drain your profits?” These owners enjoy the savings of not having to pay employer taxes, worker’s compensation and other employer related costs. How can they possibly drain profits? We had to write an entire book on that subject available from Grooming Business in a Box®. It is titled, Pet Groomer Wage Systems. It provides eighty pages of proof, not opinions. ◄