Stephen, our Webmaster, is a leading management consultant for the grooming industry. His family has over 53 years of experience in pet grooming business owners, authors, speakers, and consultants. Stephen has been interviewed over 300 times by major and local media publications. We welcome the opportunity to answer your questions about the pet care industry by calling our office at 888-296-6192.
The public and even the media often misunderstand the pet grooming industry. The value of professional grooming is also misunderstood by too many. Pet health and beauty supported by grooming are the most important factors for the existence of our profession. All too often, some media attention focuses on lush spending by some pet owners, which accounts for a tiny portion of pet-owning households. We hope you will take an interest in learning more about the nature of professional grooming.
Using all of their bodily senses, such as touch, smell, and hearing, pet groomers, on a daily basis, discover health problems such as infections and other problems! Did you know that hundreds of thousands of pets are referred to veterinarians by pet groomers every year based on inspection and handling during the grooming process? Groomers actually save thousands of pets every year in this way, but little is ever said of that in the media.
Some groomers provide pets with a luxurious spa experience on request which some find unusual or whimsical; it’s dependent upon the attitude of the individual. Yet the luxury spa experience is not the only form of grooming. Basic grooming is a necessary and practical function as well as important to keep pets happier and healthier. Unfortunately, many pet owners bathing their pets simply don’t know what to look for on a preventative basis, whereas groomers do and recommend medical care. These are not neglectful owners; they simply have no idea that a professional groomer has years of experience learning to inspect, groom, and style pets for BOTH health and beauty.
Journalists! You can help thousands of pets by spreading the word that practical, professional grooming can benefit every pet; it’s more than beauty; it’s also about health and happiness.
The Grooming Industry
Everyone knows we are in recession, yet every day of the year, there are at least 2,000 unfilled groomer job openings in the US. Some of these jobs pay $50,000 or more a year. We simply cannot find enough skilled groomers to fill these positions. In fact, the chronic shortage of groomers in some areas has existed the entire length of our careers in grooming, almost 50 years now.
Demand for Pet Groomers will increase by 12% by 2010*.
The U.S. pet industry is a $32 billion-a-year business noted for being recession resistant. It has steadily grown from $16 billion in 1992. Based on PetGroomer.com studies of advertising in the Resources Directory and other list source sources, there were approximately 28,000 pet grooming businesses or other pet businesses offering ancillary grooming services in the U.S. in 2003. Bow Wow! There are about 5,000 dogs & cats for every grooming business in the U.S. Professional groomer shortages are chronic and career opportunities are nearly limitless. But how do you enter this industry and maximize your investment in your grooming career? That’s our focus. We’ve been members of the industry since 1961. PetGroomer.com is the culmination of our grooming legacy. It is 6,000+ web pages of resources for groomers worldwide, including free help wanted ads and the industry’s most popular classified ads visited by 2,000+ groomers daily. Rare info awaits everyone from the novice to certified groomers working in salons, mobile vans, retail stores, kennels, vets, pet daycares, and even pet owners looking for a groomer. You’ll also find significant leads to suppliers, schools, training, products, equipment, apparel, sharpeners, competitions, trade shows, photo galleries, and much more. Let’s groom!
* Growth figures represent a ten-year period ending 2010. Source: “National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix,” The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publication.
PetGroomer.com PetGroomer.com and Find A Groomer Inc. have been mentioned nationwide in AP and Reuters articles for several years. Since 61% of U.S. households own pets, a similar percentage of your readers likely own pets and will find an interest in pet care. Here are some areas of PetGroomer.com you may find of special interest to your readers.
- To learn more about the founder and her legacy in grooming since 1961, click here.
- Find A Groomer Directory. A growing list of pet grooming businesses in a searchable index for pet owners. Also, there is a very popular article you may use with information to help pet owners find the right groomer.
- GroomerTALK Message Board. The largest community of pet groomers on the Internet.
- Before & After Grooming Photo Animations. Always a favorite of the media and pet owners. FUN!
- Career Start Report. Use the link along the top navigation menu above. By far the most complete introduction to careers in pet grooming ever written.
- Surveys. The largest collection of pet groomer surveys in the world of pet grooming. Results are often published in the download issues of our quarterly magazine, available here. Nothing comes close. Why pet grooming? Can pet groomers make a decent or better living? The attraction to work with pets is nothing less than a passion. For decades there has been a shortage of skilled pet groomers, and new pet grooming businesses are barely keeping up with the fantastic growth of the pet dog and cat population. “Family members” must be clean and attractive. Grooming is not like stories of owners spending lavishly on fancy luxury items for their pets, but actually, grooming is an important practicality promoting pet health and happiness.
That’s an important message you can help spread, as even today, less than 50% of U.S. pets are regularly groomed by a professional. Is the market large? It’s huge. Just a few years ago, there were only about 20,000 pet grooming businesses in the U.S. Today, there are about 30,000. With over 115 million dogs and cats in the U.S., there are nearly 4,000 dogs and cats for every grooming business. No wonder they are so busy. Did you know that while we hear about people out of work, there are THOUSANDS of groomer job openings year-round? Many of these positions pay up to $50K a year with benefits for highly skilled employees. Did you know that since the 9/11 tragedy, the pet grooming industry has seen its gross product increase by $1.5 billion annually to over $30 billion annually in the U.S.? On this website, an average of 500 to 1,000 job openings are posted in the Classified Ads Main Area. What is of most interest is the people that become pet grooming business owners. Unlike previous decades, with the advent of career information on the Internet and more professional training programs, thousands of workers and even well-paid professionals are entering the pet grooming industry every day.
The desire to be self-employed AND work with pets is compelling to them. Many leave high-paying jobs to start over in pet grooming just because they love pets and the thought of owning their own business. We have seen bankers, lawyers, salespersons, accountants, and programmers depart their fields to work with pets. The stereotypical image of pet grooming business owners is not always prosperous, but don’t be fooled. As consultants, we counsel many groomers that choose to earn about $25,000 to $35,000 a year from a desired working lifestyle, but we also counsel a surprising number of grooming businesses owners that are netting $75,000 to $250,000 a year (personal income prior taxes) from their large, aggressively growing businesses across the U.S. The market is there. You simply have to choose how large a business you want to grow. It’s really not a matter of right and wrong, just how large you want to grow.
Of course, there is one chronic problem in the industry, and that is the shortage of skilled pet groomer employees. It’s very bad in some areas. However, as consultants, we conquered that problem years ago and today train others how to resolve it in our book, From Problems to Profits, and workshops. Once they learn the resolution, many go on to create those large businesses and incomes that shock even veteran groomers without our knowledge and consultation assistance. PetGroomer.com enjoys about 4,000 unique visitors a day on average throughout PetGroomer.com.
We are the world’s leading career center for groomers. With 40+ years of field experience and one-time owners of one of the world’s largest and most profitable grooming businesses, we have the answers and assistance career seekers need. As consultants, we also teach management and business courses to become a prosperous, grooming business owner. Recently, we had a banker, office manager, veterinarian for Jakarta, and an accountant all leaving their professions to own a business working with pets.
Did you know there are those making personal net incomes of $50,000 to $100,000 a year? They are true “businesspeople that groom,” and often, they come from middle-management positions through layoffs or willing career changes into the services portion of the pet industry, now equal in size to the retail portion. At PetGroomer.com, we host the industry’s only pet grooming business management consultant site, Find A Groomer, Inc., which breaks down the stereotypical image of pet grooming businesses into humane, prosperous, state-of-the-art, high-profile locations and first-class client services at affordable prices, and following their lead others are doing the same and making major incomes in pet care.
If you require additional assistance, use the Contact Us link at the top of this page. Thank you.
