If you've ever had a bad barbershop experience, it will make you appreciate great barbers even more. Great barbers are hard to come by, and they're frequently booked because everybody knows how talented they are. 

TECHNICAL SKILLS

There is no way around it: A talented barber is a great barber. Look for a barber who has a lot of experience and consistently gives excellent haircuts. A great barber would be knowledgeable in a range of techniques, have a keen eye for detail, and be able to work with clients with various hair types and styles. A great barber would be skilled at doing a variety of haircuts, and versatility is a vital aspect of any barber's abilities.

ADAPTABILITY

Barbers with talent and confidence are important, but great barbers are also adaptable and eager to learn. Hairstyles and patterns evolve, and a great barber can only remain great if he or she can keep up with them and embrace new ones.

A NEAT STORE

Great barbers take pride in their shops, which is a common trait among them. Although things can get a little messy during a haircut, you may rest assured that a good barber will sweep and clean up after each one. Look for a shop that is tidy, clean, and well-stocked with well-maintained equipment. Hair should not be piled under a chair, and tools should not be strewn around on counters.

A barber who keeps his shop clean demonstrates that he cares about his customers and his company. When barbershop tools are properly stored, arranged, and cared for, a barber may locate them in seconds and be confident that they will work well during any haircut.

Most of us learned to build from an early age. We built forts with friends, sandcastles at the beach, mud pies in the backyard or at the park. At some point in our lives we envisioned a structure and made our imaginations a reality. We learned that barbers were builders as well-- teaching us the art of taking a blank canvas and crafting an entire haircut with just tools and an extensive imagination. Many people never stop to look back and ask a very necessary question, how did this get here? The building, the chairs, the name, the smell of hair products, even the brooms tucked away in the supply closet. 

Building a business is a series for barbers who’ve housed a dream to establish themselves as a business or business owners, and are looking for answers to questions about starting a successful business. The series will cover a multitude of concepts and ideas that go into building and maintaining a business and expert tips throughout the process. Today we will start at the beginning: The Blueprint. 

The Blueprint

When we build houses, we use a blueprint to secure the frame. It’s a detailed map of how things should look and requires a detailed analysis of the “factual to secure the actual.” As barbers, hoping to build our own business we need to think about our “factual.” We need to start by asking ourselves three simple questions:

Before we start networking and talking about the details in our business, we need to answer these three questions. We can think about this as setting the frame for the picture we are trying to paint. If we don’t know who's going to want what we’re offering and how we’re going to get it to them, then we don’t have the basic foundation to continue our journey. Let’s look at an example of a current successful company, Zay’s Barber Supply, and their answers to the following prompts. 

1. Elite Barber Tools (What am I offering?)
2. Barbers worldwide (Who am I offering it to?)
3. Online-brand shop (How am I offering it?)

Looking at their model, we can see that they’ve established themselves by anchoring their business within these three concepts and then ensuring that this information is readily available to anyone curious about their brand. 

The answers to these questions aren’t always obvious and may take a little work to produce. We can make the process easier by looking at our initial motivation for starting a business by asking ourselves the following question:

What is my brand mission/goal?

Everyone wants to survive, so monetary gain is a given, if not a necessity, but this question requires us to think more critically about our brand’s motivation. Do we want to help specific communities? Do we want to build an empire out of babar-related tools or Do we want to share our expertise to allow other barbers to build their own empires? Do we want to do both. These are the types of questions we need to ask ourselves to answer this question effectively. We can use I.O.I to help us:

Intention- what are our intentions in starting this business that we will put a dedicated amount of time and effort into?

Outcome- what is our desired outcome from starting this business and does it align with our intention?

Impact- how will our brand impact us and communities around us, and are we looking to impact a particular group in a specific way?

In any business, or in any instance that we seek to take the internal and make an external effort, we need to map out the frame before we can add the details and the content. Creating a blueprint will allow us to move forward seamlessly in the process of establishing our business and allow us to be clear when we communicate our ideas to others. 

So, what will your blueprint look like?

Maybe it was the beginning, for some of us, when we realized that this year would be different. The echo of lingering laughter in vacant shops would act as a testament to how we’ve been feeling this year: everything is uncertain except our memory. We remember walking into shops or open garages greeted by familiar customers and the subtle head nod that it was our turn to sit in the chair. Our time both in and out of the chair has been limited. We worry about tomorrow and watch businesses that we once loved close shop until this all blows over﹣ we think back to those who were just getting started, barely touching the surface before opportunity was swept from underneath them. Our hair grows﹣we don hairstyles that have started to go on their own adventures; reveal their own personalities. Control is not something we understand much anymore, not even in the shop; not even in the place that grounded us, pulled the chaos of noise into one sound. But here we are, still building, willing ourselves to continue what we know and what we love. So, as barbers,what is our role during quarantine?

Self-Assessment 

In our life’s journey, we are people first. We are human first. It’s completely normal for us to react to what is going on around us; it is this ability that allows us to create masterpiece from nothing but tools and our bare hands. It is in our job description to listen and interpret reality into something unique for our clients specific needs. We also need to be vigilant about adopting this mindset for ourselves. Many people don’t consider taking time for yourself essential, but it is our responsibility to make sure we are intact. We can’t cut, build,brand, if we are unaware of who we are the moment we decide to pursue these ventures. Our humanity is a balance, and knowing when to take a step back and build ourselves up is necessary to the continued pursuit of barbering in our current climate. We are the best barbers when we are taking care of ourselves.

Adaptation 

As we move forward, our dedication to the building according to the needs of our brand is necessary; it’s survival. Our focus has to shift from what once worked to what is going to help us sustain in the future. This includes building on old skills, adopting new ones and recognizing that change is imminent . Many barbers are beginning to realize the accessibility of social media and have used this to build a client base outside of their immediate vicinity. Building on skills such as networking, digital marketing, customer analysis allow us as barbers to increase our mobility and unlock our potential to expand remotely. We are building as we gather and process new information; our business models should reflect this in how we secure new clients and how our services have accommodated the changing times. We are moving into uncharted waters, but that does not mean that we need to stop pursuing the things that we love, we may just need to change our course of action.

Investment 

It can feel like the idea of investment has been circulating everywhere, but the reason is simple: investment is important. We don’t often think about taking care of ourselves or updating our tool inventory as viable investments, but they are. The truth is, that right now is the time to invest in people, things and ideas that will propel us forward. As barbers﹣ as budding business owners, it is our job to continue to amplify our voices and our personal brands as they pertain to our future. We are not building for yesterday, but rather paving the way for tomorrow by looking at investments in the present. 

Moving forward during quarantine might not be as simple as it was before, but it will be worth it to solidify our purpose cutting into the future. 

So, how will you cut during quarantine?

“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” — Marie Curie

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels