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Furniture and Fixtures

Client Reception: You should have at least 2 chairs or a sofa bench for your customers to sit on, and a small table with reading material. You will need at least one retail display unit and a "front counter" where you greet clients and store the appointment book, phone, filecards, brochures etc. Plants add a nice and natural touch too, and a bottled water dispenser is a pleasant courtesy. Besides water cups for people, have a supply of paper bowls for pet owners to give their pet a drink if they choose too, and hopefully on their departure and not on their check-in unless the pet needs it. We suggest you post a bulletin board or kiosk to display pet care information for clients, such as announcements and brochures. Will you post a sign with prices?

Cleanliness is important. Your outside entry and client reception areas are the first thing pet owners see, and the rule of thumb is the typical consumer makes a judgment about your business within 60 seconds of seeing your business. The client reception area typically endures the most urination or defecation by pets. Male dogs can and do lift legs on retail displays, counters and furniture. You must keep that in mind and consider the surfaces. Of course pet waste is an accident waiting to happen. People may slip and fall from stepping into waste. Have a clean-up system available at all times in the Client Reception area, and never tolerate any employees that don't immediately clean up pet waste they discover thinking it's not "their turn." Safety of people makes its everyone's turn all the time.

Never carpet your reception area. You may laugh but some people don't know that. You will be forever vacuuming carpet and it will retain odors forever after a short time in use. If you find a space for your business and it has carpet you must inform the landlord of your need to replace it and factor that into your decision before you sign on the dotted line.

Office: Desk, desk chair and guest chair(s), locking file cabinet, and shelves.

Kitchen / Employee Lounge: Lunch table and chairs. Bulletin board for notices including Federal and State employer postings required in all states. Small lockers for employees?

Bathing and Trimming Departments: Stools for employees to occasionally sit in while drying pets, and perhaps while trimming.

Lighting Fixtures: Lighting requirements vary depending upon existing fixtures and sources of natural light, and the latter is the most desired but never seems to be adequate in most businesses. Grooming environments require adequate lighting without casting shadows. Traditional fluorescent fixtures may be adequate but you may want to add spot lights to grooming workstations. Place the lights along the four corners of the workstation area and pointed toward the table center. In this way you get complete light saturation.

Without adequate lighting you may not see your work clearly, and you can miss those perfect touches. Most groomers prefer buildings with several windows allowing lots of natural light to fill the environment in addition to building lighting. Replace cool or warm fluorescent bulbs with "all-spectrum" or "daylight" fluorescent bulbs. Cool and warm fluorescent actually discolor coat colors, even your interior design.

You may want spot lighting on retail displays. Also, be sure to consider your exterior lighting requirements. Your grounds, even if just a potty walk, should be lit. If you have outdoor seating for clients or employees, again have adequate lighting.

Doorbell system, and you may need gates dividing the client reception area from the grooming areas.

Office Equipment and Supplies

Telephone system, computer system, calculators, clocks, cash register, shelving, filing cabinet and typewriter. Safe? A TV monitor with VCR is helpful for showing training videos to employees. We've seen some manager offices equipped with closed circuit monitors to maintain watch on all areas of the business.

Supplies include traditional products for files, computers, stationery, business cards, hole-punch, and time cards for employees.

Business forms are vital to an operation that can grow. You must have brochures for your clients even if you're operation is using pet grooming software. For promotional purposes you should have a nice brochure and price sheet. Depending upon whether your business uses grooming and accounting software, you will need business forms such as a daily register of services, receipts, client and pet filecards. We suggest you read the Business Forms and Software Main Menu.

Consider Madson Business Forms available from Find A Groomer, Inc., and whose web site we host. You need to budget for business forms, and Madson's are very reasonable. Their business manual, From Problems to Profits, provides detailed instructions for ALL forms. There is no other business form manufacturer for pet groomers that includes detailed instructions. If you don't use manufactured forms, you can make your own using models of Madson Business Forms illustrated in From Problems to Profits too. Don't cut back on business forms.

Building Supplies and Equipment

Waste containers, fire extinguishers, locking cabinet to store toxic cleaning and grooming supplies, waste bags including pet soiling waste disposal bags. Shop vacuum, brooms, dust pans, and mopping system. Pooper Scoopers? Spare light bulbs, extension cords, and a professional first aid kit. Get a good first aid kit in compliance with O.S.H.A. requirements (O.S.H.A. regulates occupational safety for employees and apply to all businesses in the U.S.) 

Cleaning supplies include floor, wall, glass and caging cleaners, floor wax, various disinfectants, laundry soaps and disinfectants for toweling, towel drying racks or a washer/dryer system. Kitchen and rest room supplies.

If you have a kitchen, consider the needs to equip it. Refrigerator? Microwave? Coffee and tea maker? Paper towel dispenser.

Wet towel bins, and shelving for clean, dry towels.

Basic building tool kit such as screwdrivers, hammers etc.

Emergency exit signage, and basic indoor signs.

Better salons will have a sound system playing ambient music and not loud radios. Soft music soothes pets.

Air Purifier system to rid the environment of odors, and maintain air freshness. Alpine Air products are very popular with pet groomers, but there are other manufacturers.

Consider an emergency generator.

We're not done yet, let's go onto Shopping List - Part Two on the next page.