How Much Do Dog Groomers Make?

An important factor when deciding whether or not to follow a certain career path is the income potential. Income potential for a dog groomer is hard to narrow down, mostly due to the many varieties of work environments available. The money you will make is also very dependent on the amount of time you are willing to invest in training and advertising. Another thing to remember is the numbers listed here do not take into account any expenses that will have to be paid, such as equipment upkeep and inventory refills. Also, unless you work as an employee for a corporation, you will need to pay yearly or quarterly self-employment taxes. The earnings depicted here are estimates intended to be used as a guide only based on what I have seen in the industry.

 

How Much Would A Typical Grooming Business Owner Make?

Any individual that owns their own grooming business and grooms there also has the potential to make the most money. This is because you will be able to keep all of your own revenues as well as a percentage of the earnings from any groomers working for you. The typical rate is 50%, meaning that you get 50% of their earnings and they keep the other 50%. If your business is good, and you are regularly booked up, the earning potential is very significant.

The specific shop that I worked for would generate about $1,600 per week in revenues for the owner. That adds up to about $75,000 a year on average. This does not take into account what she had to pay in rent, utilities, and worker wages. However, it also does not factor in what the owner was making in tips. I would say that after taking all of the factors into account the average groomer that runs a business will end up making about $40,000 a year.

 

How Much Would A Self-Employed Dog Groomer Earn?

The self-employed worker also has the potential to make a great amount of money grooming dogs. If you work full time, five days a week, and have built up a good client list, the average amount of weekly earnings would be a little over $500. Yearly, this would add up to an annual salary of about $25,000. After adding in tips, the amount of money made by a typical self-employed groomer is not too bad. The more clients you gain, the better your earning potential will be.

Due to the commission based earnings of a self-employed dog groomer, the annual salary can vary greatly. The fastest groomers, who can finish up to 9 grooms per day, can earn over 40k per year. The slower groomers, who can only do maybe 4 grooms a day, will only earn about 17k per year.

 

How Much Money Does A Typical Corporate Groomer Make

Groomers with the least amount of earning potential are those who work for the major corporations (Petsomthing groomers). This is because no matter how fast you are, or how good you are, the clients are not yours, they are clients of the corporation. You are also limited in scheduling. The company you work for will be the people deciding how many dogs you are scheduled to groom per day. The average dog groomer that works for one of these companies makes about 15k – 17k per year according to my experience.  If you live in an area with higher than average costs of living then of course you would earn substantially more.

The advantage of working for one of these companies is that they will pay for your insurance, employee benefits, and other expenses that self-employed groomers have to pay for themselves.  Those benefits are worth a lot in terms of expenses you would have otherwise paid for out of pocket.

As you can see, the earning potential for dog groomers varies greatly from person to person. The deciding factors include where you work, how fast you work, and how many clients you can obtain.  There are things you can do to earn extra money.   The better you are at selling yourself to your clients, the more money you can make.