Samantha George

Dog Groomer, Business Owner, Behaviourist, Keen Traveller, Mum to one human and one dog.

Favourite Breed:

Border Collies.

Favourite Country so Far:

Malaysia, Antigua or Thailand

Qualifications (so far!)

Level 3 Extended Diploma in Animal Management

Level 3 Diploma in Canine Care, Welfare and Behaviour

Level 3 Diploma in Dog Grooming and Salon Management

Years of Grooming: 16 years

Countries Travelled: 12

A Bit About Me

I started my own dog grooming salon at the age of 19. After college, I did a bit of travelling with my now husband, and decided I didn't want to do University. While saving up for our travels, I worked and trained up in a dog grooming salon, and fell in love with it, so when we got back, I made my own little salon in the high street of busy Wymondham, Norfolk. I got busy very quickly, so we moved to a huge salon at Centre Paws. If you haven't visited, it's a doggy business hub with a dog cafe, hydrotherapy, dog agility, farm walks and even alpaca walking - a great day out! Anyway... we set up there, did the whole “lots of staff” thing, had a great busy salon going and then we decided to have our little boy. That's when we had staff leave for their own kids, opening their own businesses or moving too far away, and dwindled down to just one part time staff when I went on maternity - eek!

After she let me know she also wanted to leave to go mobile, that's when our new business plan formed. We had all that space so turned half of the salon into a baby area, and from 3 months, our boy came to work with me every day! At 6 months, my husband came to work with me too, and for 3 years, it has been a true family run business. Our son loved growing up with all the dogs and seeing all the customers, who really do spoil him, haha!

Now, he's in nursery full time, and hubby wants to go back in to engineering, we've made a whole new plan!

Step 1 - buy a house

Step 2 - set up a DIY dog wash at Centre Paws (check out the DIY dog wash page for that!)

Step 3 - give up the salon and start grooming from people's homes, working in school hours so I spend more time with my son

Step 4 - enjoy leaving the 50 hour work week behind, enjoy a better work/life balance and travel around Norfolk, the UK and overseas after nursery, weekend and school holidays! Follow along for our travel journeys and stories from the grooming world on my instagram @theglobalgroomer with plenty of wet noses and muddy paws along the way!

The timeline so far!

2010-2013

Finished high school, started A levels, had a mental breakdown as I didn't know if I wanted to be a vet. Left A Levels and started working as an animal care assistant in Easton College while I waited for the new school year. Worked for my parents in the office - hated computers so definitely needed to work with animals! Started work experience in a vets, loved the animals, hated how you didn't get to know the pets on a personal level as you only saw them when ill.

Started my Animal Management Level 3 extended diploma. Started working in an aquatic shop, super glued corral to my fingers, nearly drank a clown fish, choked on dirty fish water when cleaning the tanks - not for me! Worked in a racing yard, love horses, thought I would fall out of love with them if they were my full time job. Accidentally walked passed a dog groomers and thought I would chance popping in to see if they are able to take work experience, never thought of grooming before. Fell in love with the friendliness of staff, that you need to have a sense of humour to work within grooming, and finally, a job where you can have a connection with the animals as you see them every 6-8 weeks. Finished my work experience hours but never left. Got trained up, finished my college course, decided this is what I wanted to do rather than uni.

2013-2014

Decided to rent a table off the groomers, but firstly, I needed to travel. We only took 6 weeks off and I went with my now husband to Asia, I have family there so stayed a bit with them in Malaysia, went to Singapore and Thailand. with a quick stop in Turkey. While still finishing college, I also went to Austria, Antigua, Holland and France for various reasons. I went to 8 countries in total that year.

Once we got back to normal life, I started renting my table, things were great until the family decided to move to the middle of nowhere - house was amazing, but I couldn't get to work as I hadn't learnt to drive - so 19 year old me decided to open my own salon - crazy!

2014- 2018

I found a cute one room salon in a market town called Wymondham,I borrowed just enough money from my parents to open up a business account with a big overdraft and paid them back straight away - In dept from day one! I was worried how people would treat me because of my young age. I even had the salon landlord tell me that he didn't think I would last long - rude! But within months, I was practically booked up 2 weeks in advance. I got so busy, I got a few staff!

I loved my little salon, but goodness knows how I fit me and two staff in. So I started looking for somewhere to expand to. It was only by chance, I asked on a Facebook page for ideas when my new landlady contacted me. She wanted to open up a dog friendly cafe on her farm, along with a rent a field space and an agility trainer, so a dog groomers just made sense!

2018-2026

I saw the building - a barn with 3 walls, cobwebs and pigeons flying out, and some sheep in a pen. I fell in love with the ideas she had! I do like to dream about the potential in life. So I agreed and building work started. Soon my very own, custom made salon was built - extractors in every room, non slip flooring, anti mould paint, separate rooms for bathing, grooming and a reception, with my own toilet and kitchenette!

It wasn't long before I had 5 staff working there, including a receptionist. I could even go away on holiday without worrying about the money side of things.
We did some more trips, more holiday/weekend away trips rather than travel because I was too busy for that! Went to Crete, went to Kos, a weekend in France, and then got Engaged in Belgium - Bruges is a beautiful place! We got our Border Collie called Ivy.

Started to plan our wedding when… Covid hit!
All our wedding savings went into paying staff while I waited for the furlow to come through. Wedding was cancelled and I had the crazy idea that we should run off to get married, just the two of us. David mentioned my mum would kill him (probably wasn’t wrong there, but she also did the same thing with my dad so…)

but he was right, so we had parents, and one sibling each, and off to Gretna Green for a very small, covid wedding!

The world went back to normal, we honeymooned in Thailand and started to plan a family. The staff started to leave soon after I fell pregnant - I hadn’t told them yet! So I only took 3 months off before bringing Thomas into the salon where he grew up surrounded by dogs. David even quit his job in engineering to come work with me so he can watch his son grow up too.
Had our first family holiday in Furtaventura when Tom was 6 months, and then a whole family trip in Spain at 2 years old.
We bought a house (finally!!) and now it’s time for the next adventure - giving up the salon and going in-house! Thanks for reading this far along!