Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Allen.
Hi Mark, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have done a wide variety of things in my life. I started with paper routes when I was 9 years old and I always had some sort of a job ever since. In high school and into college I primarily did driving type jobs such as delivery, tow truck driving, transporting the elderly and handicapped and so forth. At 19, I was called on a mission to Mexico City for my church but I got severely ill while going through the training and my call was changed to Pittsburgh, PA. I spent some time out serving but eventually came home early because I never fully recovered. I later met a young lady and we were married. I began attending the University of Utah and when I turned 21 I put myself through the Utah State Police Academy and graduated top of my class in Law and Theory. I had worked for nearly a year prior to this for Provo City Police Department as a Cadet and thought that if I were to get certified I could work as an officer while I got my four year degree. Unfortunately, following graduation my wife decided to end our marriage. Following this heart break, I joined the US Army Reserve (thought I could get away from women for a while. Well, that didn’t work, I was put in what was at the time, experimental co-ed basic training and Advanced Individual Training units). I graduated as Distinguished Honor Graduate in transportation, 88M10. Following training, I spent a short time with a refueling unit in the Provo area but then transferred to the 116th Army National Guard Civil Engineers. I remained with them for the 8 years of my enlistment. I would have stayed for the full 20 years but I had been in a 3-wheelerr accident during this time that severely damaged my left shoulder and I was unable to complete some of the advanced to trainings to move into the higher ranks. After Basic and AIT training I attended UVCC. I received an Associates Degree with a specialization in Visual Arts. I then decided to stay there and be part of the first cohort to graduate with a Bachelors in Elementary Education from the newly leveled up UVSC. During this time I met another wonderful young lady and we were married. She was attending BYU and graduated in Graphic Design. Following our graduations, we moved back to her home tome, Rush Valley, where I got a 5th grade teaching job with Tooele County School District. I worked there for several years and was encouraged by the district to get my Masters degree and become a Principal. I did so and graduated from BYU’s Educational Leadership program. I returned to Tooele District where I had been promised a Principal position. Unfortunately due to a change in District Leadership this promise was not kept. I stayed with them for a while but then was able to help start Salt Lake Arts Academy as a lead teacher and assistant principal. The following year I took on the challenge of starting the DaVinci Academy of Science and the Arts in Ogden as their Director. These were both new charter schools when charter schools were barely making their presence known in Utah. Our family had begun to grow during this time. We did not have any children for the first several years or our marriage but then we had 3 in close succession. While working with DaVinci, I found that the Ogden leadership that we were working with to develop our physical facilities in modernizing the old cannery, was mismanaging some financial guarantees we had with the state. I objected to these actions and ended up leaving the school. I was very saddened by this, as I had put an extreme amount of work into making this school everything I dreamed an outstanding educational institution could be.
Our Family ended up moving to Montana following this heart breaking period and I took a position with Montana State University as a Director in their Department of Education. I spent three years with them. I loved my time there but due to the national financial downturn of the markets around 2009 the university suffered some major cut backs so I took a position as a Superintendent/Principal for a small district in Montana for a year. While in Montana we were blessed with a fourth child. We later returned to Utah and due to frustrating experiences working with people that were not child first, I decided not to stick with education. I again returned to driving and worked for UTA (Bus and Trax) Provo School District (School Bus), and a rock landscaping company (Heavy Equipment and Truck) driving. During this time we were blessed with our fifth child and we moved to the Spanish Fork area where we have remained ever since. After a few years I was really missing working young learners and the educational process. I determined to go back to teaching for a time. Unfortunately, this was a huge cut in pay and although I enjoyed it (except for all the politics once again), I again returned to driving truck. I drove the Western region for some time. I then decided to give education one more go and help a fairly new Charter School called Mountain Sunrise Academy get its feet under it following the COVID years. I came on as the Assistant Director and towards the end of the year was placed and the Interim Director for the remainder of the year. As I had experienced many times in my career, I did not care too much for the politicking that is found almost everywhere, not just education, but that is where I had put my time and heart. I was in education because I loved helping people grown and achieve a brighter future. I was not very patient with people that were more worried about their personal agendas then ensuring that every child received the best education possible. I returned to trucking. I spent two years with a fantastic boss that owned a few trucks and we had a contract with Clean Harbors hauling Hazardous Waste. I had always enjoyed driving and returned to it because I got to be out in the world around us as well as being able to listen to vast numbers of books. This was also the highest paying position I had ever held but as with all transportation jobs, the down side was that I was away from family a great deal of the time, which I really did not like. As always, life happens, and my great boss went through a difficult divorce and even though trying to stick with him, he eventually decided to move on to other things and I moved to another company doing Super Heavy Haul. I only worked with them for a few months and unfortunately found that my employer was more interested in making more money for himself then in the people that worked for him.
Once again, I found myself very frustrated. Two of my three oldest children were out on their own but we still had three at home. Two are making there way to being on their own but my youngest was just a Freshman in High School. Utah has a highly educated population and the majority of Principal positions in the state are held by people holding I a Doctorate degree. I had worked on my Doctorate while living in Montana, but had not completed it so I was never really looked at in my later years by any of the large school districts for administration. I was also regularly passed over for teaching positions because I had too many years and too many degrees in education to make me an affordable option as a teacher when districts have hundreds of applications fresh out of college for nearly half of the cost of employing me. Besides, I qualified for welfare every time I went back to just teaching and my family always struggled financially. Trucking was generally good paying but usually only if you wanted to be out on the road and away from family. I had done a reasonably good job keeping our financial situation in the black, generally only being in debt for our homes. We never had new cars but I am a decent mechanic, having enjoyed restoring old cars and motorcycles in my younger years, and I have always been able to keep a couple vehicles rolling down the road without going into large amounts of debt. But I have never been in a financial position to help my children get through college and get a good solid start in life like I would have liked too.
I was tired of working for dishonest and/or nonprofessional people and I would not be able to retain a solid career in education for a large district unless I wanted to leave Utah. My youngest had spent his entire life living in Spanish Fork and we live in a fantastic neighborhood with outstanding neighbors and do not want to have to move on again. I had spent a couple months holding on without work with my previous boss because he was such a good individual and unfortunately we had gotten somewhat upside down with finances, and the few months I had driven heavy haul had not been enough to get back on top, so I was in a fairly difficult spot trying to figure out what to do next and having bills pile up exponentially. I did not qualify for unemployment benefits because I had been listed as being self employed while working for Clean Harbors under a contract and therefore our financial situation went downhill quickly. My resume already looked like an epic novel of doing one thing then another and I was really tired of not finding some place where I felt comfortable and I could stay long term.
During this couple months of unemployment a friend jokingly said that I should try being a dog groomer. He said that he knew a few people that had gotten into it and done well and I could be my own boss. At first, I just laughed it off, but over the course of a few more frustrating weeks looking at various possibilities for work, I started looking at it as a serious option. I have had dogs my entire life and have always loved animals. I am also very good working with me hands, always being good with mechanics, home building, fine arts, and just about anything I put my mind to. I looked at the potential of such a business and determined that I would like to give it a try. I looked at multiple training options but determined that I could probably train myself as well as any other various schools out there, so began doing so. I watched a lot of training videos online and through a series of friends I was able to get in touch with the owner of “Fur be Gone” in the Farmington area, who had 20+ years of experience and really fit my philosophy. She offered to help guide me in the process and has been an extremely kind and supportive mentor.
At first, I was going to start a mobile grooming business. I had found a large box truck that I would be able to convert for my needs and started pulling everything together to do so. However, after spending some time with Jana at Fur be Gone, I decided I could keep my costs down and therefore my rates lower by starting my business out of my garage. Within a few weeks I was able to open for business and although I do not have a stylish boutique to work form or anything, I have been slowly building clientele for the last five months. So far, I have been blessed with great customers who have all said they were happy with the service I provide and have returned for additional visits.
It has been slow building up enough customers to work full time so in the meantime I picked up a part time position working with Nebo School District driving school bus in the early mornings and afternoons. This has allowed me to work with the great young people of my community while growing my own business into what I hope will be a long term relationship with the great people of my community, supporting their pets well being. I am very appreciative of the wonderful support and patience of my family and the kindness and assistance from those around me.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Sorry, I described a lot of this in the long story I just provided but in general, I have always tried to be as honest and straight forward as I could be. Some times, I am sure that some people have found me to be abrasive, but when it came to things like serving our children, I never liked to play around around with their futures and tended to be fairly direct. However, I believe that the vast majority of people find me to be very friendly and willing to go out of my way to help anyone I can. Unfortunately, I have run into troubles when I found people being dishonest and I was not willing to just stand by and let things roll on by. I have also teased over the years that someone made a tall geeky looking voodoo doll of me and keeps poking the crude out of it. I seem to end up in situations that in general, the average person, never seems to have experienced. I have been witness to several severe accidents and worked on people, some of which have died. I seem to be a magnet at times for accidents or difficult events to have occurred around me. I have had to make choices that would make my life much easier if I just went with the flow, but I decided to stand up for what I thought was right and it has unfortunately ended up costing me and my family in the end. I am sure that everyone struggles to do what is right and fight for the best future possible so I am sure I am not all that different, but sometimes, it sure seems like that voodoo doll is getting worked over time.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I tried to think of all kinds of creative names for my dog grooming business and thought I had a few select ones only to find someone else had already thought of that. In the end, I named it M3 Dog Grooming because my first name is Mark and my favorite number is 3 and over the years I had come close to starting my own trucking company and was going to name it M3 LLC. It is not very cutsie or even directly related to pets, but it worked for me and will hopefully be easy to remember for people.
One of the great things about working with pets is that I can listen to books or music while doing so and they do not say, hey, turn that down (since I am going def, I like my 80’s music load), turn that off, or that is a stupid story, AND I can say whatever I want to them (ramble on an on), no matter how old man and crazy it might be and they still just want to be friends!
I am definitely not a fast groomer, I tend to be too meticulous about things and never really feel like I am truly finished. Maybe this is due to the fine artist in me or the mechanic wanting to make sure it all runs just right, but luckily, I am not so busy that I cannot take the time I want and do the best I can for the wonderful animal I get the chance to work with.
I know a lot of other groomers spend a great deal of their budget on advertising and are always at the top of the searches and such but even though I am growing slowly, I have been able to keep my prices reasonable, and everyone I have worked with so far has been happy with my work, have said they loved what I was able to do and have left me great reviews. If they return for a second visit, that means a lot to me. It means although I may not be the most highly skilled, or do the fancy coloring, or whatever, I care for my clients and spend the time I think they deserve.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Friends! I do lot have a lot of close friends or anything but by being present in your community, giving a smile and offering a hand to those around you, you will find that most people are generally great and are great at being there for you when you need it. I am not a great socialite. I tend to talk too much when I am nervous and then I hardly talk at all when I am comfortable with those around me, and although I am not the greatest at anything, I am pretty good at a lot of things and I am almost always willing to answer when someone calls with a need, even if it is just changing a flat tire.
Pricing:
- Full Groom: $60-$100
- Maintenance Groom: $40-$80
- Bath and Brush: $30-$70
Contact Info:
