Recently, we sent out surveys to the folks who have graduated from the National Cat Groomers School. On it, were a series of questions pertaining to the state of business prior to entering our program and the effects, if any, on their business endeavors in the months or years post-graduation.
The stats surprised me! I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what we are teaching here at the National Cat Groomers Institute is of value to people who truly want to strive for excellence and be the best they can be. I know that because of the spoken and written feedback received from our grads after each and every class and from the very real things they are doing when they return home newly armed and freshly inspired. But until we did this survey, I had no way of actually measuring the effects. Thus, I am excited to see these numbers!
Liz Boles, one of instructors here at the school and the team member behind many of our design and layout projects, has spent time collecting the survey results and compiling the data into a something the rest of us can understand. She presented us with the current stats during one of our Wild Idea staff meetings. I wanted to share some of these with you here in my blog.
First off, we found that mobile and salon grooming are, so far, about evenly split, together making up over 80% of the total business models represented. The remainder of the respondents, thus far, have house-call or in-home grooming businesses. Just over 60% of the survey respondents own their own businesses.
While that is interesting, what I found to be most compelling was that 56% of the respondents so far offered absolutely NO cat grooming services of any kind prior to attending our school. That means we’ve had more non-cat groomers than experienced cat groomers participate in our program. I love that! New converts are always good!
Included in the survey were questions relating to income and revenue. I am pleased to see the average annual gross income for our grads is over $100,000 annually, some generating much higher revenue numbers. Considering we are in a “down” economy, I find this very inspiring!
In addition, survey respondents report an overall average of 52% increase in revenue post graduation than was experienced pre-attendance at the National Cat Groomers School. Why is that? Based on what we read in these survey results, three things seem to be directly responsible for this revenue growth effect:
- The business courses offered during our program changed the way the students operated their businesses, whether existing or newly formed. Efficiency became a priority, problem areas were identified, and real, workable solutions were devised and implemented.
- Average income per groom was significantly increased as students implemented the recommended principles for communicating with clients and presenting offered grooming services.
- Prices were raised based on newly acquired knowledge, grooming skills, increased confidence levels, as well as the fact that most of our students leave our facility with a new certification title.
I like numbers. They never lie. Numbers provide an accurate measurement of where things stand and then help us move toward a new goal.
This coming Monday (May 21st) at 2:00pm I am speaking at our next webinar. The topic: “Setting Goals, Making Money.” And I very excited to have one of our school grads join us for a personal interview! Kevin Beck, from Ontario, is a hair stylist. He does magically things on human hair, keeping his clients looking fashionable and stylish with cutting edge hair dos and coloring techniques. But somewhere in the middle of all that people hair stuff, Kevin decided to enroll in cat grooming school, crossing the Canadian/American border to spend 2 weeks away from home, pets, family, and a thriving business. What a crazy thing to do! Especially with ZERO cat grooming experience in his background!
On Monday, Kevin will share with you WHY he did such a crazy thing. He’ll tell you about his long-term goal that was publicly shared with his classmates and instructors while he attended school this past February. And then he’ll tell you how his long-term goal (originally 2-3 years from now) turned into a 2-month goal. Kevin grooms people and cats, (separately of course!) keeping them all rather stylish. He is making money and growing a real, viable cat grooming business one cat at a time. His numbers are here on my desk as I type this. And I’m going to share those numbers with you on Monday during the webinar. I also want to help Kevin make those numbers bigger, so we’ll talk about that on Monday, too.
I don’t know where you are in your life – in your business. But if you are seriously wanting to set some goals, make some money, and grow a successful business, there is a way. Too many groomers are working paycheck-to-paycheck……long back-breaking days with nothing much to show for it. I know this because I hear it ALL the time. It’s at epidemic proportions in the pet grooming industry. And I hate that! We have such potential, such opportunity as professionals in the pet industry. And it’s within our power to change the state of things.
But it’s hard to see the forest for the trees sometimes. It’s impossible to eat an elephant. I get that. But, like my husband frequently reminds me, you CAN eat an elephant……one bite at a time. On Monday, we will cut that elephant up into tiny bites and start eating.
A comb cut performed by one of our students this week on a lovely red tabby and white.
PS. A second guest is also joining us for Monday’s webinar. Amy Brown, president of the NAPCG (www.thenapcg.com) and owner of AB Grooming Spa in Alabama will join me for some discussion on this topic of changing our status and improving our own personal professionalism as well as the value of the pet grooming industry as a whole. Amy is very business-savvy and has used the medium of add on spa-style creative grooming to grow her own business. She travels the world teaching others how to do the same. She is also the co-author of “The Science of Creative Grooming,” the most comprehensive book on the market that covers pet skin and coat topics. I’m excited to have her with us on Monday to provide even more advice as well as a different perspective on business growth topics.
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