introduction and career question

Hello to all of you hard working groomers,

My name is Iskra and I'm currently living in Croatia (Europe ...)
My family owns a big westie and german shepard kennel and I'm a groomer of all westies that we breed. We are breeders of german shepards since 1980 and westies since 1994. We have breeded more than 5000 puppies since than. (I'm not sure would it be an unauthorized advertisement if i give you a link to our homepage....if it's allowed I'll put it here)
I'm grooming our westies for over 7 years now, and I started the bussines when I was only 15 years old. I'm doing it in my home in specialized room ment for grooming only and I have a big clientele (big for my hometown of 150.000 people). Our living standard is a bit lower than in Australia but I earn enough money to finance myself. I'm currently grooming westies and few other small breeds but I'm very talented and have a big experience in this field so I could easily learn how to groom other breeds as well.
I'm currently a collage student on my second year of information science. That's about it for my introduction, now let's go on the questions I have for you.

My boyfriend is also a collage student on the third year of the same collage and we seriously considering moving to Australia in a search for a better life

If I would to move to Australia I would love to work in grooming business (and maybe some breeding as well).
*I'm wondering is there enough demand for a groomer, and could I get a visa easily.
*Can one earn enough from this line of business (and how big is the pay in a salon, demand for skilled groomers?)
*Is it obligatory to have some kind of certificate to be able to work in a grooming salon or would my work say for it self?

I would love to show you a very small fraction of my portfolio and discuss some methods of grooming...I'll attach some photos of my westies which I have groomed (I noticed a slight difference in a way of grooming here in Europe and in Australia).



bob pair

Hi Iskra, and welcome to the forum (seems like you've had a bit of experience with forums) My name is Anthony, and I'm in Sydney. If you are good, you should be able to find some work, especially in summer. I don't know about a visa, but if you wanted to become a citizen, then it might be easier I think. There is no requirement to have a certificate to work as a groomer in a salon or by yourself. As a rough guide, we charge $70 Australian for a westie clip in our shop. Just a note though, the demand for hand stripping is almost non-existent, they are mainly clipped on the body. By all means, post a link to your website. Once again, welcome to the forum, and we look forward to hearing some hints and tips on westie grooming

thank you fore your welcome, I'll try to contribute to your forum.
here is the link to my home page. It's a breeding site, not a grooming site but you can see some of our dogs.
http://www.funkenspiel.com/indexe.htm

@CoatCutter tnx for the info

Hi Iskra..Welcome to the forum...Looking forward to your future postings and there is lots to learn from others here also as we have a wide range of experience in the groomers on this forum... Will check out your website too when i have a spare minute lol
Donna

Hi Ishkra.

Welcome to the Forum. Thankyou for your wonderful introduction and sharing your photo's.

I look forward to hearing so much more from you. Your contribution to the Forum will be refreshing.

Welcome aboard.

Hi Iskra,

Welcome and thanks for your input and photos. They are always much appreciated. We do really try and help each other out here and it's always great to get your views, especially as you've had alot of experience. The experienced groomers on here are worth their weight in gold who share their knowledge willingly with us beginers and it's a huge help. So fire away. We can all take something from somebodies advice and use it where/if applicable. For me personally, I live in a hot place and in summer, 90% of my business would be 7 blade size, some even 10, as No 1 priority is the dogs health and comfort, so I don't get alot of chance to get creative or do the whole stripping thing, not to say I don't want to learn though as it's good to know all aspects of grooming I reckon as there'll always be that one customer that wants something different. Also, I do originally come from a colder climate and one day it just may pay off for me to know, so please, keep posting pictures and your wisdom.

Lisa.

Hello and welcome,

My name is Emma,
I am starting my own salon and YES there seems to be a demand for it in my area...

Your westies are beautiful i hope i can groom one that well one day..

This forum is GREAT everybody is supportive and helpfull i am sure you'll cointribute alot to it....

WELCOME

hi there im hayley from the uk so i cant really help with your plans to move to oz although quite fancy it myself though anyway after reading your post and seeing your westies i wondered if you had thought about contacting some australian terrier kennels and see if they could help with possible work ? as we all know handstripping is a fine art which very few groomers master and im sure you would be a credit to any show kennel/breeder.

that is good idea hayley. I thought about it a bit and I will try to get some contacts in Australia. This is the first step

I plan to move out in about 2 or 3 years so I have time to plan everything. I thought to apply for a job maybe first and than move. So I could have the chance to see in person how things work. Now I have a lot of time to plan my moving and I want to see all possibilities I have. Thank you all for your advice, it helps me much...

Thanks all of you for the wonderful welcome... I posted some tips already on this forum about westies... I'll have a dog to groom on Thursday or even sooner and I'll put some pictures that explain the grooming I do. I hope you'll like it

Hi and Welcome

Come to Australia I can assure you it is the best country in the whole wide world. You will love it here, people are friendly and relaxed and plenty of dogs to groom. You will have no problems getting a job or starting out on your own. Your Westies look beautiful, have never handstripped one, in fact, I have very few Westies on my books. Look forward to your threads about WEstie grooming. Vanda