Which Pet Business is the Best - Pet Grooming, Pet Sitting, Pet Daycare, or Pet Boarding?
As you probably already know, and as I discuss throughout Grooming Profits, the pet care industry continues to grow. People spend billions of dollars on pet care every year, and that is NOT including veterinary care.
A large part of all that money is spent on three main types of pet businesses:
- Pet grooming
- Pet sitting
- And pet boarding/daycare
Every week I get messages from people asking for my advice on which business they should get into.
Many of these people want to make good money working with pets, and most of them are thinking about learning how to groom.
If you’re thinking about becoming a groomer, or maybe you just want to work with pets but don’t know how to get started, here is why I always recommend grooming over other types of pet care businesses:
1. You can make much more money faster
When you bathe and groom a pet you can make $50, $60, or even more. In fact, it isn’t uncommon to make $100 from a single groom if you’re working on a larger breed.
Compare this with boarding:
Even if you charged $30 a night to board (which would be considered really expensive to most people in many cases), you would have to keep the pet THREE days and nights to make what you can make in just 1 - 2 HOURS by bathing and grooming the same pet.
A more realistic amount of money would be around $20 a night, which means you’d have to keep the same pet FIVE whole days and nights to make the same $100.
Even with a lower-priced groom ($50, for example) you would still have to keep the pet at least two whole days and nights to make the same amount of money.
2. Grooming requires much less effort
You might think that bathing and grooming would be harder work, but think about this:
When you’re boarding or pet sitting you will constantly be busy looking after the pets in your care.
They have to go out on a regular basis to use the bathroom, they need to be able to get out and exercise, they have to be fed and given water throughout the day and night, and some pets even require medication at certain times.
You will also spend a lot of time cleaning up after them when they have “accidents”.
When your job is just to bathe and groom, you don’t have to constantly be tied to pets like you are when sitting or boarding.
3. Grooming requires much less time
Because you have to constantly look after them, you and your daily schedule are controlled by the pets in your care.
All of those tasks—walking them, feeding and watering them, giving them medication—have to be done by you, and you obviously have to be there to do them.
What some people don’t think about is that you not only have to do these tasks at certain times during the day, but also at night.
When you’re boarding, you can’t just work a set number of hours and forget about the pets the rest of the time.
When you own a grooming business you set your hours. When the work is done for the day, you are done for the day.
4. Grooming doesn’t require near as much space
To board even a few pets you obviously need enough space so that they can be comfortably kept. They also need space so they can be walked and exercise.
Pet owners won’t like it if you simply keep their pet in a small kennel or crate all day and night.
You can start grooming and even open a small grooming business with much less space than what you would need for even a very small boarding and daycare facility.
Some groomers, when they are first starting out, even bathe and groom in a bathroom in their home. I discuss how you can do this to raise a lot of money quickly and also build your client base in Grooming Profits.
5. A grooming business is much easier to set up and start than a daycare/boarding business
In most towns, cities, and states you are required to go through an application process and a very thorough inspection process when you want to open a boarding or daycare facility.
You have to design your facility using the correct materials, and you also have to use specific types of enclosures that are properly sized. There are usually many requirements you will have to meet before your facility is approved.
If you design your facility in accordance with the strict guidelines and regulations, and if you pass the application process, you will then be given a license so that you can legally operate your boarding and daycare business.
Contrast that with opening a grooming facility:
In almost every area you don’t need any type of license to open a grooming business. Whether you plan to groom out of your home, a mobile van, or a commercial building, you can do so whenever you’re ready.
There are no additional applications, fees, or requirements that have to be met.
Not only does it take much less time to set up a grooming business, but it also requires much less equipment and materials.
In fact, a smaller salon can sometimes be opened in just a couple of days, if everything is properly planned.
The BEST Solution
If you still want to have a boarding and/or daycare business, the BEST thing to do — and what will allow you to make the most money — is combine all THREE businesses.
You should become a groomer and open your grooming salon first. This will allow you to make much more money much faster than starting with a boarding, daycare, or pet sitting business.
Once you start to build your client base, you can then begin offering daycare services, only looking after pets during the day when your salon is open.
Once you are making enough money to hire a helper or two, you can take in more pets during the day and eventually begin offering overnight boarding services.
You can even offer pet sitting services through your pet care business and send people you hire to clients’ homes to look after their pets during the day.
In most of our salons we offer grooming, boarding, and daycare services. This allows our salons to make the maximum amount of money, and all of our salons generate well over $500,000 a year.
Again, the key to this level of success is to become a groomer and open your grooming business FIRST.
You can offer boarding, daycare, and sitting services right from the start, or you can add those services later once your salon is established.
To see exactly how we create one of these lucrative businesses step-by-step, click here to find out more about Grooming Profits right now.
Or click below to get Grooming Profits right now:
“I opened my own grooming salon after reading your book around 3 years ago. It has been a quick 3 years and my salon is doing really well! I’ve already got 2 other groomers helping me and I plan to hire more. My goal is to be as successful as you!! I know I can do it if I just keep doing what I been doing and keep following your steps. The info on how to schedule my salon is soooo helpful. Thanks so much for writing your book!”
~ Deidre R.
