The New Grooming Bus

[monsinour]

Just got the phone call that the missus and I have been waiting for over a year for. The new bus is ready enough to order the plane ticket for me to go and get it. I will be leaving on wednesday next week and hopscotching around the eastern time zone to get there. I leave Albany and go to Detroit, then from Detroit to Baltimore, and finally from Baltimore to Atlanta. Its a 9 hour travel day so no way I can leave that night to come back. I will have all day Thursday to take pics and post them so that the missus can have her say in minor adjustments and I will probably leave on Friday or Saturday to come back. I have to save all the $ i can between now and then to pay for the trip back. I have no idea what kind of milage this thing is going to get and gas sure isnt as cheap as it used to be.
Here is what we are currently driving.

One of the first things that will need to be done is to somehow get the company logo and phone # onto the side of the new one. When we got the original van sides done, it was the best $ we spent on advertising. THe missus is thinking some basic vinyl letters and numbers. I was thinking that maybe we can some how trace the logo on to the side and then paint it on. Any ideas or suggestions? A vinyl wrap for the new bus would be way way too expensive. The wrap couldnt be done right away as it has to be done in warmer temperatures.
Here is what the bus looked like a long time ago:


Here are some shots after some work on the inside:

As you can see it is a Ford E-450 big arse bus. It used to be used to shuttle people around at an airport I believe. We took measurements way back when this whole thing started and it will barely fit in our driveway. With all the snow and ice we have, I dont think I will be putting it into the driveway until the thaw. It still has the wheelchair ramp/lift so we dont have to lift heavy dogs into the bus. It also means that our one wheelchair bound client can now enter the bus and watch his pet be groomed. The bus is completely self contained meaning all water and electrical comes from within the bus. It has a furnace and AC unit so it can handle any climate. It also has a hot water tank so no more cold baths for the dogs.
I dont have a laptop so I havent figured out how to post updates on the trip up. I have a DSi XL but it cannot pull up this site to make posts. The wife will probably be keeping her phone so I cant use that. Is there such a beast as a throw away cell phone that can browse the web and upload photos? I dont want a boost phone, I just want to go to a store, spend some $ and then throw the phone away when I get back.I haven figured out yet if I will be stopping at my parents house in TN on the way back. It would be great to see them, but I dont know how they would react to seeing this behomth enter their driveway. Anyone want to start a pool for total cost of gas for the trip home?

 

[brandonsivek]

That is cool! If you ever make it down here to the Houston area with it, I will let you practice on my Great Pyrenees! LOL She is a GOOD dog! (Insert rolling eyes smiley)

 

[monsinour]

Dont think I will be making the side trip to texas with this gas guzzler. I also dont think you want me grooming your dog. My wife on the other hand, I am sure she would do a great job.

 

[btldreef]

Stop on through LI on your way back and bring me some of that algae! LOL

 

[monsinour]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361296
Stop on through LI on your way back and bring me some of that algae! LOL
Oh shiznickey. I might be out of town on the 26th. If I was sure of my return, I would say come to the meeting on the 26th. I just might leave on friday to be able to make it to the meeting on the 26th. The meeting doesnt start til 5pm over in mass.

 

[2quills]

Sweet upgrade. The pets should be happy with that. IIRC it used to take me approx. 10.5 hours to travel from detroit to atlanta strait through only stopping for gas and averaging 70-75 mph. Congrats on the new vehicle.

 

[meowzer]

Congratulations On the new bus...wish you good luck with it
I SAY go all out on the logo...as you said, it is the best advertising you can buy, and it will also be a tax deduction

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361313
I SAY go all out on the logo...as you said, it is the best advertising you can buy, and it will also be a tax deduction
+1000%
That is so awesome..If we hed such a thing by me I would be calling, taking my dogs in is such a pain and in the winter I don't even bath them till it gets warm again...I would be happy to have road side service at my door...I know your business is going to go great! Congratulations!!!!

 

[monsinour]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361299
Sweet upgrade. The pets should be happy with that. IIRC it used to take me approx. 10.5 hours to travel from detroit to atlanta strait through only stopping for gas and averaging 70-75 mph. Congrats on the new vehicle.
thats the flight down. I have to drive from atlanta to albany. Its about a 17 hour drive with stops just for gas and food. But that was with a 40 MPG car with a 12 gallon tank. I think I will have to stop more often with this behemoth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361313
Congratulations On the new bus...wish you good luck with it
I SAY go all out on the logo...as you said, it is the best advertising you can buy, and it will also be a tax deduction
If we had the $ to do it, I think the missus said it was going to be around 2K to wrap this monster, then yea we would wrap it. We are thinking vinyl letters and numbers at first because it will come off easy in case we do wrap it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361318
+1000%
That is so awesome..If we hed such a thing by me I would be calling, taking my dogs in is such a pain and in the winter I don't even bath them till it gets warm again...I would be happy to have road side service at my door...I know your business is going to go great! Congratulations!!!!
There are places, well people actually, around you that will do it. Have you tried searching on google? I can have my wife look up who is servicing your area. What was your zip code again?

 

[monsinour]

go to www.findagroomer.com and you can look specifically for mobiles in your area.

 

[darthtang 2]

My wife and I own a grooming salon and a dog boutique. I am curious what your minimum charge is and how are you able to maintain decent margins with rising gas costs...soon to be four dollars within six months. Also how many dogs are you able to do in a day. Just curious so I can get a percpective on this side of the industry. I honestly cant see How the profit side Of things can be worth all the effort. Not to mention...growth potential is limited.......

 

[monsinour]

Quote:
Originally Posted by darthtang 2 http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361455
My wife and I own a grooming salon and a dog boutique. I am curious what your minimum charge is and how are you able to maintain decent margins with rising gas costs...soon to be four dollars within six months. Also how many dogs are you able to do in a day. Just curious so I can get a percpective on this side of the industry. I honestly cant see How the profit side Of things can be worth all the effort. Not to mention...growth potential is limited.......
I'll let my wife give the expert answers to this, but what I know is:
1. Profit margin is huge as we charge way more than a salon visit.
2. prices can be found at www.transfurmations.com
3. The old van was a diesel and got decent milage before the fuel line leak. NOw that that is fixed and we put in new glow plugs, we are back to decent milage. The new van, dunno. I will find out when I drive it back from atlanta.
4. On average our employee does 3 dogs during the day and my wife averages 2 dogs at night. On the weekends, I think she usually does about 5 on a sunday. She takes saturdays off.
5. for the past year, almost, this business has been our only source of income. Sure I get unemployment, but that just pays for the fishies.
edit: Forgot 6. With a mobile, you dont need to expand your customer base. Once you have enough customers that rebook at the time of appointment, you can be pretty much set forever. The only way to truely expand is to get a second vehicle.

 

[gemmy]

That van is going to be awesome for your business. How far do you travel? LOL

 

[monsinour]

Apparently I will be going as far as atlanta to get the thing, LOL. The wife travels a great distance to get to her customers. The farthest she goes is to wilton ny which is north of saratoga. I think its about a 40 minute drive with traffic.

 

[mylady]

Quote:
Originally Posted by darthtang 2 http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361455
My wife and I own a grooming salon and a dog boutique. I am curious what your minimum charge is and how are you able to maintain decent margins with rising gas costs...soon to be four dollars within six months. Also how many dogs are you able to do in a day. Just curious so I can get a percpective on this side of the industry. I honestly cant see How the profit side Of things can be worth all the effort. Not to mention...growth potential is limited.......
The thing about mobile is that you can groom far fewer dogs to make the same amount of money. A dog that the local salons would charge $50 for I easily get $70-$75. My daytime groomer likes to do no more than 4 per day which is also the most I like to do in a day, but both of us will do more if we have to. There is also very little overhead compaired to a retail space. I bought the first grooming van outright. All of my expenses, diesel, phone, shampoos, supplies, insurance, etc etc broke down to me needing to groom 1.5 dogs per week to cover for the month. With the new bus I will have a monthly payment but my insurance will actually go down.
When I started this 3 years ago diesel was over $5 a gallon, so now paying $3.80 is actually a lot cheaper than when I started. Most mobiles I know groom about 6 pets per day, but I only work part time and my employee works more than I do. Mobile is easier on my body because I am not killing myself trying to do 10 dogs a day anymore. Most mobiles also have a weight limit of less than 40 pounds, many around 25-30. I am the exception in that I will do dogs up to 70 pounds. Eventually I would like to have multiple vans on the road and now with the bus will have some room for retail. Just things the clients ask for, like brushes, shampoos, sprays, etc. Many mobile groomers easily pull in 6 figures with their business, and that is strictly grooming. A friend of mine has 4 vans on the road in Florida makes a killing.

 

[meowzer]

WOW....I only pay $20 to have my dogs groomed.....I would pay a little more for the come to me convenience, BUT not that much....not here in Oklahoma anyway

 

[reefraff]

My idiot soon to be ex daughter in law tried to talk us into co signing for her to buy one of these. About 85 grand as I remember. Of course she hasn't held down a full time job since we've known her. She lives in a rural area of Montana where the median family income was around 30K a year in 2000. But she "knows what she's talking about and did her research".
Here in the Denver area I've seen a couple people with the grooming trailers. My former next door neighbor used to have his dog done and it was only 45.00 bux here. But then again I suspect our cost of living is a whole lot lower than yours too.

 

[btldreef]

You should come down to LI. I have a rat terrier, he doesn't need to be "groomed", just a good shampoo here and there. I pay my local salon $70 to wash him and brush his teeth monthly and my mobile groomer's minimum is $90. He's 25lbs! LOL But the convience is soooooo worth it.

 

[monsinour]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361712
You should come down to LI. I have a rat terrier, he doesn't need to be "groomed", just a good shampoo here and there. I pay my local salon $70 to wash him and brush his teeth monthly and my mobile groomer's minimum is $90. He's 25lbs! LOL But the convience is soooooo worth it.
No matter how hard you try, if we are going to move, its not going to be any where near the city. Why dont you move up here? LOL
Taking the bus down there would be another story. What you cant see in the pics is a DVD player and a TV screen facing the 2 back seats. So yea, there is room for the entire family to ride along in this big behemoth.

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Monsinour http:///forum/thread/383945/the-new-grooming-bus#post_3361723
No matter how hard you try, if we are going to move, its not going to be any where near the city. Why dont you move up here? LOL
LOL, I don't live near the city. It takes me over an hour to get there. I live near the Hamptons, LOL. Come on, rich ladies like to get their "froofroo" dogs groomed!
I actually hate upstate. We used to vacation every summer outside of Kingston and I couldn't stand it. My parents actually just sold their house there and bought one further upstate in the middle of nowhere. No heat, no electricity, no running water. My mom is a nut!