Life & Work with Sally Blaha of Heights

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sally Blaha.

Hi Sally, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
After many years working in restaurants, I was ready for a change. One night I had a dream that I should work with animals. At the age of 21, I began my career as a dog groomer. Over the course of 25 years, I worked at many different types of salons, from corporate, to mom and pop, to resort/boarding facilities. I always had ideas to improve wherever I worked, many times those ideas were resisted. In 2021 I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. In 2022 I beat it and decided I did not want to wasted any more time not fulfilling my dream of opening my own salon, so in October of 2023. I did just that. I wanted the focus of our salon to be kind and gentle care for the pets in our care. I also wanted our clients to feel welcomed, appreciated, and heard and provide service that shadowed the old soda pop shops from before. I wanted to take the add on culture out of our model so that clients do not feel nickel and dimed.

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?
I would say that for the most part it has been a smooth ride. The first year and a half, I worked a lot of hours. It took some time to hone in on our brands direction and who we wanted to join our small business. We started the business without loans. This was good and bad. Some improvements we had to wait on, but , we are finally where we need to be.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We specialize in nervous pets and doodles. I am most proud of the strong team that we have developed that can provide the exceptional skills to our clients. One of the things that sets us apart is the calm environment that we provide. Our salon is always clean, and we never force a service on a furry friend. If we need the client to return to finish, we set that up, no additional charge. We love that most of our furry friends pull the parents to the door and drag us to the back. We use premium products at no additional charge as well as complimentary nail filing and teethbrushing. We also work with several rescue groups to get their foster dogs pampered and pretty in order to be adopted at no additional charge.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
We use many resources for continuing education. This year our focus will be on furthering our team members education through industry seminars and certifications.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://etpsheights.com
• Instagram: @elevatedtouchpetsalon