3 Business Principles I Learned the Hard Way (Part Three)

And then we have number three. Number three is accuracy matters. It's really easy to understand why accuracy matters when we're grooming. You know, if you're not accurate, i.e. if you do a crap job, then it's going to be really obvious. It's really uncomfortable watching some people whose grooms are just way off the mark as a mediocre dog groomer.

I'm not really one to judge another groomer, but there are some grooms that I'm like, is this the rough cut? Is this an owner groom? And it's not even a new groomer, it's just somebody who I don't know if they didn't, they just don't have any skills or what it is. But the problem with that is that this is what you're selling. You're, and again, I don't think there's a big difference between having competition level grooming.

So yeah, accuracy matters. We're selling haircuts. We want to have a good haircut. You don't need the world's best haircut, although that is definitely a marketing opportunity for you guys if you guys do have those. But there has to be a level and a standard and you have to decide what that level and standard is. What is good enough?

What is accurate, right? Also, when you're putting in notes, accuracy matters. When you put in a dog's age, it may not matter. Now, for instance, like obviously if it's a rescue dog, there's nothing you can do.

But if you put in an age, let's say, of two years old when the pet is five, that doesn't matter right now, but it is going to matter. When the pet is eight, it's going to, you know, we're going to see you say, okay, this pet is this much older. It matters with weight, with your accuracy. 

Now it may not matter for something as simple as a bath or blow dry, but things like if you ever, now not many groomers do this anymore, but I know 10 years ago when I started grooming, people would do a lot of spot on treatments and accuracy matters. If the vet does not put in the right weight of that pet, you could accidentally overdose that dog.

So I know that does, it's not as popular now, but I remember when that was like a big deal, mostly because it was like when birth control came out, everyone's like, woo hoo, we're not going to have to deal with fleas and ticks ever again. I mean, it was amazing. It was just this mind blowing technology. So accuracy matters, you know the right name, calling someone by the right name, calling a pet by the right name. Now did I ever do that? Oh yeah, definitely.

Do you have any Bellas? We had, and we have, we're in Patriots, the New England Patriots the football team. We had a lot of Bradys, we had a lot of Poppys for like Big Poppy who is from the Red Sox, we have a lot of Maxes.

So it's really important to write down which Max is getting which haircut and making sure that whatever you put the right leash in the right dog thing, when you are inaccurate, you are opening up your business to problems. And I know this seems really obvious, but a lot of guys, listen, no judgment. A lot of you guys start getting sloppy, you get tired and you start getting sloppy.

And the problem with getting sloppy is the fact that what ends up happening, good, bad, or indifferent, you are going to end up with a situation where something goes wrong, just horribly wrong. You know, I'm sure you guys have heard of the instances where someone sends home the wrong dog, where a salon gives the wrong haircut to the wrong dog.

Like let's say there's two Maxs the Bichons, one is getting a five strip and one is getting a face, feet, sani. It's really important to know which Max is which and what they're getting. because if you don't, you're going to have one really pissed off customer. You know, as somebody who just shaved her own dog. It's one of those things that, you know, if I had given this haircut to the wrong dog, that owner would not be very happy.

You know it, it never, it never happens the other way. It never happens that the dog getting the five strip only gets the face, feet, sani. That's not what happens. What always happens is the dog getting the face feet, sani, gets the five strip. So again, remember accuracy matters.