What does a pet grooming salon need to work?
Illustrative case · Dog-only fixed salon with three employed groomers, one employed bather and a paid owner-manager; no boarding, mobile services, retail, training, cat grooming or veterinary care · New York City, New York; illustrative 1000-sqft leased site, no address or site approval
Explore this business · Overview
A fixed pet grooming salon sells safe, completed appointments. This dog-only NYC case uses three employed groomers, a bather and a paid owner-manager. Opening uses are $174,854, including $65,000 of cash reserve. Base Year 1 EBITDA is −$49,807; the case still has a $12,096 funding gap. Read the ramp before treating the opening amount as sufficient.
Observed SBA industry evidence
Lending activity in the broader category
NAICS 812910 covers pet grooming and boarding across formats and sizes. It does not isolate this case: Dog-only fixed salon with three employed groomers, one employed bather and a paid owner-manager; no boarding, mobile services, retail, training, cat grooming or veterinary care. Loan records do not establish local demand, costs or operating performance.
These are positive-amount loan records selected by approval fiscal year and PIF, CHGOFF or EXEMPT status at the stated snapshot. They are not unique firms, search volumes, approval probabilities or loans disbursed during that year.
Read this industry’s amounts, terms, lenders and outcomes.
Source: SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA files, snapshot 30 June 2026. Recomputed from original records on 1 October 2026. FY2025 is the most recent complete fiscal year in these files. Definitions and exclusions.
Choose the operating format first
The reference case is a 1,000-square-foot leased commercial salon. Bath-and-brush, standard full grooms and larger coat-intensive grooms are the entire sales mix. Nails and ordinary tidy work are inside the appointment price. There is no paid boarding, daycare, veterinary treatment, pet transport, cat grooming, retail shelf or mobile van. Adding one of those services would change the operating case and, potentially, the premises and permit requirements.
The owner manages intake, records, bookings and handoff. Grooming capacity comes from paid employees; the forecast does not obtain free production from the owner. Individual crates hold pets briefly while they wait or are collected. They are neither a boarding business nor a drying device.
Follow the opening budget, appointment economics and monthly cash case before preparing the funding request.
The appointment is a promise of time
Each booking reserves a combination of people, a bath, attended drying and a safe place to wait. The average groomer service time is 1.1 hours per completed dog; the operating ceiling is 388.5 reserved pet equivalents per month. Allowing the booking buffer and no-shows, at most 354.3 complete in the Year 1 base mix. These are model capacities, not observed bookings.
PetSmart describes a typical grooming stay of 3–4 hours, while a first-party Brooklyn menu confirms that size and coat condition alter the quote. Neither establishes our employee minutes or conversion rate. A pilot time study must record active grooming, washing, drying, sanitation and actual pickup times separately. Appointment FAQ; local menu comparison.
What could invalidate this format?
A commercial lease alone does not establish that the site can open as a grooming salon. The NYC permit path requires an inspection and an Animal Care and Handling certificate for the supervising manager. The wet area also needs a workable plumbing, hot-water, electrical and humidity plan. Confirm use/occupancy and landlord consent for the actual site before taking an unconditional lease. Permit pathway.
The city prohibits cage/box drying and certain non-handheld heated equipment. Our manual drying time is already in groomer labor. A plan that restores capacity by leaving pets in drying cages does not fit this jurisdiction. Cleaning and individual holding-space design must remain in the roster and premises scope. Article 161.
The financial conclusion is conditional
The base steady cash threshold is 315 completed appointments per month at Year 1 prices and costs, including scheduled debt and paid owner work. The first modeled EBITDA-positive month is 9, but that does not reverse earlier cash losses. Base project recovery is not reached in 60 months. The upside recovers total opening uses in month 34; downside liquidity keeps deteriorating. A booking pipeline and a funded stop-loss decision matter more than the number of tables.
What the SBA category can tell you
NAICS 812910 is Pet Care (except Veterinary) Services. The verified SBA snapshot includes 472, 553 and 567 records in the FY2023, FY2024 and FY2025 approval cohorts with PIF, CHGOFF or EXEMPT snapshot statuses. That is 1,592 broad pet-care records, not exact-format salon approvals, customers or search demand. Boarding, sitting and training also sit in this code. SBA FOIA source.
Use the source definitions alongside the narrower operating case. These five guides cover the planning logic; a complete business-plan example for this format is not available yet.
Explore this business
This edition contains five planning guides. A full business-plan example for this format is not yet published.
Sources and scope
- NYC Health Code Article 161 · Checked 2026-10-04 · Official current linked Article 161 PDF inspected: permit/manager certificate 161.09; assigned sanitation personnel 161.11; self-inspection 161.13; records and vaccination evidence 161.15; cage/box dryer and non-handheld heating-element prohibition 161.15(f); individual cages/clean repair 161.17. This does not approve a chosen site.
- Small Animal Grooming Establishment Permit · Checked 2026-10-04 · Official portal: grooming-only/no overnight full-year permit USD 30; permit/inspection and certified supervising manager before operation, workers compensation/disability proof and tax certificate. Published fee table has an inconsistent overnight half-year date; that row is excluded from this case.
- Minimum wage schedule for 2026 · Checked 2026-10-04 · Official P700 schedule effective 1 January-31 December 2026: NYC minimum USD 17/hour. Modeled 2027 wages are assumptions above that observed floor, not a future legal determination.
- Grooming appointment FAQ · Checked 2026-10-04 · First-party appointment FAQ: typical 3-4 hours elapsed salon stay varies by breed/service; express and minor-service times are different. This is not groomer hands-on time. The case minutes require a paid time study.
- National Core Professional Dog Grooming Educational Standards · Checked 2026-10-04 · Voluntary educational standards support pet-specific intake, attended drying and cleaning of pet-contact equipment. They are not NYC law, a certification of this fictitious case, or a source of service-minute estimates.
- Dura Dog GT644U electric table · Checked 2026-10-04 · Live supplier page: GT644U, 44 x 24 inches, 250 lb stated lift capacity, 20-41 inch adjustment. Listed USD 999.99. TW48 arm is excluded. Freight/installed scope is unquoted.
- TableWorks TW48 grooming arm · Checked 2026-10-04 · Live supplier page: TW48 48-inch arm, listed USD 159.99, clamp and restraint loop included. Matching table lists this required separately. Confirm compatibility for smaller dogs and installed clearances.
- SS400L 48-inch left-drain walk-in tub · Checked 2026-10-04 · Live supplier page: SS400L 24 x 48 inch left-drain walk-in tub, 9-inch entry. The page lists a variant range USD 2,118.57-2,223.97, not one delivered quote. Case budgets the upper endpoint. Freight, grates, plumbing kit and installation excluded or optional.
- K-9 II dryer · Checked 2026-10-04 · Live manufacturer page: K-9 II, 110V configuration, starting/listed USD 545. Two motors, no heating element; warmed motor air is not cold air. Specification states 17 A at 120 V and FAQ refers to 18 A: electrician must confirm dedicated circuit design. 10-foot hose and tips included; no cage-hanger accessory used.
- US processing fees and plans · Checked 2026-10-04 · Live US pricing page inspected: Square Free in-person rate 2.6% + USD 0.15. Case assumes only in-person transactions; card share and two-day settlement are chosen assumptions. Card-on-file/online fees need a separate case.
- Publication 718 jurisdiction rates · Checked 2026-10-04 · Official Publication 718, revised 2/25, effective 1 March 2025: NYC combined 8 7/8 percent. Used as explicitly held-constant reference tax rate; quarterly payment timing is a management assumption, not a filing calendar ruling.
- TSB-A-92(59)S: grooming taxability (historical opinion) · Checked 2026-10-04 · 1992 official advisory opinion establishes its own historical nonmedical pet-grooming treatment. Current official bulletin corroborates taxable nonmedical grooming. Case assumes ordinary taxable dog services; exemptions need owner tax review.
- Tax Bulletin: Veterinarians, taxable nonmedical grooming · Checked 2026-10-04 · Official current Tax Bulletin for veterinarians lists nonmedical grooming/clipping among taxable services; medical and certain service-animal contexts differ. Not a blanket ruling for every transaction or exemption.
- SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA snapshot · Checked 2026-10-04 · Hash-bound project aggregates; approval fiscal years and disbursed snapshot statuses, not exact-format loans. Binding recorded in lending/profile.json.
- 7(a) loans · Checked 2026-10-04 · Official page: machinery/equipment and working capital can be uses; repayment ability matters. This does not quote a rate, injection percentage or approval standard for this borrower.
- 504 loans · Checked 2026-10-04 · Official page: 504 finances qualifying fixed assets and cannot fund working capital/inventory. A leased small salon does not automatically fit the program.