Opening A 'Modern' Barbers
Discussion
theboss said:
Best thing he did though (IMHO), was to cater for 'working' customers by opening late once a week
This is a very good idea & is a no-brainer. I used to hate having to get my hair cut on a weekend when I had to wait for a load of kids to have their hair done first and I wasn't going to take time off work. I could have gone elsewhere, but I'm a bloke and therefore don't deal with change very well. I suggested to the lad running the place he should try opening on a Thursday night for a couple of months until about 9pm & he's still doing it about 15 years later!Unfortunately, I'm now no longer as powerfully built in the hair department, so my Mrs does it every couple of weeks with some clippers.
He used to have some car mags, bike mags, FHM etc and Sky Sports News on a TV. Not sure I would have bothered with pinball etc.
NinjaPower said:
I will happily pay £15 and up
Free Wifi while you wait, and they have a glass front Beer fridge where you can help yourself to a beer or cans of coke/Perrier water if you want, plus a Nespresso Machine is available. All for free.
Free Free Wifi while you wait, and they have a glass front Beer fridge where you can help yourself to a beer or cans of coke/Perrier water if you want, plus a Nespresso Machine is available. All for free.
That said this thread is a reminder to anyone about the power of marketing. I'm forever banging on to clients about competing on value and service rather than price and if places can get away with £15-30 then they must be giving value (or 'value').
I have an issue with paying for anything intangible or disposable, gas, electric, petrol etc, and haircuts come in this category for me. Shoes or shirts on the other hand... horses for courses.
One of the things I haven't seen mentioned is location (if it was I missed it). Proximity to cheaper barbers as well as client pool e.g. office workers, students etc. There are plenty places where a £15 cut wouldn't survive, not sure the same would be true for a £5 cut.
I discovered a new barber about a year ago, the main thing is to employ very talented barbers. This place started with 3 chairs and has expanded to another 3 upstairs.
They have a simple model, no sky tv, no iPads, no beer, just fantastic haircuts at a decent price with some great banter in a decent clean environment. Its bordering on hipster my barber has arm falls of tatts and a dapper tache and is dressed to the nines every day but I can forgive him for that as he gives me a fantastic cut that suits my nappa.
I would rather my money goes to run the shop and pay the barbers and not for additional extras that add up to not a lot.
They have a simple model, no sky tv, no iPads, no beer, just fantastic haircuts at a decent price with some great banter in a decent clean environment. Its bordering on hipster my barber has arm falls of tatts and a dapper tache and is dressed to the nines every day but I can forgive him for that as he gives me a fantastic cut that suits my nappa.
I would rather my money goes to run the shop and pay the barbers and not for additional extras that add up to not a lot.
technodup said:
NinjaPower said:
I will happily pay £15 and up
Free Wifi while you wait, and they have a glass front Beer fridge where you can help yourself to a beer or cans of coke/Perrier water if you want, plus a Nespresso Machine is available. All for free.
Free Free Wifi while you wait, and they have a glass front Beer fridge where you can help yourself to a beer or cans of coke/Perrier water if you want, plus a Nespresso Machine is available. All for free.
That said this thread is a reminder to anyone about the power of marketing. I'm forever banging on to clients about competing on value and service rather than price and if places can get away with £15-30 then they must be giving value (or 'value').
I have an issue with paying for anything intangible or disposable, gas, electric, petrol etc, and haircuts come in this category for me. Shoes or shirts on the other hand... horses for courses.
One of the things I haven't seen mentioned is location (if it was I missed it). Proximity to cheaper barbers as well as client pool e.g. office workers, students etc. There are plenty places where a £15 cut wouldn't survive, not sure the same would be true for a £5 cut.
I completely understand why you are laughing about the concept of 'free' when referring to things such as drinks and wifi, and I can use the word 'included' instead of free if that makes you happy?
Many people just like nice things and nice places, and don't mind paying more for them. Those are the sort of people the OP needs to target. Even if every single person who came to his barbers took the free capoucino, read the Financial Times, listened to his Spotify playlist, and used the wifi, it might cost him 75p more per person? But he's charging £10+ more per person than all the other '£6 a go' places where a load of people sit in a row staring at 11 month old copies of Autocar while Radio 2 plays from an old Sanyo radio in the corner.
I will happily pay more to frequent bars/restaurants that have much nicer decor, music, furniture, staff and 'feel' to them than perhaps the place down the street that maybe has the same standard of food and drink but in less impressive surroundings.
"Always give a customer the option to pay more".
NinjaPower said:
I think we already established earlier in the thread that you really aren't the target market.
Why shouldn't I be though, I've got hair, and money.Like I said, horses for courses. When I drink (not often) I prefer old mens pubs because they serve bigger measures, in proper straight glasses, don't overfill with mixer and ice and are miles cheaper. I can get pished for next to nothing then wander into somewhere you've been drinking at great expense and say hello to the wannabe wags you've been spending your wages buying cocktails for.
But they'll be in £30 Asos dresses and I'll be head to toe in brands most wouldn't have heard of far less would consider shelling out for so I understand the concept of value and how people see it differently. I just can't see it in fancy barbers*.
- To any future fancy barbers clients I think the idea is great etc.
markcoznottz said:
Rapidly becoming the new 'sandwich shop' , every man and his dog is having a go. Is this a consequence of more self employed service jobs year on year?. In my town since day early 90's there were two barbers now there are about 12.
Good way to wash your money. Have a drive around Brixton and while admiring the array of brand new mercs and bmw's cruising around or parked up you will notice every other shop is either a nail bar, hair salon or chicken shop. technodup said:
hy shouldn't I be though, I've got hair, and money.
Like I said, horses for courses. When I drink (not often) I prefer old mens pubs because they serve bigger measures, in proper straight glasses, don't overfill with mixer and ice and are miles cheaper. I can get pished for next to nothing then wander into somewhere you've been drinking at great expense and say hello to the wannabe wags you've been spending your wages buying cocktails for.
But they'll be in £30 Asos dresses and I'll be head to toe in brands most wouldn't have heard of far less would consider shelling out for so I understand the concept of value and how people see it differently. I just can't see it in fancy barbers*.
You really are one of life's winners! We can only aspire to attempt to emulate your ways. In your working man's club with your shaved head. Like I said, horses for courses. When I drink (not often) I prefer old mens pubs because they serve bigger measures, in proper straight glasses, don't overfill with mixer and ice and are miles cheaper. I can get pished for next to nothing then wander into somewhere you've been drinking at great expense and say hello to the wannabe wags you've been spending your wages buying cocktails for.
But they'll be in £30 Asos dresses and I'll be head to toe in brands most wouldn't have heard of far less would consider shelling out for so I understand the concept of value and how people see it differently. I just can't see it in fancy barbers*.
- To any future fancy barbers clients I think the idea is great etc.
jogon said:
markcoznottz said:
Rapidly becoming the new 'sandwich shop' , every man and his dog is having a go. Is this a consequence of more self employed service jobs year on year?. In my town since day early 90's there were two barbers now there are about 12.
Good way to wash your money. Have a drive around Brixton and while admiring the array of brand new mercs and bmw's cruising around or parked up you will notice every other shop is either a nail bar, hair salon or chicken shop. pilbeam_mp62 said:
CaptainSensib1e said:
This might be a crazy idea, but I've always thought it would be good to have a barbers in a pub. Often after work I'll either go for a pint or a haircut, if I could get both in one place it would be awesome. Maybe I should go on Dragon's Den with gold like that.
This is genius.... You take a numbered ticket when you go into the pub and then wait your turn.... Very low overheads for the barber, who pays the landlord an agreed fee.... I don't actually go to pubs much myself, but the place I go to charges about £12 and I usually bung them £15...if there is more than one person waiting I try the other place in town.An alternative idea would be for people who equate their time with money, you could jump the queue depending on how many quid over the standard price you are prepared to pay..... So you go in and there's 4 people waiting, so you say "3 quid over" and if people won't match it you jump the queue...
http://gallagherspubwirral.com/wirral-barbers
Someone's done it already. Great real ale and a good haircut.
CaptainSensib1e said:
This might be a crazy idea, but I've always thought it would be good to have a barbers in a pub. Often after work I'll either go for a pint or a haircut, if I could get both in one place it would be awesome. Maybe I should go on Dragon's Den with gold like that.
"I'm uwt"£10 max for a blokes haircut all day long.
£15 including beard (but only if you know what you are doing, most people are useless with beards!)
£20 with the option of a head / shoulder massage. This works great in other countries, don't know why people will not offer here?
Add fit girls that can cut mens hair (or just do the massage ) and you can increase these prices further.
Add value, a theme or something unusual...
£15 including beard (but only if you know what you are doing, most people are useless with beards!)
£20 with the option of a head / shoulder massage. This works great in other countries, don't know why people will not offer here?
Add fit girls that can cut mens hair (or just do the massage
) and you can increase these prices further.Add value, a theme or something unusual...
HOGEPH said:
You need a good business name and not on the usual lines of a cut above, or hair today etc.
Cutting Funk
Public Hair
Hard Snips
The Hairy Gearbox (slight PH connection)
etc...
Place recently opened near my work ... "Barber Streisand" Cutting Funk
Public Hair
Hard Snips
The Hairy Gearbox (slight PH connection)
etc...
http://exmouth.london/barber-streisand/
Never seen anyone in it though.
I used to go to a really good place that threw in a couple of minutes shoulder and neck massage after the cut? Until I changed jobs so radically changed my daily location. Don't know why more places don't do that? It's just about the only thing that would make me go out of my way to visit a particular barber.
I went to a turkish barber a few times, quite liked the flaming torch thing on the sideburns, but wasn't fussed with the length of time it took, and the separate bloke offering drinks and putting the cape on me etc before the barber proper came over ... just side shows to ultimately cause the price to be higher. And it was high.
Place I've found now just has one guy but the cuts he does are (a) swift, no time wasted (b) very very good. So I will keep going there.
I think it comes down to a mixture of price/value, convenient location, low to no waiting time, and quality/consistency of the cut. Secondary factors would be added value like neck massage but not if it bumps the price up too much. I'm not bothered about a flashy waiting area, as really I don't want to wait at all.
Good luck.
edit: just seen Barber Streisand's other website, which has their prices ... £26!
http://www.barberstreisand.com/
Think it's now clear why there's never anyone in there.
Edited by kev1974 on Friday 3rd July 00:01
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