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The Grooming Year: Busy Seasons, Slow Seasons and How to Plan
Grooming demand rises and falls through the year. Knowing the pattern helps you plan your schedule and your budget.
Every salon has its own rhythm, but most groomers recognize the same broad pattern: a rush before the winter holidays, a busy spring as coats blow and the weather warms, a steady summer of shave downs and baths, and quieter stretches in between. On commission, that pattern is your income pattern.
The usual busy times
- Before the winter holidays. Owners want dogs looking good for family visits and photos, and books fill weeks ahead.
- Spring. Double coated breeds shed heavily, and owners book deshedding and tidy ups as the weather turns.
- Early summer. Heat brings requests for shorter cuts, and outdoor dogs come in dirtier.
- Before holidays and long weekends. Boarding facilities and salons see bath and groom requests before owners travel.
The usual quiet times
Many salons see a dip in the weeks just after the winter holidays, when owners have spent their budgets, and sometimes in late summer when families travel. Local factors matter too: snow, tourist seasons and school calendars can all shift the pattern where you work.
Learn your own pattern
General patterns are a starting point. The useful number is your own. If you log every week for a year, you will know exactly which months are lean and by how much. That turns the slow season from a surprise into a plan. Our guide on budgeting for slow weeks shows how to budget on your low weeks and bank the difference from the busy ones. This article looks at the same problem across a whole calendar year, because when the slow months fall matters as much as how slow they are.
A worked grooming year
Here is a made up but realistic looking year for a groomer on 50 percent commission. The figures are illustrative only. Swap in your own from your records.
| Month | Revenue | Your pay | Against $3,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | $4,000 | $2,000 | -$1,000 |
| February | $4,600 | $2,300 | -$700 |
| March | $6,200 | $3,100 | +$100 |
| April | $6,400 | $3,200 | +$200 |
| May | $6,800 | $3,400 | +$400 |
| June | $6,400 | $3,200 | +$200 |
| July | $6,000 | $3,000 | $0 |
| August | $5,200 | $2,600 | -$400 |
| September | $6,000 | $3,000 | $0 |
| October | $6,000 | $3,000 | $0 |
| November | $6,800 | $3,400 | +$400 |
| December | $7,600 | $3,800 | +$800 |
The year pays $36,000, an average of $3,000 a month. The best month pays almost twice the worst. If you pay yourself an even $3,000 a month, the year balances out, but only by December.
The cushion you need depends on when you start
Run a running balance through that table. Start the plan in January with nothing saved and you are $1,000 behind after one month and $1,700 behind after February. Spring and summer claw some of it back, August knocks you back to $1,200 behind, and only November and December bring you level.
Start the same plan in October instead, and the busy fall builds $1,200 by the end of December. January and February then take you to $500 below zero at the worst point, rather than $1,700.
The rule that falls out of this: the cushion you need is the deepest point your running balance reaches, and the best time to start building it is just before your busiest stretch. For most groomers that means saving hard from the fall rush so January is already paid for.
Make the busy season count
- Open holiday booking early and offer regulars first choice of dates.
- Avoid overbooking to the point of rushing. Rushed grooms are where injuries and complaints happen, and a redo on your own time pays nothing.
- Price holiday add ons, such as bows, bandanas and festive shampoos, so they are worth the time.
In a busy month your table is full, so more dogs is rarely the answer. Raising the value of each slot is. Say 20 dogs a week take a $10 add on and you earn 50 percent on add ons. That is $100 a week extra, or $400 over four peak weeks, without a single extra appointment. Before counting on it, confirm that add ons are commissionable at your salon. The guide to what each groom really pays you shows why short add ons often pay best per minute.
A holiday booking timeline
- About eight weeks out: tell regulars the holiday book is opening and offer them dates first.
- Six weeks out: open booking to everyone and start a waitlist for the last week before the holiday.
- Four weeks out: look for matted or overdue dogs on the book and suggest a tidy visit now, so the holiday groom is not a two hour dematting job.
- Two weeks out: confirm every booking and fill cancellations from the waitlist.
- The week itself: book January follow ups at checkout, before the slow season starts.
That last step matters most for your pay. A January appointment booked in December is income the slow month would otherwise not have.
Make the slow season useful
- Rebook clients who have fallen behind schedule.
- Offer maintenance visits, such as nails, face, feet and sanitary trims, between full grooms.
- Take a class, practice a new trim or work toward a certification.
- Service your clippers and sharpen shears before the next rush.
Maintenance visits are worth more than they look. For example, a $25 face, feet and nails visit that takes 30 minutes pays $12.50 at 50 percent, which is $25 an hour. A $75 full groom that takes an hour and a half pays $37.50, which is also $25 an hour. Small visits can fill a quiet day at the same hourly rate as full grooms, and they keep the coat in shape so the next full groom goes faster.
A common mistake is treating the slow season as time off from the business side of the job. It is the best time to fix the things a busy month hides: tidy your client notes, check which regulars have drifted past their usual interval, and look at which dogs pay least per hour so you can raise it with the salon before the next rush. See slow season pay for the budgeting side.
A short message to lapsed clients can do the rest: "Hi Pat, it has been about ten weeks since Milo's last groom. We have openings this week and next. Want me to save one for him?"
When to take time off
On commission, a week of vacation costs whatever that week would have paid. Using the example year, a December week might pay around $950 and a January week around $500, so a week off in January costs about $450 less than one in December. If you have a choice, the quiet weeks are the cheap ones to take off, as long as the salon's time off rules allow it. On hourly pay the math is different, since paid time off, if you have it, pays the same in any month.
How pay structure changes the picture
On straight commission, a slow month is a smaller paycheck with no floor. On hourly vs. commission, your hourly rate protects the slow weeks while commission lifts the busy ones. For example, a floor of $16 an hour for 36 hours works out to about $2,496 a month on average ($16 times 36 hours times 52 weeks, divided by 12). In the example year that would lift January from $2,000 and February from $2,300, adding roughly $692 across the two months. The real figure depends on how the weeks fall, because the floor is usually checked each pay period, not each month. The hourly vs. commission calculator shows which side wins in a given week, and hourly vs. commission pay explained covers how the floor works.
Frequently asked questions
Which months are slowest for groomers?
It depends on your area and your client list. Many salons notice a dip after the winter holidays, but your own records are the only reliable answer. Log every week for a full year before you plan around it.
How much should I save in busy months?
Enough to cover the deepest point of your running balance, as in the worked year above. Work it out from your own monthly pay, not from an average or a rule of thumb.
Should I take on more dogs in the busy season?
Only if you can groom them well without rushing. Raising the value of each slot with add ons and booking follow ups usually pays more than squeezing in extra dogs.
This article is general information, not financial advice.