Recently, we sent out surveys to the folks who have graduated from the National Cat Groomers School.  On it, were a series of questions pertaining to the state of business prior to entering our program and the effects, if any, on their business endeavors in the months or years post-graduation.

The stats surprised me!  I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what we are teaching here at the National Cat Groomers Institute is of value to people who truly want to strive for excellence and be the best they can be. I know that because of the spoken and written feedback received from our grads after each and every class and from the very real things they are doing when they return home newly armed and freshly inspired. But until we did this survey, I had no way of actually measuring the effects. Thus, I am excited to see these numbers!

Liz Boles, one of instructors here at the school and the team member behind many of our design and layout projects, has spent time collecting the survey results and compiling the data into a something the rest of us can understand.  She presented us with the current stats during one of our Wild Idea staff meetings.  I wanted to share some of these with you here in my blog.

First off, we found that mobile and salon grooming are, so far, about evenly split, together making up over 80% of the total business models represented. The remainder of the respondents, thus far, have house-call or in-home grooming businesses.  Just over 60% of the survey respondents own their own businesses.

While that is interesting, what I found to be most compelling was that 56% of the respondents so far offered absolutely NO cat grooming services of any kind prior to attending our school.  That means we’ve had more non-cat groomers than experienced cat groomers participate in our program. I love that! New converts are always good!

Included in the survey were questions relating to income and revenue. I am pleased to see the average annual gross income for our grads is over $100,000 annually, some generating much higher revenue numbers. Considering we are in a “down” economy, I find this very inspiring!

In addition, survey respondents report an overall average of 52% increase in revenue post graduation than was experienced pre-attendance at the National Cat Groomers School.  Why is that?  Based on what we read in these survey results, three things seem to be directly responsible for this revenue growth effect:

1. The business courses offered during our program changed the way the students operated their businesses, whether existing or newly formed. Efficiency became a priority, problem areas were identified, and real, workable solutions were devised and implemented.
2. Average income per groom was significantly increased as students implemented the recommended principles for communicating with clients and presenting offered grooming services.
3. Prices were raised based on newly acquired knowledge, grooming skills, increased confidence levels, as well as the fact that most of our students leave our facility with a new certification title.

I like numbers. They never lie. Numbers provide an accurate measurement of where things stand and then help us move toward a new goal.

This coming Monday (May 21^st) at 2:00pm I am speaking at our next webinar. The topic: “Setting Goals, Making Money.” And I very excited to have one of our school grads join us for a personal interview! Kevin Beck, from Ontario, is a hair stylist. He does magically things on human hair, keeping his clients looking fashionable and stylish with cutting edge hair dos and coloring techniques. But somewhere in the middle of all that people hair stuff, Kevin decided to enroll in cat grooming school, crossing the Canadian/American border to spend 2 weeks away from home, pets, family, and a thriving business. What a crazy thing to do! Especially with ZERO cat grooming experience in his background!

On Monday, Kevin will share with you WHY he did such a crazy thing. He’ll tell you about his long-term goal that was publicly shared with his classmates and instructors while he attended school this past February.  And then he’ll tell you how his long-term goal (originally 2-3 years from now) turned into a 2-month goal. Kevin grooms people and cats, (separately of course!) keeping them all rather stylish. He is making money and growing a real, viable cat grooming business one cat at a time. His numbers are here on my desk as I type this. And I’m going to share those numbers with you on Monday during the webinar.  I also want to help Kevin make those numbers bigger, so we’ll talk about that on Monday, too.

I don’t know where you are in your life – in your business. But if you are seriously wanting to set some goals, make some money, and grow a successful business, there is a way.  Too many groomers are working paycheck-to-paycheck……long back-breaking days with nothing much to show for it. I know this because I hear it ALL the time.  It’s at epidemic proportions in the pet grooming industry. And I hate that! We have such potential, such opportunity as professionals in the pet industry. And it’s within our power to change the state of things.

But it’s hard to see the forest for the trees sometimes. It’s impossible to eat an elephant. I get that. But, like my husband frequently reminds me, you CAN eat an elephant……one bite at a time.  On Monday, we will cut that elephant up into tiny bites and start eating.

PS. A second guest is also joining us for Monday’s webinar. Amy Brown, president of the NAPCG (www.thenapcg.com) and owner of AB Grooming Spa in Alabama will join me for some discussion on this topic of changing our status and improving our own personal professionalism as well as the value of the pet grooming industry as a whole. Amy is very business-savvy and has used the medium of add on spa-style creative grooming to grow her own business. She travels the world teaching others how to do the same.  She is also the co-author of “The Science of Creative Grooming,” the most comprehensive book on the market that covers pet skin and coat topics. I’m excited to have her with us on Monday to provide even more advice as well as a different perspective on business growth topics.

A comb cut performed by one of our students this week on a red tabby and white.

Upcoming events meant to inspire, motivate, boost sales, increase profitability and inject confidence. For you!

Because it’s what we do. It’s what we are about. We want to inspire YOU to be the best you can be.

At the NCGIA, we are working hard to do whatever we can to move the grooming industry forward.  We are changing the world one cat at a time……….Are you with us?

Webinar: Grooming the Aggressive Cat

Webinar: Setting Goals, Making Money

Webinar: Advanced Q&A (Grads and CFMGs ONLY)

Advanced Cat Grooming Course

Member Excursion to Biltmore Estate

Webinar: No More Once a Year Shavedowns!

Webinar: Pricing Structures and Special Fees

Cat Grooming Workshop – Maine Coon Society of Switzerland

1-Day Cat Clinic (cats provided)

This is a repeat of one of our first webinars. It overfilled the first time around and some folks did not get a seat. This is back by popular demand and will be recorded. Recorded webinars will be available to NCGIA Members ONLY. As always, both the webinars and the recordings for members are free of charge.

See you soon!

Grooming the Aggressive Cat

Join us for a Webinar on May 10 Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/654786878 Danelle German will discuss what grooming elements should and should not be done on aggressive kitties. She will also explain timing issues and in what order to perform various aspects of the groom, tips and tricks to minimize future grooming issues and how to identify, understand, and handle the most aggressive felines.  Title: Grooming the Aggressive Cat Date: Thursday, May 10, 2012 Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

The 2^nd day of the CFMG beach retreat started out with warm weather and the hope of sunshine. After breakfast, we chilled out, surfed the web, enjoyed some coffee, and chatted about our businesses. We shared funny stories of cats and dogs we had groomed and told about interesting clients we’d had over the years.

At one point, one of the CFMGs pulled up her website on her iPad , asking for suggestions on how to make it better. We went over the logo, branding, font styles and content as she made notes about what to add, what to change and what to highlight in an effort to generate more business.

There are so many opportunities these days because of the internet and social media. Learning how to get the most of the opportunities can be a daunting task, made harder by the fact that these things are constantly changing and improving. It’s easy to get behind and overlook low-cost or free ways to market a business on the world wide web. There is so much potential in the cross-networking opportunities that exist today.  We talked about this for a while as everyone sat around the bar counter with laptops and iPads open, and I cleaned up the last of the breakfast dishes.

A few in the group had plans to take a boat excursion near Georgetown, SC, just north of Charleston.  The rest of us had no plans other than to relax and enjoy the beach.  I grabbed a book and a beach towel and headed down by the pool for some more sun (this time with sunscreen!).

As I lay by the pool reading, I saw people going back and forth from the house to the beach. Eventually a few headed off for the walk to the pier to get some ice cream. Some time later, one of the CFMGs came back to tell me I needed to come out on the beach to see something.

As I walked barefoot in the sand toward my fellow cat groomers, I found this carved into the wet beach.

Apparently they have very large cats here on the Carolina coast!

We goofed around for a bit. It was a beautiful day and hardly anyone else was on the beach. We had it almost to ourselves. Purrfect!

Later that evening, at supper time, everyone met up for a pancake dinner with homemade caramel syrup and a hot breakfast casserole.  More conversation went on, covering a wide variety of business topics. More notes were made, making everyone even more excited about implementing growth strategies. I could barely wait to get back to the office by this point because I was fired up myself!
By the time the retreat was at its end, the wild idea stickies had multiplied. One of the last things I did before leaving the beach house for good was to carefully untape and roll up the paper board filled with stickies. It would be the springboard from which the NCGIA team would work once I returned home and everyone was settled back into work. I could see that we were going to be busy for a very long time!

Thank you to the CFMGs and their better halves for the invaluable input and additions to our idea board. Your contributions are greatly appreciated as we endeavor to grow a cat grooming industry that we can all be a part of!

See you next year!

The CFMGs arrived throughout the afternoon and evening, one having travelled by plane and others having driven for 12 or more hours. The weather wasn’t cooperating the way I would have liked. It was overcast and windy, a big change from the clear sunny days we had enjoyed prior. No matter. Everyone was excited to be there. And I was excited to have them as my guests at the shore.

It was first come, first serve on the bedroom choices. Before long everyone was settled in and dinner was almost ready to be served. I baked chicken and roasted veggies with a spinach tortellini salad on the side. For dessert, one of my family’s all time favs: German chocolate upside down cake served with some freshly brewed coffee.

Five hours after we first sat down at the table to stick a knife in the chicken, we were all still sitting in our seats, engrossed in conversation. Time was flying by, it seemed. I started out by telling the group about our Wild Idea Club launch the previous day and walked everyone through how they could start a club of their own, even those who worked alone. By gathering people each business owner knew with various personality types and skills sets, their own Wild Idea Clubs could be started and used in mighty ways to grow their existing businesses.

The people at the table that night were a perfect representation of the grooming industry. From mobile to salon to vet practice to house call, we covered it all. Some were dog groomers with cats on the side and others were feline-exclusive.  Some were long time groomers and others fairly new to the industry. Some worked alone, others had assistance. A little of everything. This meant there was a lot of great information to share amongst the group – stuff that we could all learn from and implement in our own unique business settings.

One CFMG brought her husband to the retreat, and another brought her boyfriend. Neither of these guys are “cat people” (YET!), yet they live with women that are extremely dedicated and passionate about changing the world one cat at a time. And each of these guys come from a different background and different vocation that provided more unique perspectives into our endeavors as cat groomers.

The conversation around the table migrated from one topic to another as we discussed marketing our businesses, gaining new clients, changing the way veterinarians think about cat grooming, and getting our clients to care about their cats and maintain regular grooming appointments. We talked about what to do to resolve difficult employee situations. We went on to discuss numbers – revenue and expenses, and how to use the reality of our stats to become more profitable. Everyone had a notebook. Ideas were jotted down, concepts underlined, “to do” lists made, visions defined.  It was a productive first night!

One of the CFMGs is dealing with some old policies in her salon that are causing her to lose money. She is frustrated. The issues run deep and will require some serious undoing before she can rebuild something more sound, something with more profit potential. We talked about this situation at length. Together we made a plan. There was a lot of scribbling in the notebook, jotting down ideas, plans, and business principles meant to empower and maintain focus. This particular business owner has work to do, no doubt about it. But things were off to a good start by making a plan to tear down an old structure and rebuild a new one. I am excited for this CFMG as she works out her plan. And we’ll be there to help her out along the way however we can.  I look forward to next year’s retreat because I believe this CFMG will be back with an inspiring progress report.

At close to midnight, I finally said goodnight to everyone and headed upstairs, leaving them to keep talking shop as long as they wished. I’d been up since 4:00 that morning. My brain was fried and ready for some sleep. As I drifted off to the sound of the ocean just beyond my bedroom windows, I thought about how the people downstairs were part of a movement. These folks are true professionals, operating in ways that present them as such to everyone they meet. They are educated, smart, and cutting edge. They are definitely not “just groomers!” They make me proud to be one of them!

Day one of the CFMG Beach Retreat was a wrap, and I was happy with the outcome.

I have to say I am extremely thankful for the staff at the NCGIA! Dana, Olivia, Liz, and Lynn (our newest team member) are a creative lot, to say the least. I am convinced that one of the main reasons the NCGIA culture lives and grows is that the core team is made up of people who work hard, think outside the box, and raise the bar on just about everything we do. I can tell you that staff meetings at the NCGIA typically run a minimum of 3 hours and usually happen at places like Starbucks or the Melting Pot or the beach.

After reading “The Wild Idea Club” by Lee Silber, as recommended by my friend Melissa Verplank, I just knew that the best time to launch our new club was during the NCGIA beach retreat. That meant I had to sit on this idea and keep it pretty much to myself from January through mid-April. This was not an easy task. I’m more of a “let’s do it NOW!” kind of person.

My family arrived at the beach house ahead of the others so we could have everything prepared for everyone else. The staff, board members and plus ones rolled in throughout the day, some showing up early while others made their entrance just before dinner was served.

The sun was out. It was a gorgeous day. We spent much of that first day lounging around poolside or playing on the beach. At one point we walked the mile and a half down to the pier for some ice cream only to have to lick really fast in order to keep the dripping refreshment from melting into the sand. After a return mile and a half trip back to the house, it was evident that sunscreen would have been a wise choice.

The first evening, as we sat around the dinner table, there was excitement and buzz in the air. Some of our guests, friends or family of the staff and board members, were meeting for the first time. Much of our conversation centered around the cat grooming industry and what it was, exactly, that the NCGIA had been during over the 5 years since its inception.

The next day was a free for all.  Play, rest, eat and walks on the beach and a little too much sun for most of us.  And then came Wild Idea Day.

Everyone knew that something was planned for our 3^rd day at the beach, only they had no idea what it was. That morning they discovered a huge piece of paper taped to one of the living room walls with a quote scrawled across the top. The quote, by Albert Einstein read, “If at first an idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”

The living room furniture had been rearranged to center around the paper board taped to the wall. Tasty snacks were prepared, game pieces were out, music was filling the room, and I was busy getting the last minute details all put together for the big event.

We kicked off the Wild Idea Day by playing a game called “Anything Goes.” The game requires creative thinking, physical action, silliness, quick thinking, and a willingness to be totally humiliated. The perfect way to get our minds ready for what was to come.

After an hour and a half of laughing at everyone’s crazy game antics, I divided up the group into 6 teams of 3 people each and led them over to the large dining table with the biggest lazy susan in the center that I had ever seen. On the lazy susan was a pile of crafty items – scrapbook paper, buttons, fabric, cat hair yarn, glue, paint, and more. Around the perimeter of the table were 6 art canvases. The instructions: each team had 1 hour to use whatever was on the table to create a piece of cat art. Ready, set, go!

In the frenzy that followed, 6 totally different works of art began to take shape. Scissors, glue and tape were passed around, the lazy susan was spun one direction and then another so everyone could grab up whatever craft item they needed. And 1 hour later, cat art was completed.

After that, we moved back to the sofas where I laid out colorful pads of paper and big fat markers. This was our wild idea time- where we could write down whatever wild ideas we had that could possibly help grow the NCGIA and the cat grooming industry as a whole. I started out by adding the first colored paper to the big board on the wall. It read, “Buy this beach house so we can do this 2x/year.” Everyone cheered in agreement and before long colorful scraps of paper filled with both outrageous and practical ideas peppered our big white board.

Nearly 2 hours later dinner was served. Cheese fondue with bread, apples and cauliflower for dipping. Over dinner, the ideas kept coming. Before long someone grabbed a paper pad and marker so we could jot down more ideas and add them to the board. Dinnertime conversation lasted well past dinner. Everyone was excited as we hashed out what directions we would go, what problems needed to be solved, and what goals we wanted to reach.

The day had been a smashing success from my viewpoint. I saw my team be creative as they worked together as a group. The whole group worked through an assortment of ideas, thinking outside the box, striving for cutting edge solutions to real problems, and setting goals that might only have remained fuzzy dreams without inspired and passionate people to help make them a reality!

I appreciate our team so much. And I appreciate their family members who came with them and joined in on all the festivities, providing other perspectives to our projects. Thank you all for participating in our Wild Idea Day, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with in your future Wild Idea Club meetings.

Thanks also to my mother who made sure we all ate really well while we were at the beach!

Melissa Verplank told me about this book she read once awhile back. It was called “The Wild Idea Club.” Instead of reading the book, I had a wild idea………why don’t we plan a beach retreat for our staff and have a wild idea club there?!

That meant I had to read the book.

I’m glad I did! It took nearly a year for me to get around to it, but once I did, I was filled up with ideas about how to generate even MORE ideas! Just what we needed, my husband told me sarcastically. There are always a plethora of ideas floating around our place, many of them on the wild side. And most of them cost money. Or time. Or both. And more often than not, these wild ideas also involve some kind of manual labor on the part of my husband. Thus the lack of enthusiasm.

The beach retreat idea was different though. He was all for it. I’m guessing that had something to do with NOT having to work, with a bit of sunshine and surf thrown in. As we talked through the logistics, we came up with another wild idea: set aside a retreat time for the CFMGs too!

The point of the staff retreat was to provide some R&R for our hardworking group and launch an NCGIA version of the Wild Idea Club. The purpose of the CFMG retreat was to treat them to their own mini vacation while, at the same time, providing them with as much access to business growth topics and conversation as they wanted to ingest in a 3-day period. A sort of private seminar on steroids.

Each retreat was an event all its own. I loved it! The whole of it turned out better than I imagined!! I am excited and inspired by all that took place over the course of a week at the seaside. The potential for growth just blows my mind! What we do with all of it will be the truly fun part.

Welcome to Del Boca Vista, oceanfront Garden City, SC. Eight private rooms with separate sitting areas that remind me of a tiny Biltmore Estate. Accommodations for an enormous crew, with a kitchen so big you can barely find a spoon when you need one.

It’s April, which means the weather is warming up, hitting 80 on some days, but tempered with a soft ocean breeze. The living areas on both floors open out to large sunny decks with a spectacular view of the coastline. Below, a pool and Jacuzzi.

This is where it all took place.

I want to tell you about our outrageous Wild Idea Club and the amazing time spent with CFMGs. I’m thinking each of these deserves its very own blog post. I’d better get busy! I have a lot to tell!

Stay tuned………