Q. I cannot place a help wanted ad at www.findagroomer.com.

A. The site www.findagroomer.com is for pet owners looking to "find a groomer." Of course many visitors need to hire a groomer, and well "find a groomer" too. Business owners looking to "find" a groomer here need to place a Free Help Wanted. They are located in the PetGroomer.com Classified Ads. Go to www.petgroomerads.com and there are buttons to that section on top of nearly every page at PetGroomer.com, even this one above.

Q. How do I advertise here?

A. Pet groomers looking to hire a groomer, or buy and sell anything grooming can advertise in the PetGroomer.com Classified Ads. If you are a vendor of any kind selling to pet groomers you can simply place a classified ad for as little as $18 for 3 months. However, if you want to become an advertising sponsor of PetGroomer.com with banners and links leading to your website we have a special page for you here. All advertising sponsors at minimum get a year round classified ad, upgraded listing in our Buyer's Guide and links and/or banners on premium pages like the Home Page. For the price of one display ad in just one issue of a trade magazine you can get months of advertising here reaching not only groomers but hundreds of thousands of persons considering a career in grooming.

Q. What is Grooming Business in a Box® and who owns its website?

A. The owners and creators of PetGroomer.com are consultants, authors and publishers with a strong focus on the "business side" of grooming. Our products and services are sold in a line of products known as Grooming Business in a Box at www.groomingbusinessinabox.com. If you are serious about opening or expanding or improving the performance of a pet care business, we can help with 40+ years of field experience.

Q. How much will I earn as a pet groomer?

A. Wow, what a good question yet one that requires a complicated answer. Please go here for your answer.

Q. I am looking for a pet grooming school. Do you know of any?

A. Please see our list of schools starting here or home study here.

Q. Are there more schools of pet grooming than those listed in the "Schools" section of the PetGroomer.com Buyer's Guide?

A. Yes there are more schools of pet grooming than the ones listed in this web site. But, few. We require that the schools we list here advise us that they are formally approved, "licensed to operate", by an appropriate postsecondary governing agency in their state or other jurisdiction. Several schools of grooming have yet to setup web pages on the Internet and this compounds your efforts too.

Keep in mind that "vocational schools" must be licensed by the state government in which they reside with the exception of a few U.S. states. Therefore, if you don't see a school in our directory for your area or state, or wherever your interest is, contact the agency of your state government that licenses vocational schools. They will tell you if they have licensed any grooming schools in your state (where licensing applies). To find the agency start by asking your state government general information center for "the agency that licenses vocational schools." The agencies are often named differently state-to-state. For example, in California it is the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, yet in Colorado it is the Colorado Division of Private Occupational School, Department of Higher Education.

If you discover a school not listed here, please help us to help others and let us know about it. Send us e-mail, thank you. We remind you to be very careful in selecting the school you attend. To select a school simply because it is near you could be a very poor decision. If need be, travel to the better school. Remember, you are investing in a career of perhaps a LIFETIME. Find a way to get the best schooling you can.

Q. What does it take to become a grooming business owner? What are the laws that affect opening a grooming business?

A. You need to specifically read the Building a New Business Main Menu, but really, you also need to read ALL of the Main Menus.

Q. Why don't more groomers focus on their business talents as much as grooming talent?

A. Attitude really is everything. Behind the scenes as Webmaster of this web site we are attending to many things we really don't care about as much as working on the site. Like taxes, bookkeeping, business bills, contracts and lots more. But this web site will become a major success among grooming sites because our attitude is let's get those tasks done right and on time, and get back to the creative stuff quickly. If we don't do the business work well, the site may not be there to help others in the future or reach as many people either. Plus, we have to take time away from PetGroomer.com to learn more about the rapidly changing Web, so we go back to school regularly. The business side of any business is so important, but perhaps not as "fun" or "creative" as the service being sold. So what? You must be in business to make a profit and be legal, and to help the business owner reach goals. I know hundreds of great groomers, they do wonderful work, but they never learn the business of grooming, and "fly by the seat of their pants" or have little to show in terms of net worth after years of hard work. Pet groomers are some of the hardest work people in the pet industry, and they deserve better prices for the most part, but if they are not business people as well you don't get the best fees. Regardless of what your feelings may be on vocational licensing of pet groomers, one thing is certain about vocational licensing, look at all the vocationally licensed in the U.S. and ALL, yes ALL, of them are top wage earners. We are used to paying more for members of licensed professions. As a consultant, I hear complaints and sincere requests for help from grooming business owners every day, and 99% of the problems or needs are based in their lack of management training. Solution, read the grooming business books noted at this site, attend basic business and bookkeeping classes at local colleges or adult education, and occasionally attend general business seminars from groups such as CareerTracks that come in your area. It makes a world of difference. If your goals are to own a home, a nice car and support children from a career in grooming, YOU CAN! We did including pay for college! We could have never done it if we had not invested in plenty of small business management seminars and workshops, talked with other successful business people, and read books galore on business and our field. It's the virtue to do this that makes the really successful groomer.

Q. Why aren't there more apprenticeship positions available in grooming?

A. Many pet grooming business owners tell stories about training an entry-level through full-charge grooming level and some time thereafter the newly trained groomers quit and start their own business. Yes, it's true too. However, it shouldn't stop you from approaching pet grooming business owners and asking. Be honest about your goals and your intentions and you may be surprised. Honor your word and give your employer plenty, even months, of notice before you quit under these circumstances and don't open a competitor business. There are 6,000 dogs and cats today for every grooming business, spread out. Honor and honesty carry into the success of any new business because the self-employed person really is the business. How you begin you and your business' reputation is so important to the growth of widely recognized professional in your area.

Q. I am looking for manufacturers of pet grooming bows, and I don't know the company names of any. How can I possibly find them without going through your hundreds of manufacturers?

A. Use our search engine at the PetGroomer.com Buyer's Guide. For example, searching "bows" would bring up listings including "Bardel Bows", a bow manufacturer. If you only know part of a company name, such as "Pure" use it as a keyword in your search. Searching "Pure" would uncover a listing in our World Directory for "Pure Pet", a pet shampoo manufacturer. We also suggest you look up products of your interest in Online Trade Show or Classified Ads..

Q. What about home correspondence courses in pet grooming?

A. We added a list of home correspondence sources in April 1998 and some advisory information about this alternative to attending a school of pet grooming. See the PetGroomer.com Buyer's Guide for links to home correspondence information.

Q. Some of the how-to grooming books you recommend were copyrighted in 1980's. How come there aren't newer books?

A. Actually I am the editor of one grooming business book and let me share this fact; you work for years to write a book and there is very, very little profit from it. The grooming industry is too small to fund a bestseller, so there is a limited market. If a book costs $35 retail, the author is lucky to see $5 profit, and often less, per copy. Perhaps that is why more groomers didn't write books in the 1990's. They can earn a lot more grooming pets. However, many of the books we recommend in our bookstore from the 1980's are still quite good. Pet styling doesn't change as much as hairstyling for humans. Get the books we recommend as they still make a vital reference library for professional groomers.

Q. Can you help me to sell my products for pet groomers?

A. We provide information to pet grooming career seekers and today's professionals. We are not manufacturer representatives. You can list your company in the PetGroomer.com Buyer's Guide and it's FREE! Also, you can advertise your products in the PetGroomer.com Classified Ads, very economical. Refer to our Magazines and Newsletters Menu page for publications you can advertise in. Perhaps you can have your products carried in a mail order catalog for pet owners and pet groomers.

Q. Why don't you have my favorite breed in your Breed Photo Album Gallery?

A. Photographs must be royalty free, and that can be difficult to obtain. Some owners of champion purebreds are contributing pictures of their pets here, and that is helping us to include more and more breeds. Thank you.