We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michele Padron a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Michele, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?
When I first started Emmy’s Paw Spa, I began as a house-call groomer. My dream was to have a mobile grooming van one day, but financially, house-call grooming was better suited for me. I only had a small handful of clients that had followed me for years, but that small selection wasn’t a big enough clientele base to make a living off of. I made a couple social media accounts, bought some products to start off with in addition to the grooming equipment I already had, and made appointments for my starting clientele.
I was honestly shocked how quickly my business took off, especially when friends would share my business page on their own socials and I was receiving calls and text messages from new people. My house-call business grew and I was booking out weeks, eventually months, in advance! However, just because my client base grew quickly didn’t mean my business was smooth sailing the entire time.
Grooming out of someone’s home is vastly different than grooming out of an established salon. I had to learn how to adjust my set up with each individual home, and many times I ran into roadblocks, with either my equipment or my set up for that house or even my method of transporting my gear (I pulled a Husky rolling toolbox with one hand and carried my grooming table in the other and, needless to say, stairs were not my friend). I also had to relearn my grooming routine and speed, often taking far longer than I would at a shop because I had to factor in so many new variables with grooming at someone’s home. Even routing and scheduling was another big learning curve I had to deal with because in order to make the most efficient schedule, I had to be careful about how to book an appointment so I wasn’t driving all over town and losing precious work time.
I also had to learn to vouch for myself and my skill as a business owner. Just because I had many people interested in my services didn’t necessarily mean we were a great match. Many people questioned my pricing, questioned the process of house-call grooming (I was often confused for a mobile groomer and was expected to have a van to groom out of instead of grooming out of their home), and even just meshing well with the client or dog. Sometimes I felt defeated, but I had to remind myself that I’m just one person, one groomer, and didn’t have to groom every dog in the city. There is a groomer for every dog, and it was okay that I was not the right groomer for that dog or client.
As a year went by, I managed to finally get my groove with house-call grooming. I had built my ideal clientele and had every set up and routing down to a T. However, the wear and tear of carrying my equipment was truly affecting me and the longing for a mobile grooming van was increasing with every day to the point where I was feeling the burn out from being house-call. I loved my clients, but I was beginning to lose love for my job. As a business owner, Emmy’s Paw Spa was my new life, and I was only a little over a year into it … I couldn’t possibly already be ready to throw in the towel of my passion! So, with the help of my husband and our savings, we decided to make the plunge and finally put the down payment on a new mobile grooming van. And, let me just say, it was the best decision I’d ever made.
There were plenty of new things to learn about the van, especially because now I had far more maintenance to take care of and I was not savvy at all with mechanics, but I never once doubted my decision to turn my house-call grooming business into a mobile grooming business. This was ultimately my goal with Emmy’s Paw Spa. The fire rekindled and my passion was back, full swing. I was amazed by how much easier my job was, how much better my grooming was, and even how much I loved driving my big Ford Transit e350!
I wouldn’t trade my start into mobile grooming for anything, because house-call grooming truly taught me almost everything I needed to know about how to be a mobile groomer (minus the vehicle). It really humbled me as well because it is such a tough type of grooming! Many house-call groomers don’t get enough recognition for how difficult their job is out of all of the different methods of grooming and because they don’t have much overhead, they’re often seen as not a serious business. But the amount of attention they provide, the type of care they put into the service so that the pet can be groomed comfortably within the confines of their own home, and the labor that goes into carrying their equipment and bending over bathtubs to wash the pets, that in itself is priceless and should be taken very seriously. So even though in the end house-call grooming wasn’t for me, I am still happy I chose that path because it led me to where I am today and has taught me to apply everything I learned as a house-call groomer to becoming a caring and patient mobile groomer.
Michele, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am the business owner and dog groomer of the mobile dog grooming business, Emmy’s Paw Spa. I service primarily the Chula Vista and Eastlake areas. I drive to your home in my state-of-the-art grooming van and do a complete full grooming service in my “salon on wheels.” I groom mostly any breed, from tiny Yorkies to giant Great Danes. If it can fit in my tub and on my table, then I can groom it!
I started my grooming career as a bather at my local corporate salon in 2013. After about a year I went to grooming school and then the rest is history. I’ve experienced grooming in corporate settings, doggy daycare settings, private shop settings, house-call settings, and now mobile. Throughout the years I’ve truly learned and expanded on my grooming knowledge and strive to apply the best techniques to my own grooming styles. I follow many inspirational and top leaders in the grooming industry on social media platforms where they demonstrate their grooming techniques. I love attending grooming expos and attending seminars to learn more about the up-and-coming products and ways to improve my grooming. During the pandemic shutdown, I was almost glued to my computer screen watching webinars for certifications and more grooming knowledge. Needless to say, there is ALWAYS something new to learn about in this industry, which is one of my favorite things about being a groomer.
With personal experience from every grooming job I’ve held, I’d have to say the most important thing I have learned about in my industry is just having the utmost care and patience for these pets. Grooming is an unnatural process for them, and sometimes the fear never goes away, but the most I can do for them is to just be patient and go to the speed of what they can tolerate. One of the reasons I decided to create Emmy’s Paw Spa was to help create positive experiences with pets, both for myself and the dog. I strive to create the ultimate “pawsitive spaw day experience” for every dog I groom, including using top of the line products, giving them my undivided attention, and emitting calm energy the best I can to help them relax in my care.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
The best source of new clients for my business has been word of mouth/referrals. Hearing new inquiries from people that say they were referred to me by a friend or family member of theirs that is a current client of mine just truly touches my heart because I know the clients I have truly value my work and appreciate me. From the start of my business, I have not once had to pay for any advertising, never had to put up flyers to advertise or pass out business cards to pet-friendly facilities to get my name out there. I did create an Instagram account, a Facebook page, a Google business page, and a website so I could have an online presence. Posting pictures of my grooms regularly helped me gain a following and even new prospective clients that way as well because they were able to see my work for themselves. Now with the van, I get more inquiries when driving down the road or when I’m parked for my lunch break. My clients love taking pictures of my van when I pull up to their home and will post on their social media. The van itself is essentially a mobile billboard and has been a very useful method to attaining new inquiries!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Something that groomers tend to experience quite often is burn out. Of course, burn out isn’t exclusive to groomers, but it is something that has caused groomers to up and quit grooming completely because the burn out was so severe and destroyed their passion for taking care of animals. I am one of those groomers that has experienced “groomer burn out” to the point where I was seeking other professions to get out of the grooming industry.
I worked at a place where the owners wouldn’t listen to the staff (whether it be ideas about how to enhance grooming with better products or services or even just how we would like to be treated), we were constantly getting overbooked and working on ridiculous amounts of dogs in one day (15-20 dogs in one day most times just between two people), and our prices were outrageously low so our only option to make a decent living was to make sure we did high volumes of dogs. I had come back from maternity leave and all of my friends that worked at this facility had quit because of the working conditions, and I was still dealing with postpartum depression and anxiety, so not having my familiar faces to help me get through the day was very rough. I was letting the toxic environment ruin my passion for making dogs happy and beautiful. When I started applying for other career fields, I didn’t get very far with those interviews. My only work experience was with dogs.
Eventually, I decided to just leave the facility for another grooming shop, and that in itself rekindled the fire for my grooming passion. Unfortunately, the fire was short-lived and I found myself bouncing from shop to shop to find the right place for me, a place that wouldn’t burn out my passion. That brief thought of quitting grooming once again entered my mind and I started to fall into another dark place, just like I had with my PPD/A. But the better part of me (and the help of my superstar husband and supportive circle) wouldn’t let me fall down there again.
Finally, I decided that the only way I would be happy and that my fiery passion for grooming would stay lit was if I was my own boss. I could use the products that I wanted to use, I could take on the clients I wanted to work with, and make the hours I wanted to work, especially because I had a baby at home. I started doing research on self-employment and owning a grooming business. Considering where I started with my business to where I am today, I am blown away with pride of how much I have accomplished, and the best part is sharing it with those close friends and family, and even clients, that believed in me from the start.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.emmyspawspa.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmyspawspa/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emmyspawspa