Floor
Plan Considerations
Your floor plan must
be designed to fulfill all of the objectives of your operation.
Indeed, your floor plan communicates the importance you place on
client relations when you plan a spacious and comfortable client
reception department. Your concern for preventing loose pets
accidentally escaping out the front door must be evident. Read
Madeline's description above for more ideas.
We do not like pet
grooming businesses that seem to hide the entire grooming
operation in "back rooms." At least the finish trimming
area should be visible to pet owners in the reception area. If you
are the owner and trimmer, your table should be the closest one to
the client reception area. That way you can acknowledge clients
even when the receptionist handles the entire client transaction
for you. To save space, caging units that are stacked three levels
high work best.
The noisiest area is
the bathing department, and it best belongs at the rear. Plumbing
can be a costly improvement, so the bathing department must also
be placed where it works best with the present plumbing system and
water heater.
Don't permanently
block natural lighting coming in through windows. You may need
shades or blinds when the sun is shining directly in, but natural
lighting adds a nice ambience, and helps pet groomers to see their
fine work.
The Manager's Office
should be near the reception department. An office with
glass-walls or windows allows the manager to keep an eye on more
of the operation while working at their desk.
Lighting
Considerations
Lighting is very
important. Beauty salons often have very fine lighting systems for
their hair designers. First, there should be natural lighting
wherever possible. Second, there should be overall lighting from
all-spectrum or warm fluorescent systems. Third, there should be
spot lighting surrounding the pet groomer's workstation to prevent
shadows. In this way, the pet groomer can better see their
styling. Don't overlook lighting.
If you are building
out a new space, be sure to plan the electrical needs across the
ceiling where spotlights will be dropped onto each groomer
workstation.
Caging
Our Snyder
Mfg. Co. stainless steel cages are nearly 40 years old and
work and look almost look like new. There are many other
manufacturers of cages, and you can start your search by going
to PetGroomer.com's Grooming
Products A to Z. You will find not only product info but
leads to many online and mail order suppliers.
Potty-Walk
Area
Pet owners love a
potty-walk area. Most pet owners will conveniently walk the pet in
your potty-walk area before they deliver their pet to you in the
client reception area. What a great convenience for you. On their
way out, pet owners walk their pets before putting them in their
car. If you look closely at the photograph above of Madeline's Pet
Grooming Salon and Institute of Pet Grooming, you will see a
"Pet-A-Potty" walk area for pets on the far right.
Michelle, the present
owner of Madeline's, provides clients with Pet Mitts (a trade name
product) on a roll dispenser at the Pet-A-Potty. You put your hand
in the plastic glove, pick-up the solid pet waster, then remove
the glove turning it inside-out. Voila! The pet waste is sealed
inside the removed glove, and easily disposed of. We bought about
a thousand of these in one order and the price was less than ten
cents each. A bargain for the convenience. Not all clients will
pick-up after their pets, but many will and again, that's a great
convenience for you.
There is a supplier of
a special ground soil that resembles vermiculite (plant soil
additive). It is being used commonly in public parks with a pet
walk area. We'll try to get the product name for you.
It is essential that
you clean your potty-walk area at the beginning and end of each
day, and as needed during the day. If a pet misses the potty-walk
area, sterilize the soiled cement or wall area. Urine stains
concrete and paint very quickly, and the stains are difficult to
remove, and unsightly. If you are in a strip-center type building
with neighbor businesses, you can bet on having problems with them
if pets being walked to the parking area soil the front of their
stores. It will happen, you've probably seen this in a shopping
center with a pet grooming business. Be vigilant in preventing
this problem by designating where pet owners can walk their pets,
and ask them to assist you by using only that area.
Even more good advice
continues on the next page.
