Groomer Burnout is Real- Physical

I knew when I was running my dog grooming salon I was becoming burnt out.  I was working 60-80 hours a week, I had 5 employees that were finally amazing but needed a lot of guidance.  I was physically feeling awful.  My body HURT which was terrifying considering I was in my mid-20s.  I got to the shop around 7 am and sometimes I didn't get home till 9 pm.  If I was lucky I could send one of my employees for a lunch run, but it was more likely to be a coffee run.  I was running off sugar, caffeine, and I could feel my body aching... I would spend my days off trying to catch up on some much-needed sleep. When I dragged my lazy butt out of bed I ended up laying on the couch waiting for my lower back to stop throbbing.

 I'm sure you can relate! 

I felt exhausted all the time, I had worked so hard to build this life with my son so we could do better... I wasn’t happy.  I felt like something had to give.  I wished someone had talked to me about groomer burn out because it is so real.  I thought I hated my business but there were 3 key reasons I was so burnt out. Maybe you are facing your own burnout.

Physical: My body hurts.  Kill me.
Financial: I’m too broke to keep doing this
Trapped: I’m a rat in a wheel; I’m stuck!  I want my time and flexibility back

Ways to take a load off of your body are:

Considering stop accepting OAY (once a year) or TAY (twice a year) pets.  
They require more work, they tend to be more dangerous and the reality is you never make enough money to deal with them.  Grooming pets on a regular 4-6 week schedule means better customers, easier haircuts and less physical work.

Limit size or breeds, find a niche
This was a game changer for me.  My shoulders were so messed up I could not lift my hand above my head, in my mid-20s.  I had to let go of my labor-intensive doodles, old English sheepdogs, huskies, great pyrenees, etc.  When I felt better and my body relaxed I let go of dogs over 30 lbs.  Wanting to make more money and do less work I changed my business to cats only, which meant no scissor work and most of my clients are 7-17 lbs. 

Stop abusing your body, take care of yourself- you're only human:

Eat food that isn't crap.
When I had my salon I spent an average of $1200/month on takeout, fast food, coffee and energy drinks.  I was never home to even make a sandwich, and all of that poor quality food did a lot of damage to my body.  You don't need to become a health nut but make one small change a month.

Work out or hire a personal trainer
I'm not a work out freak, I would rather set myself on fire then go to the gym... BUT when I was in full burn out mode I hired a personal trainer to go to the gym 3x a week for 2 years.  I needed the accountability to help build muscle to help me do my job and recognize where I had created the wrong muscle mass to compensate for the way I was abusing myself physically.  Being a 5'2 woman and lifting 100 lbs doodles by myself wasn't very smart, but on a busy Saturday I did what I had to do... and I had to pay for it.

Get a Massage; "dematt" all those knots in your back
I thought it was clever.  If your back, neck, and shoulders were a pet, it would get a 10 strip.  You have ignored those pains or just popped a pill.  You need to STOP.  Go to a professional and have them dematted, it may take a massage therapist who specializes in sports or functional massage 1 massage a week for 6 months.  No different than those OAY customers, you should have been taking care of yourself, you should have been coming in monthly.  You chose not to and there is no 10 strip for your muscles. 

Groomer Burnout: Financial
Groomer Burnout: Trapped