Grooms to go
The coronavirus crisis led to some “ruff ” times for Manhattan dog groomer Brian Taylor.
But Taylor, who calls himself The Dogfather of Harlem, found a way to reinvent his business amid the pandemic: He’s taken his show on the road, ditching his uptown brick-and-mortar shop for a mobile van that wheels around to pamper pups.
The 37-year-old owner of Harlem Doggie Day Spa at 734 St Nicholas Ave. — which offers daycare, boarding and walking in addition to grooming services — was initially hit hard by New York City’s shutdown.
A native of Sierra Leone, Taylor started his career as a JP Morgan Chase banker, but pivoted 10 years ago to start his pooch parlor and has attracted a coterie of devoted customers in the years since. But as spring — high season for groomers — loomed, COVID-19 catastrophe struck. With everyone working from home, doggy owners didn’t need doggy day care.
Annual sales typically hummed to the tune of more than $500,000, or upwards of $40,000 a month, but the health crisis forced operations to halt.
“We went down to $10,000 [in sales] for March,” said Taylor, who had to close his doors to some 4,000 active pet parents and was forced to lay off his entire staff of 12.
A lifelong dog lover, Taylor was concerned for the health of his charges.
“If dogs don’t get their grooming, it could lead to bad health conditions. Their coats can get matted,” he said.
At the bleakest moments, Taylor contemplated shuttering altogether: “I thought about throwing in the towel,” he admitted.
But after Paycheck Protection
Program money came through, plus $25,700 and counting from a GoFundMe campaign, Taylor decided he would ride out the rough patch.
He outfitted a van with everything he needed to groom on the go and told his local customers he could come to them. In normal times, he personally grooms 250 dogs each month.
Then he planned a six-stop cross-country road trip to support dogs in need across the United States. Pet parents who lost their jobs, for example, can still get relief for their four-legged friends.
His Pandemic Pup Relief Tour, which is performing pro bono grooming from Manhattan to Los Angeles, is powered by a team of all-black volunteer staffers from the Black Groomers Association.
“I needed to help as many people as I can,” said Taylor, speaking from the Wilmington, NC, leg of his tour — where he’s treated some 100 dogs with the help of a dozen groomers.
Taylor, who’s gained a steady following on social media with some 3,000 followers for himself and almost 10,000 for Harlem Doggie Day Spa, plans to reopen his storefront when he returns from the tour — adding free grooming for those in need once a month.
“I thought I was going to lose the business,” he said. “But we opened during the recession [in 2010]. So I thought if we survived that, we could survive this.”