If you’ve spent any time debating grooming salon commission structure in business groups online, you’ve seen this play out about a hundred times. Someone posts about commission structure, the comments explode, and everyone walks away feeling frustrated and unheard.
Here’s the thing though: the percentage isn’t actually the problem.
Stick with me.
The number that actually matters
Let’s say you’re paying 40% commission. Your groomer does 6 dogs a day at an average ticket of $55. That’s $330 in revenue, $132 going to your groomer.
Now let’s say the shop down the street pays 50%. But their average ticket is $80. Same 6 dogs: $480 in revenue, $240 going to their groomer.
Your groomer just found out and now they’re mad at you for paying “less.” But you’re not paying less. You’re charging less. That’s a completely different problem.
This is what nobody talks about in those threads. Everyone’s debating the split while the actual leak is in the pricing.
Why owners feel stuck
I get it. Raising prices feels scary, especially when you’ve had the same clients for years and you know they’re going to notice. The fear is real — what if they leave? What if you price yourself out of the neighborhood?
But here’s what’s also real: if your prices haven’t moved in two or three years, you’re already losing. Supplies cost more. Your time is worth more. Your skill is worth more. Staying flat isn’t staying safe, it’s falling behind.
And when your revenue per dog is low, every business decision gets harder. You can’t afford to pay competitive wages. You can’t absorb a slow week. You can’t invest in the things that would actually grow the business. Everything feels tight because it is tight. Not because of the commission percentage, but because the math underneath it doesn’t work.
What I see when I look at grooming salon marketing
I spend a lot of time looking at how grooming salons present themselves online, and one of the most common things I notice is that owners who are struggling with profitability are often also underselling themselves in their marketing. Their pricing doesn’t reflect the quality they’re actually delivering. Their website or social presence doesn’t build the kind of trust that lets you charge more without pushback.
Pricing and marketing are more connected than most people realize. Clients who found you through a strong, credible online presence are less likely to flinch at a price increase than clients who found you through a Nextdoor post three years ago.
So what do you do with this
Start with the math. Figure out your actual average ticket right now. Then figure out what it needs to be for your business to feel sustainable: to pay your people well, cover your costs, and still have something left over for you.
If you’re not sure where to start, I built a free Grooming Salon Profitability Calculator that helps you work through exactly this. Plug in your numbers and you’ll get a clearer picture of what your pricing actually needs to look like.
If there’s a gap between where you are and where you need to be, that’s the real conversation. Not 40 vs 50.
The commission debate will still be happening in grooming groups five years from now. But the owners who figure out their pricing will have moved on to different problems by then.
Laura Rodriguez is the founder of Groomer Brand Lab, a marketing consultancy for pet grooming salon owners. She has nearly five years of professional marketing experience and hands-on grooming salon background. If you want a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not in your salon’s marketing, a Groomer Brand Lab audit is a good place to start.