Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Lacquement.
Hi Chris, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started in the pet grooming industry more than 16 years ago at the ground level, answering phones, cleaning kennels, and helping wherever I was needed. Over time, I worked my way through every position in the business, from bather to groomer to manager and eventually business owner.
Like many entrepreneurs, my path was not always easy. I faced plenty of personal and professional challenges along the way, but those experiences helped shape my perspective on leadership, resilience, and the importance of treating both people and pets with care and respect.
Today, I own and operate multiple pet grooming businesses throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including both brick-and-mortar salons and mobile grooming operations. Alongside that, I provide consulting services to grooming business owners across the country through K9 Business Solutions, helping them improve operations, grow sustainably, and avoid many of the mistakes I made along the way.
What I am most proud of is not the growth itself, but the opportunity to create careers for others, serve our communities, and help elevate the standards of our industry. My philosophy has always been simple: focus on quality, take care of people, and growth will follow. “Humanity over Vanity.”
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it has definitely not been a smooth road. Like many entrepreneurs, I started with very little and had to learn every aspect of the business from the ground up. Along the way, I faced personal challenges, financial setbacks, difficult business decisions, staffing shortages, and the pressures that come with growing and managing multiple locations.
One of the biggest lessons was learning how to balance growth with maintaining quality and culture. As the businesses expanded, it became increasingly important to build strong teams, develop leaders, and trust others with responsibilities that I once handled myself.
My personal journey also gave me a unique perspective on resilience and perseverance. There were times when starting over would have seemed easier than pushing forward, but those experiences ultimately shaped who I am as a business owner and leader today. Looking back, the struggles taught me far more than the successes and helped create the foundation for everything I’ve built.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about K9 Business Solutions?
For most of my career, I have been immersed in nearly every aspect of the pet grooming industry. I have worked as a groomer, built and managed both brick-and-mortar and mobile grooming businesses, acquired and integrated existing companies, trained groomers, developed management teams, and successfully grown and sold businesses. Through those experiences, I began receiving regular calls from owners around the country looking for advice, guidance, and operational support.
That demand ultimately led to the creation of K9 Business Solutions. The company was built specifically to serve pet industry entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses, improve profitability, develop their teams, or avoid costly mistakes that often come from learning through trial and error. My consulting is based on real-world experience, not theory. Every recommendation comes from lessons learned while operating businesses myself.
Today, K9 Business Solutions provides consulting, training, operational development, acquisition support, leadership coaching, and growth strategies for grooming salons, mobile grooming companies, and pet service businesses nationwide. We help owners improve systems, create sustainable growth plans, develop stronger teams, and build businesses that can thrive without requiring the owner to be involved in every decision.
What sets us apart is that I am still actively operating businesses every day. I am not simply teaching concepts from a textbook or speaking from past experience alone. I continue to face the same challenges, opportunities, staffing issues, customer concerns, and growth decisions that my clients face. That allows me to provide practical, actionable advice that has been tested in real-world environments.
What I am most proud of is helping business owners create something larger than themselves. Whether that means building a stronger company, creating opportunities for their employees, improving the quality of care they provide to pets, or ultimately creating an asset that can be sold one day, my goal is to help them achieve outcomes that would have taken much longer to accomplish on their own.
At its core, K9 Business Solutions exists to elevate the pet grooming industry by sharing knowledge, improving standards, and helping passionate business owners turn their expertise into sustainable, successful businesses.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
If you asked my children, they would probably tell you that character is the most important factor behind my success. Skills, experience, and knowledge are all valuable, but character is what determines how you use them.
I believe success is built on integrity, accountability, and doing the right thing even when no one is watching. In business, there are often opportunities to take shortcuts, prioritize profit over people, or make decisions that benefit you in the short term at the expense of others. I have always tried to approach business differently by focusing on honesty, fairness, and treating people with respect.
Character also means keeping your word, taking responsibility when things go wrong, and remaining consistent during both good times and difficult ones. Customers, employees, business partners, and clients may not remember every detail of a transaction, but they will remember how you treated them and whether they could trust you.
Over the years, I have learned that reputation is one of the most valuable assets a person can have. Businesses can be built, sold, and rebuilt, but your character follows you everywhere. I have found that when you focus on doing the right thing, serving others well, and making decisions you can be proud of years later, success tends to follow naturally.
If there is one lesson I hope to pass on to my children, it is that who you are matters far more than what you have. Titles, awards, and financial success can come and go, but your character is something that no one can take away from you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://k9businesssolutions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrislacquement/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.lacquement.3
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-lacquement-a47925198/
