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Paragon School of Grooming and our parent company, Melissa Verplank Enterprises, are innovators who bring new products and service to market for the grooming community.
News & Events
Paragon President Joe Zuccarello’s Speaker Sessions at Groom’D 2025
ParagonPetSchool.com president, Joe Zuccarello, has teamed up with our partners at WPA to offer an exciting trifecta of topics for grooming businesses at the GROOM’D trade show and grooming competition in Atlanta, GA, March 7-9.
GROOM’D is the ultimate one-stop-shop for pet care professionals at every stage of the game to discover new trends and tools, the latest in pet wellness, business insights and outstanding competitive artistry. The grooming-focused pet trade show is presented by World Pet Association, the global pet industry’s first trade organization. For more than 70 years, WPA has provided professionals of all experience levels and in a variety of roles with valuable educational resources, industry news and forums that allow our community to promote the health and growth of businesses and our industry.
In addition to exhibiting in Booth #135 with Director of Operations, Cara Evans, Joe will connect with pet pros while leading the following educational workshops:
How to Set, Raise and Correct Pricing
Saturday, March 08, 2025 • 1:30 pm–3:00 pm • Italian Suite
In this session, Joe Zuccarello will help demystify the challenges of establishing the best pricing for your services, who should be setting the prices, how and when to raise prices, and how to correct prices that might be way off where they should be. Joe will also provide some recommendations on how to approach your clients with communicating pricing changes. Believe it or not, many businesses leave a ton of money on the table by missing some basic pricing strategies. And many businesses are inadvertently confusing their clients. If you want to seize every opportunity for every dollar you and your services are worth, join us for this seminar.
Succession Planning
Sunday, March 09, 2025 • 12:30 pm–2:00 pm • Italian Suite
Exit Ramp Ahead. When is it time to exit the “freeway” or traffic of business? What is your succession plan? Description: It’s coming. The day when you feel is best for you to exit your business. But much like driving your car, do you know where you are heading, when, and how to plan to get moved over from lane to lane so you are properly positioned for your exit? What destinations are out there for you to consider? What steps do you need to take to reach your desired destination? And when do you start using your “turn signals” to start maneuvering toward your destination off-ramp? In this session, Joe will identify some of these options for exits, planning, positioning, etc. No matter if your business is new, growing, maturing, or ready for an exit, this session is a must.
Anyone Can Sue for Anything
Sunday, March 09, 2025 • 10:00 am–11:30 am • Italian Suite
While most people we deal with are compassionate, loyal, fun, and responsible, there are times when we are challenged by customers who may see things differently than we do, especially when it comes to their pet’s care and hygiene. In fact, there are stories where clients are threatening (or successfully) suing their pet care providers for haircuts that didn’t turn out the way the pet parent envisioned or worse, if there is an accidental injury to the pet during grooming procedures. During this session, Joe will share some stories and recommendations to limit the chances of this happening to you. Strengthening your client messaging to protect yourself and offer your clients choices that everyone wins is the goal takeaway from this session.
For more business coaching inspiration, visit our Employer Resource section and select Joe’s 10 Minute Coaching for Pet Care Pros.
Looking for a keynote speaker for pet business coaching sessions? Contact Us.
Paragon Teams Up with The Dog Gurus at Breakthrough Workshop
Paragon President Joe Zuccarello joined forces with The Dog Gurus at their annual Breakthrough Workshop to help pet businesses of all types build their teams and boost their bottom line. The Pet Business Growth Workshop is an intensive three-day conference designed to elevate your pet care business. This transformative event brings together industry experts and pet business owners to address key challenges in launching, growing, and building profitable enterprises. Here’s a peek at the workshop topic Joe led.Growth Workshop: Stop Grinding, Start Growing: A Path to Business and Personal Fulfillment
In this session, Joe guides a conversation focused on getting the most out of the energy you spend building your business. It may sound cliche, but it is true. To maximize desired results, you must work more ON your business and less IN your business. But how can you accomplish this? It starts with a VISION. What does it look like when it is done correctly? Once you have that figured out, then you must execute the plan for your business by identifying why, who, what, how, and when you want to do it. You have a job, and that job is not to do everyone else’s job for them. So, how do you make sure they know what you want? How you want it done? And if they are successful or not? And if they are not successful, what do you do then? With the right approach, what results can you expect? One thing is for sure: if you get caught up spending your energy doing the wrong things, you will never reach your fullest potential and neither will your team or your business.
For more business coaching inspiration, visit our Employer Resource section and select Joe’s 10 Minute Coaching for Pet Care Pros.
Looking for a keynote speaker for pet business coaching sessions? Contact Us.
How to Become a National Certified Master Groomer – What Aspiring Dog Groomers Need to Know
Paragon Pet School is a partner with the National Dog Grooming Association of America’s Workshop and Certification Program.
Hours and hours of practical work have led to this day. A staggering amount of study material has been reviewed and reviewed again, with detailed written exams – comprised of hundreds of questions on canine anatomy and covering all breed standards – completed. Groomers get their dogs to the table, ready to show their grooming prowess to judges, who are selected from nationally renowned master groomers. The goal? To sufficiently impress the judges with their technique to win the coveted designation of National Certified Master Groomer.
Welcome to the world of NDGAA Certification. Paragon has been honored to serve as a workshop and certification partner of the National Dog Grooming Association of America, which hosts certifying and workshop events throughout the country. The organization was established in 1969 to create a forum of educational exchange and industry standardization. Read the rest of this entry »
Paragon Mentor Suesan Watson Wins AKC Leadership Award at Barkleigh Honors Gala
You don’t need to tell Paragon students that Mentor Suesan Watson, CMG, is an inspiration! Paragon is delighted to celebrate Suesan’s recent recognition for her outstanding contribution to the grooming industry. She was feted with the 2024 AKC Leadership Award at the Barkleigh Honors gala in Hershey, PA, earlier this month.
In the words of Mark Dunn Executive Vice President of AKC:
“Leadership matters. Groomers who are educated, knowledgeable and confident can lead their clients, lead in their community and lead in the industry. (Sue has) helped thousands of other groomers throughout her career. Her contributions have changed lives and helped shape the entire industry. She’s been a leader for more than two decades from the AKC Confirmation dog show ring to the grooming show floor. She was an original NDGA certifier. Her critiques, I am told, are always positive, uplifting and confidence-building.”
Dunn noted that the American Kennel Club has sought to improve lives of dogs and people who love dogs for more than 140 years, and that groomers play a vital role in pet owners lives by keeping pets happy and healthy. He called the award “penultimate.”
It’s a fitting award for Sue, whose career has spanned five decades. She is a double Certified Master Groomer with NDGAA and IPG who has competed worldwide, winning multiple placements along with several Best in Show and Best All Around Groomer Awards. She is a GroomTeam USA Alumni and has won three consecutive Cardinal Crystal Groomer of the Year awards and a Groomer of the Year presented by Wahl Clipper at the Westminster Dog Show. As part of the Wahl Elite Team, Sue travels to grooming shows to judge competitions and educate other groomers.
As a Paragon Mentor and Groominar® Network expert from the early days, Sue has literally helped develop thousands of individual professional groomers and groom business teams through Paragon.
“Sue possesses the perfect blend of excellence in terms of technical grooming skills and teaching skills,” said Paragon President Joe Zuccarello. “We could not be happier to have her on our team or prouder of her well-earned recognition and leadership within the industry.”
Sue, who’d just won Best-in-Class in the Model Dog division at Groom Expo, was both shocked and thrilled to receive the award.
“When I was 13 years old and groomed my fist poodle I never thought being a dog groomer could lead me to where I am today. Grooming is not just being a groomer, it’s more – you touch every animal with such care and such love – and it means so much to me,” she told the crowd. “To be in this family is such a special thing – I can’t thank you all enough for the warmth and love that you have shown me over the years!”