Latest / SliderCuts This Is Ownership Podcast / YOUR BARBERS ARE NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE BARBERSHOP

Transcript

YOUR BARBERS ARE NOT MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE BARBERSHOP · SliderCuts This Is Ownership Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Never make your staff members believe that they are more important than the business.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: And also, you should never be in a place where the staff members are actually more important than the business, and that if a particular staff member leaves, your business is going to crash.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: That is a recipe for disaster.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And today I'm going to talk about how you should hire, how you should treat your business, and how you should run your barber shop so that one barber doesn't crash the whole thing.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are plenty of barber shops where if a particular barber leaves, then that barber shop crashes when that barber walks out.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why that barber has so much weight, they negotiate, they hold you ransom.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm lowering my rent, my percentage split, I want to take a higher percent, and so on.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And this all happens because you allowed one barber or two to be more important to the business.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about that today.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: But before we get into it, if you don't know who I am already, my name is Mark Macyver, and this is the slider cuts, this is ownership podcast, where I talk all things barber, business ownership, and beyond.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about it.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Never let one of your barbers feel that they are more important than the barbershop.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the reality is in a lot of barbershops that just might be the case, especially if you are a barbershop owner who doesn't work in the barbershop.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot harder for you to dictate the environment, it's a lot harder for you to actually take control of the floor because you're not even there.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to talk about the two elements.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, there's the barbershop owner who's a barber who works in the barbershop, and then second of all, there is the barbershop owner who's not a barber and they don't work on the floor.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do you need to do in both of these instances?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, if you're a barbershop owner who works on the floor, I'm not telling you to be egotistical and make everything about you, but it is better that you specialize in all the things in the shop.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by specializing in things, I'm not talking about every hairstyle, I'm actually talking about when it comes to the marketing.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've got someone who works in your shop and they are great with social media and they're bringing a lot of attention to your shop through them, or maybe they're not, maybe they're just bringing a lot of attention to themselves, and people are coming to the shop for that particular person.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is that person is going to probably eventually leave, and if they don't leave, which trust me, their friends, their family, and people they know, their clients will be telling them, Yo, you got all the following, you know, you've got all the notoriety, you know, you got the brand, you got all of these things there, they're gonna be pushing for them to leave.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I know because from earlier when I was working in another person's barbershop, we're talking about from 20 years ago, people were saying to me, When are you going to open up your own barbershop?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you this: even if the barber isn't on social media, as soon as they just start getting a bit busy, and you know, their friends will be saying, 'When are you going to open up your own barbershop?' and their friends are just being friends, their family are just being family.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean they're ready, but that's what's going to happen.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So now, when you take a barber who actually is big on social media, fully booked, doing a bunch of things right, which are just bringing them lots of notoriety, their friends, their clients, their family are gonna be saying, Yo, you should have your own thing.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if they decide not to, then what they're gonna do is knowing that they not every time, but in a lot of cases, knowing that they are kind of like they got the power to some degree, any shop will take them, they can go open up their own studio, they can open up their own barber shop.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: You may see them doing things like, Okay, well, let's say they pay pay chair rent.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe their chair rent is 300 pounds a week, 250 pounds, 200 pounds, whatever it is, right?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: They may negotiate with you.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because they may just feel like, we know, well, I can.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or actually, let me take that back a little bit.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because in a situation like that, the reality is this if there's a barber, and I should never let me take that back.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Owners, understand this.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you do chair rental and that barber pays, let's just say 250 pounds a week to your chair rental, and they're busy and they got loads of stuff going on on social media and so on, right?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: But no matter what they do, they pay you 250 pounds a week.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So now if you get another barber there who is half the week busy, not on social media, comes, cuts, goes, right?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: They still pay you 250 pounds a week.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then you have another barber who is quarter the way booked up, they still pay you 250 pounds a week.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the barber with all the notoriety and social media following and so on isn't doing anything extra for you because they still pay exactly the same amount.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if we move over to like a percentage split barber shop or a barber shop where you pay your staff wages, this is when that barber is actually doing something for you.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of barbershop owners who think to themselves, I can't lose this barber, this barber's busy.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're on chair rental, what does it even matter?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're all paying the same amount.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you move over move over to like a percentage split, or in America they call it commission-based barbershop, and wages where you pay someone's wages, this is actually when a fully booked barber actually does a lot for your barber shop because the more haircut they do, the more they cut, the more money they bring in, the more the shop earns.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you are on a percentage split and the shop takes 40%, the barber takes 60%, then you know, if the barber earns£1,000, he or she gets£600, the barber shop takes£400.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: If the barber earns£10,000, then he or she takes£6,000, the barber shop takes£4,000.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So then you're in a situation where it's like, wow, this barber is actually very valuable.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, as a barbershop owner, is to be clear that barber is valuable.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they valuable?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because they work hard and because they bring in a lot of money, so they are valuable, which means that they're gonna be given more, you could say, leeway for certain things because they earn for the shop.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what you don't want to happen is where that particular barber now starts doing things which is against the culture of the shop or the rules of the shop that makes other people think to themselves, oh right, but he or she's getting away with it.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because the barbers on the shop floor do not look at things and say, Oh, well, you know, he or she, you know, makes this much money.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: They just they won't say, you know what, I get it.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: They bring in so much money, so that makes sense.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, what they'll say is, oh, just because they make this much money, what they can wear what they want to wear if you've got uniforms in the shop, or if you've got rules like, you know, let's say profanities, oh, because they make this much money, but they can get away with what you call it.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And all they're gonna do is point to the barber, not barber, to the barbershop owner, and not respect the barbershop owner.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And what they're gonna think to themselves is okay, when the time comes and when they feel that they're valuable, they're gonna start actually acting that same way.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or furthermore, what will actually happen, probably in most cases, is they will start slipping on the rules and the culture of the shop, not as much as that particular barber, because they don't believe they're as valuable as that barber shop as that barber, but they'll start slacking, and that's and the more valuable they get, they're gonna start slacking.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what happens in many barbershops when they're trying to build a culture, trying to build a brand.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: One person becomes valuable because of how much money they bring in and the notoriety they bring to the barber shop, and when they don't want to comply with the rules and the culture of the barber shop, it causes everybody else to do exactly the same thing.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you think that you're winning because of this one barber that's bringing in all this money, but actually, what that one barber is actually doing is it's corrupting your shop.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: So the longevity of your shop is at jeopardy because of this one barber, but that barber brings in quite a bit of money.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So this is why I've learned over the years that is not worth it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you're building a barber shop and building a culture and building, you know, set of rules and a brand, that barber that brings in money, notoriety, whatever it is, right, is not worth corrupting the rest of your shop.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why, if you're gonna be a barbershop owner, you shouldn't be reliant on any particular barber.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think maybe my barbers might be annoyed by that, but as a business owner, you should not be in a position where if one person leaves, or you have to let go of someone, or you're not able to let go of a particular barber because if you do, the business crashes.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why you need to do things like build a list of barbers.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you should be building up like barbers that message you.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: You should be like, okay, cool, they message me.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Look, we got those spaces right now, but let me take your details.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: What's your social media handles?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: What's your name?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: What's your number?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: What's your email address?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: What area do you live?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how long you've been cutting hair?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Take all those details.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've got a spreadsheet full of those things there.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if I ever need a barber and I was going out there, I can go to the spreadsheet and say, okay, let's contact all these people.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now the reality is, most of the time, they'll probably be in other barbershops.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: But if your barber shop is good enough, a lot of times you may just contact someone to say, hey, are you available?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And you may find that someone may say they're not available, but if you're running a really good business, they may be like, Oh, do you know what?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love the opportunity to work at your barber shop.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not me saying go steal barbers from other barbershops.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, not that at all.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying once you got a spreadsheet and you start saying, look, we're looking for a barber, someone will just be like, listen, I'm available, or someone will be like, listen, I'm I'll make myself available because of your shop.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: But in order for them to feel like they want to come to your shop, you need to build a culture and a brand that's almost strict.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't let one barber or two barbers ruin that because they feel overvaluable.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: You may actually have to just let go of that barber and take the loss for the moment.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me make it clear: if you're in a situation where you actually can't do without that barber, then don't let them go.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Business comes first.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is you may be stuck between a rock and a hard place where it's like, well, they're ruining the culture, but at the same time, if I let them go, I can't pay the bills.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's more important in this situation?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have to keep the person and ruin the culture and have to try and repair it later because if they go, I can't pay the bills.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: But you don't want to be in that position as a barbershop owner where it's like I have to keep this person, and this is why when I'm teaching you guys about running a barbershop, the focus is always on the barbershop, not the individuals.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: The barbershop comes first, the individuals second.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you build a good barbershop, what will happen is the barbers will benefit from it, and this is why in my shop it's like, well, we've got a good brand.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So people come into the barber shop not for particular barbers, but for the barbershop experience, for the slider cut studios experience, and then they choose a barber from the selected barbers or the select from the selection of barbers which are there.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: They don't actually come looking for X, Y, Z, Z, D, E, whoever it is, right?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: They just come for slider cut studios because the way the shop has been built and been branded and promoted, it's been like this is the shop to be at.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, yes, I am the face of the brand, I know that.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's better for me that I'm the face of the brand because I'm not gonna be bougie to myself.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna hold myself and say I'm gonna slack, I'm not gonna, you know, put myself up, say I do what I want, you know, because you know, I'm the I'm I'm the face of the shop.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, my focus is on the shop, and my focus is on the barbers getting booked up and bringing in money for the barber shop and themselves.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: My focus is on building a brand.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if you could find a barber like that, great.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: I would say offer them, you know, good deals.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you could find a barber who's like, listen, I'm gonna come there, I'll be the face of it, and they haven't got an ego.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, once it's out of your hands, it's out of your hands, and that is the issue.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not even a barber's thought all the time.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because their friends, their family, their clients are always gonna say, Why are you still here?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Trust me, if you speak to all of my barbers, I can guarantee you, I've got take me out of it, I've got 13, 12 or 13 barbers in the shop.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I bet if we go and ask them, has anyone asked you to open up your own barbershop?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure probably about 90% of them will say yes.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you, the only people that probably haven't had that question will probably be the junior barbers.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I bet you people will say to them, yo, I bet at some point you want to open up your own, you want to open up your own barbershop, right?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: The pressure is always on barbers, you know, it's not even your fault, you just get it all the time.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why when you're running a barbershop, you've got to know that you're up against it.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: People are trying to pull them away from you, people are putting ideas in their head, people are bigging up their egos, people are saying to them, yo, how much you pay a week in rent?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: What that much?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: What's the percentage split you give them?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: What you give them that much?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, how much do they pay you?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: What you pay them that much?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how much you're making for the barbershop?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because it's gonna happen.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to accept that as a barbershop owner, but no one sits in Sainsbury's and says, Do you know how much you're making for Sainsbury's or Mark's suspense's or for JD or for Footlock or whatever business it is, or for Apple?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you're not making, you're not, you're not as impactful in those businesses as you are in a barbershop, 100%.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: But no one's really sitting in other businesses talking about this is how much you're getting paid, but you know how much you've earned the business in the time that you are working through the sales that you've made and so on.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: But you get that in barbering.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a barbershop owner, you need to know that, and this is why you cannot put or let one barber be the vocal point or be the focus in your barber shop because then they start holding you to ransom and then they start, you know, acting a certain way, and then it triples down and creates a toxic environment.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why you need to build up your barber list, and this is why that you need to be the person who's actually focused on how do I grow my social media, spend money on it.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: You may have someone who's got a natural knack in the shop, great for them, good for them.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: But then if you're the barbershop owner, you need to invest money into that side of things because everybody's on social media, so you don't need to know how to use social media, but you should be investing money into okay, how do we build up this barbershop then?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna have to pay a videographer to come in, an editor, and a social media strategist.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: You may think to yourself, why am I paying all that money out?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's important to build up the brand of your shop so that people come to, let's use slidercut studios as the example, to Slidercut Studios for the brand of Slidercut Studios and not for the individual barbers.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm being very serious with you because many barber shops open and they have all these issues and they close down very quickly because the barber left.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh right.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, did you not promote yourself?
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did you not um like why did I shut down the business?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't get any other barbers.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why not?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because I just thought that, you know, he or she would stay, you know, but you know, and this is how they actually talk.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: They'd be like, yo, but you know, they started getting customers, you know.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I helped them out in the beginning, they started getting customers, and now they became big-headed and they thought they're too big for the shop and they left and so on.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: The issue wasn't the barber, the issue was you, the barbershop owner.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: When you believed or you made a barber more important than the actual barbershop, when you put the barber before the barbershop, it should be the barber shop first, and then the barbers should benefit from the things that the barbershop has done.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if the barber shop keeps getting the customers in because you're promoting your own Google, you know, your own social media, all the platforms, you're promoting, you're putting money into it, then what should happen is barbers come to your barbershop and, like, whoa, we got customers coming in, they're benefiting from it.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be that barber's the one bringing everybody in.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: So now they're the face of your business.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So now when they leave, your business closes down.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Many barbershops fail because they do it in the wrong order.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And they've allowed barbers to hold them to ransom.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Trust me, it happens.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I can give you a story.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I used to manage the old barbershop I used to be in, there was a particular barber, right?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Told me one time, can't pay the can't pay the rent, you know, he's not paying the amount it is.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we were in a situation where the shop was just now breaking even.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if this barber shop would have, this barber would have left, what would happen is I would then be paying the excess.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when he said he needs to drop the rent, it wasn't by a lot, but it was like maybe like 15 pounds.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the issue was he didn't need to drop the rent, he just realized that we couldn't let go of him because he had worked this out basically.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: He just exercised his power and I had to accept it.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because I was like, whoa, 15 pounds or the whole hundred and something pounds.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I did that.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember that feeling of feeling thinking, like, I never want that to happen again.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: I never want to be in that situation where someone can do that.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's a difference.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: If someone comes because they're in a tough situation and they're asking for a favor, that's different because the power is still with the barbershop and you're granting them that favor.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: But when someone's holding you to ransom by saying, Well, I'm basically I'm leaving if you don't do this, then the power's with them.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: If that was to happen to me now, and there's no ego, if that was to happen to me now and someone tried to hold me to ransom now, no, you can leave instead.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I focus on the barbershop and I know the barbershop gives value to all the barbers.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I always tell my barbers this: I need the individuals in the barbershop.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I need barbers working, but I don't particularly need any particular barber in the shop working, and that's how it should be as a barbershop.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't need any individual, but you should need the individuals because you can't do it by yourself.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the way you put yourself in that position is by focusing on the barbershop and making sure that the barbershop is the entity that is bringing in the customers, it's providing the value, it's providing comfort for the clients and the barbers.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on building your barbershop, and through the barbershop, the individuals will be built up.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: But when you focus and leave it to individuals, you're building their business up and they're gonna leave and part ways with you, which they can do, and it's in their right to do so, and then your business is gonna be the one that's drowning.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, barbershop owners, this is a strong warning to you.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna open up a barbershop or you have a barbershop right now, and you've got that method where there is already an individual that is dictating and so on, start working on building your barbershop up.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you start making money from your barbershop, reinvest it into the barbershop, into the brand of the barbershop, into the promotion of the barbershop.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Put yourself everywhere, especially if you're a barber yourself, you know, use your haircuts if it needs be.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're not a barber yourself and you're a barbershop owner, then put money into the barbers, spread it around with the junior barbers, you know.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Get social media people in, film everybody, the head barber, the junior barber, the senior barbers, everybody.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Spread it across, build a culture around the shop, not the individual.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you do not find yourself in a situation where one barber can hold you to ransom and do what they want or leave and make your business crash.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: This has been another episode of The Slider Cuts.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is Ownership Podcast, where I talk all things barber, ownership, and beyond.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've enjoyed this episode, let me know in the comments.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are a barber shop owner who wants to learn how to run their business better, then join my community, my community group, which is called the School of Owners.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: The link is in the description.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if I if you I see you inside, or should I say if you join, I'll see you inside.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, then you can see me here next week.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.