Mobile Surveys

[Admin]

Mobile Owner Survey Results released www.petgroomer.com/surveys.htm

Mobile Pricing Survey results within 2 days

[furrybestjob]

Wow...I am so surprised that 50% of mobile groomers would not recommend mobile grooming as a new career. I thought we all loved our job!

[diamienono]

I would like to see a mobile priceing servey.

Stephen: The 2006 results are coming later this week. Plus, you should take this years survey for same, or salons, at www.petgroomer.com/surveys.htm

[Curtis Hanvey]

Curtis Hanvey does not recommend mobile for newbies, PERIOD!

The survey question.."Would you recommend mobile grooming to NEW grooming career seekers?"

It might sound odd coming from me but I would answer the question on the survey with a firm, loud "NOOOO".

But I think readers were confused by the question.
The question has a flaw for survey purposes. It can read two ways.

It would have worked best to split it into two questions.

1. Would you recommend mobile grooming to someone NEW to grooming or someone wanting to change careers and they are considering going into mobile grooming as their first entry into a grooming career? (Or some simplified version of this)

2. Would you recommend a groomer convert from a shop operation to mobile?

maybe even a 3rd question like.....

3. If you could go back in time and know what you know now about mobile grooming, would you do it again?

#3 is the one that I would love to know.


I am very concerned with the fact that so many newbie groomers have jumped into mobile grooming first thing out of school or what ever training they received. Grooming is a real challenge in and of itself without adding the logistical difficulty level of mobile scheduling and routing to the mix. The recent advent of (edited "more new conversion companies") is probably going to aggravate the issue since most seem to be targeting new career seekers and entrepreneurs .

I'm pretty sure that this slight flaw in the question caused the neutral mix. My guess on “I would do it again but change a few things” would be about 80% of mobile groomers.

I would even like to know …

1. If you starting your grooming career in mobile, would you do it again or start in a shop first?

I only know of one or two mobile groomers that I have worked with that would not do it again. Just met one this past week. Yes, my exposure will be skewed somewhat because if I don't feel someone is ready for mobile, I'll send them to someone else that sells mobiles. (yes, I really have done it but not like you would think. I’ll just highly discourage it and if they persist, I somehow work in info about how to shop around for other mobile builders.)

I don't want to see Hanvey units back up for sell after only a short run in the market. Bad for the entire market.
Also, I am skewed because our finance group normally does not finance anyone that has not already been in the business for at least a year. When financing gets easy, vans end up for sell by newbie mobile groomers. Not good for any builders to see a bunch of new used units up for sell.

So maybe we should do a survey with the questions split up so we can know what was meant by the "would you recommend" question. It is an important part of that survey.

Curtis

[Admin]

I also feel that those saying no were not treading on mobile grooming. Many groomers say you should get 1 or 2 years experience before you open a shop even, so I think they were thinking get more experience before you open a business of any kind. Yes, the question could be clarified better.

[Admin]

2 New Questions

We have to allow this question to exist to once again exist in the 2007 survey for a short time this year. But we did add two new questions to the 2007 mobile survey and a chance for survey responders to add an explanation to a question inspired by Curtis.

51. Would you recommend owning a mobile grooming business to an experienced groomer with a desire to be self-employed in the grooming industry?

52. Please answer this question if you have 1 or more years experience as a mobile business owner. Looking back on your experience are you satisifed with your decision to be "mobile" versus owning a grooming shop, salon, home-based business or department within a pet business? (In addition, #52 allows them to explain their answer in their own words.)

Completed surveys are date and time stamped so we can track and separate sets of answers since this change was made. Fortunately about 80% of all surveys are taken during the period of July to December. If you have already taken the survey please don't take it again. However, why not answer these questions here in this thread. Please do if you would like to.

[PoodlePal]

Gee, Curtis, I didn't realize I was interviewing with you when I purchased my Sprinter van a few years back.

First of all, I don't think "one size fits all" works for whether or not someone can start a mobile business straight out of school vs. having experience. Having said that, I do believe that groomers that have worked in shops for a couple of years before starting a business have a jump on those just graduating from school because they have learned a lot of shortcuts and tools of the trade to be more efficient.

I, for one, only had three months of experience working in a shop (after graduating grooming school) before I started my mobile grooming business. I dug my heels in, built up my business and had a waiting list after 6 months. In my opinion, a huge factor in whether a mobile grooming business succeeds is the character and personality of the business owner. Are they a confident "go getter"?

From what I have seen, many people start their business with little or no advertising. A lot of people don't research or understand the demographics of the area they will be servicing. Many groomers tend to think their education ends when they graduate grooming school ... they don't attend seminars, they don't sign on to message boards (such as this one), nor do they try to get their master groomer's certification.

I don't think we should squash the hopes and dreams of people contemplating a career change. I think, given the right ingredients, there is great potential for people to "start over" in this field. I did it. I think a lot of others on this board did it as well.

[pinkpoodle]

say what?

I agree with Poodlepal. Afterall, to underestimate newbies is unfair. I was fortunate to purchase my mobile from Ambers Mobile Pet Salons. I found Amber to be very encouraging and those that purchase from her have all been successful right from the statrt. I doubt its luck. I believe its has more to do with guidance and when someone wants to do it they usually can and add to it a already successful person encouraging them makes it that much easier.

Maybe thats what sets Amber apart from others. She is ALWAYS available to encourage and help make your business successful. Yep, even after the deal is done...........

Had I been "discouraged" from purchasing from Amber I would have just went elsewhere. If vans and trailers fall on the resale market quickly (whatever quickly is) then it is irrevelvant how new someone is.

The real questions people ask when buying is why are you selling? And those answers vary. If someone jumps in and finds it not for them then good for them for selling and moving on and good for the person getting the "used" salon. But for a manufacturer or business owner to "discourage" someone seems odd to me. Hopefully, these discouragers don't falsely assume every new groomer is alike?????????

And if the groomer has a year experience or 10 years experience does not mean they will or will not be successful.

Since Hanvey does surveys I would be interested in reading the "survey" he did that drew this conclusion??????

It is worth mentioning that I have never seen one of AMBERS trailers on the resale market and again I doubt that is just luck. Maybe her product and faith in people are the reason.

[Aussheplady]

Having been a salon manager in several salons over the years before going mobile myself; I can tell you VERY FEW people fresh out of grooming school would make an efficient groomer mobile. Could they "get by"? Probably, if they priced themselves low enough. 3 months of training does NOT a finished groomer make. For that matter, there were few new graduates that I was even willing to hire in the salon after their technical. Of the ones hired, I found way too many completely unable to accept that their skills still needed perfecting. It is really sad that schools so strongly reinforce to their students that once they graduate, they will have all the training they need. Those willing to continue to learn and perfect their skills turned out to be very nice groomers.

For mobile also, you don't simply need to know how to groom. You also need to have some pretty good animal handling skills, and ability in reading the animals. And if they are wanting to own their own mobile business, they also need to have some good business skills. More often than not a person has only one of these traits prior to going to grooming school. They are usually changing careers from the business industry or love working with animals and want to build that love into a career. Grooming schools only touch on these topics as their focus is (and should be) on the actual grooming training.

Am I happy with mobile? Yes. However, I am looking down the road another few years at dropping the mobile and going back to a salon situation. I am 41 and have been grooming since age 11 and my body has just about had enough. I am hoping to change to a self serve grooming salon that offers full service grooming (done by an employee), full service advanced grooming for clients wanting more hand scissoring, (done by me on a limited basis) and I also plan to offer private grooming lessons to pet owners to learn to groom their own pets and sell the grooming tools to them. This way, I can step back from the physical demands grooming has on my body a bit, but still remain in a career that I absolutely love. As for those that think training owners puts one out of business, I tend to disagree. I have found that instead, they learn just what is involved and usually don't mind paying our prices nearly as much, but if they are in a bind, can at least feel better about trying it on their own. Yes, you do lose a few, but most give up long before they finish learning and decide it is a better deal to have someone else do the work. I haven't decided yet though whether or not I plan to sell the van at that time, lease it out or hire someone to continue running it.

[pinkpoodle]

Again, when people state their opinon on "most groomers, most people" etc. Really isn't fair because none of us know "most groomers". If there are 10,000 groomers and you know 100 does not mean you know most. To know most of anything you would have to know the majority and I dont think anyone knows the majority of groomers.

We can say most Chows behave a certain way, most Poodles behave a certain way but the truth is ..............we are only speaking in reference to the "most we personally know, or read about or heard about".

Any profession is an on going learning experience. This message board is a testament to that. Old timers ask questions as do the newbies and sometimes newbies have the answer and sometimes the old timer does not.

Yep, handling dogs in a mobile can be a challenge and when a dog acts up it is not always the same. If a person is determined to succeed and they are encouraged and supported they have a better chance than someone who has no encouragement or support.

My point is we are as different as the dogs we groom. Isn't it funny when the news does a story on horrible groomers we want to jump up and say don't paint us all with the same brush, yet when we want to make a point we all pull out that brush and start lumping each other together.

I guess I just tend to have more confidence in myself, so far, so good.

[gailgenesis]

very new newbie

I like what you said very much. I am absolutely new, but isn't amazing how we have to wade through all of the predjudices before we can analyze the truths?

thanks for speaking up.

[pinkpoodle]

yep

Sure is.............don't let anyones opinion dictate your reality. Good luck to you!!!!

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

I agree that it's not a good idea to squash somebody's dream, however I also agree that the chances a new groomer have gained enough skills right out of school is slim.

I was confident enough after 4 or 5 months of grooming after school, but later realized that my grooming skills were nowhere near what I thought they were, after working for a very good groomer in another city.

Of course it can also depend upon what school you go to, etc...

I learned at my second employer's shop how much I have yet to learn. I could open mobile now if I wanted, as I think my skills are enough to do so, but not a year or two ago even though I would have had enough confidence in my skills to do so.

Tammy in Utah

[Curtis Hanvey]

Newbies / Dream Smasher?

Wooooow. I'm not saying it can't be done.

How is it that this just changed to some sort of "mobile builder vs mobile builder" topic? Smashing dreams? Who is smashing dreams? I didn't smash PoodlePal’s dream..... Did I Poodle Pal? So why take it there.

I'm more inclined to consider dreams to get someone interested in mobile grooming and then when it comes to helping a dreaming groomer spend $20,000 to $70,000 I want them to switch from "dream" mode to reality mode and really know that they are ready for the challenge.

Is there anyone here willing to step up and say that mobile IS for everyone?

It is not and the combination of Newbie Groomer/Newbie mobile is the hardest combination to start with.

To answer your question about where is my survey…. Remember that I run several internet E-mail groups that have a combined membership of over 2500 groomers and I have constantly monitored and interacted with groomers on here and groomers.net for over 12 years. I also have talked with 1000's of groomers and mobile groomers involved in every aspect of grooming at trade shows all over the country too. I've seen some suffer through their start-ups(any brand mobile and shop) and I seen many more reach their goals. Go through the old board here and the board over at groomers.net and read them for yourself.

Prejudice... no. To NOT be real about the risk would be like telling a newbie climber to go climb Mt. Hood or Everest. I always keep in mind that groomers are putting life savings into their units and this deserves some careful, very careful consideration. Even one of our $20,000 trailer owners deserve the respect of us knowing that this is probably the largest investment they have probably ever made in their entire life. I can’t take that aspect of a buyers life for granted. They deserve my respect for their willingness to step out and they deserve to be fully informed of the risks involved.

No one here is writing off a groomer for mobile just because she is a newbie. It is considered but I listen to the groomer and listen for personality traits and their confidence level in their ability. More often than not, the newbies have more issues with confidence, pricing(asking for an appropriate price for the grooms) and scheduling/ routing.

I'm curious and I'm willing to bet that the groomers who answered the survey, who would not recommend mobile to other groomers, a larger portion will be newbies. I would also suggest that the newbies who did not survive are also not on this group and probably would not even bother with a survey so this gives the survey a natural skew of the results since the failed businesses will probably not be part of the sample group.

Are you saying mobile is not more difficult than a shop?

No one is saying all newbies should not consider mobile as a way to start.
There is nothing to stop anyone from doing so. But the added logistics issues can be overwhelming when you add them to learning to groom in the real world, learning to price, learning to deal with the problem customers and just running a business. I'm sure you are not saying that there is NO increased risk of problems for a newbie by starting in mobile with no real world grooming experience prior, are you?

One mobile builder vs another?

I really disagree with the idea that someone has to switch the topic into some sort of "one competitor builder against another" one “dream builder” vs a “dream smasher”. What does any of this have to do with smashing dreams? Poodle Pal proves that dreams are not smashed by me . She had limited shop experience before going mobile and guess who she talked to when you wanted to go mobile? Me, the dream smasher? Come on. I'm not smashing dreams so why change the topic from the survey to smashing dreams? I want everyone to be successful and as successful as possible. Regardless to who they get their mobile from.

Curtis

[Arrooh]

I assume

I took the survey, but wonder if I went to do it again, would it nix me out, saying I did it. I don't remember doing it for sure.

Well I'm glad some new groomers do okay with a business. But I also would not recommend it, shop or mobile. Is there any long time groomer who doesn't cringe a bit when a new groomer scissors a wiggly dogs face? One can get it in the "trenches", but I think it would be so much harder than grooming with other groomers when new. I often think I'm one "nick" away from losing a customer. A very few would be understanding, but quite a few of my customers came to me for special care to me because a groomer cut their baby. Sometimes they weren't told of the cut a groomer did, but even told they've sought my experience and calm gentle demeaner. I sure know many mobiles have disappeared, I don't know why. I highly recommend mobile though, but again I would suggest more experience. IMO you need great confidence in a one on one situation with a high paying concerned owner.

So I could sure see answering that question with a nay if I thought that was what it was asking.