Mar 3, 2024
Southwest USA

“Would you like to add a nice shave with that haircut?”

(Can’t read the full email – click here for the online version.)

Being on the road for several months has a few drawbacks. One of them is not having access to your regular hair stylist. 

Finally, after getting fed up with hair that looked mangled each morning, I googled “barber” and “hair salon”, “near me”.

Surprising to me, there were quite a few. But after closer inspection, I could tell that the majority of the hair salons were catering to a wealthy clientele, those who want to look “fabulous” when they go out to dinner with their peers.

Finally, I discovered one establishment, with decent reviews, that seemed appropriate for my modest tastes. They had only a simple, one page website. No online booking available.

So I called – to make a reservation.

A lady with a strong Spanish accent answered. “No, we don’t take reservation. We are open every day this week, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Just come in.”

When I queried about a possible wait time, she told me; “We have 8 barbers all the time. Wait time not long. No problem.”

OK – that’s interesting.

So, we planned a leisurely, short ski day at neighboring Beaver Creek – to be followed with a quick haircut, since the place was in the vicinity.

Sure enough as soon as we entered – I  was summoned to a chair. At least 5 or 6 were already occupied. The chatter was mostly, animated Spanish; between patrons and barbers and between the barbers themselves.

I felt like we had entered a shop in central or south America. 

The young, competent barber assigned to me soon got on with the task – after I had told him that I did not want an electric razor haircut, simple scissors for me, thank you!

Somewhere along the way, my wife got into a conversation with the manager. Turned out he was from Honduras, where we had just been last December and all the staff on site, were from Colombia. Since that is a destination, we still wish to see, the young men were keen to fill her in on where we should visit.

Meanwhile, my guy rubs some nice lotion on the back of my neck and takes a straight razor to get at the fine hairs that always seem to grow there.

This twigged an immediate thought. Did they offer hot shaves?

Of course they did and so I was laid back, given the royal hot towel treatment and received the pleasure of having my face lathered and shaved. 

Like old times….

Now here is where it gets interesting.

Their clientele is mostly local and that means – a huge number of Hispanic men who are working in and around the resorts of Vail and Beaver Creek. There are thousands.

The current trend for hair styles of this group, which we witnessed 2 years ago in Ecuador, is to have styles that require one to come in every 1 – 2 weeks. Otherwise, it will begin to look bad. 

So, while the shop charges up to 50% less than other, “gringo” salons, their clientele will come in 2 – 4 times more often. 

Talk about increasing customer buying!

With the addition of shaves and styling of beards – they have another great way of increasing the average purchase.

Lastly, they take only cash!

Now, who has cash these days? Not too many.

So, they have a nice, convenient ATM machine in the corner. With a maximum limit of $75 – only in $20s! 🤣

And they charge $3.00 per withdrawal. Last I checked that’s a quick 5% commission from every other patron.

The lesson for you is this:

There are niches everywhere, in every locality. Your job is to find one that is a fit, for you and the kind of business you run. Then craft your offers to match that market so that you maximize the sales and profits per customer. 

Until next week, 

Stay healthy and focus on profit! 

 - Hugh 
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert

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