Elevate Your Grooming Business: Insights from Adam of Geared4Grooming

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Welcome to the Pet Grooming Business Podcast with me, Bill Betts, where we give practical business advice to help you grow your pet grooming business. This podcast is sponsored by Low Pay, the low rate payment app that gives you more. So without further ado, let's get going.

We're joined today by, by Adam from Geared for Grooming. And you help groomers maintain and fix their grooming equipment. Welcome, Adam. How are you? I'm good, thank you. Hello, Bill. Thank you for having me. We'll try this again. No worries. So there's, let's. First of all, let's talk about how you got into the pet grooming industry because you do bit. A bit, A bit of grooming, a bit of bathing yourself. Yes. So when I got together with my message, she's a groomer, she was an employee. And I said to her, what if we open our own salon?

And she was scared because obviously we were, you know, grew up in a working family and all that. So we were always, you know, our parents were always our employees and all that. So we were afraid starting a business, you know, as, as you do. But then things went, well, pretty fast. So then we got a good client base really quick. So then I had to quit my other job and then I was full time with her and that's how we started. And then I started to repair our own dryers at that time, you know, because I'm good at DIY things, so I get into anything.

So. Yeah, then I've done the qualifications.

Last year I started gear for grooming there. Did you, did you break as many dries as fixed to get to get to know how to do it or.

Yeah, intentionally. I sprayed water into you, so I. Have to break them to understand how, how, how it all works and then put it all back together again. Yeah, but that's a good point because I actually did take apart a good dryer also to see, you know. Yeah. So I, I did, yeah, I did these things, but I, I didn't break them, but I did take them apart. Yeah. What kind of, Obviously there's, there's, you know, we could probably all do some various kinds of maintenance in our salons and sort of take our dryers apart.

I always put them back together again. There'd be like a screw or two, like left over and you're like, oh, what kind of courses did you do to help you get into this? So I was doing domestic appliance course, I was doing electrical course and I was doing micro electrician stuff to, to be able to understand how the PCB works in the machines and to be able to repair. I have repaired some of them. Soldering on potentiometers and different switches and how the circuit works, electrical circuit.

So, yeah, I've done all that.

And obviously you were servicing your own pet grooming equipment, your blasters and certain clippers. What made you think. Or actually, if we're having this issue, like, did you start speaking to other groomers or did they come and find you? Or was it just in Facebook groups you realized that people were struggling with their own equipment?

Actually, I was going to do this for a long time, but I just never started. I don't know what. I can't tell you the reason why. I don't know. And then one day we were working in the salon and I said to the girls that, what if I start my business repairing dryers? And they said that that would be a brilliant idea because, you know, there's not many.

I don't really know many that specializes on these type of things. You know, there is. Electricians would get into them, but they don't. They understand the electrical circuit, but they don't understand the part of the motor. They don't have the right parts for the dryer. So. So I'm specialized in dog grooming equipment. Yeah. They may not also understand what obviously is. I suppose it's obvious what the equipment does, but maybe, like, we're going to talk about filters in a minute. Like the, the. The detail that. The issues that these particular dryers and equipment has.

I suppose. Yes, yes. So, yeah, like I have seen. I've seen a lot of groomers using blasters with no filters, or they don't clean them as regular as they would need to. And I have an example here. They clog up with hair. It's a lot of hair. Like this morning, I done this dryer this morning. I already pulled this out, but I just stuffed it back to show you, so it can't work. Did that filter actually come to you with that massive mat of hair in it?

Yeah, this is the motor it went into. Yeah, yeah. And it was clogged in here. So then when it spins, it doesn't give the performance it should. So then your blaster slows down.

So what kind of common problems and common issues are you seeing when it comes to blasters and what do they get sent to you for?

Mostly I have dryers for servicing, which these problems, they say, oh, it's slowed down and it's not performing the same. So I give them a good clean in the service. So then I check the carbon brushes, if they're done. So if they are down, say one third, I usually advise them to change it because the machine will have to come back in a short period of time anyway, so might as well do that extra bit of work, you know, because it doesn't cost them any more than the brushes itself because I have the blaster taken apart anyway.

So then, yeah, most, mostly they go ahead with it, you know, and then it lasts them for a year then, you know, or it depends. Service intervals are different also for different groomers. Busy salons have more frequent service, you know. You know, I, I, I remember when we were younger and the washing machine would break down and we'd call the washing, washing machine person out to come and like, fix it and they'd replace, there'd be like seconds replacing this like, tiny thing called a carbon brush, which cost like 10p.

And then it would work again. What, what does it, are you able to explain in like layman's terms to me, like, what a carbon brush is and what it does?

Well, it's basically completing the circuit around the commutator, which is spinning around, and that's what makes the circuit complete. And as it spins, the brush wears out. So it's getting shorter and shorter and shorter. And when it's done, the motor stops working because there's no contact between the brush and the commutator. And that's when usually your motor gets damaged also. So don't wait. Groomers don't wait until the carbon brush wears out. Get it serviced before, because then the motor will cost you a lot more than the brush itself.

So does the motor, like, if the, if the brush is like disintegrated and worn down, does the motor then burn out or.

It's most likely the, so there's a spring in it which pushes the brush against the commutator and there is a V wire that holds the brush hidden to shoot into the commutator. But sometimes the end of the brush turns a bit and it damages the commutator and then it's done. So then there's a motor replacement. Sometimes they just go, yeah. So, you know, there's no, you don't know the reason. Even the brush is big. Like, I had two of the dryers last week. The motor just went.

So I just had to do a motor replacement. And even the carbon brush was, wasn't, was long. So is there any sort of signs or symptoms that are that the carbon brushes are wearing down or is this just part of the scheduled maintenance that you need to do. It's part of the scheduled maintenance. Yeah, you don't really know you have. So basically an average motor have a life between five and 700 hours of working, but you're obviously not going to count your hours trying. So, so I would recommend nine to 12 months of, of, of of maintenance.

But you know, you, you wait obviously you, you wait until your, your warranty expires and then you get it sent off then. This podcast is sponsored by Low Pay. Low Pay is half the price of Sumup and Zettel. So you keep more of the money that you earn. Rate start at 0.79%. Yeah, we've got little stickers on our blaster saying when they were last, last cleaned out and last sort of maintained in that. But yeah, definitely over the years we've, we've probably blown up a few blasters where they haven't been well maintained or, or serviced at all because again, people might correct me if I'm wrong, but you know, when do we, do we get taught this in grooming school or do we get taught this when we open up businesses?

You know, it's obviously we sharpen our scissors and stuff like that, but maintaining your blasters, they need to be maintained and they're quite expensive, aren't they? Yeah, they are, yeah. Well, it depends. Different brands, different. But Double K is, I do a lot of Double K and the motors for Double K is more expensive than every other dryer. The average dryers. And I can only compare this in a grooming language as you're expecting your clients to come every eight weeks or six weeks or ten weeks intervals to be able to do a nice groom.

So the dryers are the same once a year or every nine to 12 months. If you're very busy salon, you might want to get it earlier because it's not even that it's the dying time for your salon. If you have booked in nine dogs for the day and your blaster broke down at the second dog, you're like, what am I gonna do?

You know, and this is what you want to, want to prevent or beg. A blaster from someone else. So yeah, obviously you service them, but do you have any sort of regular maintenance tips? Is there's, do you within your own salon? Is there like a daily clean down, a weekly, a monthly and obviously send it off for servicing six to nine months or nine to 12 months? Yeah, so, so basically what you can do in the salon is clean the filters. Very important. Clean the filters and always check the plug, if it's, if it's melted or if you have any, any issues with it, you can see it's physical.

It's more like physical what you can do in the salon.

Now, sometimes people tend to use their stand dryer as a case dryer. Set it on the dock for an hour or half an hour. And they're not really designed to that because they draw a lot of electric. And that's when usually your plug is burning out. Yeah. And then your power trips. Then you go, what's going on? Yeah. Some of the salons have old wiring, so that could be an issue as well. It's not up to date wiring. So they have weak wiring in the sockets. You know, uh, that, that could cause these issues as well.

Tripping and burning out plugs and. Yeah. So the general maintenance that we can do within the salon is, is taking the filters out. Is. Are you hoovering the filters? Are we washing the filters? I hoover the filters. I wash the filters and I blow them out and then I put it against the light and you can see through. Now some of the filters are more stuffed, so, so you can't see through, but you can. Obviously they don't clog up as much as the ones like say for instance, the double K ones are clogging up with the small splinters really, really much.

So you put it against the light and you can't see through.

And then your airflow, the air intake into the machine is less. So the performance will gonna change. Yeah. Because I suppose, you know, it's sucking air into the machine, heating it up and then blasting it out. So yes, if your filters are blocked, then it cuts you off. Yeah, the airflow, the airflow is. It could be, could be a lot less. And I suppose do you see that in, in blasters over time? So they might, when we first buy them, they're going to be awesome. And then as, as they get clogged up, they just get worse and worse today.

Yeah. Like people say. Some of the people say, oh, this brand is not good. I see it, I see on Facebook because I check your page a lot. I follow ev, I follow a lot of pages. And this is. Oh, this blaster. Don't buy this. This is, this is crap. But every blaster have advantage and disadvantage. It's like everything. You know, some people will like this hose, some people like I have hoses here that.

This is the Shanbao hose. It's flexible. Okay. And I see a lot of people say, oh, but it's coming off.

Yes, because if you start blasting like this, it's the hose twig. Then it straightened itself with the power, it turns off the attachment. So as it untwists itself, it unscrews itself. Yes, it unscrews itself. Over time, it could be weeks, it could be months. You know, it depends. But all you have to do is just to retwist every morning or every other morning, and then there you go, you don't have this issue. The other issue people have the, with these machines is the actual attachment comes off the machine.

There is a V seal inside the machine that wears out with the heat. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's getting deformed. Yeah. So then, so then I have sealers as well. It will be on the web web shop, so people can, can buy it. But I always, if I sell any blaster, I sense bare seals, a couple of them, you know, so then they will be covered. The other hose is the. So. So the advantage of this hose is you can, you can change any part separate.

So if you want to buy this part, you can buy. If you want to buy just the hose, you can buy. If you want to buy the front attachment, you can buy it separate.

So this is a good advantage. So. So the Metro blaster is very stiff. So I'm sure a lot of groomers can relate to this because it's really hard on your wrist, very stiff, and they have attached it all together to those who seal it will never screw off. Yes. But you have to buy the whole hose for a lot more money. Plus it's very stiff.

I know I had all the blasters before I started this work. So, you know all the pros and cons. Oh, I have analyzed them all. Yeah. And has that led you to sort of manufacture or produce your own blaster?

I'm working on it. So at the minute, I'm working on a blaster for mobile groomers with no pcb.

So because mobile groomers have high humidity in the vans. So I'm trying to do a blaster that is only mechanical, no pcb. Now the advantage is the PCB not get damaged by the humid air. But the disadvantage is you can't set the speed. But there is a low speed setting on this one.

So each motor can set individually. So left motor low speed, high speed, ride motor, low speed, high speed. So you have like six different air speed on this and then you have your hidden element, low or high temperature. So is that the sort of thing? Is that what a PCB would do in a normal blaster. It would control the, the motor speed. Yeah. So basically the pcb, the switch is connected, the potentiometer connected, the heating element connected. So that takes all the work for the blaster. I take it the high humidity in a mobile groomer is that gets into the blaster and damages the pcb?

Yes, yes, usually that's the case. Yeah. Now that's why the mobile groomers use. A lot of them use the double K because there is no PCB in that one. Just switch motor and off you go. And off you go. Yeah, yeah. It's a brilliant, It's a brilliant blaster. Yeah. But the parts are expensive so it depends what people looking for, you know. And is it just drives and blasters that you work on? I work on some of the clippers as well. The two Heiniger A5 Clippers. I do service and repair and the endless ones.

And again, what kind of common issues are you finding with the, with the clippers and what kind of maintenance do come or should we, or can we be doing in our, in our salons to help that? It's the, it's the blade drive. So first off you need to oil your blades because a lot of them know the Heinegger sapphire is a slow clipper so it doesn't warm the head, the blade as much because it's going on a low rpm. But you still need to oil it obviously.

But it doesn't get hot.

So the Opel one is going faster. It's two speed. You can go low speed but I don't think anybody go low speed anyway. But we never do everybody go flat. Right.

So yeah, then you need the oil. So the blade drive is driving, the blade wears out. And then whenever you see your grooming is not really nice, there is V tracks in it. It could be the blade drive because the blade drive doesn't take the blade all the way out to the sides and then that's when you get these V tracks as well. Also, if I do a clipper, I, I check everything. There is washers, there is circlip, there's everything there they wear. Right. You know, like I had old, old clippers, like 10 years old.

So I changed everything on that. Sometimes the pcb, sometimes the motor is, is, is done. So I do, I do everything. Yeah. But I inspect and then I advise the client what, what, what I think needs to change and then I usually go ahead with it because, you know, I'm always honest so I'm not like, oh, you need to change this, but you know, really. But yeah, yeah. So these washers and circlips, they all wear out because they're moving parts. So they do errors. Yeah. So again with the, with for the blade drivers, as you said, it's a moving part.

How often should that be serviced or replaced? Can you, can you service that or is it just a simple case of replacing the blade driver? It's replacing. Yeah, yeah, it's replacing. It's plastic, so it just wears out and you just have to change it. Yeah, three, six months I would say. But it depends again how much you groom. I've seen some a year old and it was still okay, but if you want your grooming spot on, then you service them every at least six months, I'd say.

Oh, you don't do scissors, do you?

No, this is enough.

You're busy enough with all the clippers and the dryers. I'm covering a lot of dryers here, so my favorite one, maybe some of you listening the podcast. You see my work with the Simpsons Dryers, I love them, I don't know why, but I just take them apart to the last screw and then I rebuild them and I change the parts and it's just so satisfaction to me. I just love doing it, you know, But I have, I have loads. I had, I rebuilt two last week and there is more common.

So. And I take it like if you're, if you're taking something apart and rebuilding it, I take it as still cost effective than just obviously, you know, we don't want to just throw things in the, in the bin. But I take it as more cost effective than just going out and buying a, A replacement. Of course, yeah. Especially the stand drive. The stand drives are really expensive. So say a Simpsons dryer, now what, 700.800, something like that. So I do in house wiring for that as well.

So I do the crimping, I do all the terminals and I do everything.

So say a rebuild of a Simpson Superjet, it's cost anywhere from 100 pound to say 200 part, but it's, it's, it's a full rebuild. So you, you're talking another five, 10 years. Yeah. So it is a lot cheaper than. It is a lot cheaper. Yeah. Basically replacing the dryer. Yes. And how many like on an average day, like how many sort of dryers you're looking at just the visions of like a, a conveyor belt of like you taking these dries apart?

Well, it depends what dryer it is. Like the Simpson Superjet is slow. It's slow to do. I can do maybe two a day and I don't like to use the screwdriver, I like to do manual screwdriver because these are some of them plastic things. So then you just screw the thread and then it's done. So I see loads of them. I see loads of them from other repairers. They come to me and they just don't, you know, I can even some of the clippers over tightened.

So I do everything manually and I have the better feel that way than if I go like it is faster. Yes. But I just don't like it. So a couple of drives a day keeps you busy. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Some of the dryers I can be four or five no blasters and it depends what I have to do administration as well. So then sometimes I do invoices, you know, it depends. It depends, yeah. But I can do, I can do four or five of the blasters one.

Day and other parts. Quite easy to get hold of. Or do you have issues trying to get hold of the parts? Oh my God. Like you're talking like maybe 10, 20 different brands and models and they all use different motors, they all use different wattage, they all use different PCB switches and yeah, it has been a nightmare to me. It took me. I'm still sourcing parts for some dryers but it took me about six, seven months to gather up all the information and necessary things to be able to get the hold of the manufacturers and.

And ordering parts and all. But some of the manufacturers don't even release parts unless you buy a stock for like 50 grand. Right. See you buy in bulk but. Yeah, but who has 50 grand for every brand? You're talking lots of money. I suppose you didn't have to go for different kind of. Well, not obviously not the branded parts. Yeah, well I try to keep OEM parts for most of the dryers but if I can get hold of them I do really high quality replacement. Cool. And we were talking earlier about you can also upgrade dryers so like fine tuning the motors in some of the dryers.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I could do that, yeah. Say for instance this super cyclone dryer, it uses an 800 watt motor. Right. But the PCB is the same as the Tsunami, the higher grade one. So that uses a 2200 watt motor. So it uses the same rectifier and everything's the same. So I can just swap the motor and make it higher performance. Yeah, it's like pimp my dryer. Yeah. I had a lady so I had a blue i400 dryer from Cork. She sent me up from Cork and when I sent it back to, I replaced the motor for a higher quality motor and she got it back and she, she messaged me, she says, oh my God, Adam, these dryers feel like went to the gym.

Guys ever had a, had a workout and it's a lot more efficient? Yeah. At the end of the day it makes your job more. It makes the groomer's job more efficient, doesn't it? If their dryer is performing better? Yes, yes, yes. I, I think I see, I see a lot of pain point about this on your page. People complaining about the, the, the time of grooming, it takes them too long. But I think most of the time it comes down to, to the drying time. So I have sold dryers to, to, to people in the south, say, Dublin.

There was this particular girl, she messaged me, my blaster cuts her drying time in half. So instead of half an hour, she can dry 15 minutes. And then that means an extra dog or extra two dogs a day. Or you can go home earlier or you can do administration or, you know, it cuts time. So. So it benefits you no matter what. Yeah. And what is that? Just by having a quicker motor or a more efficient dryer? Yes, yes. So if you buy a dryer, say from Amazon, they're cheap.

Yes, but they're cheap for a reason.

So they do say 50 meter per second of airflow.

But another dryer, which I sell $100, so that's double, yet the price is more. Yes. But if you pay say 100 pound more for the dryer, for a good dryer, you make that back in a matter of couple of days or a week with extra dogs you can do, or you just enjoy doing it more. But these drivers can go down really low. Also, I can only compare this to a fast car. Say you have a Ferrari, you can go slow, but you have the reserve to go fast.

If you need to pass someone or whatever, that's the way. I hope it's, it's a good comparison. I like the analogy. If you want to overtake something, just turn your blaster up. Yeah.

Cool. And you've met, you're actually a bit of an inventor as well, haven't you? You've invented one. One thing already. Was it the sleeve for the, for the dryers? Yes. So because I was an assistant. Yeah. I call myself slave for my missus.

I have been assistant. So I was dying loads and I found the hose is burning my arm. When I blast, I Blast this way because I don't like the hose in front of me because then distract. So then I made the cool tube. The one. Sorry. Cool tube. The cool tube. Cool tube, yeah. So you basically pull it on to the sleeve. Yeah, the sleeve. You pull the sleeve onto the hose and then it, it doesn't burn. Which is brand new. Doesn't burn your arm. Yeah. Nice.

It's like this cool chip. Is that, is that a hit? Do many people buy that? Yeah. So I've sold, I've sold a good few. Yeah. Yeah, I've sold about over 59. Wow. Cool.

Helping people not to burn themselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I find it really good. But the other one I'm going to make, and I have a sample already is a small one for your smaller attachments like this one. So when the attachments get hot, the plastic gets hot, then that just flips over them. Yeah, it's really uncomfortable. Yeah. So, so this one basically an upgrade to, to the one it comes with the machines I sell. So they stitched, can you see little seam on there? Yeah, they, they, they stitched on the ends so did not get damaged.

They last a lot, lot longer. They're going to last for years. So I'm trying, I'm trying to do things that last, you know, so maybe it's not really good because then I can make money.

Well, there is that problem, isn't there? If they last too long, they then get replaced. Yeah.

My plan is different. No, I won't. No. Are you working on anything else? Is pretty like secret. You probably won't want to tell us of any other inventions that you got, you got brewing. Well, I'm working on dryers and I'm currently working on a five clippers because some of my clients, customers, they say that they don't like the existing ones and so I gathered up some information and I'm trying. I have a prototype which I not showed just yet because I'm still testing it.

So I, I have more stuff on the way. Yes, yes. But they will all be on. On my Facebook page. Nice. So that if, if someone wants to get their, their blaster serviced and they're local, you actually offer a collection and delivery and a, you know, a spare, a load blaster, don't you? Yes. You're, you're in Northern Ireland so you can't do this for, for, for everyone, but if they're local to you, you actually provide them with a, a lone blaster for the day or two. Yes.

So basically what I provide for, for a. For A small fee. As I go to their salon, I pick up their blaster or stand dryer and I leave them 1. A blaster or a stand? It depends what I'm taking away. And so there's no downtime for, for the salon, so they can just keep. Keep going. Keep going. Cool. And what's the sort of general and turnaround time for blaster service? Stroke repair. See, this is the good thing about, about this loaner dryer, because then I'm not rushed because they are covered, you know, so if I don't have parts, if I need to order parts, then, you know, they.

I'm just sitting here comfortable, you know, because they have, they've been covered, so they can just carry on working. If they have my laundry for a week, I don't mind. Yeah. You know, because then I can service my own dryers.

And then if someone, if someone's to mail, send you their dryers, do you have a. Yeah. Time for them? 24, 48 hours. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty quick like that. It depends how you're busy. But I had a. I had a cage dryer in last week, so the Turnaround was like 48 hours. So I had it. I repaired on this on the, on the day. But there was a wee bit of payment issue. She wasn't prepared. You know, she had to send money from here to there. So I don't really try till it's fully paid because I have.

I had problems. Okay. That's good business sense, to be fair. Yeah. So. So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm. I'm a good person and I believe. Everybody is good, but sometimes the payment doesn't arrive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, you're looking at sort of 40 hours. It's back in the post, but back to, Back to the groomers. Yes, yes. I'm trying to. I'm trying to sort out things. I, I will, I will extend, but at the minute, I have a lot on.

So. So yeah, this, this is one I can offer at the minute. Yeah. But I think it's a good idea for everybody to have a backup. Yeah. Anyway. Regardless of sending it to service or not, because it can break down on the day with nine dogs and, you know, you just be, oh, here is my backup. You're screwed if you haven't got. Yeah. But you're losing, like, you can lose serious amount of money and you might lose a customer or, you know. Yeah, definitely. Cool. So for people to get a hold of you.

Your website's not quite Live yet, is it? It's live but it's not ready.

So I had a stock of dryers come in and I sold them in no time. So I don't have any and the shipment is delayed at the minute. So I hope to get them next week.

So then I have to upgrade the website then.

What's your website address? It's gearedforgrooming.co.uk.com and that's geared. Is G E A R E D4. Grooming number four grooming.co.uk but at the moment your. Your Facebook page is live and that. That's a good place to get a hold of you. Yes, yes. If, if, if anybody needs anything. Like I have 3 merge, 5 in 13 merge. I use I at the minute. I found Shernbow is the best in terms of value.

So I can give good price on them and I think they're good dryers. We use them in the salon and they're just brilliant for us. Obviously you can't make everybody happy. Everybody prefers different things. But I think they're really brilliant dryers. But I am working on different blasters as well. So go give your page a follow and then people. You'll keep people up to date with what you're working on and.

Yes, sure. Yeah. And can people contact you for servicing through your page or do they need to go to the website? Yes, yes, go. No, go through the page. Go through the page because I get messages, I get comments. So. So when I share a repair I've done and I get comments, how much does this cost? Or where you based or I sometimes I don't look at those, but. But if I do, I message these people. But better just straight to. To messenger, just message me and then I look after everybody.

Excellent. Well, thanks for. Thanks for your time. Thanks for explaining or going over equipment maintenance and. Well, hopefully I'll catch up with you into the month when we're coming to see you. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah, yes, that's right, you're coming. Hopefully. You're welcome. So go and check out Adam's page. Geared for grooming. So G E A R E D for grooming. And you'll see repairs that he's done. Servicing that he's done. You're based in Northern Ireland, but people can post to you, can't they?

Yes, yes.

I don't upload 80% of the work I do because as soon as I upload I get like 30 messages.

Can you come? When are you this area? Where are you? That area? So I just go careful to do this. Victim of your own success.

Yeah, I need to extend the team, but yeah, it's on the way. I have a business coach and he keeps me right.

Yeah, it's all good. Thanks a lot. We'll see you soon. Thank you so much for having me, Bill. Have a nice day everybody. Bye. I hope you have enjoyed this podcast. Please make sure you give us a like or a review to help people find it. The podcast is sponsored by Low Pay. Head over to www.lowpay.com to find out more about their payment. Sol SA.