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Total Average Compensation: $26–$28/hour
Schedule: 35–40 hours/week | Closed Sundays
Location: Northwest Suburbs, Illinois
CONFIDENTIAL OPPORTUNITY
About the Role
We are seeking a hands-on Store Manager to lead day-to-day operations for a customer-focused dog grooming business. This role combines people leadership, product and service sales, customer service, operational execution, and performance management.
The ideal candidate is an experienced manager who can build a high-performing grooming team, improve operational consistency, drive membership and grooming-service revenue, and create an exceptional experience for customers and their dogs. This is an opportunity for an entrepreneurial leader who wants to grow with the business and potentially take on responsibility for multiple dog grooming locations.
Core Responsibilities
• Support the team in addressing dog-specific customer needs and service concerns professionally and compassionately.
• Ensure grooming staff follow established handling, sanitation, safety, and service-quality procedures.
• Coordinate grooming workflow and team capacity to keep appointments on schedule and minimize customer wait times.
• Oversee daily dog grooming operations, ensuring dogs receive safe, consistent, and high-quality care.
• Lead daily store operations and ensure consistent execution of company standards.
• Recruit, train, coach, mentor, and develop team members.
• Build a positive, accountable, team-oriented culture with open communication.
• Drive product sales, service sales, upselling, and cross-selling opportunities.
• Identify customer needs and ensure appropriate products and add-on services are recommended.
• Manage customer expectations and resolve customer concerns professionally and promptly.
• Own staff scheduling, attendance, schedule adherence, and daily workforce planning.
• Monitor workflow, labor utilization, productivity, and service quality; intervene when needed to keep operations on track.
• Conduct performance reviews, provide ongoing feedback, and establish clear performance expectations.
• Maintain a clean, safe, organized, and efficient work environment.
• Uphold sanitation, safety, quality, and operational standards.
• Communicate priorities, updates, and business information from leadership to the store team.
• Identify operational gaps and recommend improvements that increase efficiency, customer satisfaction, and revenue.
Key Performance Areas
The Store Manager will be expected to actively manage and improve key business metrics, including:
• Schedule adherence
• Labor efficiency / labor utilization
• Average ticket / average transaction value
• Inquiry to Service conversion and retention
• Rebooking / repeat-visit performance
• Sales, upsell, and cross-sell performance
• Customer satisfaction and issue resolution
• Team productivity and service quality
Required Skills & Experience
• 2+ years of management or supervisory experience in a customer-facing environment.
• Strong customer service experience, preferably in dog grooming, pet care, retail, hospitality, restaurant, fitness, wellness, or other service businesses.
• Experience in a membership-based business model is strongly preferred (e.g., fitness, wellness, subscription, or recurring-service businesses).
• Demonstrated success with membership sales, consultative selling, upselling, and cross-selling.
• Proven ability to recruit, train, coach, mentor, and hold employees accountable.
• Strong operational and organizational skills, including scheduling and workforce management.
• Comfortable working with KPIs, sales targets, labor metrics, and performance dashboards.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills with the ability to work independently.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to remain calm, professional, and solutions-oriented when handling customer or employee issues.
• Willingness to work hands-on alongside the team and assist with day-to-day operations as needed.
Preferred Leadership Profile
• Entrepreneurial and business-minded with a strong ownership mentality.
• High integrity, reliability, and accountability.
• Adaptable, detail-oriented, and highly organized.
• Customer-focused and passionate about delivering a high-quality dog grooming and pet care experience.
• Motivated by building teams, improving performance, and growing a business.
• Demonstrated potential to progress into a multi-location or regional operations leadership role.
Compensation & Benefits
• Total average compensation: $26–$28/hour plus Monthly Performance Bonus
• Full-time schedule: 35–40 hours/week
• Paid holidays
• Paid time off
• Tip pool participation
• Merit-based raises
• No late evenings; store closed Sundays
• Opportunity for career growth into multi-location operations leadership
Confidential Search
This is a confidential search for a Store Manager within an established dog grooming business. Company and brand information will be shared with qualified candidates during the interview process.
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