Lisa Vitello has been in the pet grooming business for over twenty years. She is a Certified Master Groomer and Companion Animal Hygienist. In addition to grooming, her passion is teaching others and helping them to excel in the pursuit of their own career and personal growth. After going through the many ups and downs of being a business owner, and learning real solutions for the challenges we all face, she realized she could have the life she always desired. On her blog, The Grooming Guru, she shares tips and tricks for other business owners. She enjoys helping others discover how to be successful in their lives and grooming business. When Lisa isn't at her shop, she enjoys spending time at home with her family and large variety of animals. She lives on a small ranch with a vineyard, 2 horses, an ancient pony, a miniature dachshund, and a standard poodle. Maintaining all of this can feel overwhelming, but Lisa has stayed true to finding her balance in all of this. And, she continues to extend what she's learning to others. 
- Fund raisers for local animal shelters or rescue groups
- Mixers to get to know other local businesses
- Customer appreciation days
- Holiday events
One thing that we do at Wags is hold an annual Christmas Open House. We do this early in November to show appreciation for our clients. We host this free event at the shop, supply food, drinks, and have lots of holiday merchandise at a discounted prices. We also have a professional photographer take pictures of the pets with Santa Claus, and everyone gets a free 5x7.
In order to get the word out, we use our online newsletter and announce the event monthly, starting in September. Closer to the actual date, we hand out fliers in the shop and send a weekly email notice . We start to promote this event early to make sure our clients can come and enjoy the festivities!
Holding an event is a fantastic way to socialize with your clients since we are often so busy during the workday to spend much time talking. It’s also nice if you can hold your staff Christmas Party afterwards. We all go out to dinner afterwards to celebrate and get ready for the Holiday season to really begin.
This is a fun way to pay back customers for their patronage and thank them for being a part of our business throughout the year. Because people love the event, and have a free picture to show others, it allows your customers to advertise for you. When you have happy clients, they spread the word. It is also a great time to get your shop deep cleaned before the event and get it decorated for the holiday season.
Here’s How:
- Pick a date - find a date that will be convenient for your customers and allows them time for their own upcoming events.
- Contact the photographer - try to find a photographer that will work with you and see if they will negotiate a free 5x7 in exchange for the business that they will get in other sales that they will get on the packages they sell. If it is a themed or holiday event, make sure they have backdrops, props, and everything else you would need to make your event festive!
- Find a Santa. The photographer may have one in mind, but you can also find one yourself. Our Santa is Scott, husband of one of my employees, Heather. He's a great sport and plays Santa every year for the price of dinner afterwards!
- Start advertising the event - make sure you give people enough notice, put it in your newsletter, send out email reminders to let them know, and update them in the shop, or put an article in your local newspaper.
- Purchase your merchandise early - if you are going to be doing something that is holiday themed, order early!
- Buy food and drinks - if this is your first event and you aren’t sure of amounts, consider providing things like cookies that won’t spoil.
- Spend the week prior deep cleaning your shop. You might want to move your grooming equipment to another room or to the back of the room to make space for the party. This is a great time to decorate and make the shop look festive.
- Delegate day-of-party jobs to your staff. Your staff is there to help you stay organized and to ensure that the event runs smoothly. Your job is to have a good time, and socialize and connect with your clients.
Here are some photos from some of our past Open House's to get you excited about throwing one of your own:
