Story by Ben McCarthy
Andrea Greenbaum left her job as manager at PetSmart inside Ward Parkway Center and took to the road and isn’t looking back. With over 12 years in the world of pet grooming, she says her decision to leave the traditional retail-based work and go aboard owner Jeralin Hicks’s “Posh Parlor Mobile Grooming” operation has changed everything.
“Taking the grooming mobile actually means being able to offer more luxury services,” Greenbaum said. “I love being out and about all day and seeing all my dogs, and the pet parents love it this way – I’ve never seen anything like (their reactions).”
Greenbaum is one of two groomers that Hicks brought on when she launched the mobile startup last August. After retiring from real estate, and having had good mobile grooming experience with her three dogs in the past, Hicks launched Posh Parlor with an aim to bring services to pet owners from Loch Lloyd to the Country Club Plaza. In less than 12 months, business is booming so much that she’s already making arrangements to order a second mobile unit, and hire another two groomers to staff it. Hicks will be calling on Wag’n Tails Mobile Conversions in Granger, IN to create her second unit. The company has other vehicles sprinkled around town, with Hicks describing their work as state-of-the-art in the industry.
“The vehicle is customized to be ergonomic for the groomer, and with the safety of the dogs in mind, too,” Hicks said. “It’s climate controlled, year round – we keep them cool this time of year, and then it gives them hot, relaxing baths in the winter.”
The modified Ford E-450 features a 100 gallon water tank, with a gauge reading how much freshwater is available. Much of the pink and purple pastel interior is outfitted with a bevy of buttons, levers, and compartments that make the space feel somewhat related to something in the Star Trek universe. Amongst a fleet of mobile pet grooming vehicles traversing town, Hicks’s is probably at the highest of high end units. She says the final price tag was $170,000 (by comparison: you could pre-order 2 all-wheel drive Tesla Cybertrucks at their state line road location, and still have about $10,000 leftover to put toward 2 Superbowl tickets in New Orleans next year). She plans to have a second one roaming further west by this time next year, reaching as far as Olathe and Shawnee, on the Kansas side.
Financial incentives are one of the primary reasons driving more and more into the mobile grooming space, and out of the retail operations. Several mobile grooming businesses spoke to Telegraph over the past week, and said that business is booming through the greater Kansas City area, including South K.C. Given the overhead costs of most retail spaces, mobile groomers were making about the same income working on about 5 dogs per day, as opposed to 10 appointments at their old stores. After Covid-19, few pet owners are going back to old brick and mortar locations when they’ve had success with mobile providers that come to them. Kelly Folz mainly works throughout Johnson County, and is now a seasoned veteran in mobile grooming after transitioning to it 8 years ago.
“The pet owners also notice that the dogs are much calmer in the mobile unit,” Foltz said. “They see how their dog responds, and they can tell that you get to know the animal better.”
While operators in the area like Hicks spare no expense on vehicle or high end shampoo products, others like Nikki Clifford have made their way into the space with a far more restrained budget. With almost 25 years in the business, Clifford made the move into mobile just before Covid-19 struck. TNT Grooming (which stands for her and her sons: Tommy, Nikki, and Tyler)
Consists of a converted U-Haul truck that appears to have helped many families move cross country through the years and accumulated considerable wear and tear. She estimates that startup costs set her back about $4,000 before she hit the road and started searching for clients.
“If there’s a dog on the road, I’ll pull over and hop out with my business cards,” Clifford said. “After almost six years of doing this, I’m so busy that I can pretty much vacation in February.”
She’s even taking Sundays and Monday off, and restricting hours in the summer to keep dogs out of the harshest weather. Like other mobile groomers the Telegraph spoke with, the operation gives her a sense that she’s keeping 100% of the appointment, rather than 50%. She sets her own schedule, and has the trust of her clients to work with their pets while they’re not present. Instead of adding vehicles to her fleet or adding employees to her operation, Clifford is toying with the idea of teaching classes and giving other women who enjoy the work a chance to be their own boss.
“When you’re doing something you love – it doesn’t feel like work,” Clifford said. “The demand is really high around South Kansas City and Lee’s Summit for me, and people are going above and beyond for their animals.
Interested in learning to become a groomer? Check out Pawsperity, a local non-profit grooming school that aims to help uplift families from generational poverty.
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