Barking Up The Right Tree - Client Prospect Groups
Balance Out Who Supports Your Business To Thrive And How You Give Back To Your Community
What kind of clients do you want to work with?
My grasshopper business owner self would probably have said “Anyone with a dog, duh.” to that question about 14 years ago. I was desperate to fill up my calendar. And that was all I knew. I just wanted dog owners to show up in abundance to make ends meet. Sounds familiar?
Soon after that, given my insane low prices, which I am beyond embarrassed about today, I was waaay overbooked, working 6 days a week and I had 10-12 hour workdays. I was drowning in grooming dogs, cleaning, and doing admin work after that.
On top of that, I was struggling with super low energy not just because being exhausted, but also because of an undiagnosed thyroid problem. Even my 20-something-year-old body was drowning in the “lifestyle” I created for myself by “going with the flow”.
I wanted out, but I didn’t know how nor did I have the energy to do something about it.
I wanted to earn more and work less, but I didn’t have the balls to raise prices, let alone find a “safe” number I could charge. I lacked the confidence and the words to explain a higher price to my clients. They were complaining about it already if you can believe it and it was just draining to deal with that as is.
So I kept pushing the already long overdue subject of raising my prices.
I had this argument in me that even though my current work-life “balance” was actively killing me, I didn’t want to overcharge my clients. Somehow, to my overwhelmed, overworked, exhausted mind and body, it brought more relief to compromise my health over finding the energy to find a resolution to preserve it.
I overcame those super-hard times and if you asked me that question today, I’d give you a very clear description of who I want to work with as a client. I wet my clients thoroughly and I put bad-fit clients on a no-book list without a blink these days.
If you think of it, it’s better for both of us. If I can’t meet their expectations, or my business setup is not meeting theirs, there is no good reason to waste each others’ time. It’s better to focus on a solution that works well for both of us, even if it means they need to find a new groomer, and I need to find a new client prospect.
So here are my insights about client prospect groups, how they can support you in reducing your work hours and having 3-day weekends, how to raise prices with confidence, earning even triple figures per hour if you want, and how to get your life back and thrive physically, mentally, and financially as a groomer.
"I Don't Want To Overcharge Clients."
You get to pick which client prospect groups you want to work with. Some groups can support your business to thrive, some groups need your support more than they can support you.
The messaging you put out there (intentionally or not) will resonate with different client prospect groups, attract people from there, and support your business at a different scale.
Right along with it comes a very different experience for the dog, owners, and groomers, alike.
Most groomers think in the dimension of “I need to groom more dogs to earn more.” But, the thing is, we all have our physical limits, and those limits are shrinking as we age. And since we already have that limit, why not tweak our job to be less exhausting and to have more free time and resources and enjoy life in our prime time?
The good news is there is another way to improve your income than to groom more dogs (and break your body) to earn more.
As weird as it might sound, you can work less, and earn more, have free time and resources to enjoy life, all at once.
Bentley Salon Or Bike Shop?
You get to pick to be a Bentley salon or a bike shop.
Say that you’re a Bentley salon. Those client prospects who are looking for bikes as ways of getting from A to B, will not go to you due to their preferences/their budget/etc.
Those who want a Bentley won't feel offended by your prices because of their preferences/your quality/their budget/etc.
Nothing wrong with either the Bentley salon nor the bike shop, but they certainly meet very different needs and pitch to very different crowds.
The beauty of business positioning is that if you are a Bentley salon, you don’t try to talk bike people into buying a Bentley. You are offering services that resonate with Bentley people.
How does that translate into the grooming world?
Client Prospect Groups
There are 3 big client prospect groups.
People after Quantity (bargain hunters, used to be me!)
People after Quality (They want a certain hairstyle and are willing to pay for it.)
People after Quality & Experience (A Rossano Ferretti experience for their dog.)
If you offer to meet the needs of groups 2-3 and price your services high enough,
they’ll find you and take your business to the next level faster than you ever imagined.
Knowingly or not, with our messaging (think your website content, social media images, videos, customer service skills, new client intake flows, etc.) we pitch to different crowds. For example:
When you give out discounts and coupons left and right, you are attracting group 1 people. You’ll fill your calendar with group 1 people super fast, which at first might bring you joy and relief but it should be alarming.
You’ll feel overwhelmed sooner than you think (Ask me how I know, haha.).
I learned the hard way, that groomers get overwhelmed super soon in this situation and they can get stuck in this “comfortable torture” that, in the heat of the moment they even label as success.
The moment you stop taking on new clients,
you stop your growth’s scalability, and
you risk getting stuck at that paycheck even without knowing it.
Revenue Comparison
When I say work less, earn more, I often see people not grasping the depth of the difference between the possibilities of the three groups, so I prepared some fun numbers for you.
Let’s see how your revenue would look like when you groom for different client prospect groups. In your grooming software, these client prospect groups show up as “tiers” to make the tracking of revenue clean and simple.
The bar graph below illustrates the annual revenue differences among three distinct client prospect groups, based on the same annual work hours. (4-day work week, 6-hr work days, 1 week off every 2 months).
Each group is defined by a different pricing method:
The Quantity Group is the $50/hr tier: This group focuses on serving clients at a lower price point, reflecting the base level of revenue generation. The annual revenue for this tier is $59,800.
The Quality Group is the $100/hr tier: This group targets clients willing to pay more for perceived higher quality services, doubling the revenue of the Quantity group. The annual revenue for this tier is $119,600.
The Experience Group is the $200/hr tier: This group aims for an elite client base willing to pay premium prices for exceptional experiences, quadrupling the revenue of the Quantity group. The annual revenue for this tier is $239,200.
Quite a lot of difference, hah? This visualization clearly shows the substantial impact that different pricing strategies can have on annual revenue, even when the total number of work hours remains constant across all groups.
Best of all, you can mix pitching to different client prospect groups, so you can still grow your revenue safely, but significantly, all while working on your confidence to charge higher and higher hourly rates for grooming.
You’ll need to keep track of the prices for each client tiers so you’ll need a software that supports hourly rates and client tiers as well to make billing clear, fair, and simple. Pet Groomer App can do that for you.
If you know your desired client prospect group and how to match with them (I'm sharing a post about that topic soon) you'll build your clientele on the group that will be easy to work with and who can take your business to the next level without changing your business model. There is no need to go brick-and-mortar, you can grow tremendously staying solo.
The Rusty Handcuffs Of An Ancient Billing Method
If you get stuck in a 1-tier billing method (same price for all clients) like most groomers do, especially when they get stuck in Group 1, you will only be able to raise your prices minimally, and you’ll reach your clients’ budget cap.
Since your Group 1 clients are in survival mode, when you share the news with them, they’ll likely get triggered by the extra task of figuring out how to pay for the extra money you ask. They will likely project their misery onto you, and bippity boppity boo you get a bad review. Or 10.
On the bright side, you’ll get to take on new clients. But, there is a better way to scale your business, without getting bad reviews on the ride.
Raising prices in client tiers ( eg.: Tier 1: $100/hr AND Tier 2: $200/hr clients) enables you to control the flow of returning and new clients while staying booked, wihtout filling up your calendar months in advance.
With this method, you can confidently and comfortably jump client prospect tiers, which is the safest and fastest way to grow your business.
If you want to grow fast and substantially,
you’ll need to jump client prospect groups from group 1 to groups 2 and 3.
Client Prospect Group Behaviors aka. Pros And Cons of Each Group
You need to understand the group’s needs and how you pitch to your new client prospect group so they’ll click with you right away.
The purpose of this summary is to help you read client behavior and to consciously pitch to client prospects groups you prefer working with and volunteer to those who need it the most.
There will be overlaps among groups, I want you to focus on the big picture. So please don’t get hung up on the nuances, instead try to grasp the essences.
There is a table after this section to compare the different behaviors of all three client prospect groups in a lot more detail.
Group 1. - Quantity
People in this group are great for volunteer work but if you try to build your business around them, you’ll find yourself exhausted, overworked, underpaid, and miserable due to the insane demands of workload and customer support of this group to make ends meet. You’ll need to groom a lot of dogs to earn enough and it’ll come back and bite you in the tush, sometimes not only figuratively because dogs in this group often lack training and socialization.
I used to be a bargain hunter myself and it’s more about survival than pleasure.
People in survival mode often have less compassion and are hard to work with, think of rocky paperwork collection, no-shows, payment hardships, reactive dogs, etc.
They are a great group to volunteer to though, once you’ve established your business and it supports itself. Remember, we can’t pour from an empty cup!
Group 2. - Quality
People in this group know what they want. It’s easy to work with them (paperwork, scheduling, trained, exercised dogs, etc.), and they are willing to pay a premium price for quality service. You need to charge high enough to attract this group though. To them, higher prices suggest a better quality and it will not deter, but attract them.
You also need to back your pricing and provide the high-quality style they asked for, think of an even trim, gentle dog handling, one-on-one setup, etc. If you can’t deliver what you promised, they will not be back and might leave a bad review.
The easiest way for these people to find quality service is if they sort by value and price, and they often pick the medium/higher charging services, since that suggests quality.
Groomers often don’t charge high enough to stand out for this group, so Group 2. people could find them easily. Those groomers who do not pitch to this crowd, not only leave considerable money on the table, but often they don’t even get Group 2. people as a client in the first place.
And these are way too kind clients to just pass up on, with well-behaved, exercised dogs that are easy to work with, making your workdays doable and not exhausting.
Group 3. - Quality + Experience
People in this group are sorting services by value and price. They know high-quality work comes with a hefty price tag so to save time on research, Group 3 people sort by price, high to low. If you are not charging enough, you won’t make the list, let alone the shortlist when they are looking for a groomer. They also value their time, (and yours - virtually no no-shows) so they want a good-fit groomer who they click with fast.
They seek outstanding experience, clarity, and spectacular care for their dogs and themselves, but they’ll also compensate you for your expertise and compassion handsomely.
They want a head-turning awesome style, they want to discuss it with you, they want insight, want to know coat care, and most of all they want to make informed decisions and feel cared for and heard.
It’s not the easiest to meet the needs of this group if impeccable and hyper attention to detail is not up your alley but it certainly can be learned and it is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.
Check out the tables with more details below! Do you see any patterns that pop up in your shop?
Make me do the happy dance!
What’s Your Mindset Group Now?
I started out as group 1 myself, chasing discounts and bargains and trying to squeeze out as much as possible for as little as possible. “How much do you discount from half the price?” was my middle name.
Bargaining was a way of life, sort of a survival method to preserve my money since I had so little. I saw this from my parents and around everyone I knew at the time.
As my business started to bloom, had a bit more cushion, and got to meet new people from more walks of life, I started to see the world from a different perspective.
Around this time I learned a new English saying. At first, it was like a punch to my guts, but then as I applied first-aid empathy, I was able to see the lesson.
If you pay peanuts, you are going to get monkies.
My “old self” was very happy to pay peanuts, but it came at a high price, shitty service, lots of errors, and so much after work or fixing.
My new self saw, that quality comes at a higher price tag but also with tremendous ease and a great experience.
Suddenly when it came to hiring people like to redo the fence or get a new roof, I was hungry for quality and smooth workflow. Upfront communications, minimal errors, safety, clarity, you name it.
The tables turned, and I found myself filtering by price as well and seeking a lot more than a bargain, but quality work, ease in communication to get what I wanted, and a great overall experience.
What Will Your Mindset Group Will Be?
Understanding and applying the above, if you want to work with Group 2-3 people, you’ll jump mindset groups yourself and start to see the world through the needs of your clients, their dogs, and yourself.
You will be able to balance out the needs of all three without compromising the dog’s, the owners’, or the groomer’s needs that we see in the conventional grooming business models.
Think of cages to “free up” the groomers’ hands in conventional grooming salons. That won’t cut it for Group 2-3 people. For them, one-on-one care is non-negotiable.
GroomerFIRE
Retiring is not about age, it’s about financial resources.
Hearing this was another punch to my guts, but it helped me see a different perspective.
You can get access to freedom, free time to spend with your family and friends, health, and financial stability as a groomer.
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retiring Early. There are groups out there to help you get a grip on your finances and lifestyle so that you can retire early. BaristaFIRE, LeanFIRE, CoastFIRE, ChubbyFIRE, FatFIRE, HENRY (high income, not retired yet), etc. are grouped by level of income/assets. It’s fun to look around and expand your perspective on how people can live their lives and get inspired by other people’s practices. It was refreshing for me to see that groomers are not meant to be broke, broken, and burned out.
To me being a solo, home-based groomer, with flexible, shorter workdays (6 hrs) and 3-day weekends, to be close to my loved ones carries the highest reward. The money helps me focus on organic food to support our bodies so they can support us back the longest. I call it GroomFIRE.
A comfortably manageable workload helps me rest, so I won’t get into overdrive. I like to spend time in our fun backyard with my friends, family, and pets to make memories.
Different needs peak at different times and in a different combination for each of us, and we can use the money vehicle to get access to whatever we need, while we use the peace and work-life balance to tweak our mindset to live a fulfilling life without regrets.
Thank you for your time! I hope you get inspired and summon the passion to take those steps toward making your dreams come true.