Dog groomer

Instead of waiting for her clients to come to her, Jacquie Auld decided it was time to get mobile and take her business to the people. Her mobile dog grooming business, The Dog Basket, has been coiffing canines for the past 16 years and shows no sign of being brought to heel.

“I was one of the first home groomers in Sydney,” she says.
“I used to take all my equipment into the house and struggle around trying to wash and clip the dog where ever I could. When the mobile craze started to take off
I upgraded to a van, and now I have upgraded to an even better van.”

That van is a custom-built dog-mobile with a built-in hydrobath, controlled heating and cooling, a drying cage and a work bench for clipping and grooming.

Work experience at Taronga Zoo started Auld’s passion for working with animals. Volunteer work with vet clinics followed but she soon discovered working with sick animals wasn’t the career she wanted and found herself working in a grooming salon instead.

After a couple of years, she decided it was time to start her own business.
“I found the salon environment to be extremely stressful for the animal. There is so much noise and there are smells and excessive heat and the dogs were always very stressed,” she says. According to Auld, a stressed dog can quickly turn into an aggressive dog and, in turn, become a danger to salon staff.

She says this situation got her thinking about how taking a specialised service into the homes of dog owners could reduce the stress. Many people who own their own business cite the freedom to choose your own hours and clients as among the main attractions. Auld agrees and even though she can work up to 50 hours a week, she says it’s far from a dog’s life with the pros far outweighing the cons. Enrolling in a good training course should be first on the checklist when starting your own business, says  Auld. Looking at a franchise can also be another good option, due to the assistance and training you can receive from the franchisee, she adds.

Auld toyed with the idea of franchising her business, but, at the end of the day, decided it was in her best interest to continue running her own show. She employs a part-time assistant to help her out during the busy periods.

She says she has built up her business through word of mouth and client recommendation.
She believes great service and presentation are the key to securing repeat business.

How to be…
a dog groomer
TAFE NSW runs courses to learn dog and cat grooming. More information, 131 601 or http://www.tafensw.edu.au/

By Erica Watson, The Daily Telegraph, December 10 2005.