We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tommy Stockstill a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Tommy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.
When my wife and I were tossing around names for our business that creates and builds unique products to solve issues in the Pet Grooming community we asked ourselves what it was we really wanted to do. At the time it was to make a product or two to help pet groomers do their jobs a little easier. A perfect side job to make a little extra money, you know, fill orders on the weekends, answer a few questions during the week, simple. In August 2019 we did our first trade show in Chicago. I wasn’t prepared for the Groomers, my wife Kemlyn had been grooming for nearly 20 years at that time so I thought I knew the mechanics of the job and how my Groomers Wall could help a little. To be honest I thought of Groomers as little more than hairstylists that did a pretty hard job. I didnt realize the great physical strain this “job” is on a person, lifting heavy dogs, bending over the table to reach them and pull them back within arms reach, not all pets are compliant for a stranger in an environment where they are put in a tub, washed two to three times, conditioned, carried wet to a seperate table to have the pets ears plugged and covered then a huge dryer that sounds like a tiny jet engine blows them mercilessly for about a half hour then they are taken to another table and clipped and trimmed and manipulated to make them look good for the owner.
This meant that the groomer had to patiently put pets of different sizes, breeds and temperaments over and over again with only the rarest personal break to dart to the restroom or refill the coffee cup that kept them going.
The Groomers in the industry are grooming (baths, condition, dry, and trim) on average 8 dogs a day, beginning to end all the while handling those 8 different pets, some with special needs, medical conditions, fleas, unforgiving owners and the Groomers desire to make everyone happy. They do all of this most of the time for an average wage much less than the average hairdresser. Before this business, I was like most pet owners and decided to ignore what I didn’t understand about the physical pain, stress, and strain of being a business owner of a service business.
They needed help and very few people were stepping up to make their lives easier and safer. I went home from that trade show with a new appreciation and drive to help them somehow. I wasn’t just driven by trying to help anonymous pet groomers, I found at that trade show the kindest, most creative, sensitive and loving bunch of people in my life. I discovered that in 2019, and 5 years later I know it in my bones, that these mostly women and some men are giving away their health, and mental well being trying to make Fluffy and Mr. Pickles look their best.
Manufacturers in the pet industry are like any other business, they create and sell what makes them the most money, these are usually shiny and colorful shears (scissors to us), powered clippers, and any tool you can think of to cut hair and save time but there were very few who were focusing on making the pet groomers life better, easier and safer, nor were the products focused on the safety of the pets in their care. That needed to change and quickly, so, All for Groomers came on the scene and we decided that every product we create has to meet the criteria of making the groomers life better, safer and less physically demanding or make the pets in their care safer. Products that don’t meet those criteria aren’t for us at this time, if it doesn’t meet those basic things then someone else can do it.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I came from Southern Mississippi, oldest of a family of 5 kids, in the earliest years when I was growing up money was very tight for our family just like the other familiies in our community. If you needed something for a task then often you had to make it yourself or repair an old broken one. If you were fortunate enough to have a newer car or washer or stove then when it broke down, you or someone in your family repaired it. My Dad was one of the ones that could fix nearly anything or find a new inventive way to solve the myriad of problems that people have. I learned from him and took great pride in doing the same types of things in my own way. Things improved for us and the entire area eventually but we stubbornly held onto that “I’ll do it myself” mentality.
I graduated High School as a mediocre student and left for the Marine Corps: spent a year in Cuba, and 3 years in California with a war thrown in there to keep things interesting, nothing like doing without and combat to make you find new ways to do things. I left the Corps after 4 years and went to college and found out that when I tried, I was an excellent student and couldn’t learn enough fast enough. Well life happened and my new wife gave birth to a son, a physically healthy boy but with special needs that required more time from me than college and working my way through allowed. I left school and went to work full time, leaving the wife who wasn’t much of a help with the demands of a child that changed moods nearly hourly. Eventually I started dating Kemlyn when my son was 2, with her patience and help and medical science we got a diagnosis and help. Son turned 7 and we decided we wanted another baby, I was terrified that history would repeat itself but it didn’t, I learned what it meant to have a wife whose Love is so strong and fierce that everything eventually melted into the past and got better.
Kemlyn was a Vet Tech at the local animal hospital and created and taught various levels of dog obedience classes. She loved her work but wanted to be home more with our daughter when she showed up in 2001, she decided to learn to groom pets so that she could do that in our basement with our at home on her timeline. She learned the trade quickly, and word spread about her skills. We didn’t have much extra money at the time when she began this so when she needed a new tub, or grooming table that could work at different heights and a dozen other different things I built them or created a unique way of doing things. Most notably was, as our daughter grew in Kem’s tummy, the dogs got farther and farther away out of her reach so she wanted something to keep them closer to her person, so the Groomers Wall was born. She found that it not only kept the pet closer to her but had a calming affect on the cat or dog being groomed. Over the years she made suggestions for improvements and I made them. She told me repeatedly that other groomers needed a tool like this but I knew better, I could never make something that would help everyone who used it. As usual, she was correct but, I wouldn’t start anything like a business until the kids were grown and settled at least a little. Our son graduated High School and made huge improvements in himself with help and eventually moved into a home with other people like himself and learned independence and self-confidence. Our daughter graduated High School and was to start college in the fall and was born with independence and self-confidence so it was time for the parents to focus on us a little. That was 2019 and we started All for Groomers and it has taken Kemlyn and myself into a world that neither of us knew existed. We have traveled to most states in the country, and are shipping our products to countries all over the world for other Pet Groomers who are hearing about what our products do for them and the pets in their care. We have received several awards, and many nominations for awards and are even more dedicated to creating a better world for pet groomers and the pets they groom.
Somewhere along the way we have created a following of groomers and other businesses that felt the same way as us, that our companies exist because of the pet groomers, not the other way around. I don’t know if it is the “cool thing” to think of other people before we think of ourselves but it’s precisely what we are doing. It requires me to run a very efficient business to be successful and still be able to provide for ourselves and our customers. Now I am continuing to grow the business with our own money and a little credit at our bank for the restocking orders that tend to eat cash. I have a list of products to bring out as soon as it is feasible; so that we can expand our product line to meet more needs.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
I mentioned before that I thought this would be a side gig, where I would make a few Groomers Walls in our garage sell them online and that would be it. As sales grew I found myself working my normal 9 to 5 job then coming home and working another 5 to 7 hours on the phone with customers, returning emails, acquiring parts to assemble the Walls and learning better ways to build the Walls. I was stretched too thin so, I started hiring local college students that needed a little extra money, I created jigs and templates to simplify the process and speed things up. Demand continued to grow and I knew that I needed a manufacturer build and package these things so I spent nights emailing manufacturers, I “stole” moments at work to call manufacturers and even visited some. I turned to our local ORC (Occupational Rehabilitation Center) for special needs people that want to work and contribute and they were able to help me for a while. So then I created a new product called the Trach Saver, a grooming restraint that goes over the pets shoulders instead of the neck like every other product on the market, dogs with sensitive tracheas, heart problems, laryngeal paralysis and many other conditions. I resigned myself to keep building the Walls with help but myself knew that I couldn’t build and assemble the new Trach Savers. I started the journey of looking for a manufacturer all over again, and again was stonewalled by US manufacturers over and over again, I was either qouted astronomical prices to make me go away or just told no. The kindest manufacturers ones would at least say sorry, they didn’t have room for new projects, especially small ones like mine and even if they did they can’t find enough employees to handle the workload that they currently had. I wanted desperately to be able to say “Made in the USA” with my products as it was hammered in my impressionable Southern brain that we had to keep jobs in our country for a myriad of reasons. The last manufacturer I spoke with I actually begged them to at least look closer at my project and consider it. They were callous and said firmly no. I decided from then on I would never beg for anything ever again. I had to find another solution so I found a couple of books about having products built overseas and import them, most notably was “The Black Sheep Formula” by an anonymous author on Amazon. I read it and read it again as the “play book” that it was. I knew that everything I needed to know wouldn’t come from that book but it drove it home that it was possible for a regular person to become what I needed to be for this business. So, I turned to the internet and Alibaba looking for manufacturers, I had to use clear descriptive language to express my needs, using sketches that I made in my numerous notebooks as well as my crude homemade, hand sewn versions of the Trach Saver that I wanted. I spoke with several manufacturers and found one that was quickest to respond, most willing to listen to my ideas and was actually kind to a new business person. I committed to production samples and made a couple of changes and eventually was pleased with the end results. That was four years ago and I have purchased thousands of my original Trach Savers from this company in Beijing, China because they treated me better than any of the US manufacturers I encountered.
I developed new products and created more relationships with other Chinese manufacturers as well as making improvements on the products that I already had in production and nearly every interaction with Chinese manufacturers reps and engineers has been excellent.
Someday maybe my products can be made here in the USA; but I will never beg another company to help me make them money. To date I have spent well over $200,000 dollars in China and have plans for much more in the coming years.
I would like to travel there someday and personally thank a few of the reps for the help and support I got. That they would bend over backwards to help a little upstart company like All for Groomers still impresses me. In all of my dealings there are only a handful of conversations with American manufacturers that were even close to the excellent service I experienced abroad.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
A person would think that I would be proud to preach about how our reputation has spread in our Pet Grooming communities. I am proud, but it is difficult for me to talk about it. I firmly believe that every person and pet deserves respect from me and my company. I want to treat every person how I would like to be treated. At our first tradeshows I noticed a person who was uncomfortable and just seemed overwhelmed, often these are trademarks of a neurodivergent person, although that definition wasn’t being used yet, I just saw someone who needed a little kindness. I invited that person to come over to our booth and relax, they could sit and recharge and recover. Kemlyn let them talk to and spend time with our dog that was with us and this seemed to help the person. That person seemed to recover and was willing to rejoin the crowd in the convention center. I made it a point of looking for those signs of mental anguish and offered the same thing to others people, sometimes they took it and sometimes they didn’t. Word spread throughout the show that our booth was a safe zone for anyone feeling overwhelmed or intimidated for any reason. Kemlyn and I don’t care what pronoun a person identifies with or the color of their skin (or their hair). I made it known recently that I don’t care if you identify as a squirrel, you are welcome with us and I mean it. I was told that we are “fighters” for the underdogs in the industry. I suppose thats true because If I see a person being excluded from a group or an activity I tend to latch onto them and welcome them to our own group of people that are more interested in your heart rather than the little things like titles, clothes or status. Proudly that group continues to grow. A dear friend of ours spoke one time about including everyone and excluding no one, we took that to heart.
These are examples of how we operate our business and they are only a few of the many. It seems that if you are genuine, really want the best for whomever you deal with and let them know that they matter not only to you but to the entire world then the other people that feel the same way come out of the woodwork. I am not saying that they act that way because of us but that they also treat people with respect and kindness. Happily the more we follow our hearts in dealing with people, more like minded individuals seem to come out of the woodwork. So, if you are excluded because you dress differently or speak differntly and I notice it I will offer to take you under my wing, introduce you to the leaders in the industry that have become our friends and make you “one of us” even if you don’t buy our products or stay with our group, you will know that you belong with the best people in the industry and someone recognized it. I believe that with all my being that those things are true, I don’t do these things for personal gain…
Maybe I do this for personal gain, I like feeling good, so when I make someone feel valued and appreciated I feel good. Maybe it’s all about me? Nah, can’t even type it with a straight face.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.all4groomers.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/all4groomers
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groomerswall
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/TommyStockstill
- Youtube: @allforgroomers3554
- Other: My personal facebook is https://www.facebook.com/CADDIS43
my business email is [email protected]
Image Credits
All photos were either taken by All for Groomers or with All for Groomers phones and cameras or with explicit permission of the photo taker.