04/30/08

    Are you tired of being held hostage by your groomer who may or may not show up for work?  Who's quality of grooming is mediocre at best?  Who "forgets" to clean ears or cut the dewclaws?  Who makes the grooming area look like a tornado hit it and complains and doesn't appreciate you or their job?  Who keeps you in fear of saying anything about their lousy work habits for fear that they will quit and then you will have no one? 

    Have you ever considered sending an excellent staff member to Georgia Pet Grooming School to learn to groom?  What if, after your investment in their education, they decided they could make more money working for someone else?  There's no way to get your investment back.  We've seen this happen many times.  We have the answer to your problems though!  If you can relate to this, then keep reading.

    We are the leading pet groomer training school in the world.  Our students come from all over the world to learn our unique approach to pet grooming. We are based in the Atlanta, Georgia area and have been consistently training 25-30+ students at a time in our Alpharetta training facility for over six years.  Last year, we opened our second teaching site in Marietta, Georgia where we can train an additional 25-30 students. Our plans call for adding a third and fourth location this year, in which we will be able to raise our volume to 100 to 130 students training at one time.  We are planning to add more locations next year. 

    We can provide unparalleled training because we have by far, the highest ratio of purebred dogs of any grooming school in the world.  This enables the students to receive top quality pets with which to learn.  In addition, the method with which the students progress through the training program enables them to be taught by an expert in each step as they are learning. 

    As part of our plan for growth, we have closely followed and examined the challenges most companies have specifically with finding and keeping highly skilled reliable groomers. We believe we have come up with some solutions that will help employers such as you hire and retain the best groomers possible.  In addition, if you know of some good candidates for grooming school, refer them to us and we'll train them for you.

 Below are problems we have observed along with our solutions

  ü           Contractual problems with schools

o       We require no written contract or commitment from any employer with our schools.  Our training and hiring services are available to you regardless of the level with which you choose to engage them.  If you are not happy with our services, you have no obligation whatsoever to our school.  We have a contract with the student who is responsible for making payments on their tuition beginning four months after they begin school.  This gives them enough time to graduate and work for at least a month before the first payment is due.

 ü       Amount of investment to train a groomer sent by the employer

o       We have programs in place in order to make training extremely affordable for a student to initiate.  They can begin school by paying only the registration fee and purchasing or borrowing their grooming equipment.  What this means for the employer is that if a student is truly motivated, they can come up with the initial investment themselves and not place that burden on the employer.  Then they are also motivated to do well in school, since they have invested in themselves.  In addition, the employer does not waste money investing in a potential groomer that does not have the right aptitude for grooming.  Monthly tuition payments do not begin until four months after they start school, which is enough time to graduate and begin working.  Either the student or the employer may pay these monthly tuition payments, which last for 18 months.

ü      Retention of groomers if you do invest in their education

o       First of all, we have drastically lowered the initial investment that has previously been required if an employer chose to send an employee to grooming school to be trained. 

o       Secondly, we have a retention program in which the employer, after 30 days of satisfactory employment from an employee begins paying retention bonuses over an 18-month period. This in effect pays for the cost of their tuition or takes over their tuition payments for them.  This strongly encourages the groomer to remain working for your company for at least a year and a half or lose the bonuses. This is significantly less costly than paying to train a groomer that just doesn’t work out.

ü      Length of time it takes to properly train a groomer

o       We have addressed this problem by increasing our training hours to make available as much as 75 hours per week that a student is able to attend class.  This makes it possible to receive 600 hours of training in as little as eight weeks.  Generally, 600 hours is considered an adequate amount of training for groomers.  This quick intensive training period also greatly decreases the problem of students becoming “homesick” and wanting to take a break in their training schedule. However, should this happen, because we train each student on an individual basis, there is not a problem if a student should choose to take some time off in the middle of their training; they just pick up where they left off.

ü      High cost of housing students while training

o       We have negotiated a corporate rate with local extended stay hotels.  Students sharing rooms can further reduce costs.  Sharing rooms is usually not objectionable since the students can spend 75 hours per week in class and very little time in their room.  Our future plans call for adding dorm type efficiency apartments at the Marietta teaching site.

ü      Ability to evaluate and obtain top quality graduates 

o       We are all too well aware of the challenges involved in finding highly skilled groomers.  We have developed a program where top prospective employers can discover who our very best graduates are and keep them!  How would you like to hire an excellent, top quality groomer that is unshakably reliable and dependable, and fast and efficient (10-12 pets per day) on top of it, that will still be working for you a year and a half from now?  Sound too good to be true?  We are all too aware of the challenges in finding such a groomer.  It's one of the main reasons we founded our grooming academy back in 1999.
   
    Here's how it works:
     
    All during their education at our academy, all of our students are evaluated bi-weekly and rated on the following traits:

    They are evaluated and graded with a point system that gives them a maximum score of 100%.  They can receive from a "0" to a "5" on each skill or trait.  A "0" would mean they failed in that area possible only once during that evaluation period, for example they missed cutting one toe nail during the two week period.  (We are very strict and tough on them and strive for zero mistakes!)  A "5" is worthy only when any one of our expert instructors could not have done it better and they consistently did it that well during the entire evaluation period. 

    Now you can imagine how valuable it would be to hire graduates that consistently maintained a score of 80% or higher through their entire education at our academy!  They would have impeccable attendance, a great attitude, be a real team player (great for when your other groomer doesn't show up!), have excellent grooming skills, never miss a thing, always have the pets finished on time and always follow your rules, instructions, policies and procedures!

    How do you get these awesome employees and more importantly, how do you hang on to them? 

    Here's what you need to do- First, decide what level of employer you are.  Let the graduates know what you are willing to offer.  We have a rating system for the prospective employers, just like we do for the graduates.

Bronze Level Employers

    After receiving 30 days of satisfactory employment, a Bronze Level Employer can choose to begin monthly retention bonuses in the amount of $339 which will pay for the graduate's tuition over a period of 18 months.  If at any time you are not 100% satisfied with your recruit, you may terminate employment and the agreement will be null and void and you will have no further obligation to the school or the groomer.
    OR, Bronze level employers may agree to pay commissions (or the hourly equivalent) of 60% after 6 months of satisfactory employment.

Silver Level Employers

    After 30 days of satisfactory employment, a Silver Level Employer will begin monthly retention bonuses in the amount of $339 which will pay for the graduate's tuition over a period of 18 months.  If at any time you are not 100% satisfied with your recruit, you may terminate employment and the agreement will be null and void and you will have no further obligation.

Gold Level Employers

    After receiving 30 days of satisfactory employment, a Gold Level Employer will begin monthly retention bonuses in the amount of $339 which will pay for the graduate's tuition over a period of 18 months.  If at any time you are not 100% satisfied with your recruit, you may terminate employment and the agreement will be null and void and you will have no further obligation.

    In addition, the Gold Level Employer must agree to provide their choice of one of the following:

Platinum Level Employers

    After receiving 30 days of satisfactory employment, a Platinum Level Employer will begin monthly retention bonuses in the amount of $339 paid to the school which will pay for the graduate's tuition over a period of 18 months.  If at any time you are not 100% satisfied with your recruit, you may terminate employment and the agreement will be null and void and you will have no further obligation.

    In addition, the Platinum Level Employer must agree to provide their choice of two of the following:

Platinum Plus Level Employers

   If you are in a position to be able to offer more than two of the above listed benefits, we will consider you a Platinum Plus level employer! 

If you wish to hire a groomer please provide us with the following information: