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N.B.L.B: No Barber Left Behind
The Barber Bible 101 Learn the "Business" Part of the Barber Business
By Shahid R. Shabazz AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2015 Shahid R. Shabazz
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5049-2239-5
CHAPTER 1
"GETTING STARTED"
IS THIS FOR ME?
You must first find out if you have chosen the right profession. Is barbering really for you?
1) Do you enjoy working at an establishment where everyday is the same and the people don't change?
2) Do you enjoy working where you must take lunch when the clock or boss says its lunchtime?
3) Do you enjoy working where you can be replaced for any small reason?
4) Do you enjoy working everyday but only getting paid once a week or bi-weekly after the government and every other agency has taken out the amount of money they want, instead of getting paid everyday?
If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, or if you just don't have a steady hand, then the barber business may not be for you. But if you enjoy networking and talking to people from different walks of life, if you enjoy laughing and having fun while you work, if you love having the freedom of controlling your own destiny, hours and money, then the barber business might just be your calling.
Cutting hair and the Barber business are two different things. It's kind of like the difference in making a baby and raising a child. Anybody with clippers can cut hair but it takes a special person with a special gift to be in the barber business and live the "Barber Life". It takes patience, consistency, dedication, and oh yeah.....a license.
MIND YOUR BUSINESS
You must obtain the proper licenses and credentials needed to operate your own business. In order to practice barbering in the United States, you must have a valid Barber license obtained through the state in which you will operate your business. Other required (some are mandatory, depending on your State) credentials are:
1) FEDERAL TAX ID # obtained from the Internal Revenue Service. (Log onto www. irs.gov and download form SS-4).
2) BUSINESS LICENSE obtained from the city/county in which you will operate your business.
3) SALES TAX ID # for product retail sales.
4) PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY INSURANCE to protect yourself from any possible lawsuits.
5) BUSINESS BANK ACCOUNT to separate your business and personal finances.
6) ATTORNEY to handle any and all of your legal matters.
7) ACCOUNTANT to keep up with your taxes and to help control your financial health.
8) HEALTH AND DENTAL INSURANCE to stay alive to continue working.
Once you have all of your licenses and credentials, you are ready to start your business and move on to the next step. This is an exciting time because it means that you have now been included in an elite group of people called Entrepreneurs. This title comes with alot of responsibility so make sure you learn all that you can, you've already made a great step by purchasing this book. Oh how great it is to be called an Entrepreneur.
**ASK YOURSELF ...
IS THE BARBER BUSINESS FOR ME?
~Do I want to be dedicated to this?
~Will I be patient enough to nurture my business until it grows?
~Will I get my License and do something right in my life?
CHAPTER 2
"WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT vs WHAT YOUR CLIENTS EXPECT OF YOUR BARBERING BUSINESS"
WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT
As a barber, you should expect alot out of your profession but there are 2 things that are most important. The first, of course, is to make money. The quicker you build your clientele, the quicker you will start to make your money. The next is to build your business so you can keep your money coming and staying in your pocket.
**BARBERSHOP ATMOSPHERE- The atmosphere of the shop you select is very important to how much money you can make because it will determine the type of clientele you will attract. If you choose a shop that has a professional atmosphere, then more than likely you will grow a healthy professional clientele. If you choose a shop that has loud music and always smell like weed, then more than likely you will have a younger clientele. Make sure you select a shop that has the kind of atmosphere that will fit the clients you want. Keep in mind that the types of clients you service will determine the type of prices, services and income you bring in. Many Barbers complain that customers only want to pay cheap prices but don't provide any professionalism for customers to want to pay more for.
**BARBER ETIQUETTE- The etiquette and attitude of a Barber is very important and can affect the way your clients and possible customers perceive you and your business which ultimately will determine how much money you will make. When clients choose you as their Barber, they have certain expectations and when those expectations are not met then their view of you as a professional will begin to change.
There are several ways to make money in this profession aside from cutting hair. You can sell products to your clients, shampoo your clients' hair, teach classes, make instructional dvds, win barber battles and hair competitions, just to name a few.
You can set one price for just cutting hair, but when you provide additional services, you take your income to the next tax bracket. If your clients' hair is greasy or dirty then you should be shampooing their hair for a few extra dollars. Bring on a shampoo girl to help you if you have a healthy clientele so you can keep your line moving. Her task will be to shampoo your clients' hair while you get started on your next client in line. You can work out a system so she can get a certain dollar amount or percent of the additional shampoo cost..ex. - if your haircuts are $15, you can charge an extra $5 to the service and give her $3 and you keep $2, or vice versa. She should also be knowledgeable of the type of products you offer in order to educate your clients on their scalp or hair condition, while trying to sell them your products to fix them. You should be offering to sell your clients products that they need to maintain a healthy scalp and a healthy head of hair.
Charge what you're worth. Barbers make money from performing services on clients, the more you charge, the more you suppose to make. We can't keep the same prices forever, so how do you suppose to get a pay increase? Your clients get a "cost of living" increase at their job, so why not you? Most companies give their employees a 3%-5% increase in pay each year. You, as a Barber, must figure out a way to give yourself a well deserved raise like the rest of the world. The difference in the rest of the world and Barbers are that you must give yourself a raise instead of getting it from your boss. To make sure you are charging correctly, find out how much other Barbers are charging in your area and compete, not charge less, but compete accordingly. Do yourself a favor and remember to raise your prices every year, this is your career.
It is no way, as a barber, that you should see an unhealthy scalp or hair condition without first addressing it, then educating your client as to what the condition is and what they need to do to treat the condition. That's like going to the doctor with a rash, the doctor sees it, recognizes it as being a rash and sends you home with no prescription or medicine to treat it. You would probably switch doctors immediately, since its a million doctors out there. Just like your clients can do when they experience a barber who truly doesn't know how to take care of and/or make them aware of their hair condition. I've gained several clients by telling them the proper things about how to treat their individual hair needs that their previous barber over looked.
You can get paid for your knowledge and experience, regardless if its teaching advance skill classes, business classes, tools of the trade classes, etc. You can make instructional DVDs that show people different haircuts, styles and techniques and you can sell them to people who may not be as skillful as you. Knowledge is power and people are getting paid well for their knowledge. Why can't you do the same after you get experience and knowledge?
The next thing every Barber should expect out of their business is to grow their business, but to grow your business you must first understand "BUSINESS".
**DOCTORS SEE A PROBLEM, THEY FIX IT ... MECHANIC SEE A PROBLEM THEY FIX IT ... THE BARBERING PROFESSION IS NO DIFFERENT**
WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS EXPECT
Your customers will expect certain things from you and your barbering business that you will need to provide. They will expect all the basic things that all businesses should be able to provide: flexible business hours, a business phone, consistent prices, a stocked inventory, accept several forms of payment, professional customer service, an internet presence, advertisement, and adequate parking. You are a business and these few things are just basic business expectations that you must make yourself feel obligated to provide or you will forever be viewed as someone hustling haircuts instead of a barber in the barber business. There are a few basic business pointers in chapter 1.
FLEXIBLE BUSINESS HOURS- As a Barber, you are responsible for setting your own business hours, so make sure when you set your hours, that you stick by them. For example, if you tell your clients that you work from 9am-6pm, you should be available during those hours. Plenty of Barbers set hours of operation but don't show up to work until their first appointment, regardless if thats when they set their hours or not. For example, your business cards state that you start your day at 9am but you don't show up to work until 12:30 because you don't have any appointments. This is not good business and can cause you to loose some good clients, or miss potential clients. If you want to work by appointment only, that's fine but you have to be disciplined enough to do it and you should advertise as such on your business cards. *more info in Chapter 7 about appointments vs walk ins.
BUSINESS PHONE- Many Barbers use the phone provided by the Barbershop they work in as their own business phone number. Although the shop may allow you to receive calls at the shop, it does not mean that they have to take messages or schedule appointments for you, that is your responsibility. It is your responsibility to provide your contact info to your customers so that they can reach you when they need you. If you are renting a booth in a Barbershop, I advise you to have a cell phone and keep the same number as long as you're in business.
CONSISTENT PRICES- Many Barbers give people discounts and breaks for several different reasons, this can help and it can hurt your business. If a client is bringing more clients to you, then it is good business to compensate them somehow since they are doing more for your business than your business cards, that you paid for, do. Do not charge people one price one week and then a couple dollars more the following week, you must stay consistent.
A STOCKED INVENTORY- You are an independent contractor, which means that you are responsible for keeping an inventory of products you need to service your customers. It is very important to have all the products you need to complete your client from start to finish. It is not professional to have to borrow or even worse, have to run to the beauty supply store in the middle of a cut.
ACCEPT SEVERAL FORMS OF PAYMENT- I am aware that cash rules everything around us but in this day and age, the credit/debit card has replaced the power of a dollar to alot of people. Alot of people now a days don't carry cash on them at all, some people don't even see cash in their life due to direct deposits, checks, debit/credit, money orders, paypal, etc., so you have to make payment as convenient as possible for your clients in todays society. Your customers will expect you to have a price list and consistent prices, so make sure a shape up isn't $10 this week and then $12 next week. That's a sure way to lose customers. Your Barbershop should have a credit card machine to accept debit/credit cards, but regardless if they do or they don't, you should have one for your business. There are several options to doing this, you can get a merchant account through your bank, you can call one of the million merchant companies out here or you can get a personal one that plugs right into your cell phone. Accepting credit/debit cards as a form of payment can increase your revenue by 40%.
GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE- (Read Chapter 11)
INTERNET PRESENCE AND ADVERTISEMENT- (Read Chapter 4 and Chapter 6)
If you work a typical 9 to 5 kind of job for a million dollar company, more than likely you don't have but up to three times of being late to work before you are looking for another job. You don't have but so many times to mistreat customers or co-workers. You don't have but so many times to come back from lunch late, to talk back, etc. So what do you do? You do what you must do to keep your job, you show up early or at least on time, you call in if you are going to be late, you come back on time from lunch and other breaks then you go home, and why? Why do you do this? You do it because you respect your job enough to keep it so you can keep your bills paid, right? RIGHT?
Well you need to respect YOUR Barber business the same way you respect that major corporation's business. You need to show up to work on time, you don't need to take long breaks, you need to treat people with respect and go home, practice the same things that the million dollar companies practice. Do not get the "I work for myself so that gives me the authority to come to work whenever I want" mentality, that is the first attitude of a person who's business will not survive.
Nobody was born a great barber, it's going to take time to perfect your skills and time to build your business and even more time to build a clientele. Watching instructional DVDs or watching experienced, licensed barbers cut hair and asking questions is the most boring but best way to better your hair cutting skills and your barber business. Don't worry about speed, it doesn't matter if you're not getting people in and out of your chair faster than the other barbers. Perfect your business and the hair cutting part first, the speed will come through time and through building a clientele that you will eventually become very familiar with. It will also take time to build your clientele, you're the new barber and nobody wants to gamble on a jacked up haircut, so you must be patient during this process also. How fast you build your clientele will be up to you. (You will pick up several tips on building and maintaining your clientele later in Chapters 4 and 5)..
**TIP -- The dependable barber builds a clientele by clients knowing the he/she will be at the shop every time they need services. This barber my not even be the best in the shop, but he/she is ALWAYS in the shop. Set hours that are realistic for you to stick to.
**TIP -- One of the worst things you can do is to change your phone #, a business phone # should be permanent, like a tattoo.
CHAPTER 3
"THE GAME HAS CHANGED, ARE YOU KEEPING UP"
PARADIGM SHIFT
A "paradigm shift" is when there is a discontinuity in the regular system that creates a whole new way of doing things. Examples of paradigm shifts are home phones to cell phones, fax machines to emails, encyclopedias to google, etc. The automobile was another discontinuity that transformed both the economy and society forever.
The paradigm changes in the barbering profession are things like when we elevated from hand held clippers to electric clippers, free styling hair cutting to licenses and regulations, business cards, flyers and word of mouth to social media.
Hand held clippers to electric clippers was probably the greatest change to date in our profession. This took the haircut quality and speed up to another level. Our profession continues to elevate everyday, the product lines are constantly making new and better products to either make it easier or faster for barbers to work on their clients, so keep up by educating yourself. The best way to do this is to attend hair shows/Barber battles and take advantage of the classes, read hair books, talk to experienced professionals, and research online as to what new products companies are bringing out and also what barbers in other areas are using. New information comes out regularly in the beauty industry that may or may not be included in the books you have in barber schools. ex. Alcohol is bad for black and latin skin ... ex. Hair Dusters are one of the items that you put on client after client without sterilizing, this makes it easy to spread germs, infections and bacteria.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from N.B.L.B: No Barber Left Behind by Shahid R. Shabazz. Copyright © 2015 Shahid R. Shabazz. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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