Elise, from Gainsborough had always wanted to work with dogs and was considering a career within Veterinary Science. However, whilst looking for a suitable course she spotted an ad for the Level 2 Dog Grooming qualification at Riseholme and made a successful application.
“I’d always wanted to work with dogs, but hadn’t even realised that I could specialise in grooming. When I saw the ad, the course immediately appealed to me.”
Due to the smaller class size and practical, hands-on nature of the course, Elise loved it from the start. The course covered a range of topics such as preparing, styling and finishing a dog, health checking, health and safety, customer service, legislation and handling a dog, in preparation of working as a professional dog groomer.
“I made some great friends and it was such a supportive group. It was just like going to work, rather than being in a classroom. This environment really built my confidence up, as it provided a fantastic insight into what it would be like to work professionally in dog grooming. I’d recommend it to anyone!”
After completing her course, Elise began her business Bears Grooming Salon from home during the Covid pandemic, alongside her day job. After securing her first client it quickly snowballed and in just a couple of years she was ready to move into dedicated premises.
“I started initially with just basic equipment from home, using my bath and found my original client base via a local vet, fitting in appointments around my job. The experience at Riseholme, was brilliant for helping me get started as it gave me the confidence to know I could do it, because the course had always felt like a working environment. When I was ready to move into the shop it was less scary because I’d already been running my business for some time and had well-established clients.”
Since then Elise hasn’t looked back with the business going from strength. She has employed three team members, all of whom also completed dog grooming qualifications at Riseholme.
“Taking on staff was quite stressful, as I had to get to grips with payroll and HMRC, which involved quite a bit of Googling! However, employing former Riseholme students was reassuring I knew the training they’d experienced and so had confidence that they would be assets to the business.”
Not one to rest on her laurels, Elise has ambitions to grow the business further with plans to potentially open other salons and has some words of wisdom for anyone considering a similar business venture.
“I’m currently working towards empowering the team to be able to run the salon without me being on site. This will free me up to grow the business to potentially create a chain of salons. My advice to anyone considering their own dog grooming business is to go for it! Whilst its long hours, its challenging in the best of ways. Start from home – this really built up my confidence as I knew I could run the business from home so why not from a shop?”
Discover how you could enjoy a career like Elise by starting with one of our dog grooming qualifications HERE.
