You are your Secret Sauce

Thanksgiving is a time of families and food, it’s a time for people to pull out their big cooking pots and cook books that they only use once a year… It’s turkey time!  As someone who burns water I decided to cater our family dinner from my favorite Italian restaurant.  I knew the food would be amazing, well seasoned, fresh, made from scratch, just delicious quality!  Taking a huge bite into his mashed potatoes my grandfather smiles and exclaims,

“This is delicious!  They must have expensive pots!”

“Oh yes!” my mother agrees “and they must have top-notch ovens!”

“Probably really invested a lot in the blenders to make these potatoes creamy!”

OK, so maybe that conversation didn’t happen.
My family instead commented on how amazing the food was. 
Delicious, great value. 
Everyone complimented the chef on the quality of their skill, at no point did they assume the chef used their tools as a crutch.

Photographers often tell me “it isn’t the camera, it’s the artist”, buying a $1000 camera will not make you a photographer, it will make you someone who takes pictures with an expensive camera.  Good photographers, however, do not take pictures with Walmart cameras. How true this is in our industry.

“Wow, my dog is so clean!  Can I buy that shampoo to bath my dog at home?”

“This is the best groom my dog has ever had, can I buy those clippers at Walmart?”

“This is the best groom my dog has ever had, can I buy those clippers at Walmart?”

“You must have spent a lot on those scissors, I have similar ones I bought at Sally’s.”

You are your secret sauce, your talent, your skills, your brand.  YOU are the person who creates dirty four-legged ragamuffins into beautiful coiffed family members.  Investing time, energy and money into your skills and education is so critically important.  Not just scissoring, breed standards but also health and business knowledge.  You need to be well rounded to be a successful groomer. 

Having a professional grade convection oven makes it easier for a chef to cook a delicious turkey, but if I buy that same oven I will continue to burn water. 

Before buying a high-end product ask yourself “do I have the skills to really utilize this product in a way that I will get a return on investment”?  If you lack scissoring skills buying a set of $1000 scissors will make your strokes like butter… but you will still hack at that coat if you don’t have the skills to hand scissor.  Or ever tried to hand scissor a dog that is still mildly dirty, it’s not blow dried properly?  Buying $1000 scissors when you have a subpar blow dryer, shampoo, or a lack of fundamental bathing skills is useless.  There will not be a return on your investment, the price tag shouldn’t be confused with a magic wand.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, it’s a season of buying new fun ‘toys’.  When buying new shampoo, new equipment, or even new training material I want you to sit down and do the math to figure out how much this will add to your bottom line.