What Franchise Owners Don't Understand About Grooming

Grooming looks simple from the outside until you try to run it inside a franchise model with big expectations and even bigger pressure. We sit down and get honest about the stuff owners do not see: why adding a grooming department “for extra revenue” can fail fast, how a cute grooming room can turn into an expensive storage closet, and what it really takes to deliver safe, consistent results for real dogs with real behavior and coat challenges.

We talk through the biggest misconceptions we hear from franchise owners and larger pet businesses, especially the belief that more dogs automatically means more profit. In a service-based pet grooming business, time is the true cost. One difficult appointment, poor intake questions, the wrong breed in the wrong slot, or a stressed groomer can blow up your schedule and your margins. We share how we think about pricing for time and complexity, why grooming is not “basic everyday business,” and how to build structure without treating pets like a production line.

Then we get into the hardest part: people. Hiring is not the challenge, keeping and training groomers is. We explain why groomers are talented, creative, sometimes chaotic, and absolutely essential, plus how owners can set fair expectations without being held hostage by top performers. If you want practical grooming salon operations, SOP ideas, and a clearer path to a sustainable franchise grooming department, hit play. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a fellow pet pro, and leave a review so more groomers and owners can find us.

To learn more about Hound Therapy visit:
https://www.HoundTherapy.com
Hound Therapy
3509 E Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
469-367-0009

Transcript

Welcome And What We Cover

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Tale Talk Grooming Chronicles with House Therapy, the podcast where we talk all things pet grooming, daycare, academy, and more. Hosted by Shannon and Tanya of House Therapy, serving pet owners across North Texas. We're here to share expert tips, hilarious pet stories, and the inside scoop on keeping your furry friends happy and healthy. Our motto, humanity over vanity. And don't worry, we don't fight. Let's get started.

Why Franchises Misjudge Grooming

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Franchise owners bring big systems, big expectations, and big pressure. Today, Shannon and Tanya break down the realities franchise owners often miss and why grooming requires skill, nuance, and a whole lot of humanity. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Sophia Yvette, co-host and producer, back in the studio with Shannon and Tanya, professional groomers at Hound Therapy. Hi ladies, how are you both doing today?

SPEAKER_03 1:07

We're good, thank you. We're great.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Great. Well, I'm excited to jump right into this one with you. So, what do franchise owners not understand about grooming?

SPEAKER_03 1:21

Oh gosh, where to begin? Um, I I've seen many really good franchises that um, you know, they've called this personally. I've got franchise, you know, uh owners that they, you know, they bought into something and uh they thought that this was gonna be great and you know they were uh able to add grooming to it. And so they decided, well, let's just jump in. How hard can it be? We could use the extra revenue. And I've seen them fail miserably um just because they didn't have it, wasn't their business that they weren't doing well, it wasn't their franchise model that they weren't doing well at it, it's the the grimming portion of it, and it's just kind of an aftermarket, it's not something that they thought that would be great. They added it as a a a fly by night or a almost an afterthought. Yeah, and it's just it's not it's something that you have to put a lot of of real thought and effort into. Plus, you have to make it work in your regular day-to-day business procedures, and it's not always easy to integrate those two things if you don't understand what's involved with grooming and in a grooming department. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

And usually they don't realize it until they're already losing money on it.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

Yeah, and and then it becomes a I I can't tell you how many times I've seen franchise ease with these cute little grooming rooms and they're using them as storage facilities. So quite sad in this movie. Um so you know, we want to help set those people up. Um, you know, and the the smaller franchises are the mobile people that come in and and they think it's gonna be easy to, you know, just find these dogs and people that will magically uh sit down and uh be able to groom them and have personal people skills and know exactly how to fix their clippers and what what they need. And it this that just doesn't happen. It's just something that's got to be talked about. They've got to have a standard operating procedure of what to do, where to go, how do you talk to customers, you know, how are we gonna identify these problems and what are we gonna do moving forward? Uh it's hard. Every every dog is different, uh, every person's different, skill sets are different. Uh it's it's not a one size fits all. It's not something that you can add on uh

Grooming Is Talent Plus Service

SPEAKER_03 3:30

as an afterthought.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Yeah. Um, and a lot of another misconception people have is more dogs is more profit. Um that's not really always the case. Um some dogs can actually lower your profits. You lose money on some dogs. Um poor scheduling, it'll burn out your groomers. Difficult dogs require more time. You have to slow down on those dogs, which costs you time, which is funny.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Yeah. Um you know, they bite. You didn't get the proper information, you didn't get the right breed scheduled. Um, so you know, volume, volume isn't necessarily too, you know, you're spending the amount of time, you just need to charge for your time. And unfortunately, some of these um, you know, franchise models uh don't, they're used to business, right? And here's a business, here's a plan, and here's how business works. Grooming is not your basic regular everyday business. It is, it has, yes, traditional business structure, right? You still have to have profit and loss sheets, you still have to have a balance and accountability, you have to, you know, keep track, you have to market, you have to do all of the things that a business has to do, but you can't just it's it's 99% service-based. Yep. So uh with people who are not necessarily business savvy. It's the this is done with talent. So you have a service-based business done with talented people that know the talent that's in an unregulated space. It does not apply to basic business. Uh, you've got to be able to retrofit something that makes common sense to somebody who's got a business mind on how to wrangle in that creative mind and be able to merge that in a way that makes money. And that's what we do. I mean, that that we've been doing that for 45 years. So uh, but it is it, I didn't realize that it was something that um was not just commonly known. It it it seemed like it would be to me. Um I would say, you know, not everybody grims the same. You can't just find a grimer. Uh, you can't just go to any haircut. You have a haircut style that you like, uh, somebody who colors your hair really well. Uh you don't you can't I'm just leaving that person. No. And that doesn't mean that the person sitting right next to her or in the shop across the street is not actually licensed through the state and can cut your hair. Uh, she just may not understand your hair or your texture or your style, but your other person does. That doesn't mean that one is better or worse than the other. It just simply means that that person has got a certain kind of following. So part of running and knowing this business is knowing what person fits, what kind of style and creativity fits with that type of business creativity that you've got going on. Your your franchise niche. Um, those are all things that we take into consideration. And it's it's hard to keep those all together.

Hiring Is Easy Keeping Is Hard

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Um and finding your groomers and hiring them is the hard part. Um, because the reality is that hiring isn't the challenge. It's keeping them and training them. And groomers are awkward little ducks. It's it's hard to support them through the chaos some days.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Talented groomers lead businesses that are successful for a lot of reasons. Um, they they uh maybe having a lot of talent, but then you have that business mind structure that you are expecting X, Y, Z from them, but you're not able to, if you can't express that creatively, um, it's gonna be really hard for you to retain that grimmer. Or the other way around, that grimmer is able to bring in a lot of money for you because they're talented, but you're afraid to tell them to do anything that anybody else in your business is expected to do because they're holding you hostage. And and you're afraid to upset them or make, you know, you don't want them to leave. So that's not fair to your other employees. So finding that balance is difficult. Um, you know, that's kind of partly why we've talked about streamlined before that Home Therapy has found a way to help other businesses be successful. We really love what we do here at Home Therapy. We love our clients and our dogs, and we love being able to serve them and give them the type of quality that they need to have. We've done that by having a structured operating system that really supports business. We explain at our academy to our students, you know, this is why you have to do business and know business and no numbers, even though you don't love it. It's not my favorite thing to do. I I use the phrase I get to do this, right? I get to sit in the office, I get to get on the computer because I am able to use my talent and allow people to come in the door that want to come in and see me. Um, we have a lot of different personalities here, but we all get along and we're all expected to do the same thing. We're all cross-trained. We all, you know, prefer one thing over something, but we all do all the things.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Nobody's expected to do anything. Anybody else is.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

Yeah.

SOPs, Training And Franchise Limits

SPEAKER_03 8:52

So, you know, franchise is, you know, they they call me all the time. Franchise owners call me all the time. Do you have a grimmer for me? You know, can you come help me set up, you know, my shop? I've got the area. And then I ask them, you know, like what what are your policies? What, you know, what's allowed, what's not allowed, what what can you do, what can't you do? And they just, you know, they don't know. Uh, or they have a very poor list. And I'll, you know, I I I I raise a lot of questions, which I shouldn't be able to do. Uh, and they can't just answer those questions and make those changes, like, you know, uh veterinarians call me as well. You know, I have a lot of of of bigger businesses that will call and and say, hey, look, how do I do this? It's like, okay, great, I'm gonna make that change. But in a franchise, you know, you can't just say, okay, I'm gonna do that. You've got to get approval. And then everybody has to do it. So we wanna build a system that works for everybody. And we wanna, um, it's a niche business already. And we we just we really want it to be better. Um, so we try to teach our students how to flow in. And when our students are placed somewhere, you know, you get all of us as well that come with it. So, you know, we will put ourselves in that shop, in that business to set our students up for success, up for success because we want that. We want them to have that real life um, you know, transference of that safety net being removed here with you know, a lot of experienced groomers to going someplace where they may not have somebody who wants to share their experience or doesn't have any experienced groomer at all. Uh, but we want them to be able to succeed. And the only way to do that is to train the owners of these, you know, grooming salons uh how you know these groomers have learned and how they can carry on their learning procedures uh and and keep their business successful and continue to make money uh with a price point that makes sense for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Well, thank you both for shedding light on this side of the industry. We'll see everyone next time.

Wrap Up And How To Book

SPEAKER_00 10:50

That's a wrap for this episode of Tale Talk with Hound Therapy. Ready to book your pet's next groom daycare stay or grooming academy tour? Call us at 469-367-0009. That's 469-367-0009. To schedule an appointment or visit us online at www.houndtherapy.com, serving North Texas with expert pet care. Until next time, keep those tails whacked.