I think i'm going to do it.

[Poodlestar]

I have tried to come up with a plan. My hubby isn't working now, but will be soon. We had to pull the kids out of daycare, as we couldn't afford it, and when he does go back to work, we'll have to try to find daycare again. And I really don't want my kids in daycare. I would love to be home with them all day.

So I think i'm going to try housecall grooming in the evenings and on weekends. I can build up clients while still working at the salon while my hubby is home with the kids, and hopefully when he goes back to work, i'll have enough clients that I can stay home while he's working and work while he's home.

I'm trying to come up with a fair cost. I figure people have no problem paying my fees at the salon, so if I charge the same plus a home service fee of $15 for the first dog, and $5 for each consecutive dog. Does that sound fair? I don't want to underprice myself... and I figure, if each client gets their pet groomed at least every 8 weeks, I only need about 150 pets to stay busy. There's bound to be 150 pets in this city that are willing to pay more than salon prices.

I'll end up making the same amount of money, working less hours a week, i'll be able to be home with my children, and I will have very little overhead.

I'll be a little overworked while i'm building up clients and still working 4 days at the salon, but we could definately use the extra money anyway.

i'm not crazy right... please tell me this is a good move.. hehe

I've read nearly every thread in this section, but any tips would be appreciated.

[mylady]

You are not crazy. I went mobile for exacty the same reason. I have been home with my kids since the day they came home from the hospital and wasn't willing to give that up. My boss at the salon was very kind and understanding and tried to accomodate me, I worked two evenings and every Saturday a week, but it just wasn't enough financially and was hard to do since hubby got off work at 5pm and I had to be to work at 5:30 and sometimes he would run late so I'd have the kids at work with me. I'd be trying to cram 4 dogs into 3 hours at night by myself, then doing around 7-8 dogs on Saturdays while also answering phones, checking in and out, etc. I decided to go mobile and it has been great. I started from scratch of course because I did not own any of the clients (info I mean, you can't own the client ). I work evenings and Sundays because my very kind boss allowed me to stay on Saturdays for the first year or so that I was in business so I always could at least count on that day of work. In the beginning I was doing 3-4 dogs per week, I even had some weeks every so often with nothing, but luckily that didn't happen often. I started cheap with a used rig so I also had very low overhead and I am now SO busy. I hired a groomer to run the rig during the day as well. At first the people calling were all price shoppers and it was a bit discouraging, but then the real clients started calling. Once I got a few under my belt, they told their friends who told their friends and so on. My website got me about 70% of my business in the beginning. Now I would say most are referrals. March 12, tomorrow, is my 2 year anniversary of being open and I just continue to grow and grow. I did very little in the way of advertising in the beginning, so I could only imagine how much faster it would have boomed if I had done more. I was a little afraid of getting too busy too soon since it was all so new. You can do it! It's hard at times because I barely see my husband. He comes home and I go out to work, but it is so worth it to be home with my kids everyday.

[Moonpiepoodlz]

I'm actually trying to get some information on that myself....I've got a decent clientele base here at the house but think if I did housecall one day a week I could do a little better and serve those clients who don't want to come to me but aren't looking forward to finding a new groomer.