Call a local shop and ask if you can sweep up hair for them in exchange for exposure to the business. They might let you volunteer if you don’t do anything hazardous that would require you to be covered by their workers comp insurance which would then require you to be on the payroll.

There is a professional dog groomers association and you can find them online. They probably have educational materials.

Dog grooming business has pretty low overhead. You can tool up for around $ 1000 and rent a table from a decent shop for about $ 100 per day in the San Francisco Bay area, less in other parts of the country. Your last sentence summarizes your daily work load. Add paperwork. If you are self employed you need to keep up your profit and loss statement to do your taxes at the end of the year. If you own your own shop and have employees, you’ve got a lot more work ahead of you because then you have payroll, workers comp, etc. Figure 2 – 3 hours a day for bookkeeping.

You could have a shop and rent tables instead of actually employing people but you stilll have to make sure you have quality people around you as your reputation depends on it.
You’ll love it the first time you get an order to garnish one of your employees wages for back taxes or unpaid child support and it takes you an extra hour every time you do payroll.

With your own shop you are going to have to consider location, parking and rent/utilities. Then you, yourself, are going to have to pay for the holding cages, grooming tables, tubs, upgraded electrical circuits, computer, phone lines and advertising. Expect a 1/6 page ad in the Yellow Pages to run you several hundred dollars a month. If you have to equip the shop your self do not buy the cheapest cages and tables. Get a copy of PetEdge catalog and they have a service where they will help you equip a new shop. That’ll get you started.

My advice would be to work for someone for a while to get the lay of the land and a feeling of the business in the area. Are they all booked up or is there not enough work for everyone? Most groomers are paid a commission of 50% to 70% depending on their value to the owner and the local economy. Pet co hires them right out of grooming school and pays very little by the hour but you do get a lot of dogs. Decent groomers don’t stay long at Petco because of poor pay.

Save your money and go to a decent dog grooming school. They will teach you grooming skills and hopefully some business skills. Work yourself into a position of responsibility at a decent shop.

Most small pet stores have been put out of business by the purchasing power of the larger stores like Pet Co, ETc. You might be better off as a grooming shop that has a small retail section selling grooming products, supplements, ear cleaner, treats, etc. Give your client a health checklist with the bill after grooming because you have just had a great opportunity to check the pet over thoroughly. Make products that would be useful to them aavailable in your shop. Forget the food, leashes and collars.

You think you’re going to play with dogs all day and sell dog toys but, believe me, you will end up hiring people to do that while you spend 4 hours on a letter from the IRS telling you that you owe them a couple hundred dollars from last year. Get a decent financial program like Quickbooks and KEEP IT UP. Daily.

After you have it back at the bottom of the screen, right click and select “Lock the Taskbar”. This will ensure it doesn’t get moved again.