How to price mobile dog grooming: a method, not a price list

By the GroomSolo teamPublished October 29, 20269 min read

There is no right price for a mobile groom, only a price that works for your van, your area and your body. This guide skips the price lists and gives you a method: work out what each groom has to earn, then build a menu around it that clients understand.

The income goal and most costs on this page are invented examples to show the method; the few published figures are named where they appear. Use your own numbers, or put them straight into the price per dog calculator.

Why copying the salon down the road doesn’t work

A salon groomer with a bather can move through more dogs in a day than you can alone in a van. You also carry costs a salon spreads across many groomers: the vehicle, fuel, a generator or battery system, your own water. And you sell something a salon can’t: no car ride, no kennel, no waiting room, one dog at a time. Copying salon prices means charging salon money for a different, more personal service with fewer dogs a day to pay for it.

Step 1: decide what the year has to earn

Start with three numbers:

• Your take-home goal: what you want to keep after costs and taxes. Example: $60,000.
• What to set aside for taxes: self-employment tax alone is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security and 2.9% Medicare) on 92.35% of your net profit, with income tax on top. Ask your tax preparer for your real rate. Example: 25%. Because tax is paid on profit, the profit you need is the goal divided by what you keep: $60,000 ÷ 0.75 = $80,000.
• Your yearly business costs. Example: $28,900.

Add profit and costs, and you have the revenue the business needs: $108,900 in this example, a little more once card fees come off each payment (Square’s standard in-person rate is 2.6% + 15¢, about 2.8% on a $90 groom).

Step 2: count every cost, especially the boring ones

The costs groomers forget are the ones that don’t arrive every month:

• Van or trailer payments, or setting money aside to replace it one day.
• Insurance: liability, care-custody-and-control and commercial auto. For scale, Insureon reports median quotes for mobile pet groomers of about $780 a year for general liability and $2,942 for commercial auto.
• Fuel for driving and for the generator.
• Shampoo, conditioner, blades, sharpening, towels and the small things that run out.
• Tires, servicing and the repair that always comes at the worst moment.
• Phone, software, card fees, licenses and permits.
• Continuing education, a new dryer, a better table.

Go through last year’s bank statements if you have them. If you are just starting, ask an established mobile groomer what surprised them in year one.

Step 3: be honest about dogs per day

This is the number that moves your price the most. In the example, working 48 weeks of 5 days at 5 dogs a day gives 1,200 grooms a year. At 4 dogs a day it is 960; at 6, it is 1,440.

The trap is to plan on your best day. Use a normal day you could repeat for years, with travel, cleanup and the occasional difficult dog included. Our guide on how many dogs a day you can really do has a worksheet for it.

Step 4: turn the average into a menu

The average is not a price. A small, well-brushed dog with a short coat takes far less of your day than a large doodle with a full coat. So build your menu around the average:

1. A base price by size (small, medium, large, extra large), each set so that your usual mix of dogs lands near your average.
2. A coat factor: curly, long and double coats take longer than smooth ones. Some groomers add a set amount by coat type; others build it into separate price lines.
3. Clear add-ons for the work that varies dog to dog: de-matting, de-shedding treatments, extra handling time.
4. A travel fee for addresses beyond your normal area, so the far stops pay for their own driving. See the service area and travel fee guide.

Price by time where you can. If a groom usually takes you 90 minutes and your day needs to earn a certain amount per working hour, the base price almost writes itself.

Step 5: decide how you handle the dogs that break the menu

• Matted coats: charge by extra time, and get consent before you start. The matted dog policy guide has wording.
• Difficult handling: a dog that needs twice the time costs you a slot. Say so kindly, and price it.
• First visits: some groomers price the first groom higher, because it is slower and the coat is unknown. If you do, say why.

Step 6: raise prices without losing good clients

Costs go up every year, so prices have to follow. A few habits make it painless:

• Review prices once a year, at the same time, rather than in a panic after a big repair bill.
• Give regular clients a few weeks’ notice, in writing.
• Keep it short and confident: costs went up, here is the new price, thank you for being a client.
• Expect to lose a few price-sensitive clients. Their slots go to new clients at the new price, often closer to your other stops.

A quick sanity check

Where GroomSolo fits

GroomSolo doesn’t set your prices. What it is built to protect is the other half of the equation: the time you spend driving instead of grooming. A calendar that checks the extra drive before you say yes is in development; until then, the extra drive calculator runs the same check by hand. The app is not available yet.