Paragon Pet Coach Joe Zuccarello just had an incredible conversation with Candice D’Agnolo, aka @petbossnation on the Pet Boss Podcast!
Candice of Pet Boss Nation went on an incredible journey from struggling pet retail store owner to respected industry leader. Her journey shows what’s possible with the right support and strategies, and is now a sought-after speaker and consultant in the pet industry. Visit PetBossNation.com to get the full scoop! Read the rest of this entry »
In today’s dog grooming industry, salons that thrive aren’t just those with skilled individuals — they’re the ones that grow skilled teams. As a salon leader, one of the smartest investments you can make isn’t in more marketing or equipment—it’s in growing your salon’s dream team.
When you take time to train a student groomer, you’re not just helping them—you’re building a stronger, more resilient salon. Here’s why training students isn’t extra work—it’s a winning strategy for long-term success:
Leadership isn’t about doing it all yourself—it’s about helping others rise.
Being a skilled groomer is important, but real impact comes when you guide and grow those around you. When you invest in a newer groomer’s development, you’re not just shaping their future—you’re strengthening your team, building trust, and creating a lasting legacy. That’s the kind of leadership that sets you apart and fuels long-term success.
Students who are training as Certified Groom Techs and Pet Groomers can assist with bathing, prep work, drying, and cleaning—giving you more time (and energy) for complex grooms, higher-ticket services, or even a well-deserved break. A well-prepared student doesn’t slow you down—they support your salon’s flow.
Let’s face it—hiring isn’t getting easier. While Paragon handles the technical grooming training, you have the unique opportunity to shape your student into a future team member who aligns with your salon’s culture and standards.
Want a team you can count on? Start by recruiting individuals who show up with the right attitude, reliability, and professional appearance—then let us take care of the grooming skills.
Rather than scrambling when someone leaves or retires, you’ll have a pipeline of trained talent ready to step up. Every student you support is one more layer of protection against staffing shortages and turnover. You’re not just grooming dogs—you’re grooming salon stability.
Do you have hours in the day when tables sit unused? Bringing in a grooming student or entry-level team member for those specific time blocks can be a smart move. Hire someone for attitude, appearance, and availability—not just experience. If they’re available when your salon is underutilized, you have the perfect opportunity to train them while generating additional revenue. It’s a win-win: you grow a future groomer while making the most of your schedule and space. And you’re not letting a table go “cold.”
The Bottom Line?
When salon leaders support students, everyone benefits. You sharpen your leadership, reduce burnout, and build a team that’s equipped to grow with you.
In this video, Certified Master Groomer Melissa Verplank discusses the importance of “bringing your game to the table” when you’re learning to groom dogs. Selecting the best program, instructors, and mentors is half the task. The other half comes from focusing on the instruction you’re given and committing to ongoing improvement. Education is everything! It’s the key to building a successful career in the pet grooming business.
Want to enhance your techniques? Even experienced groom techs and groomers can “level up” at Paragon with an advanced level course through its Certified Professional Grooming Programs. Get $100 off Tuition with code LUCKYDOG.
Want to sharpen your skills with access to detailed “how-to” videos every day, all year? Join our GroominarNetwork.com pro membership community for unlimited access to more than 1,000+ in-depth videos on every breed in the book.
“If you don’t know what to measure in your business, it’s sort of like driving down a freeway without your headlights on at night, right? There’s a good chance you’re eventually going to run in either off the road or hit something really hard that’s going to cause you a lot of pain.”
This is how important tracking pet grooming business KPIs is to Joe Zuccarello, President of Paragon School of Pet Grooming, who’s been working in the pet industry for over 40 years. Yet, shockingly, most pet grooming businesses operate this way, and they are missing out on thousands in hidden revenue and burning out teams with guesswork.
In our recent joint MoeGo x Paragon webinar, we cracked open the key performance indicators (KPIs) that separate thriving salons from those stuck in the “hamster wheel” cycle. Below, we break down the exact metrics to track, how to calculate them, and why one tweak could double your profit margins.
At its core, KPIs are your business’s vital signs. They reveal:
Joe highlighted several key benchmarks that healthy grooming businesses typically achieve:
While the above are key end-result KPIs, Joe also discussed the crucial data points you need to track to ensure you’re on the right path:
When setting goals, avoid simply “plucking a number from the air” based on historical data. Instead, consider a capacity-based approach. Factor in:
For example, based on the capacity-based formula, you can:
To measure your team’s productivity, you need four key pieces of data:
You can then calculate their efficiency, or simply check the KPI dashboard for real-time metrics with ticket-level details.
Joe also recommended brief, monthly one-on-one meetings (around 10 minutes) with each team member to discuss these metrics. Focus on identifying areas for improvement and collaboratively addressing any obstacles.
In addition, while commission-based pay naturally rewards productivity, you can also create incentives for employees across team.
Want more information? Connect with MoeGo today!
In case you missed it, check out this Free Webinar hosted by our friends at The Daily Groomer.
Paragon President Joe Zuccarello shares real, actionable strategies to boost revenue in ways that don’t burn out your team or frustrate your clients.
✅ “Add-Ons” That Work: The most profitable (and simple!) upgrades you can offer—think nail trims, specialty shampoos, or custom packages.
✅ Upselling That Feels Good: Learn how to give clients more choices without feeling pushy or sales-y.
✅ A Mindset Shift: Move beyond the usual advice and discover creative ways to grow income.
✅ Success Stories: Real-world examples from salons just like yours who are already crushing it.
Want help building your Groom Tech team? Book some time to discuss your needs or Get Started by setting up your Employer Account today!
In our salons, one of the most popular head styles is round. Especially when it comes to Doodles, mixed breeds of all sorts, lots of drop-coated breeds plus a few others.
Did you know there is an easy way to make any dog look younger? More perky?
And the best part – it’s SIMPLE!
Shorten the ears and the muzzle.
Long ears and muzzles drag a dog down, making them look older. It also detracts from a bright expression.
Plus, all the excessive coat is a dirt magnet. It’s constantly getting dragged through their food and water dishes. Longer fur drags on the ground as they pick up all their ‘doggie messages.’ (that’s gross!) Unless it’s being washed almost daily, it gets dirty, stinky and oily. And the potential for mats and tangles is increased the longer the coat.
How short do you go? That’s up to you and the owner.
Whatever the look, it should complement the trim and the dog. It needs to balance with the overall haircut.
In this video, Certified Master Groomer Melissa Verplank celebrates the business-building blessing of the Doodle. These coat-carrying mixed breeds might be controversial creations among breed purists, but they provide an excellent opportunity to educate pet parents and help them understand the not-insignificant hygiene demands to make Doodles look and feel their best.
Want to learn more Doodle-Dos, like how to make them look like a Portuguese Water Dog? Join Paragon’s GroominarNetwork.com, the internet’s best groom instruction video resource and community.
Want to advance your Doodlin’ skills? Level 3 of Paragon’s Professional Pet Stylist Certification Program will help you kick it up a notch!
By Melissa Verplank, CMG, Founder of ParagonPetSchool.com
The path of every successful bather, groomer or pet stylist is slightly different. However, there is a set of common threads that tie the most successful pet professionals together.
Here are seven common qualities that set top performers apart.
A positive attitude helps you deal more easily with the daily affairs. It brings brightness into your life, making it easier to avoid worries and negative thinking. When you’re positive, you have a clear, calm mind that is open to possibilities and see opportunities where others see nothing.
And as a bonus, if your attitude is strong enough, it becomes contagious. Contagious to clients. To co-workers. To Pets. Everyone. It’s as if you radiate positive energy around you.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
~ Henry Ford
Wikipedia defines Lifelong learning as, “the ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons.”
It is the nonstop development of skills and knowledge of a pet professional, at any level. It occurs through experiences encountered in the course of a lifetime. These experiences could be formal (training, tutoring, mentorship, apprenticeship, etc.) or informal (experiences, situations, etc.)
Learning is the key to achieving a person’s full potential. Learn does not stop once you get out of school. Folks who continue to learn are able to transform their lives. They become more successful at home, more successful with their families, more successful at work and more successful within their salons and work environments.
“Life is like riding a bicycle to keep your balance you must keep moving.”
-Albert Einstein
Successful pet professionals are achievers. You aren’t going to see successful pet grooming teams dragging around the shop. Nope. They are buzzing with activity. They are constantly on task, on schedule and looking for a way to shave moments off any task without sacrificing quality. Their hands and feet are never still.
They are constantly in motion. When I hear the term “occupational athletes,” highly successful team members in any grooming department typically fit that description well.
“Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
~ Samuel Johnson
Curiosity might have killed the cat, but a new study by psychologists suggests that curiosity is very good for people. Do you want a rewarding career? Then be curious.
To have curiosity in your job can be a powerful tool. It does not matter which department you are in or if you wear all the hats in your business. If you can find different ways to stay hungry for knowledge and continue to be a lifelong learner, you will find your career to be much more rewarding.
The more curious you are, the more possibilities you will open throughout your lifetime. Open your eyes and look around.
“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
-Unknown
Being persistent after it seems like everything has failed is one of the hardest things to do. You just want to give up. Give up on the dog. Give up technique. Give up on yourself.
When trying to be persistent, it is important that you have a goal in mind. Whether it’s getting that dog squeaky clean, the clipper work baby butt smooth, a velvet finish on a hand scissor dog or just trying to add an extra dog to your roster on a consistent basis, don’t’ give up. Even though you don’t see results immediately, keep trying. Keep pushing yourself. Having an end result in mind will keep you motivated, which builds persistence.
To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work.
~Sister Mary Lauretta
If you want to be successful at your job and move up, you need to be passionate about your work. You need to be motivated and driven to be the best you can be regardless of your work. Passionate people love their work.
Passion, motivation, drive. Call it what you want it. Bottom line, it’s that self-driven attitude towards your job and your work that can help lead you down the path to success.
Passion is an emotion that comes from within you. It’s your enthusiasm. Your motivation. Your drive.
I promise you, others will be positively impacted by your personal passion towards pets. Passion does not go unnoticed. People will see how well you do your job and your attitude towards it. They will see even if a task is hard you don’t give in, you apply yourself even more to overcome it. They will notice your drive and your motivation and consider how you would do in another position.
Becoming stagnated in a career is boring. The work gets sloppy. Customer service goes down. The wonderful part of being involved with the pet industry, there is no limit as to your personal growth. I love being surrounded by people that have these six qualities firmly developed in their lives. They are energizing and refreshing to be around. Their energy is contagious!
How many of these six traits to you have? How many do you feel you could improve on?
Guest article from MoeGo
As a groomer, you’re no stranger to the daily hustle of managing appointments, handling client expectations, and dealing with unexpected changes. While your love for furry clients keeps you motivated, the reality of schedule management can often feel overwhelming–and you are not alone. By implementing smart strategies and tools, you can transform your scheduling challenges into a streamlined, stress-free process that benefits both you and your clients.
Whether you own a grooming salon or mobile grooming business, effective schedule management is vital for running a successful business, but it comes with its fair share of challenges. Common issues include:
Recognizing and addressing these pain points is the first step toward optimizing your schedule and creating a better experience for both you and your clients.
Leverage technology to keep your calendar organized and efficient. Digital scheduling tools can automate appointment reminders to reduce no-shows, allow clients to book recurring appointments, and enable customization of booking windows based on your service durations, service type, and availability. By incorporating technology into your business, you can reduce the manual, time-consuming tasks while still providing a best-in-class experience to your clients.
Set clear expectations with your clients by introducing booking policies. In order to increase booking reliability, save a credit or debit card on file before confirming appointments. In addition, you should implement a cancellation fee for last minute cancellations, typically within 24 hours of the scheduled appointment. And most importantly, communicate these policies upfront during the booking process to avoid confusion or pushback.
A well-planned day ensures you maximize productivity while avoiding burnout. To achieve this, schedule high-revenue services during peak hours to make the most of your busiest times. Reserve specific time slots for walk-ins or last-minute appointments to accommodate client needs without disrupting your workflow. And finally, include buffer times between appointments for breaks or to manage unexpected delays, ensuring you maintain the quality of service throughout the day.
Online booking offers clients the convenience of scheduling appointments at any time while saving you the time it takes to respond to all appointment requests, create new client profiles, and determine your availability. To make the most of this option, choose a platform with a user-friendly interface to simplify the booking process for clients. Regularly updating your availability ensures that clients can easily find open slots that fit their schedules. Additionally, highlighting add-on services during the booking process can help increase revenue while providing a seamless experience for your clients.
Effective scheduling isn’t just about filling your calendar—it’s a way to build lasting relationships with your clients. By maintaining constant communication with your clients, with the support of automation technology, you can use appointment reminders and follow-ups to show you care about their experience and create repeat customers. You can reward those loyal clients by offering them priority access to their preferred time slots.
No matter how well you plan, unexpected changes are inevitable. Here are some ways to stay flexible:
Mastering schedule management is more than just keeping your calendar full; it’s about reducing stress, increasing revenue, and delivering top-notch service to your clients. By leveraging smart tools, setting clear policies, and prioritizing relationships, you can create a seamless scheduling process that works for you and your business.
Ready to elevate your scheduling game? Discover how MoeGo’s all-in-one pet care software empowers you to manage your schedule with ease, allowing you to focus on what matters most–growing your business. As a proud partner of Paragon, we’re here to help you succeed at every step.
– Originally published by our partners at IndiePet.
Chew on this! Did you know, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, it is estimated that by the age of two 80 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats have some form of periodontal disease? Further, periodontal infections have been linked to diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and other life-threatening disorders.
WOW! What are you doing about this? As a Pet Professional, we have an obligation to the Pet Parents who trust us with their pets’ care to inform them of the severity of this problem.
Most Groomers believe they can only make more money if they take an extra dog on the books, or raise prices, or do more big dogs. All of these methods will work, but what about working smarter and not just harder. How?! Recommend extra services that not only generate extra revenue but also educate the Pet Parent and benefit the pet in one way or another. Oral Care services are a perfect add on which satisfies all of these criteria.
If the business has only Groomer they can groom 8 dogs per day and they make a concerted effort to ask every person who comes through the door if they would an oral care service for their pet, (we’ll talk about services choices in a minute) and only 20% of the clients accept, that can equal an average of $20-$30 extra in revenue per day. $30 per day multiplied by seven days per week generates over $11,000 per year in incremental revenue. What if you had more people working in your salon? What if three or four out of every ten clients accepts?
Now that I have your attention (money always works!), let’s talk about the choices you have in service offerings. First, traditional teeth brushing. Depending on the toothpaste and toothbrush (human toothbrush or finger brush) you use, this service can be easy to start and a fair number of dogs will let you brush their teeth while others will not. Another choice is dental wipes. Yet another choice is the best way of addressing the pet’s oral care needs and that is a variety of products engineered to make the entire process easier for the Groomer and the pet. Based on a “no brushing necessary” position, products such as dental gel, breath sprays and foams, water additives, and a variety of treats and chews not only give you more options to address the concern of periodontal disease, but also gives your clients a choice of products to use at home on a regular basis.
Dental products are perfect additions to your services offering, plus they are a great addition to your retail offering. Many Groomers will say dental services offered in salons on a “once a month” basis has very little effect on the pet’s dental health. I beg to differ. I can tell you from experience you WILL sell oral care services by simply asking everyone who enters your business and you WILL sell oral care products to Pet Parents who wish to take better care of their pet’s teeth since you have brought it to their attention that they should be. The products you carry should make it as easy for the Pet Parent as possible. If the product is hard to use or the process is hard to do, they simply won’t do it.
Hey Joe Podcast – “Dental Awareness with Guest Josh Meyer, TropiClean”
Article – How Groomers Can Help Maintain Dental Health
