What is a groom actually worth, and how do I make sure it gets paid?

A grooming price is a guess about time, and the guess is what you live on. A list keyed to breed alone hides the two things that actually move the clock: the condition the coat arrives in, and how the dog behaves on the table. The same cavoodle can be forty minutes clean and two hours matted, and if both are charged the same, the matted one is being paid for by the easy ones. So the decision is what your price is keyed to. Breed-only lists are simple to publish and quietly punish you. Pricing on size and coat condition, with a stated de-matting rate or an hourly rate quoted as a range, moves that risk back to the owner who created it, at the cost of a harder conversation at booking. Getting paid is the other half of the same decision: deposits, a written cancellation and no-show policy, and taking payment at pickup rather than next time are what turn a number on the list into money in the account.