Unlike most people in the grooming industry we have substantial experience in consulting with sellers of medium to large grooming businesses. PetGroomer.com Classified Ads lists more grooming businesses for sale than anywhere else in the grooming industry, and we have had the joy of knowing many of the sellers and learning of their experiences transitioning to new careers or retirement. Here are some key points we have learned.
Plan Early
The revenue from selling your grooming at retirement can make a substantial difference in your financial comfort. Salon and shop owners need to realize that unless they pay into self-employed “pension plans” or other outside investments they will look to the sale of their grooming business to contribute to a more comfortable retirement (or career change). It takes years of planning before they sell to make the very best returns.
If you plan to retire someday, you will want to do so comfortably. Pet grooming business owners can create a business that provides them with such a retirement. The stereotypical image of the average pet grooming business owner is unfortunately not adorned with the vision of selling a business that provides them with such a retirement. Today, more pet grooming business owners are at least participating in some of the few retirement programs offered by leading trade associations, or those of their individual choice.
Having an updated and accurate business plan can help you to sell your business. The plan should show for Year 1 what the business is presently earning. For the next 2 to 4 years show projections of how the business can be reasonably expanded and the corresponding financial figures using business plan software such as Grooming Business in a Box®. Have all the forms and software you use ready for a buyer’s review. Make it turnkey! You are handing them a road map and tools making their future far more realistic for buyers and that means you are appealing to their desire for buyer’s condifidence. These are the insider secrets to those businesses that sell quickly and for top dollar.
Accurate Client Base Records
The size of your client base is directly proportional to the value of your business. The largest the client base the more your business may be worth. However, buyers beware. You only want to buy regular clients. You can define what “regular” means. Here is our interpretation. We would like 75% of the clientele being sold to show in the records that they have had their pets groomed every 4 to 12 weeks steadily in the prior 2 years. Too many sellers advertise they have 1,000 clients and when you study the records only 100 to 200 meet that objective, and some may not have patronized the business for one or more years. All too often we have seen a claim of 500 to 2,000 clients reduced to 200 to 500 true regulars. Why would you buy the other names? Therefore we advise seller to keep accurate records and be ready to make the best selling price by accurately depicting the clientele you are selling.
Use management information to build the net worth of your business well before you plan to sell it. The leading source of information to grow the net worth of a pet grooming business today is Grooming Business in a Box® and other leading professional groomer publications. However, don’t overlook other business management publications and higher education sources, and professional working relationships with a bookkeeper, business attorney, accountant and financial planner. Every home, mobile or commercial salon needs management and professional advisors. Be sure to check out the resources at your local SBA or SBDC. SCORE professionals in your area should be considered too.
What you plan NOW affects you many years from now. Just saying to yourself you will think about it later is not wise. Strategize your career in pet grooming with a map of sorts. Create a business plan, because to create one you must identify short-term objectives, and those five, ten and twenty years ahead. You are not locked in and prevented from making changes, but you will surely make less mistakes. Today’s industry has far more resources to assist you than ever before, but you must take the time to learn and strategize. Be realistic and grow in stages. You will find new inspiration each time you achieve a goal, and then you go after the next one. Be more than a pet groomer, be a business person that grooms, and you will have a more profitable and satisfying career in pet grooming whether you operate in the home, in a van or a commercial location. ♦
