Dog grooming prices

the furthest I go is 150km (300km round trip) full day grooming in one town plug in at one home and everyone comes to me.

I aim to keep my travel time under 1 hour per day. I will not go further than 20mins away from my home.

I have put my prices up recently , and have had some complaints , however my prices I think are well below what groomers in my location charge . The average clip now for a small breed is from $60 , now keep in mind I am in the inner east . I have to put my prices up more so now as the cost of running the salon keeps rising . People don`t realize the over heads of running a shop regardless of it being home or on a commercial property . When I was mobile my over heads were far less and even though I was at one stage clocking up a lot of km every week I was still able to make money , rather then stressing over overheads and having to raise prices .

Our skills are valuable , we work hard , when it comes down to it we deserve every cent that we charge .

I think you need to charge to your market not the industry.....you can increase but if the customer doesn't see the value in the increase they will shop around (or complain) ensure that increases are in the best interest of your customer and your business not for your pocket.....

I don't need to justify my increase, my new customers receive a welcome letter after their first appointment, which along with alot of other information informs them of an annual $1 (yes $1) increase EVERY 1st July, my business has continued to grow every year, no complaints and basically booked up all year round, I now have 3 business vehicles and making a profit, and I do alot of KMs as I am mobile. Its all about value, reputation and integrity,

I think whats more important in our business and in similar industrys is increasing the value of the transaction not just increasing prices

Chris, what happened to your post, makes mine irrelevent now

Price rises happen everywhere. I have increased some of my prices on different breeds since the begining as my skills have improved. I found giving to many options confusing for some customers. Extra charges for this and that. I have capped my prices at $60 for clipping small breeds. $70 if the coat is matted. Just a little trim as some customers call it generally end up a full clip just depends on the length. I have enough work without offering discounts and from experience I'm not locking in any price until I sight the dog. This price hasn't changed in years and I'm currently $5 to $10 cheaper than the salons in town. People doing $35 & $40 clips I'm not interested in competing with. I stand firm by my price as being competitive.

Agree with you 100% Sarah specially about not locking in a price Until I see the dog because what people describe and what you see are two different things

Sorry to bump up this oldish thread, but thought it'd be better then starting a new one...

I was wondering if I can get some guidance on my prices. I don't know if I'm underchargeing too much on certain things or maybe charging too much, I just want to know if my prices are reasonable.

I don't have a hydrobath yet so I can only bath small to mediumish dogs as I use a sink.

Baths;
Small Short haired - $10 Small long haired - $15
Smallish-medium like a Cavy - $20

Bath, face & feet tidy, nails, ears and brush;
Small - $25
Medium - $35
Large - $45

Full Works;
Small - $40
Medium - $50
Large - $60

I often have trouble being able to charge extra for matting or behaviour problems, but I need to get better at that.

I relise prices seem to differ from place to place. I live in the country, not the weahthiest suburb around. I also got quotes off other local groomers and they all tend to charge $45-$55 for small breeds so I knd of wanted to be a bit cheaper then them as I am new still.

I learnt that new shouldn't mean cheaper prices because a) you will find it difficult to raise prices after and b) you will end up getting a lot of once a year grooms that don't want to pay that much and abuse your cheap prices. If others are charging $45-55 I would at least consider bring up your prices by $5.

Another way to think about it is how much do you want to earn per hour. Example if you are charging $10 for a bath and it takes you 45min to bath the dog that means you are earning $13 an hour and that dosnt even include the cost of products and the time it takes you to clean up after.

At the end of the day it's the owners fault that the dog is matted or badly behaved not yours so if it takes you extra time they should be charged for it

I agree with you Chase, cheap prices are harder to raise , you have to look at what you would get paid or want to get paid at an hourly rate , not only that but you have to ad in your overheads even if you run from home , it still uses electricity , water, and tools , the list goes on . Plus honestly you need to value your skills .

You could set your prices $5 higher than the competition and offer $5 discount for first two or three visits, with an expiry date.

This sets up your service as being more valuable and therefore better than the others in the clients mind. They don't pay any more to switch and a price rise is effectively built in once they are using you regularly. Also, with an expiry date, they are encouraged to come back soon take advantage of the offer, so the work is easier

Very good points. So I will try and put up the grooms $5. I love that idea UNM about the $5 discount for the first few grooms. That's a great idea.

With the baths, I feel like I shouldn't charge as much since I don't have a hydrobath, just a sink. How much do you guys think baths should be?

If the dog is clean and dry by the end of the groom who cares what you used to achieve it. i used a sink for a long time before i bought a bath and still charged same price. in fact you tend to use more product bathing in the sink then the hydrobath.

Oh really? Hmm. Yeah I guess that's true.
Whats your price on baths Chase if you don't mind me asking?

Kellyxx wrote:Very good points. So I will try and put up the grooms $5. I love that idea UNM about the $5 discount for the first few grooms. That's a great idea.

With the baths, I feel like I shouldn't charge as much since I don't have a hydrobath, just a sink. How much do you guys think baths should be?

I don't just bath dogs. I take the time to put them at their ease, pre-brush, eyes and ears cleaned, select appropriate shampoo for dogs coat, wash, high velocity blow dry (gets rid of a lot of the loose hair), final brush, apply long lasting cologne so he/she smells good, check and trim nails if necessary and every dog gets a treat at the end so they leave happy. If I notice any issue that should be referred to the dogs vet (skin lesions, growths etc), I will inform the owner.

All that for only $35 (whippet, foxie etc), $40+most dogs.

Or you can wash dogs for ten bucks...

The idea is that you make it clear what you are delivering before mentioning price. You probably do most of the above anyway, so tell the clients.

If you are uncomfortable giving that sort of spiel ten or more times a day, print up a nice big poster 'EVERY dog receives...' or similar.

And yes, it is cheesy marketing. You know it, they know it, but if it is true, then why not say it?

Thanks for that UNM, great points. When you put it like that, you do actually do a lot for the $10. I am getting a cavy in every two weeks for a bath, which I got her today, and I charged $20. I thought since she is going to be a regular, $20 sounds reasonable. And Lily is probably the best dog in the word to bath/groom/dry. She's perfectly behaved and the sweetest little girl.

I am very happy to discount for well behaved dogs, and I will ditch difficult ones after a reasonable time trying to sort them out. It is usually an owner problem and you can't fix that!

I am in the position also of having to raise prices to what they should be in the next few months.

I have been doing "Student price" clips for a full worx when I first started and then I changed it to being called a "winter special" (same price though).

But I think I'm getting a lot better and most full body clip offs I can handle now. I've also had a lot of compliments and I'm feeling a bit "jack" of doing it underprice now.

I rang 5 groomers in my area for a quote on a small dog worx and 3 of them charge $60, 1 charged $55 and 1 charged $50.

I am currently charging $45 for my "student" worx on a small dog and I would like to charge $55. I am doing my clips between 4pm and 7pm at night and on Saturdays so I face the challenge of working after hours and often a night-time pack up so I think it would be worth it. I also have to wait till the next morning to clean the trailer as cleaning at night when it is wet in there is just hopeless.

I was thinking of letting the clients know that the winter special would be ending when I do their July clip and tell them the new price for next time.
I know I may end up losing a lot of the clients I currently have (although there are a few who have said they think it is worth more money so they should be fine) but I guess I see it as a long term thing that I deserve to charge the same as the others in my area and I have some unique selling points for my service that they don't offer.

Bottom line is I need to attract clients willing to appreciate what it is worth and as you say it does attract penny pinchers who usually have poorly behaved dogs to charge cheap prices.

Any other suggestions for raising my price by a full $10? I must admit I am a bit worried but at least I know I will get new clients in Summer who will probably become more long term than the small band of winter clients I have got in the first few months of starting up.

Also do people find it is difficult to get clients to rebook after the groom in winter?

I'm using the line as suggested by someone here in the forum "Now to keep them at their best they should be done every 4-6 weeks. I can pop you in the diary for around this time next month if you like?" (great line by the way)
I'm commonly finding the reason given is "I would like to get the dog done regularly but I don't know what I'll be doing it 4 weeks. I'll just call you then".

I don't think I'm doing a bad job as I've had lots of compliments.
Is this normal for winter and it will change in Summer? And once they have had you come all summer the customers feel some loyalty so they keep you coming regular in winter? Is that the normal cycle of things?

Always give advance warning of price rises to regular clients. Sound apologetic, but clear that the price will be higher next time as you have kept it low for as long as you can. If they still rebook, they are not going elsewhere.
Casuals will either accept it or not, no advance notice required. You don't rely on them anyway.

I did this last year. A surprising number admitted they expected prices to go up earlier. Lost no more than 5%. Some of them came back after the dogs were groomed by someone else.

I am now much more assertive about telling customers they should get their dogs clipped more frequently in winter so they can be kept slightly longer without getting matted.

For rebooking, don't leave it entirely up to the customer. Tell them you will email or text them in reminder in X weeks and ask which is more convenient.

Thanks for that. I asked my flatmate what she thought about texting in 4 weeks as a reminder if they didn't rebook and she said she thought it might be a bit like harrassing people. But it is hard to get a customer and many people may genuinely just not be sure what is on next month.

If others have done this then I might give it a go and see if it works. I guess if you get a rude reply you know you weren't going to get that customer anyway?

I try to re-book mine too. A couple have, most rather just call up when they want them done as they say " I usually just call up when I think she needs to be done again" but I feel most of my customers are genuine when they say they will come back, as I can tell how happy they are with my work. Every single person is really impressed with the quality of their grooms. Also, when they do re-book, I ask them if they want me to text remind them the day before like Doctors ect do, which they love that idea.

Not to sure on texting to remind them to come in without a appt booked. Others with more experience might be able to help you with that?

Yeah I text to remind of appointments. I do it at the start of the week so hopefully if they need to reschedule I could replace the appointment with someone else.

I like UNMs idea above of telling them you can text them as a reminder in 4 weeks time if they use the excuse "im not sure what ill be doing next month" when you ask to rebook. I guess if u tell them first that u will do it they have the opportunity to say.. "oh no just leave it with me".

But I'd love to know if anyone else has tried this or thinks it might be regarded as rude or too pushy.