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Title : TIME MANAGEMENT FOR PET GROOMERS
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TIME MANAGEMENT FOR PET GROOMERS

Author's Note:  The following is a handout that I developed when I was actively speaking at trade shows. Damn! I made some good handouts!  Excuse the self-adulation, but I had not looked at this one for several years and I think it is worthy of publication. The subject is discussed on Episode 229 of The GroomPod. 

Why bother with time management

         By some estimates, people waste about two hours per day. OMG, that could be another two dogs per day, times $40-50, is $80-$100 per day. Hmmm.

            That feeling you get when you are not nearly finished with a dog and the people are coming in five minutes and the dog is being a bozo and your scissors suddenly seem dull or maybe you accidentally slice your own finger because they are too sharp and you can’t find the bandaids…You know that feeling?  That’s STRESS folks, the factor they say leads to illness, accidents, burn-out and worse.  What is the best way to avoid stress?  Improved time management works!

            These are two fine reasons to work on improving your time management skills: creating more productive time ($$), and reducing stress.  There are other benefits, such as being more effective, feeling in control (I like that one), and having more time outside of work.

What is time management, anyway?

            Bad news: Time cannot be managed.  Time management is really self-management.  Time marches on.  My former mentor used to say that “The work will fill the available time.”  How true!  If we had 16 dogs to groom, we’d be done by 4 pm, and if we had 9 dogs to groom we’d be done by 4 pm.  What happened to that time?  The boss would leave and go to the gym or shopping and the staff would go into slow motion, or relaxed mode.  Time would seem to slip away… There was NO time management.  We were either in a stress mode, or a resisting-stress mode; we were rarely in an EFFICIENT mode.  I could sure use some of those wasted hours now!  So: time management is managing oneself to be more efficient and not wasting time or allowing others to waste your precious time.  That’s easy for me to say, I’m just writing about it. 

More bad news: time management is clutter management.

            I did NOT want to learn this.  I am a Clutter Queen.  I bought a book on “Clutter Control” and it got lost in the clutter before I read it.  Every reference I have found on time management mentions getting rid of clutter as one of the first rules.  Let’s look at looking: how much time do you spend looking for things?  Do you have so many supplies on your shelf that you can’t find the one shampoo you want for this particular dog?  Do your tools pile up and get kicked on the floor and by Saturday you can’t find the black curved slicker brush?  Do you spend ten minutes looking for that catalogue where you spotted a tool organizer you want to order?  Mea Culpa - I’m GUILTY!

Clutter management tip: tiers of organization

            Rule one: Remove from your visual field any items you do not use once a week.  Put them in a cupboard or a drawer.  That would be an organized cupboard or drawer, please.

            Rule two: Organize shelves so as to have a background and a foreground.  In the background place tools or products that you may use once or twice a week, in the foreground place those items use daily or on each dog.

            Rule three: Replace items after use.  The time spent putting items back in their places will be less than the time wasted looking for misplaced items.  You know the adage: A place for everything and everything in its place.  Gag me, but it works.  

Get Rockin' with a Routine:

            Although many of us balk and buck at the idea of doing things the same way day in and day out (that would be me!), the most productive grooming operations are those with well-established, efficient, routines.  This applies to all procedures, the entire day, as well as to specific grooming on the table.  Not only should your grooming be routine so that you are completing the same steps in the same order with every dog, but the whole operation should have a clear routine.  Don’t forget to include specific actions that are taken to deal with the leashes and collars that come in with dogs.  Nothing can blow a half hour faster than getting ready to release the last dog and not have it’s gear anywhere to be found.  Been there, done that!

           

Perfectionism: is this time thief robbing you?

            Perfectionism is defined as “A disposition which regards anything short of perfect as unacceptable.”  Can striving for excellence cross the line of professionalism and become an obsession that robs us of productivity and creates stress?  YES! Can perfectionism become a form of procrastination?  Yes, it can be as though you are saying to yourself, “Wait! I’m not done.. Don’t judge me yet, I’m not done… wait, I can do better”..)  Of course, most dogs could be done better if you had another half hour or so for finishing.  But we don’t often have that extra half hour in most grooming situations. Perfectionism is an indulgence that I can’t afford.

Tips for the perfectionist groomer

            Schedule your perfectionism.  Choose one dog per day to be your “show dog”.  Give yourself an extra half hour on that dog and keep to a tighter time frame on your others.  Know which dogs can be “good enough” grooms.  Give your perfectionism to your customers as a gift.  Save it for the clients who can tell the difference between “good enough” and “nearly perfect”.  Notice that I said nearly.  Recognize your perfectionism as a form of self-indulgence.  Nearly perfect IS good enough! Set time limits on different tasks.  When the time is up, you’re done! 

Time lost with clients: the proprietor’s lament

            How many times have you finished talking to a client only to look at the clock and realize that you have lost 20 minutes of the time you need to scissor the standard poodle?  Sometimes it’s the client who has some need to go on and on, and other times I’m just “sharing myself” or having fun, or engaging in some Very Important conversation about pet care.  Regardless, schmoozing with clients can be very unstructured and can drain your time.

Tips for managing time with clients

            Have a clock on the wall behind where the clients stand so you can keep track of time you are spending with them.  Have another at the phone, and of course one at your grooming table.  Have clocks all over the place.  Keeping track of your time is an investment in your productivity.  The cost of keeping track of time is much less than the stress of losing time.  You may quote me. 

            Practice reducing the total time spent with clients.  Make yourself be more efficient and effective in client interactions.  Take charge of getting the important information clarified.  Cut off the chatter when necessary in a polite and professional manner.  For example, you might say, “Sorry, the clock is calling me, I’ve got to get back to my grooming”. Or, “Wish I had more time to chat. Is there anything else I need to know?” (In other words, “Get to the point, please”)  

The master time tool: the time journal

            Keeping a time journal is hard to do, but it is very revealing of how we are really spending our time.  The recommended period is three days to a week.  Keep track of everything and update your log at least every 15 minutes. Keep your log with you at all times and every time you change tasks, make a note of what time and what task.  Ideally, you will have every minute of the day accounted for in your journal.  Even if you are not the perfect journal keeper, you will see where the gaps are and where you are spending more time than you thought.  Assume you know nothing about your time habits.  You can choose to call all grooming tasks simply “grooming”, or you can break it down further into bathing, drying, combout and scissoring, etc.  It’s great to do a detailed breakdown of the grooming on at least a few dogs.  

The daily time plan - the best defense against your time thieves

            Having a plan of action every day is the best way of preventing major time loss.  Look ahead at your schedule and identify potential problems and time thieves.  Make a Damage Control Plan - know that Mrs. So & So tends to talk your ear off and see it coming.  Plan to tell her you can’t chat today.  Does a certain dog often require extra time on your table?  Plan around it.  Locate activities that can be dovetailed together to save you time.  

            Many veteran groomers and experienced managers look at each grooming day in terms of clustering. When working alone, I often plan my day in groups of three dogs.  I will think through what I will be doing on those three and set time limits, and coordinate and dovetail activities as much as possible. I have dogs that I can dry in cages with fans while I’m fluff finishing and trimming others, for example. This clustering allows me to divide my day into thirds or fourths, and manage each part of the day.  When I’m in trouble, I know it early on and can recover. 

Scheduling as an art form

            Scheduling screw ups are probably the groomer’s worst time enemy.  We all have experienced days that went terribly wrong because the wrong combination of customers and dogs were scheduled together.  Bad days can be from scheduling too many clients, but more often are from scheduling too many “extra time needed” clients, or stressful grooms.  Effective scheduling requires a basic understanding of how groomer time is spent as well as a familiarity with the individual clients and dogs.  The worst case scenario is a grooming operation where a person without this understanding and knowledge is booking appointments by filling time slots.  It would be like scheduling a mobile groomer without knowledge of the geography.  Combining grooms that you can do in less than average time with those that require more time is basic time management, as is not doubling up on extra difficult grooms.  

            Working with a bather or another groomer adds another whole dimension to the scheduling and time management challenge, and requires coordination of activities, so that no one is idle.  Having several dogs arrive at once and get bathed and prepped for the groomer works at many shops,      

The cost of socializing at work

            You may be the exception, BUT…most people cannot talk and work with the same efficiency as working without talking.  Chatting while working often takes you “off-task” or leads you to be less systematic, to lose your place, or to make mistakes.  Learn to ask co-workers or employers/employees to not talk to you while you are working and encourage your work place to have scheduled times for socializing or meetings for problem-solving.  Have lunch together.  Lunch…the meal we groomers most often skip.  Chances are good that if you didn’t allow distractions to steal your time, you would have more time for lunch. 

  

Time is money - spend it wisely!

            There are no refunds of time spent foolishly.  We start out each day with a pocketful of time; how we spend it is often our choice.  Good time management is a matter of budgeting, anticipating time “costs”, damage control, and self-discipline.  Get a sense of how you are spending your daily allotment of time, and learn to stop those time thieves. Practice ways to say “no”.  Control interruptions and distractions as much as possible and watch for how you may be stealing someone else’s time.  Once you learn how to budget your time, you will have more time to give as gifts to your clients and co-workers (and family and friends) instead of feeling like you have holes in your pocket and no control over your time.  Failure to manage our time is one of the greatest sources of stress for groomers.  Time management is stress management. 

Copyright Birdzeye Press 2007.  By Barbara Bird.  Really Bad Things will happen if you reprint any part of this material without expressed permission of the author.  Contact BBird at bbirdgroomer@gmail.com  or 3158 E. Grant Rd. Tucson, AZ 85716. 

TRIED AND TRUE TIME-SAVING TIPS FROM VETERAN GROOMERS

·      Bathe first, then do all the clipper work and scissoring.  

·      Wet Clipping – This technique works great to speed up shave downs. (www.groomingsmarter.com)

·      Invest in a bathing system. I love the Hanvey Bathing Beauty recirculating system.  I love it so much that I SELL it.  Contact me at bbirdgroomer@gmail.com for best price. 

·      Use a good high velocity dryer with sufficient power. If you are drying big dogs, you need a big dryer.  

·      Use towels to keep from adding humidity to the air that slows down drying. (See “The Science of Drying”, www.GroomBlog.blogspot.com)

·      Vacuum clipper systems with snap-on combs greatly reduce clipping/scissor times.

·      Practice “roughing in” or “blocking” techniques to set the length and shape of a trim, then perfect the scissor finish. I use snap-on combs to rough out most of my grooms. 

·      Purchase a good table restraint system to reduce dancing and struggling on the table.

·      Establish an equipment maintenance routine to prevent breakdowns.

·      Know your products!  Some conditioners, especially thick waxy remoisturizers, can add considerable time to the drying process. Silicone ingredients facilitate faster drying. There are several products on the market that have been formulated to speed up drying by forced air (high velocity).  They work.  Choose according to the greater need.  Not every coat needs heavy moisturizing every time.  Sometimes saving time is more important.  

·      Develop your grooming speed by timing yourself.  Keep a journal of your “Personal Best Times” for different tasks and try to improve by having an occasional “time trial” race with the clock.

            

            

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