Meet The New CEO of Zoomin Groomin 🚐💨

Happy Friday Daily Groomers!

If you’ve been watching mobile grooming explode, you’ll want to hear this one. 

Recently on the podcast, we meet Joshua Fitzgerald, a franchisee-turned-trainer who, as of a couple months ago stepped in as CEO of Zoomin Groomin—one of the fastest-growing mobile brands in the country.

We’ve met quite a few folks from Zoomin Groomin over the years, so after recording this episode, I opened my notepad and started jotting down everything that stood out from Josh’s story to insights that connected back to past conversations and interviews I’ve had with their team.

Sharing my rough notes with you all below 👇

A Quick Zoomin Groomin Backstory

Zoomin Groomin began with Donna at the founder’s helm. After the brand was acquired, Sandy Stowe ran the corporate side as CEO and helped shepherd rapid growth across the system. (Had both Sandy and Donna on the pod over a year ago)

The parent umbrella today is tied to Loyalty Brands and John Hewitt, the franchise legend behind Jackson Hewitt and Liberty Tax—and yes, the Statue-of-Liberty sign-wavers from back in the day.

We’ve had John on the podcast a couple times—worth a revisit: (this episode and later on this episode)

By the numbers: Zoomin Groomin has scaled from just a handful of vans to ~225 vans, with ~170 franchise units and 160+ team members.

Meet Josh

Two years ago, Josh launched his first Zoomin Groomin franchise in Columbus, OH. He quickly grew to five territories/vans, started training new franchise owners nationwide, and—in a whirlwind June–July—was tapped to become CEO. He officially took over on August 2.

What shaped him

• Operator first: Booked three weeks out the day his first van arrived thanks to relentless “gorilla marketing” and early hiring wins.

• Trainer lens: Spent the last year+ onboarding and coaching over half the system—giving him a direct line to what franchises actually need.

The hard-won lessons (you’ll nod along)

• Be a problem-solver: Vans break, dryers die—owners who grab a wrench and learn win faster than those who wait for help.

• Stay coachable: It’s hard to hear “You could do this better,” but humility compounds growth.

• Define “success” for you: Two vans that fund your life? Great. Or build a mini-empire—just be explicit about the goal.

• Year-by-year expectations: Year 1 is lessons and detail-obsessed P&L; Year 2 is team expansion; by Year 3 you should “have a handle on it” and know your expansion path.

• Don’t over-romanticize “passive” franchises: You can hire a lot, but true passivity is rare (and usually not very profitable) unless you’ve already built scale.

The human standard that differentiates

A theme that runs through Josh’s story: call your customers. Owners personally following up within two days of a groom drives rebooking, reviews, and loyalty.

His favorite example is a handwritten postcard and cell-phone follow-up from a nurse after his daughter’s ER visit—radical care that he now mirrors with condolence cards, flowers, and check-ins for clients. The bigger point: act like humans serving humans.

Where Josh is taking Zoomin Groomin

The plan:

• Quality over speed: Standardize across the system so growth doesn’t dilute experience.

• Better vendor strategy: Partnerships that fit the brand at its current scale (and the next one).

• Grow from the inside: Prefer existing owners adding vans over scattered single-van outposts.

• Double down on the “human” brand: Remember every pet has a person; serve two-legged and four-legged clients with empathy.

Pull-quotes to chew on

• “If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.” —a John Hewitt mantra Josh lives by.

• “Everything’s not a big deal. The real ‘big deals’ are obvious when they happen.”

• “Ultra-competitive owners tend to scale from one van to many.”

There’s a lot more to Josh’s journey—from franchisee to CEO—than we could fit here. Catch the full interview to hear his take on leadership, quality growth, and the next chapter for Zoomin Groomin.

Every time I talk to folks like Josh, I’m reminded how massive this industry really is—and how wide open it still feels.

There’s no single “household name” in grooming, which means small business owners still have every opportunity to make their mark, while the big franchise groups are carving out their own piece of the pie.

It’ll be interesting to see what the grooming space looks like five years from now.

Till then, I’m just going to enjoy the weekend—and you should too.

See you on the next one,

Alex

That’s all folks! Keep calm and groom on 🐶🤘