How much should you charge for a dog groom?

A useful grooming price starts with the business you actually run. The number on another groomer's menu carries none of their rent, pace, team or usual dogs.

The working formula is simple:

monthly costs + owner pay + profit and replacement reserve ÷ genuinely sellable hours = target revenue per booked hour.

That hourly target is an internal costing tool. Clients still buy a bath and tidy, full groom or de-shed. They shouldn't receive a loose promise to pay for however long the job takes.

What does one booked hour need to earn?

Suppose the business needs $18,000 a month for wages and owner pay, employment costs, rent, products, utilities, software, insurance, equipment replacement and a sensible buffer. It opens for 160 hours, but only 120 can honestly be sold after cleaning, calls, notes, breaks, gaps and handovers.

$18,000 ÷ 120 gives a target of $150 per booked hour. A service expected to occupy 90 minutes therefore needs to return about $225 before any unusual coat or handling work. These figures only demonstrate the calculation. Replace every one with your own.

Don't divide by every hour the doors are open. That makes unpaid work disappear on paper and reappear as a shortfall at the end of the month.

Turn the target into a first price list

Start with the small group of services you can deliver consistently. For each one, write down:

• the normal hands-on and occupied time
• product and laundry cost that meaningfully changes by service
• the starting price produced by your hourly target
• the coat, interval, size or handling conditions that move it
• the lowest visit price that still covers setup, consult, cleaning, payment and notes

Now test three ordinary jobs. At a $150 hourly target, a 45-minute maintenance bath points to about $112.50, a 90-minute groom to $225 and a two-hour de-shed to $300. Round and present prices in a way clients can understand, then test the whole day's mix. An easy dog shouldn't quietly subsidise a hard dog simply because they share a breed label.

Does each service still earn its place?

For a month, compare booked time with real occupied time and the revenue each service returned. Look for a pattern. One spectacularly fluffy Tuesday proves very little.

If a service repeatedly misses its target, change one lever first: its duration, included work, price or availability. Remove it only when the service no longer fits the business after those corrections. An opening discount also belongs in this calculation; call it a marketing cost and give it an end date rather than pretending the lower price is profitable.

Put tax and the total price on the worksheet

The ATO's GST registration guidance says most businesses must register once GST turnover reaches $75,000. Check your position when building the list, because absorbing GST later changes the amount left for the groom.

For consumer prices, the ACCC requires the displayed total to include taxes and unavoidable or pre-selected fees. A low headline price that becomes compulsory extras at checkout isn't a clear price list.

Keep this worksheet beside the menu:

Service	Normal occupied time	Target return	Starting price	Conditions that move it

Seglo note: Keep each service's price and duration together when you build the bookable menu.

Keep reading

• What should a dog grooming price be based on?
• Should dog groomers take deposits?
• When should dog grooming clients pay?
• Set up services and pricing
• See Seglo for pet grooming