Latest / SliderCuts This Is Ownership Podcast / HOW MY BARBERSHOP MADE OVER ONE MILLION POUND

Transcript

HOW MY BARBERSHOP MADE OVER ONE MILLION POUND · SliderCuts This Is Ownership Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is how my barber shop, Slidercut Studios, made over£1 million in the last year.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been watching my podcast, then you would know I talk about the realness of running a business.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I call it this is ownership because I want to school you guys about what you should be doing, what you shouldn't be doing, the mistakes I've made.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: But today I want to talk about the good things I've done and how did I get my business to be so popular that it's grossed over 1 million pounds.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't know who I am already, my name is Mark Mackyver, and this is the Slider Cuts podcast.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is Ownership, where I talk all things barbering, ownership, and beyond.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And today I want to talk about the main things that I did to get the barbershop so popular that we got so many clients coming in and it's grossing as much as one million pounds.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get straight into it.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, in no particular order, but first of all, I chose a good location.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's a good location?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: A good location for me, and I think for just to be honest, majority of businesses would be one that's easy to get to.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I made sure that the barber shop was in a location where there was good public transport links.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So where my shop is, we've got like basically almost right outside the shop with the bus stops.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's like two buses that go there, right?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: But if you walk to the bottom of the street, which it takes you about, I don't know, five minutes, four or five minutes, we've got another like maybe seven, eight, ten buses that go there, that go all around London.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for those who don't know, my barber shop is in East London, um, off Shoreditch High Street.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got buses that go all over London, West London, South London, obviously in East London, North London.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So good public transport links.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I'm right next to Hoxton Station.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: We've also got Cambridge Heath on our on our road.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: We've also got at the other end um Old Street Station and even about a 20 to 25 minute walk away, Liverpool Street Station.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got good public transport, so it's easy to get to, as well as I put the barbershop in a place where the demographic of people that we were going to be serving, mainly anyway, lived and worked in that area.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I did a census before I opened up this shop or before I found this location and signed the document to say yes, I'll take it.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, who lives in this area?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's no point of just putting your barbershop in an area that is a nice location in the sense of it looks good, it's a nice area, you know, it's got trees around the place.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, as a business, you serve someone.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the general person that you serve, where do they live and where do they work?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's what I did.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew that well, I had loads of clients that were in the city, you know, around Margate, Liverpool Street, and so on, but they could never get their haircuts on their lunch break because there was no barbershops local.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they used to always say to me when I was working in my previous barbershop that I wish there was a barbershop near us because my counterparts, you know, they go to the get their haircuts during their lunch breaks, and we can't do that.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So when I chose my location, I was like, okay, cool, great.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the main clients that I'm serving are black people, you know.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: We cut white people, Asian, Turkish, Mediterranean, and so on.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: But my main targeted demographic is black people because that's what I specialise in Afro hair.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, right, where I'm putting this barbershop, the community around it, there's loads of black people that live in and around that area, so they can walk to the barbershop, right?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So great, it's a good location for people to get to from the local community, but as well as that, people working in the city can get here as well easily.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, even if you don't live in the area, the public transport is amazing, so it's easy to get to.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really the first thing that I did, just looked at location.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Point two of things which I did, and remember this, guys.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Please, this is in no particular order.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So this is not me saying, Okay, this is number one thing I did, then this is number two.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just putting them in this order, but not to particularly say this is the most important thing.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing was the location, accessibility to people.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, promotion.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I promoted before I even opened up my barbershop, right?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was heavily promoting my haircut so people knew who I was, but especially even after I opened up the barbershop, for the first like five years, up until recently, like we've we've been open now for about eight years, so up until about maybe two years ago, so let's say the first six years, I heavily put out haircuts.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I put out about five to seven haircut pieces of content on social media every week, and I was focused on that.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I was focused on that because I was focused on the thing that we were selling.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that at the time, I used to always knew that.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that you know, if I did sketches, it got more engagement, it got more laughter, more likes, more views, everything.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: I knew there were certain things I could do that would build my engagement more and build up my following.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, I want to focus on the thing that we're selling, so I want to be synonymous with good haircuts.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So when people think about slider cuts, they think about good haircuts, and also because we were selling haircuts, the barbers were selling haircuts, I'm selling haircuts, you know.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Forget my personal brand of Mark MacIver, but the business is selling haircuts.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I just doubled down on all platforms, you know, whether it was, you know, just all the social media platforms, I was on every I'm still on it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was and still am on every platform, even some of the ones you don't realize, like Google.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was posting my haircuts on Google, you know, Google My Business so that you know people could see it, you know, YouTube and so on, like every social media platform I was on there, just promoting heavily.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's important to understand that if you're going to be you know, open up a barber shop, make sure you promote the thing that you're selling.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to do all the other content, it's good to do, you know, some community building content where let's get to know the barbers.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: That stuff is good.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: We did all those things there, but the main thing I focused on was just haircuts, so that's number two.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that's the second best thing to make it clear again, I'm saying that is number two.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, number three, I grabbed opportunities.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is an important thing as well because opportunities are things that you can't always prepare for, they just happen and you need to respond.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I just responded to opportunities that came.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you an example of a couple of opportunities.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the first opportunity I'm going to tell you about, first of all, is like it's a sad situation, but I also grabbed the opportunity without even fully knowing it.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just giving you the heads up.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's a sad situation in lockdown, which was sad because so many people lost their lives in lockdown.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't me saying at the time, well, you know, lockdown's happening, I can grab an opportunity right now.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: But there was something I did during lockdown that elevated Slidercut Studios in a massive way, and I didn't even realize I was doing it until afterwards, and that was I was posting every day in lockdown.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think there was only three days out of lockdowns out of three, four-month periods where I didn't post.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was posting every day.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: What I was doing was I was creating content, so I was doing first of all haircut tutorials, self-haircut tutorials, where I was putting it online on different social media platforms, teaching people how to cut their own hair, which a lot of people said they learned how to cut their own hair from these videos, right?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that was one, but also I was repurposing my old content that I had been, you know, making over the years.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I took those videos and I was re-editing them and I was teaching people how to cut hair.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I didn't realize I was doing at the time was I was building up a new audience and also I was building up new clients because during lockdown, all the barbers went quiet.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they were putting out maybe some content talking about how hard you know lockdown was and so on, but when it came to barbering content, nobody was posting, but I was posting every day, and I didn't realize at the time that what happened was so much people that were really looking forward to getting a haircut and really wanting a haircut, first of all, was watching my content to learn how to cut hair, as well as getting things like their partner or brother or sister to cut their hair by following my tutorials.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: But on top of that, they were just interested in the idea of haircuts, not idea, they were just interested in watching the haircuts.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So when lockdown ended, we gained so many new clients because for a few months there were no competitors because I was the only one posting, and when I say I was the only one, there may have been a couple other people, but I don't know who they were if they were, I don't know who they are.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I was the only one posting content about haircuts.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: So people, when they lockdown ended, they were like, as soon as lockdown ends, I'm going to Slidercut Studios to get a haircut.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so many clients told me this.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, Yeah, we came because of all the content we saw during lockdown.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So they were like, as soon as lockdown's over, we are going to Slidercut Studios to get a haircut.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I grabbed the opportunity that I didn't even realize was an opportunity.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: But this is this is just being an owner, you know, running business.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: You just need to grab the opportunities, even if you don't know.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are selling something, my advice to you would be sell it even when nobody's buying.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Promote it even when you think nobody's watching, put it out there even when you think nobody's interested.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because when I put all of that work out there, when we came back to Sidecut Studios, first of all, the first week, two weeks, three weeks, I knew it was gonna be busy.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Every barbershop was gonna be busy, but after that, I was just like, rah, there's all these new clients coming in, and they just and when we're asking them, they just said, Yeah, you know what?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was watching you in lockdown, I was watching you online, and you know what?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was just like, when lockdown's over, we're coming to you to get a haircut.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I grabbed the opportunity.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Other opportunities would be things like you may get like, especially in the beginning of me opening up Cidercut Studios, there were these kind of like opportunities we got to go and do like fashion shows and so on.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these things don't pay, I'm not gonna say they don't pay well.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: What I'd say is they don't pay as much as I or my barbers were earning.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: But these are a good thing, you can create content out of it, and when you put it out there that you're doing Louis Vuitton and Burberry and Dior and so on, it pushes your brand.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not knocking them saying these aren't big opportunities, but I feel that online when people are watching it, it looks a lot bigger than it actually is, and what it means is it's just like how can I explain it?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you're in it and you're working and it's long days and you're waking up early and so on, it's work.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: But when you see the picture, it looks like wow, you were at Burberry, you were at Louis Vuitton, you were at Dior, you were doing these things there, and obviously the finished show is always good, but the work behind it isn't glamorous, it's work, you know.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you know, you're going to these shows, it's like, okay, cool.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: You get I'm getting to Paris, as example, late at night, then it's like, okay, cool, you're waking up about four in the morning because we're gonna have to be out at 5 a.m.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: or whatever it is, and then you're working the whole day and so on, and it's like make sure you know, grab the picture at the end, do some content so we can put it out there because it pushes your brand.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So grab opportunities, and the opportunities that will come, you may not be prepared for them, but grab the opportunity and make sure you're always just pushing yourself, which kind of connects with marketing and promotion.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: The next point, which I think I'm on number four, and this one is key to be honest.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: In the business, I served both the clients and the barbers.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is key.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: So my whole goal was to make sure that the clients got the experience that I wanted them to get and they wanted, and the barbers got the things that they wanted, which was ultimately they wanted to make money.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, whenever a barber comes to my shop, I always sit, you know, sit down with them or I'm on the phone and I speak to them and I always ask them this question.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I say, ideally, how much would you like to take home from cutting hair?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I always say this to them, I say, look, obviously, you may say a million pounds, but let's be realistic.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just say a million pounds.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I said, How much would you actually like to take home?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: What would you really be like?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: What's your goal?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever a barber tells me that, my goal is to make sure they hit that target and more.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I mean by serving the barber.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, okay, cool, I need to do what I need to do to make sure that you take home the money that you have aimed to take home.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that means through promotion and all these other things, making sure that clients are coming in, maybe sending out emails to get clients to come in.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm my goal is to always make sure that happens.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, I can say every single barber that works at Slidercut Studios has hit that target and gone beyond that.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Every single barber.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's take away new barbers.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: We got like a new barber that just started, and he told me he's what he wants to make, and this was about a month and a half ago, and I think he's almost hit it already.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: In a month and a half, two months, he's already, I think he's already almost hit it that mark.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: So in my head, I'm always like, okay, I want to make sure that they hit that.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's other things as well to serve the barbers, making it comfortable, making my barber shop comfortable for them.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got like a staff room that has a microwave, has a cooker, has areas to hang up your jackets, your bags, has a seating area, has cupboards, has a you know, fridge freezer, has a washing machine and a dryer.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just you know, a place that people sometimes just go to the back and just chill, you know.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've made it a comfortable environment for them.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So when I mean serving your barbers, it's kind of like making sure that you know they hit the targets they want to hit and helping them do that, but also just creating a nice environment.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like you know, a few years ago when it became really popular to post high-quality pictures of haircuts.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I bought for the shop a good camera and I left it in the shop for anyone to use.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what I mean by serving the barbers, making sure that this place is somewhere that you're like, yeah, actually, you know, I earn money, you know, it's comfortable, you know, it's a nice environment, the owner cares, you know, we've got a nice staff room, you know, just things like that.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just serving the barbers, as well as you know, the odd outing, which the business covers, you know, let's just go out, yeah.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: The business covers it.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just serving the barbers.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you serve, no, or that's how I have served the barbers.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to serving the clients, making sure they're getting good haircuts, making sure they're coming into a nice clean environment, making sure that they are heard.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have refunded so many clients because they weren't happy with the service or they weren't happy with the haircuts.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's the odd time I tell the barbers, because sometimes it's like, okay, barbers, you really need to kind of like work on this.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is what the client said, you know, and the barbers will be like, hands up, yeah, refund the client.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: When the barbers clear about what they've done, it's like hands up, you know, I missed the appointment, or you know, look at the picture of this haircut, hands up.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: But there's other times where it's just kind of like it's like, mmm, is the barber right?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is the client right?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be like, Do you know what?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Apologize to the client, I will pay.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's fine.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an example.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: This happened the other day.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: A client came in.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I should maybe I shouldn't say this because if I say this, people are just gonna try and do this, but I'm not doing this for any more people.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna say this story, but I'm not doing this, I'm not doing this for any more people, right?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But a client came in, he hadn't been here, hadn't been in the shop for a couple years.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: He came in and said, Yeah, something had happened where he said, you know, I had told him he's gonna get a free haircut, but this is like two, three years ago.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: He said that, but he showed me the message actually.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, he showed me the message actually.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Look, sorry, your appointment has to be cancelled because something has happened.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: He showed me the message from the receptionist.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is like three years ago, and we said that we're going to reschedule him and he'll get a free haircut.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: But he said he'd been traveling, so you know, he's only just come back now.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, who's the barber?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: We can't remember who the barber is, but he's just got a haircut with one of the barbers in the shop.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So he's like, Oh, can he still get that free haircut?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Well, we promised him that, so he has to get it.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I says, I just said, okay, I just said to the receptionist, look, this is what we're gonna do.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: We fund him for this haircut he's paid for.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: So there's your free haircut, and I will pay the barber directly for that haircut.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Simple.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Was it because the barber was supposed to, I think, give him the free haircut, but in the message it didn't say which barber it was it.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just said, Don't worry about it.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take the loss.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's not even a loss, but I'll take the hit.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's plenty of situations like this where it happens all the time.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's other situations where the client isn't happy, maybe they feel like you know the barber's being a bit off.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I may speak to the barber, the barber's like, Oh no, that's not what happened.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's cool.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'll cover it.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: A situation happened, I'll give you one more example.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: A situation happened the other day where a client wasn't happy with um a barber, and they were talking about the timekeeping.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: They messaged or called me, or they called the shop.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I spoke to them on the phone, they were just telling me the situation.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: The barber said slightly something different, it was similar, but he was just saying it wasn't he wasn't that late, and so on.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the client wasn't happy, right?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I just did was I apologize to the client.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Look, I apologize, and basically something had happened where they're saying the lateness of the barber has caused an issue in their life and for them to lose out on something.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I refunded them the haircut to apologize.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I refunded them two haircuts actually, and then I paid for them to rectify the problem that there was.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not getting into it, but the thing that happened, I'm not gonna go into the price of what it was, but the thing that happened that they lost out on because they said they were late.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I paid because basically I spoke to them and said, Okay, is there a way we can rectify it?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a way you can maybe get that opportunity back?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Look, if you speak to these people, can you ask them how much would it cost if they were to come out now and do this thing for you that you need to do?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: They spoke to the person, they said, Look, it's gonna cost this much money.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Cool, no worries, send me your bank details, I'll pay for it.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Did that.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is just an example, and this is not for me.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to be like, look at the stuff I'm doing.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just talking about what I'm doing to make sure that we are serving the clients correctly.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Even though sometimes you will find running a barber shop, the barbers like, no, that's not what happened.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: This happened, that happened, blah blah.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just trying to serve the client, and through doing that, we have retained obviously given good haircuts, good customer service, and we're not getting like complaints every day.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: But when things go wrong, how do you deal with it?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's easy to say we're perfect, and you know, when you know things go wrong, we would do this, but nothing ever goes wrong, or no one complains to you, or when things are great, you know, you're the best.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: But how do you respond and act when things do go wrong?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm so customer focused.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I did a post the other day when I'm saying I would never hold a client back from going with the barber he or she wants to go with.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: If a if a barber leaves my shop or gets fired, whatever it is, if a barber gets fired and the clients want the details to that barber that's left, I'm gonna give it to the clients.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because why am I holding the clients from going with the barber they want?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are customer first.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if the client enjoys that barber's haircuts, then take that barber's details and follow that barber.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Customer focused.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: I care about the barber.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: I care about the barber, but I care about the client.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this has actually helped me to actually retain clients and build clients because people will talk and say, Yeah, do you know what?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: This happened, you know.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Today I got a refund, you know.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's happened.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'd listen, I'll leave you with one more thing as well when it comes to um an example.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about this story before, but I messed up a client before, right?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Put my hands up.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a haircut, right?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: His shape up kind of bends down.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to this, just it's got it's like a rainbow.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're watching, you can see the angle at which I'm doing.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a rainbow, it drops down, right?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he cuts with another barber in my shop.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I saw him getting that haircut all the time.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I used to always think to myself, his hairline should be straightened out instead.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: So one day, anyway, he books with me because his barber's unavailable.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yes, I'm excited, like, yes, not excited, but I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna smash it today, I'm gonna show him how his hairline should be.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I cut him, give him his drop fade, he's fade, and I straighten out his hairline.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, great, done, you know, straighten it out.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Later on that day, he leaves a horrible, horrible, horrible review talking about he's supposed to, I'm supposed to be the head barber, I messed him up, I shouldn't be cutting hair.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: He was just going in.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: I called him, right?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey, this is Mark from the barbershop.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I saw your review.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think he thought I was calling to be, I don't know, angry or something.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Look, hey, just first of all, let you know, apologies, I sorry.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I saw the review and I want to say sorry.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, What I'm about to say to you isn't for you so that you take down the review.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: I said, keep the review there.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I actually said to him, keep the review there because it's good for people to see true reviews of the experiences people have in my shop.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What I'm gonna do for you is I'm gonna refund you.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or I said I've already refunded you for that haircut to say sorry, you know.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because he said he because he said in a thing as well, he peeled back my hairline, he took it so far back, this and that, so on.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, So sorry about that, I've refunded you.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: I said, also, what I'm doing for you is I'm gonna pay for your next two haircuts with your original barber that you normally book with to say sorry.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he was just like, Oh, oh, oh, okay, okay.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Listen, I'm doing these things because you weren't happy with it, and I understand.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And to make it clear, I said, I'm not telling you to take down any of those reviews, do not edit it, do not take it down.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: I said, leave it there, and I just want to say sorry about that.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Okay, cool.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: He ended up, he ended up taking it down, even though I told him not to.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: But this is just another example where I've said I want to serve the clients.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: So whether it's me that's done something wrong or the barbers that's done something wrong, ultimately it's my business.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to serve the clients.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I've given you these like four things I think I've mentioned, right?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's other little things, but these four things, right, have been really major in growing slider cut studios to gross over one million pounds.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it might not be the direct hack you might have been thinking at the beginning, thinking, Oh, do you know what?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: If I do this, I can no hacks, no, it's just about running your business correctly.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I've run the business correctly, I have served clients, I have served the barbers, I've taken ownership when things are wrong, I've grabbed opportunities when they've come, I put my barbershop in an amazing location so that people can walk there, take public transport, and get to there.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: And another thing I'm gonna leave you with actually is I've made it easy for people to book.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: People can call up the shop and speak to a receptionist, they can book online, they can come into the shop or book.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the major thing there is having a booking system.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: It means that people, wherever they're at, don't have to worry about will we get back to them, will we pick up the phone, will I respond?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, they can just book.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: That has been major because people will be in another country and booking us.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: People will be in another time zone and like listen, I'm going to go to London in three weeks, I'm gonna book my haircut right now.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Having a booking system makes life so much easier, and you get more bookings having a booking system than you would just having people call up.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: But because we've opened up across the board, come to the shop, call up the shop, book online, it means that we've made it easy for people to book.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, we've served the people that work in the shop and served the clients that come into the shop, and this is ownership learning how to run business properly, how to serve your clients, how to serve your staff.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, I am a servant to everyone in my business that comes in and works in the business.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think once you understand that you're a servant, it becomes a lot easier to actually serve people.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if you serve people correctly, you'll see your clients will keep coming and coming back, new clients will come in, and you will earn more money.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, leaving you with this I've just served people and tried to serve people correctly from location, convenience, account taking accountability and making life easier for people as well as comfortable.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: This has been another episode of The Slider Cuts.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is Ownership Podcast, where I talk all things barbering, ownership, and beyond.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've enjoyed it, let me know in the comments.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a barbershop owner who wants to know how to run their business even better, join my school of owners, barbershop owners, owner, community group.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: The link is in the description.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And if you join, I'll see you inside.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, then you can see me here next week.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or listen.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.