From Problems to Profits Grooming Business Book

#1 Grooming Business Book Since 1989

2024 Revised & Updated Edition in eBook Format Coming 2024
75% More All-New Information – Almost an Entirely New Book
Updated People & Pet Marketing Program
Expanded with Start-up Business Information
Expanded with Grooming Training Alternatives

The Businessperson That Grooms is a Rare Breed

The first pet grooming devoted to the business side for groomers. Where did Grooming Business in a Box® get started? It all started with the release of the first edition of From Problems to Profits: The Madson Management System for Pet Grooming Businesses (1989, 1997). It was the first pet grooming bestselling book focused entirely on the management challenges of operating a profitable, stable business providing superior pet and client services. Today more than 25,000 copies have been sold worldwide.

There are pet grooming business owners, and then there are “businesspersons that groom.” The difference between these two mindsets is clear and present. The latter are growing in numbers but they are still the minority. What separates them is not their education in pet care or styling, but specific education in operating a professional grooming business, home, mobile, salon or shop, or even a department in pet care facility, vet or retail.

Businesspersons that Groom…

Write follow and maintain written business plans including financials.
Grow one-person or staffed businesses using written marketing plans.
Know their client relations program is equally important as their pet services.
Maintain a fully-booked operation of their choice, rarely a “slow day.”
Use operational software, or a professional manual records system with reporting.
Maintain compliance with IRS, OSHA and other regulatory agencies.
Do not wrongfully classify groomers as independent contractors.
Understand their obligations and practices as employers (where applicable).
Can read their business’ financial statements and do so regularly.
Set measurable goals for their businesses and track success on a regular basis.
Regularly advance their small business education as well as styling knowledge.

From Problems to Profits is a detailed grooming business guide, and not the personal story of the author. Maddie shares the management system she used to create one the world’s largest and most profitable pet salons. You can choose to use the system to build a stable one-person business, or grow your business with staff. The book has over 100 illustrations including business forms and legal agreements.

Maddie spent 3 years translating her trade secret pet salon management system into an easy-to-use business manual for everyone, from new career seekers and advanced grooming business owners, from mobile to salon owners. There’s not a grooming business anywhere that could not find value in its savvy advice and timeless principles of management.

No matter how small or large of a grooming business you desire, The Madson Management System in From Problems to Profits supports you. You choose how far you want to grow. It’s easy. Yes, easy. So many pet grooming owners think that following a management system means more stress for them. No, it’s just the opposite. Operating a business without a system is the #1 cause of stress.

Step 1 is for one-person businesses. Step 2 addresses hiring some staff, but not a large operation. Step 3 is for those who desire a large business. The choice is entirely yours.

Plus if you will grow the business with just one or two employees they will do a great deal of the daily paperwork we suggest as part of their job position. That surprises everyone at our workshops based on From Problems to Profits. As the owner your task is appropriately to analyze the business data each day and feel the sense of knowing and self-respect that comes from running a professional business, and so easily!

Grooming is a labor intensive business. If you choose to grow your business you must add staff. Payroll expenses must be planned very carefully. Today most grooming business still use outdated methods to pay their grooming staff, and simply rely on the saying that commission wages are the “only way,” and you cannot hire groomers otherwise. Today there is only a shade of truth in that “old school” thinking. Even worse thousands of groomers are wrongfully classified as independent contractors.

Reading FPTP

Following The Madson Management System you can pay commission wages if you want, but you won’t enjoy the miracle of reducing payroll costs without lowering wage levels. A recent survey at PetGroomer.com discovered that 39% of owners are no longer paying by commission and instead using methods like ours detailed in From Problems to Profits. We never propose cutting wages to cut payroll, and never did. Ingenious methods described in From Problems to Profits reduce labor costs without lowering wages and increase quality, humane standards of pet care and improve team work. True, and proven by our 61+ years of field experience.

There are those groomers that balk and say “quality not quantity” and “it cannot be done.” Have they ever seen our system in motion? I doubt it; they simply couldn’t say that had they done so. Indeed, Maddie Ogle is renown for her classic “Humane Bath Procedure” and we included a copy of it in the book as a bonus.

Maddie didn’t build one of the largest and most profitable businesses in the world by allowing risk to people and pets, or lowering quality to save money. If only every groomer and business owner had as little as 50 hours of grooming management education, we could change the entire business nature of the grooming industry. No matter how large or small your business the choice is yours and The Madson Management System is your map to a more enjoyable working lifestyle with less stress, more profit and improved staff relations.

From Problems to Profits (1997) is 320 letter-size pages. The large pages allow us to incorporate more than 100 illustrations including business forms. That’s right, business forms. Most people say just a few of the business forms are worth the price of the book, but you get so much more. There are sample legal agreements, contracts, and bookkeeping forms that help you to keep IRS compliant records, and line-by-line instructions for every one of them! That’s not all. You also get rare grooming personnel forms like a sample Employee Handbook and 7 of the grooming industry’s first published job descriptions. You will not find such a comprehensive set of tools and information like this anywhere else in the industry, and it’s backed by more than 55 years of field experience.

The Madson Management System is so comprehensive you actually use it for as long as you own your business, even decades like us. Owners that fully-implement the system are more likely to earn a high appraisal when they decide to sell their businesses. That’s very important. As a business owner the sale of your business often makes the largest contribution to your retirement, or career change if you desire.

What you do now with your business affects its selling price years in the future. Don’t be an owner who works for years and then cannot sell their business for what it is worth. The Madson Management System was designed to develop maximum net worth in order to support a more comfortable retirement or career change for the motivated owner. It’s never too late. We work with clients who have owned their businesses for 20 to 40 years or more. They adapt their operation to our system in preparation for selling their businesses for much more than they ever thought possible, and some tell us they are going to delay the sale because “they have fallen in love again with their businesses using our system.”

Read the book through once, and then go to Page 14 and follow the Action Plan for Step One. It’s your easy one page guide to implementing the system. If you will just follow that Action Plan each day, you can be more confident that you are implementing The Madson Management System. Now is that easy?

We occasionally offer free copies with qualifying orders of our Grooming Business in a Box® product bundles. Used copies can be found on the Internet too.