“I started out as a groomer and realized there was a lot I didn’t know,” she recounts. “One day, I had someone bring in a Standard Schnauzer for grooming and they wanted it hand stripped, and although I was raised in a grooming facility, it was an old-school facility, and I didn’t learn that.”

That eye-opening experience led to her savvy decision to become a Certified Master Groomer, because she realized there was so much that wasn’t taught as an apprentice or in a regular grooming salon.

“I started doing a lot of home study to teach myself the techniques that weren’t taught to me growing up; those things that aren’t taught in grooming schools either,” Suzanne explains. “It’s such a vast field and that’s what really made me fall in love with it. You can spend a lifetime learning and you never fully grasp it because there are so many techniques and different breeds.”

After working six years at the pet store, she decided to open her own grooming business, but because of a non-compete, she needed to find a location that was outside a five-mile radius of her former employer. Suzanne and her husband, Wayne, discovered a well-established salon in Tampa—the oldest salon in Hillsborough County, having been established in 1966—and learned that the owner was looking to sell. So, they purchased the business and were now the proud owners of Grande Style Dog Grooming.

At the time of purchase, the salon was known as Poodle Penthouse, as the previous owner specialized in poodles, and everything got a Town & Country trim. But with Suzanne specializing in terriers and spaniels, she immediately implemented breed-standard grooms as opposed to “every dog looking like a poodle and getting bows in its hair.”

With the existing customer base of Poodle Penthouse combined with a lot of her former clients who gravitated to her new location, Suzanne quickly had more customers than she could handle. To meet the demand, she brought in a groomer and some bathers to get over the initial hump. Today, as part of her booking strategy, Suzanne works by appointment open, and once it’s fully booked, they simply don’t take new clients.

Over the last three decades, Grande Style Dog Grooming has groomed more than 300 champion dogs, including a lot of Best in Show winners.

“That’s where the breed-standard grooms led to; being trusted by a lot of breeders and a lot of people who own or handle their dogs or need them groomed before being sent out to handlers,” Suzanne shares. “That was a big factor to my business’s success.”

Throughout her success, she has kept the business small, following the model set by her predecessor, to the point where she rarely even works with an assistant.

“It’s my focus to keep it personal and one-on-one,” Suzanne notes. “Even though I have the space, the equipment and we’re in an excellent location—I could have 10 groomers easily—I made the choice to work alone and have chosen not to grow.”

The reasons she has chosen to stay small are simple. Quality control, consistency, comfort for the animals and the quietness are all things that she feels contribute to an ideal environment, and her clients appreciate that level of dedication.

Suzanne’s grooming philosophy starts at the initial meeting with the dogs and their owners. Before every groom, she talks to the pet owner and they create a plan to get the ideal look that they want.

“We always listen to the parent’s input; they are the guide,” Suzanne says emphatically. “If the grooming is going to be something that’s detrimental to the dog’s coat, like if a Pomeranian owner wants the dog shaved, I simply refuse. But I do educate them and guide them thoroughly.”

Suzanne’s educational materials include videos on Grande Style Dog Grooming’s website (at least two a week) and she livestreams every groom so she can talk to and teach both the pet parent and other groomers who may be watching.

“Most of my clients’ dogs have coats in impeccable condition and that’s through the online education, because I talk for an hour while I’m grooming their dogs and they learn about tools and techniques,” she explains. “I’m not worried about the pet parent or my local competition learning to groom the dog because I don’t care who grooms the dog, as long as someone is grooming them. I just want the proper techniques done.”

Today Suzanne has more than 500 educational videos online and livestreams grooms 10 hours a day. The idea to livestream came about in 2020 during the pandemic because the shop was always set up so parents could stay and watch, but suddenly things had to change.

“I understand that some people have separation anxiety from their dogs, some people have therapy dogs, and being separated is a big problem,” she says. “I used to have a monitor up front so people could watch what was going on in the back without interfering. But in 2020, those parents who were used to that could no longer wait in the waiting room.

“Even once the lockdown was over, there were still guidelines and restrictions that you couldn’t have multiple people in that small of a space,” continues Suzanne. “So, by streaming, they could watch from home or in their vehicles on the phone.”

In addition to educating others, Suzanne finds it important to stay on top of trends, as she has seen the industry evolve from when she was a child doing old-school grooming methods.

“Things have changed over 30 years,” she admits. “People now think very differently about their pets. You have to stay ahead of what society is doing as it involves their animals if you’re going to be relevant.”

Suzanne’s mother groomed until she was 85 years old and she sees herself grooming for many more years herself—at least until she is 75, she predicts.

“Probably in the next five years, I might move away from the grooming a little bit. But it’s a passion, so I would have no problem grooming until I am 85 like my mother did. It’s just something I really, really enjoy,” concludes Suzanne.