My Career Plan for the Next 5 Years

Kristina Keller, Summer 2000

"My overall objective is to become self-employed after graduating from school and own a grooming salon in California (city omitted for reasons privacy while Kristina's establishes business). My first objective is to gain 200 regular clients and groom them assisted by a full-time pet bather. Thereafter, my next objective is to expand to 400 clients, and thereafter continually grow a larger grooming business setting new client base goals."

"My present situation is that I am attending Madeline's Institute of Pet Grooming in California and will graduate in October 2000. I intend to work as an employed groomer saving money for my future business."

"When I eventually start my business I will covering all seven job positions of The Madson Management System including, Manager, Master Pet Trimmer, Assistant Pet Trimmer, Bathing Dept. Supervisor, Pet Bather, Receptionist and Telemarketer (appointment scheduling calls). As the business grows I will first hire a pet bather. This will help increase business, and then I will hire another pet bather and receptionist, and then an assistant pet trimmer. Once I have substantial client base of several hundred clients, meaning more business than I can groom as a master pet trimmer teamed with an assistant pet trimmer, I will hire another master pet trimmer."

"My business will offer full-service grooming for all breeds of dogs and cats. I will welcome all sizes and mixed breeds, as well as other small pets. I will also develop good customer relations by using The Madson Management System's customer service forms (Ed. note: see Chapter 11 of From Problems to Profits). My goal is to turn every new customer into a client."

"I plan to use the Madson People and Pet Marketing Program (Ed. note: see Chapter 12 of From Problems to Profits) to achieve my marketing goals. I will be placing an ad for my shop in the Buyer's Guide, and I will also place advertising the local movie theater and newspaper. When I first open my business I will issue a press release in order to let people know where I am, who I am and how to find me."

"For the first two years after I graduate I will be working for a paycheck, gaining more knowledge, speed and perfecting my skills. From this work I will save enough money for my business. I figure the first year I will only make enough to pay my bills and by my second year I will begin to make a profit to save. Thank you."

Webmaster Commentary: What an impressive presentation when you consider that Kristina is a very young person. In just 60 seconds we know much more than those typical one-liners like, "I want to own a grooming business." Let me point out the particular strengths of her dissertation. In the first paragraph, she quantified her goals numerically. Her first client base goal is 200. As a management consultant I can then estimate (as well as grooming business owners we train) that in the U.S. today a pet grooming business with 200 clients is likely to earn an average annual service fee income of US $36,000 to $48,000. Kristina like others at our Workshop are taught how to easily make income calculations. Another strong point, she identified the personnel she would eventually hire. Too many grooming business owners today fear employees or dread the red tape, and that attitude will certainly manifests the fear and dreaded problems. Kristina's attitude is that she can learn to become an employer with less problems, and we taught her how to maintain a near constant supply groomer employees and to lessen her dependency on more than one other full-charge groomer even in a large business. Her statement that she will make every new customer a "client" is a brilliant attitude, and that her grooming business is worthy of news coverage via a press release is also brilliant. Wouldn't you be impressed if someone you knew entering the field gave you such an answer to your inquiry about their new career? Let's look at another One Minute Presentation.

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