Derm Connection
The Forgotten
Tool
illustration of woman holding calculator
Tool
by Dr. Cliff Faver
Is groomers, there is much talk about the best scissors, brushes, dryers, etc. And there are tons of seminars, booths at the tradeshows, and articles discussing all the different pros and cons of these tools. But sometimes the most important tool is forgotten—the calculator.

To succeed as a groomer, we must first have some business savvy to weather the trials and tribulations of running a business. Without that skill, the chances of survival in this precarious business world are often questionable.

Know Your Numbers
The good news is, that in the day and age of computers, calculations are often done for us. But the secret is, we still must evaluate the results regularly. When was the last time you broke down the percentage of all your major costs? Do you know what percentage goes to the employees (bathers separate from groomers), rent, shampoo and conditioner, utilities, office supplies and profit? How did that compare to last year? Have you separated out paying yourself for what you do grooming-wise versus profit?

Many of you don’t realize that if you did those numbers, you would find out you are working to pay the employees, and there is no profit. Many groomers would make more money working as an employee rather than being an owner. But there is only one way to know that for sure, and that is to run the numbers.

An illustrated calculator next to a quote: If you want to make your business more profitable you need to know your numbers first.
Operating Costs
Another number is how much it costs you to run the salon daily. Do you realize most money taken in during the day goes to just covering expenses until about 4:00 in the afternoon? Your profit is what you make after 4 p.m.! When you realize that number, you might think twice about knocking off early or refusing that walk-in dog because you don’t feel like it that day. The key point here is that it is hard to make up tomorrow for what you didn’t make today. This is the downfall of many a business.
Saving Money
How about the calculation of where we can save money? A common thought among groomers is that if they buy a cheap product or a cheap piece of equipment, it will save money. Often this is not the case. Usually, cheap products take twice as much to do the job, or that cheap piece of equipment costs you on regular repairs.

Did you know that you can go from a cheap shampoo product to an expensive one and save money by changing the technique? If you are not calculating the cost per bath, you wouldn’t know this, and probably wouldn’t even believe it.

Pricing Services
Numbers don’t lie. They tell a story if you learn how to use them. If you want to make your business more profitable, you need to know your numbers first. Are you making money on desheds? Very commonly, we believe that if money is coming in the door, we are making money. However, there may be services we are doing that we are losing money on.

Why do groomers hate grooming big dogs and doing doodle desheds? Probably because they are not charging enough for them. As I have sat down with groomers to do the calculations, many are losing money or working for $5.00 an hour doing desheds. If you are not making money from these grooms, you must stop doing them or change your prices.

What is your most profitable service? It’s hard to know if you are not doing the numbers. One area in my practice/salon we spent much of our time doing is therapies. Many groomers say they can’t do therapies because they are too busy doing grooms, yet you can charge $25-$50 more for about the same amount of time when doing a therapy. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cancel a routine groom or two (especially if you have a client you would like to fire) to put in a therapy that would make you more money? And by the way, typically, therapy clients are in twice a week for the next six to eight weeks. And when you can fix the dog, they often become lifetime clients.

Here are some simple calculations you might want to consider:
An illustrated notebook paper with yearly costs
Even with this small amount of data, you can start calculating figures such as the following:

  • Product Cost / # of Dogs Groomed = Cost per Bath
  • # of Dogs Groomed / Days Worked = Average # of Dogs Groomed per Day
  • Dogs Groomed by Individual Groomer / Days Goomer Worked = Groomers per Day
Putting The Numbers To Work
In big businesses, they use these kinds of figures to determine marketing strategies, buying strategies and the value of their employees. Business owners often believe the only way to make more money is to raise prices—but that is only one strategy. Using statistics like the ones above will often allow you to creatively adjust (frequently just a 1-2% change) your operating agenda that is as productive, if not more, as raising prices.

Here are a few discoveries I made within my own business:

  1. I saw about 19 appointments a day on a busy day, so I thought that was my average. But on a yearly basis, it was about 15 (my employee doctors about 12) because of the slow times of the year. So, we created strategies to have fewer empty appointments.
  2. In Phoenix, Arizona, I found that my summer months dropped by about 30% with the loss of winter visitors and the locals leaving on vacation. So, we started running specials in the summer for the locals, which opened spaces in the wintertime to see more of the winter visitors. This increased the slow times and allowed us to see more new clients in the wintertime.
  3. When I looked at individual doctors’ statistics, I found that some doctors were not charging the same as most of the other doctors, even though they were doing the same quality of work. So, we created some strategies to solve the problem.

Without knowing the actual numbers, I would never have known some of the issues I was dealing with. But once we defined the problem, it was easy to start working on the solution.

The bottom line is, don’t get so wrapped up in your daily grind that you forget to take time and utilize one of your most essential tools, the calculator. It often will make you far more money than a new pair of scissors, brush or dryer!

Dr. Cliff Faver graduated with a BS in Biology/BA in Chemistry before getting a Veterinary degree in 1987. He is the past owner of Animal Health Services in Cave Creek, Arizona and now the US distributor for Iv San Bernard products, teaches the ISB Pet Aesthetician Certification program, and speaks internationally on hair and skin. His passion is to merge groomers and veterinarians to aid in helping and healing pets. He is also amember of AVMA, AAHA, AZVMA, Board member with Burbank Kennel Club, and has served on Novartis Lead Committee, Hill’s International Global Veterinary Board, and a Veterinary Management Group.

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