Starting a barber shop business

[shaa]

Hi guys,

This is my first thread and so please bare with me.

I came here looking for likeminded people to share my ideas with and get friendly advises. I have never owned a business however living in London as a student I worked in a good 10 different retail or catering, small to medium sized shops. And now, I want to start my first ever business and it just happens to be a barbershop. Not because I know good barbers or know anything about that business, but because I think I have a great business model. Which came to me because I visited a barber shop and their prices amazed me. However, that shop could not run for too long because they had problems with their tenancy agreement or at least that's what I could find out. I do not care about making huge profits from this business. I just care that I can create something and then slowly expand it as much as I possibly can.

The problems that I am facing is number 1. How and where do I even start honestly. 2. Where can I learn about barber business? Do you recommend taking up some work in a barbershop so that I can start with at least something rather than no knowledge whatsoever?. 3. Anyone here know how should I go about finding a shop? I have seen some shops in my area but they cost 25K and I only have half of that.

It would be great to find a mentor who is looking to find a passionate mentee. I promise not to bombard you with lots of questions, I just want some sort of start and take it from there.

Thanks for being here guys and really any comment will help me in great ways so please feel free to share your thoughts and have a lovely day.

 

[Scalloway]

How to Become a Barber

https://www.londonschoolofbarbering.com/how-to-become-a-barber/

 

[Mark T Jones]

Ok. You have mentioned a’great business model’. The natural next step was s to undertake some in-depth market research to establish if your target customers are sufficient / are prepared to pay the price required to make it work

It’s also a good idea to start working on some cashflow projections. Your first results will be nonsense but the questions that arise will be very valuable

Do you personally want to cut hair, or do you want to run a barbering business? The 2 can be very different?

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

Do you personally want to cut hair, or do you want to run a barbering business? The 2 can be very different?

One is profitable, one is not!

If you’re not cutting hair yourself then you won’t be making any money. Also, the barriers to entry are so low that if you’re trying to hire barbers to work for you, the only ones you will get hold of will be the rubbish ones. Any barber worth their salt would just set up on their own rather than work for someone else.

 

[The Byre]

This is the first time I have come across a young person whose dream in life is to become a barber.

I've heard some wild, weird and whacky ambitions being voiced, airline pilot, actor, singist, farmer, cinematographer (loads of them!) movie director, dog trainer, rock-god, C++ programmer, designer, architect, comedian, writer, and even the occasional porn-star, but barber?

I suggest you watch the movie 'The Man Who Wasn't There!' It will give you an insight into what it is really like to be a barber!

 

[Opinion87]

This is the first time I have come across a young person whose dream in life is to become a barber.

My barber had a Saturday job in his aunt's salon when he was younger and quickly decided that's what he wanted to do (instead of being a pro-skateboarder!) Lovely guy, fantastic barber and he now attends events and competitions all over the country and can't imagine doing anything else

 

[Mark T Jones]

One is profitable, one is not!

If you’re not cutting hair yourself then you won’t be making any money. Also, the barriers to entry are so low that if you’re trying to hire barbers to work for you, the only ones you will get hold of will be the rubbish ones. Any barber worth their salt would just set up on their own rather than work for someone else.

I’d be inclined to disagree on this, though it really does depend on what the OPs goals are

Cutting hair can get a relatively lucrative job - to build a real business would require a brand and multiple outlets (no hairdressing experience required)

 

[shaa]

Guys,

Thanks so much for your comments, I will watch the movie and take the in depth market search.

I am so sorry for not making this clear. I do not wish to be a barber, heck I don't even trim my own beard at home. I've been waiting for the barber shops to open since the pandemic. I basically wanted to open a small 2 barbers shop, hire 2 barbers and take the profit in the end after paying them and the bills. I possibly won't be earning anything more than 300 a month and that is if everything goes right. The only one thing I know is that, there are Turkish barber shops that charge like £20 for a haircut and another £15 pound if you want a beard trim or a shave with that and at one time they've 5 or 3 barbers working at the same time. I am still confused to how they stay in business. I also plan onto charging only half the fee for the same haircut because that's where I think I will get customers. People who want cheaper and not so niche haircuts. Most barber shops in London charge a heck a lot of money. So if I can open a shop that charges half the money but doesn't spend an hour on each customer, I think I might be able to make a profitable business.

Oh and by profession, I am a Software Developer so you already know I am far off being a barber haha and I want to continue my SD profession.

This business model is not mine btw, I came across a shop which did the same. They charged £10 for anything you want done. Simply pay a tener once you're satisfied with everything. I spoke to that business owner like sometime 1.5 year ago and he said it was a nice small business. He didn't cut the hair himself, he actually mentioned to me that he created the business for his son. It might be hard to find his number again but if the lockdown ends, I will ask around.

My only thing is that I want to charge £10 for a haircut, and ask the barbers to work fast. Such that if they can cut 2 guys in an hour, and the barber's hourly rate is £10. Then I might actually be in a profitable business. That's all the math I did but I will definitely do a lot more research and analysis before jumping into it.

Hope this helps.

 

[shaa]

One is profitable, one is not!

If you’re not cutting hair yourself then you won’t be making any money. Also, the barriers to entry are so low that if you’re trying to hire barbers to work for you, the only ones you will get hold of will be the rubbish ones. Any barber worth their salt would just set up on their own rather than work for someone else.

Thanks for this tip, I see this very clearly in all shops. Most of the owners are barbers themselves.

 

[shaa]

I’d be inclined to disagree on this, though it really does depend on what the OPs goals are

Cutting hair can get a relatively lucrative job - to build a real business would require a brand and multiple outlets (no hairdressing experience required)

That's my endgoal really.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

I’d be inclined to disagree on this, though it really does depend on what the OPs goals are

Cutting hair can get a relatively lucrative job - to build a real business would require a brand and multiple outlets (no hairdressing experience required)

How dare you!?

 

[Mr D]

Guys,

Thanks so much for your comments, I will watch the movie and take the in depth market search.

I am so sorry for not making this clear. I do not wish to be a barber, heck I don't even trim my own beard at home. I've been waiting for the barber shops to open since the pandemic. I basically wanted to open a small 2 barbers shop, hire 2 barbers and take the profit in the end after paying them and the bills. I possibly won't be earning anything more than 300 a month and that is if everything goes right. The only one thing I know is that, there are Turkish barber shops that charge like £20 for a haircut and another £15 pound if you want a beard trim or a shave with that and at one time they've 5 or 3 barbers working at the same time. I am still confused to how they stay in business. I also plan onto charging only half the fee for the same haircut because that's where I think I will get customers. People who want cheaper and not so niche haircuts. Most barber shops in London charge a heck a lot of money. So if I can open a shop that charges half the money but doesn't spend an hour on each customer, I think I might be able to make a profitable business.

Oh and by profession, I am a Software Developer so you already know I am far off being a barber haha and I want to continue my SD profession.

This business model is not mine btw, I came across a shop which did the same. They charged £10 for anything you want done. Simply pay a tener once you're satisfied with everything. I spoke to that business owner like sometime 1.5 year ago and he said it was a nice small business. He didn't cut the hair himself, he actually mentioned to me that he created the business for his son. It might be hard to find his number again but if the lockdown ends, I will ask around.

My only thing is that I want to charge £10 for a haircut, and ask the barbers to work fast. Such that if they can cut 2 guys in an hour, and the barber's hourly rate is £10. Then I might actually be in a profitable business. That's all the math I did but I will definitely do a lot more research and analysis before jumping into it.

Hope this helps.

Two methods.

One is where you employ the barbers and you pay them wages. You give them 28+ days holiday a year, contribute to their pension if they wish, provide sick pay etc. But you get all the profits.

One is where you rent space - basically rent a chair to someone. They are self employed, they come and go as they wish, work the days they want. And if they go elsewhere they may well take a chunk of your customers with them.
They pay you rent each month, you provide the chair and facilities. You don't control the barbers - they set prices.

Oh and some women get annoyed when they are turned away from a barbers shop. Watch your policies, make sure you don't get the wrong sort of advertising.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Guys,

Thanks so much for your comments, I will watch the movie and take the in depth market search.

I am so sorry for not making this clear. I do not wish to be a barber, heck I don't even trim my own beard at home. I've been waiting for the barber shops to open since the pandemic. I basically wanted to open a small 2 barbers shop, hire 2 barbers and take the profit in the end after paying them and the bills. I possibly won't be earning anything more than 300 a month and that is if everything goes right. The only one thing I know is that, there are Turkish barber shops that charge like £20 for a haircut and another £15 pound if you want a beard trim or a shave with that and at one time they've 5 or 3 barbers working at the same time. I am still confused to how they stay in business. I also plan onto charging only half the fee for the same haircut because that's where I think I will get customers. People who want cheaper and not so niche haircuts. Most barber shops in London charge a heck a lot of money. So if I can open a shop that charges half the money but doesn't spend an hour on each customer, I think I might be able to make a profitable business.

Oh and by profession, I am a Software Developer so you already know I am far off being a barber haha and I want to continue my SD profession.

This business model is not mine btw, I came across a shop which did the same. They charged £10 for anything you want done. Simply pay a tener once you're satisfied with everything. I spoke to that business owner like sometime 1.5 year ago and he said it was a nice small business. He didn't cut the hair himself, he actually mentioned to me that he created the business for his son. It might be hard to find his number again but if the lockdown ends, I will ask around.

My only thing is that I want to charge £10 for a haircut, and ask the barbers to work fast. Such that if they can cut 2 guys in an hour, and the barber's hourly rate is £10. Then I might actually be in a profitable business. That's all the math I did but I will definitely do a lot more research and analysis before jumping into it.

Hope this helps.

My knee jerk when I see a business based on being cheaper is panic. In the vast majority of cases they are fundamentally flawed


That said, if you do your cashflow properly you should get to the bottom of whether it will actually work

I can’t claim to know what differentiates barbers, but in the last town I lived in there were 5 of them 2 of which were always busy, the others appeared to be mostly empty - I used one of the busy ones because they flicked flames around my ears. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the cheapest

 

[Opinion87]

I can't see a race to the bottom working. You're paying them £10 per hour and hoping they'll earn £20, which is unlikely to happen for every hour you're open. From that £10.00 you've got to cover their holiday, NI, pension costs etc, then you've got your rent, rates, overheads... not gonna happen.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

No chance you’ll get a decent barber to work for £10 an hour.

 

[ExoPaul]

Most Barbers set up because they themselves are one, and through hard work and cutting hair can eventually hire others to do the grunt work as they expand the business.

The other way is to rent out seats to wannabe barbers who are not wanting their own full time business with overheads but just want to be self-employed renting a seat from somewhere. This is less a Barber business but more you being a form of landlord.

To set up a Barber's and not actually know how to cut hair, and no idea how the business runs, and expecting to make a profit from hiring and controlling the business rather than just renting a seat out, sounds like a business that has more risks of failure than succeeding and you could find yourself out of money within a few weeks.

Realistically, on the budget you have, either spend a couple of years training and working as a barber in the trade, while saving up to open up your own business and then have the money already in the bank to support yourself and expand it faster when it takes off.
Or..... get a cheap salon, rent the seats out and sit on it as a form of landlord. But by doing that, you are going to have very limited input into the business and will simply be in charge of maintenance obligations and picking up a small rental for each seat you hire. You won't earn enough from it to expand it into a franchise or to offer lots of new services, but instead will be literally just the landlord.

 

[shaa]

This is all very useful, I was mistaken big time and I am so glad, I came across this website and took my time in writing this thread. I think I will be better off doing some sort of a small website or a mobile app rather than gambling my way on a barber shop of which I know nothing.

Thanks a lot guys. really appreciate it.

 

[Gordon - Commercial Finance]

This is all very useful, I was mistaken big time and I am so glad, I came across this website and took my time in writing this thread. I think I will be better off doing some sort of a small website or a mobile app rather than gambling my way on a barber shop of which I know nothing.

Thanks a lot guys. really appreciate it.

Here’s one for free that I’ve just thought of.

Barbers generally don’t do appointments - it’s just walk in and wait your turn right?
Loads will be looking for ways to do it differently once lockdown is eased to allow for social distancing.

So make some kind of app that handles appointment management for barbers. Let’s the barber focus on cutting hair rather than being interrupted by the phone all the time.

 

[shaa]

Here’s one for free that I’ve just thought of.

Barbers generally don’t do appointments - it’s just walk in and wait your turn right?
Loads will be looking for ways to do it differently once lockdown is eased to allow for social distancing.

So make some kind of app that handles appointment management for barbers. Let’s the barber focus on cutting hair rather than being interrupted by the phone all the time.

That's actually very good, thanks man )

 

[John D1994]

That's actually very good, thanks man )

I just got directed to this thread as it seems we have both asked the same question in different forms. But in relation to that app it already exists and barbers local to me use it, its called booksy.

 

[pbdesigns]

Rent and business rates are your biggest fixed cost, along with salaries.

How will you generate clients at the beginning? It can take 1-2 years to establish a good client base.

Barbers will be affected by social distancing requirements when they are able to open, so you'll be limited with how many barbers that can operate in the shop.

And the biggest headache is the staff - how will you recruit them? Why should they work for you? There is not an abundance of barbers looking for work, so you'll need to attract them to come and work for you.

 

[The Byre]

This is all very useful, I was mistaken big time and I am so glad, I came across this website and took my time in writing this thread. I think I will be better off doing some sort of a small website or a mobile app rather than gambling my way on a barber shop of which I know nothing.

Or as Pliny, or rather Apelles the Greek painter who said "Ne supra crepidam judicaret!" when a shoemaker criticised one of his paintings.

Pliny reported that Apelles (famous Greek painter and contemporary of Alexander the Great) would put his pictures where the public could see them and then stand out of sight so he could listen to their comments. A shoemaker once faulted the painter for a sandal with a missing lace-loop, which Apelles then corrected.

But then the shoemaker criticised the subject’s leg. Pliny wrote that Apelles replied (no doubt with more colourful language) that the shoemaker should not judge beyond the sandals.

This gave rise to the German expression "Schuster, beib bei deinen Leisten." (Shoemaker, stay within your shoe-forms.)

 

[ExoPaul]

If you are looking at a website or app business you are better off asking yourself "What do I know / What am I interested in?" and working from there.

It is not that a new business in something you have no idea about is impossible to succeed at, but if you actually have knowledge and experience on the subject matter then you have given yourself a small headstart by skipping some of the learning process and the inevitable bumps in the road or failures that you may not know about.

You are welcome to DM me if you want to discuss some brainstorming ideas.

 

[shaa]

Or as Pliny, or rather Apelles the Greek painter who said "Ne supra crepidam judicaret!" when a shoemaker criticised one of his paintings.

Pliny reported that Apelles (famous Greek painter and contemporary of Alexander the Great) would put his pictures where the public could see them and then stand out of sight so he could listen to their comments. A shoemaker once faulted the painter for a sandal with a missing lace-loop, which Apelles then corrected.

But then the shoemaker criticised the subject’s leg. Pliny wrote that Apelles replied (no doubt with more colourful language) that the shoemaker should not judge beyond the sandals.

This gave rise to the German expression "Schuster, beib bei deinen Leisten." (Shoemaker, stay within your shoe-forms.)

I understand that but the shoemaker could also never be anything more than a shoemaker if he never tries anything else. As John F. Kennedy once said, "There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." In other words, a sure-fire way to predict the future is to do nothing—to take no action at all. When you do nothing, you get nothing.

 

[The Byre]

That is known as mistakes of omission, or if you prefer, missed opportunity. It is, in my opinion, one million miles from wasting your talents as a website creator on becoming a barber or running a barbershop.

A barbershop is not an opportunity because all sorts of people run barbershops. It is not the same as Xerox creating the PC and then deciding to bin it and give the whole project to Steve Jobs. It is not the same as Polaroid creating digital photography and then deciding that there's no money in it as they only knew how to sell instant film prints - so they sold the tech and dumped the idea.

It's just a goofy idea! Ain't nothing wrong with goofy ideas - I have them all the time. I look at them from all sides and get underneath and see if and how they work. But mostly, I drop them, especially if they are just too goofy!

 

[alan1302]

A barbershop is not an opportunity because all sorts of people run barbershops. It is not the same as Xerox creating the PC and then deciding to bin it and give the whole project to Steve Jobs. It is not the same as Polaroid creating digital photography and then deciding that there's no money in it as they only knew how to sell instant film prints - so they sold the tech and dumped the idea.

It's just a goofy idea! Ain't nothing wrong with goofy ideas - I have them all the time. I look at them from all sides and get underneath and see if and how they work. But mostly, I drop them, especially if they are just too goofy!

Don't let facts get in the way of a good story! LOL

Xerox created one of the first graphical user interfaces - not the PC.

Kodak (not Polaroid) developed on of the first digital cameras back in 1975.

 

[BristolBiz]

An acquaintance runs a barbers business & my folks set one up, so I've a little bit of an insight. Both find/found the day to day running an effing nightmare. The problem is staff. Highly artistic in temperament, highly social creatures who can't understand why it's necessary to turn up on time, if at all.

As soon as they build up a client list they're off!

Obviously some make it work (apparently), but I'm with the others on here in thinking it's a profession best done solo or not at all!

 

[The Byre]

Don't let facts get in the way of a good story! LOL
Xerox created one of the first graphical user interfaces - not the PC.
Kodak (not Polaroid) developed on of the first digital cameras back in 1975.

You are of course right! Polaroid did something digital, but I've forgotten what. And yes, it was the GUI that they gave to Jobs.