The honest answer has two numbers. The full mobile setup is $20,000 and up, because the van is the business. But you can start house-call for under $2,000 and buy the van after you have clients paying for it.
The van conversion is roughly eighty percent of the startup cost: the water tank, the generator, the hydraulic tub, the high-velocity dryer, the plumbing. Finance all of that before you have a single booking and you are making van payments against zero revenue, which is how most mobile groomers quit in year one.
The way in is to start as a house-call groomer. Buy good clippers, a portable tub or use the client's own bathtub, a forced-air dryer, and shears. That is under two thousand dollars, and it lets you build a book of regular clients while someone else's plumbing does the work. When your calendar is full, the van is an obvious upgrade the clients are already funding.
The whole premium in this business is convenience, the dog never leaves home, so route density is your real profit lever. Cluster appointments by neighborhood and by day. An hour of driving between two jobs is an hour you are not paid for. Groomers who book tightly by area out-earn ones with a fuller but scattered schedule.
And the model is recurring. Dogs need grooming every four to six weeks. Rebook every client before you leave the driveway, and within a few months your calendar fills itself and you stop selling to strangers.
The rest, the house-call equipment list, the van build-out when you are ready, and route-based pricing, is in the full plan:
See the full mobile pet grooming business plan →
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