Barber

You Need A Haircut

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“The three most important things in a man’s life are his barber, his butcher, and his lover.” — Ron Swanson

Click-through: http://invis.io/2U2E1FS74
App (in progress): http://adesignswow.com/creationlab/barber

So why now? The Rise of the Barber-preneur

  • Barbers and hairstylists are increasingly switching to a "booth rental" vs. commission-based model in which they pay a landlord rent for their chairs but do not need to give a commission (usually 50-60%) to the barbershop owner. Booth rental allows for much more autonomy (they can more easily set their own schedules) and much more money: talking to barbers, chair rentals in New York cost the equivalent of 1-2 days of revenue (20% to 40% of revenue). And unlike commission, booth rental is a fixed cost meaning that barbers who generate additional revenue can keep all of it.
  • According to trade publication Beauty Store Business Magazine, currently just a little over 50% of barbers use the "booth rental" model. They expect this to grow to over 75% in the next 2 years.
  • As a whole, the US hair care services industry (including beauty salons) has a combined annual revenue of over $20 billion. (US Bureau of Labor Statistics), with 663,000 barbers and hairdressers; expected to grow 13 percent by 2222 (by 83,300).

Competitive Landscape

There's currently no clear market leader, and few if any businesses directly targeting barbers and low cost hairstylists:

  • Styleseat: geared towards women; charge stylists to sign up; unfocused & overwhelming for dudes who just want a cut and a shave. Users can book appointments and review stylist portfolios. —Shortcut: premium only, starting at $75. They employ the stylists, who are able to come to your home or office on demand.
  • Stylebee: Another on demand service that directly employs its own stylists; geared towards women and starting at $50.
  • There are also some lightweight scheduling apps such as “Got You In” that are generic calendar/scheduling apps lightly re-skinned to appeal to barbers and hairstylists

Features and Benefits

Barbers Can Now Grow Their Businesses With Style

  • Customizable portfolio. Showcase your work or business with style. Manage your Facebook, Yelp, and other websites in one simple place.; help barbers boost their social media presences
  • Predictable revenue and schedule. Set up online booking for free; send automatic appointment confirmations, reminders and thank yous; Curate reviews and gain subscribers who pay upfront?
  • Fewer empty seats. Attract more customers with build word-of-mouth with social media tools. Highlight client recommendations that you control
  • Track your client history. store client information and history, along with notes & photos. Manage communications across social networks.
  • Not just pen and paper: Payment audit trail/ history; track month over month, net profit, set your own revenue goals

    • A Better Experience for the End-Consumer

  • Bad hair cuts be gone! Minimize the risk of trial and error with better reviews and barber portfolios.
  • More bang for your buck. Pay Less (with subscriptions); special offers determined by barbers
  • No more waiting in line. Easily book in advance; we’ll make it easy to mark in your calendar and remind you of your upcoming appointment as much or as little as you like.
  • Square back, round back? No problem. You go-to is stored as a reference for your barber
  • As much or little chitter chatter as you like. Get your haircut without having to say a word
  • No more awkward cash transactions. We know you hate rounding up to the nearest $10 for tip. Walk in and out without opening your wallet.

    • Pricing and Revenue

  • We'd plan to take "a little off the top" (5% for all transactions processed through barber. We'd let barbers set their own prices.
  • We would make it as easy as possible for barbers to receive recurring revenue and payments upfront (e.g. pre-packaged 5 for $50 deals if customers pay up front that barbers can repurpose in just a minute)
  • We'd make it easy for customers to 'subscribe to your barbers' in order to receive discounts (and provide a higher likelihood of recurring revenue for barbers)

    • Many future potential sources of revenue including

  • Advertising
  • Premium features for barbers (better analytics)
  • Web design and basic e-commerce ; free personalized salon site to sell retail online; partnerships with major brands like L'Oreal, Matrix and Redken to set up reseller relationships with barbers (taking a ~10% cut)
  • Global pass: $20/mo for a special barber experience (e.g. extra hot shave, free product, etc) or even just a package for a couple of hot shaves a month

    • Revenue

    • Jay the Barber (who we interviewed) says booth renting barbers make more money than average
    • Therefore it's fair to go with the 75th Percentile for annual walary (but for purposes of this we'll just go with the median to be conservative) http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes395011.htm
    • Median Salary: $27,710
    • Jay says barbers pay on average 20% of the income towards rent
    • % to rent: 20%
    • Pre-rent Income: $33,252
    • We would take a 5% cut
    • Our Revenue Per Barber: $1,663
    • According to the US Department of Labor, there are approximately 52,000 barbers and over 600,000 other types of stylists. Using the 52,000 figure, our revenue cap could be $86,621,460 if we were to sweep 100% of the market (realize this is virtually impossible). Still, even if we were to capture 1% of the market, that would be $866,215; 10% would be $8.6M (and this is just from the 5% cut, ignoring any other services).
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