Unlike many professions pet grooming has an extraordinary number of career paths. Here is a list of the most common career paths:
 

Employment

You can find grooming employment opportunities in:

• Grooming shops and salons
• Grooming departments within:
  • Boarding facilities
  • Veterinarian clinics
  • Pet day care facilities
  • Retail pet stores, small and large, such as PetSmart and PETCO

Self-Employment

Consider these paths as the owner of a:

• Grooming shop or salon in a commercial location
• Mobile grooming business (van, truck or trailer conversion)
• Home-based grooming business (in your home)
• House-call grooming business (grooming inside homes of pet owners, no mobile conversion)
• "Rent a table” in a shop or salon
• Rent or lease an equipped grooming department within:
  • Boarding facility
  • Veterinarian clinic
  • Pet day care facility
  • Self-serve pet wash
  • Independent retail store

Differences Between Employment and Self-Employment

Both paths require grooming training. Entering the industry immediately self-employed usually requires prior fee-based training. However, some career seekers purchase businesses and arrange for the seller to stay on board for several weeks and train them to groom. We don’t endorse this route compared to attending a fee-based grooming school. It could be problematic and involve risk if sellers change their minds and depart early. Sometimes buyers do ask sellers to stay on as employed groomers that they can also fall back upon as an advisor improving existing skills.

Here is a list of the chief differences between employment and self-employment:

Self-employment

• Startup investment capital required
• Control over the standards of quality, safety and art of grooming
• Potential to grow a large business earning higher income compared to employment
• Longer working hours and many additional business management responsibilities
• Long-term commitments generally required in various aspects of operation such as leases, financing and operations
• Increased tax reporting and licensure
• Liability protection required
• No employer provided benefits (similar benefits may be acquired by and for the owner)

Employment

• Generally set working days and hours
• No after work responsibilities related to business management
• Income caps possible
• Standards of operation for design and pet care set by employers
• Employee benefits may be provided (paid time off, 401K, health and life insurance, etc.)

Most career seekers don’t realize how many different directions you can go with a career in pet grooming. We could write pages on the pros and cons of each path. What’s more important right now is the good news. There are successful pet groomers on every path listed above, and some have invented new paths!

You have further down the path to go. Click the Next bone now.