Massive career change - becoming a barber

[Petrus1983]

Monkeylegend said:

Are you left or right handed?

This reminds me of a scene in Casino

Right.

[Countdown]

I shave my head so haven't needed a barber for 5-8 years

However there are two local to me; one is an asian guy who started off charging £5 a cut until he'd built up a customer base and now charges £8, the other one is much more "trendy/fashionable" type place which charges £25.

I'd be surprised if the £8 guy is making less than £150 a day. There are always 4/5 people in his shop waiting for a cut.

[Monkeylegend]

Countdown said:

I shave my head so haven't needed a barber for 5-8 years

However there are two local to me; one is an asian guy who started off charging £5 a cut until he'd built up a customer base and now charges £8, the other one is much more "trendy/fashionable" type place which charges £25.

I'd be surprised if the £8 guy is making less than £150 a day. There are always 4/5 people in his shop waiting for a cut.

At £150 a day with all his running costs he would find it very hard , if not impossible, to survive and make a decent living.

[Countdown]

Monkeylegend said:

Countdown said:

I shave my head so haven't needed a barber for 5-8 years

However there are two local to me; one is an asian guy who started off charging £5 a cut until he'd built up a customer base and now charges £8, the other one is much more "trendy/fashionable" type place which charges £25.

I'd be surprised if the £8 guy is making less than £150 a day. There are always 4/5 people in his shop waiting for a cut.

At £150 a day with all his running costs he would find it very hard , if not impossible, to survive and make a decent living.

Must be making more than that then as he's just bought himself an 18-plate Audi A4

He rents the shop from a mate of my dad's so that's about £100 a week, I'd be surprised if it was more than £50 a week on utilities so that leaves him with £600 a week. Without casting aspersions I doubt all of that is fully declared to HMRC. I don't know, I'm guessing on the number of haircuts he does but he seems happy and doesn't seem to be "just surviving".

[Monkeylegend]

Countdown said:

Monkeylegend said:

Countdown said:

I shave my head so haven't needed a barber for 5-8 years

However there are two local to me; one is an asian guy who started off charging £5 a cut until he'd built up a customer base and now charges £8, the other one is much more "trendy/fashionable" type place which charges £25.

I'd be surprised if the £8 guy is making less than £150 a day. There are always 4/5 people in his shop waiting for a cut.

At £150 a day with all his running costs he would find it very hard , if not impossible, to survive and make a decent living.

Must be making more than that then as he's just bought himself an 18-plate Audi A4

He rents the shop from a mate of my dad's so that's about £100 a week, I'd be surprised if it was more than £50 a week on utilities so that leaves him with £600 a week. Without casting aspersions I doubt all of that is fully declared to HMRC. I don't know, I'm guessing on the number of haircuts he does but he seems happy and doesn't seem to be "just surviving".

My partners daughter has her own salon with both male and female customers and her VAT bill alone is roughly £13k every 3 months.

Her monthly running costs including rent, rates, utilities, wages, products etc are well over £20k

Even without staff costs she would need to clear at least £12k a month before she starts earning anything for herself.

The only way Petrus could make any decent money is to rent a chair in another shop or become an employee if you only charge £10 for a haircut and even then he wouldn't be earning much above the minimum wage.

[BoRED S2upid]

Monkeylegend said:

Countdown said:

I shave my head so haven't needed a barber for 5-8 years

However there are two local to me; one is an asian guy who started off charging £5 a cut until he'd built up a customer base and now charges £8, the other one is much more "trendy/fashionable" type place which charges £25.

I'd be surprised if the £8 guy is making less than £150 a day. There are always 4/5 people in his shop waiting for a cut.

At £150 a day with all his running costs he would find it very hard , if not impossible, to survive and make a decent living.

Horse st. That’s like £4000 a week £200,000 a year for what is probably a tiny shop a pair of scissors and a shaver!

[Monkeylegend]

BoRED S2upid said:

Monkeylegend said:

Countdown said:

I shave my head so haven't needed a barber for 5-8 years

However there are two local to me; one is an asian guy who started off charging £5 a cut until he'd built up a customer base and now charges £8, the other one is much more "trendy/fashionable" type place which charges £25.

I'd be surprised if the £8 guy is making less than £150 a day. There are always 4/5 people in his shop waiting for a cut.

At £150 a day with all his running costs he would find it very hard , if not impossible, to survive and make a decent living.

Horse st. That’s like £4000 a week £200,000 a year for what is probably a tiny shop a pair of scissors and a shaver!

Not h poo at all, my other half does her book keeping so I see every detail of her running costs etc.


She employs about 10 staff to be fair and her minimum cut and blow dry is about £30 with things like extensions costing up to £300, but the cost of the products is very high.

I am just making the point that when you say you charge £10 for a haircut, if you are running your own shop and even more so if you are VAT registered, you will only take about £2 maybe £3 of that for yourself.

Her staff are always moaning about how much she charges and the fact that they only earn not much above minimum wage, but as in all these case they don't realise how much a business like this costs to run in an accessible town centre ish slot.

Her business rates and shop rent alone are nearly £6k a month.

Edited to add that anybody who thinks they can do a 9 week intensive course and suddenly become a proficient hairdresser/barber are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Her trainees do a minimum 2 year college course followed by continual in shop assessments until they reach qualified junior stylist level, and then need to gain further shop experience before they are freely let loose on customers.

The last thing you want is somebody who thinks they are now a fully qualified barber/hairdresser having done a 9 weeks course given free reign with your established customers.

They will very soon become somebody elses customers

There is also ongoing college training to keep up to date with changing styles, methods of cutting etc.

Edited by Monkeylegend on Wednesday 19th June 12:38

[Alickadoo]

BoRED S2upid said:

Monkeylegend said:

Countdown said:

I shave my head so haven't needed a barber for 5-8 years

However there are two local to me; one is an asian guy who started off charging £5 a cut until he'd built up a customer base and now charges £8, the other one is much more "trendy/fashionable" type place which charges £25.

I'd be surprised if the £8 guy is making less than £150 a day. There are always 4/5 people in his shop waiting for a cut.

At £150 a day with all his running costs he would find it very hard , if not impossible, to survive and make a decent living.

Horse st. That’s like £4000 a week £200,000 a year for what is probably a tiny shop a pair of scissors and a shaver!

Que?

£150 x 6 = er £900. Have I not been paying attention - again?

[Jamescrs]

AndyAudi said:

I’ve always thought watching the kids getting cuts it’s to be like footballers etc so I guess keep an eye on the premier league styles! I’m genuinely surprised to see parents spending so much on kids cuts, but peer pressure means it’s damn near compulsory in my town yet If you’re over 40 most folk frequent the gents hairdressers & pay £8 every 3-4weeks

I saw a post on a local facebook group where a young mum was complaining a barber had left her sons hair in what was apparently a bad state (seemed fine to me in the pic she posted). and she couldn't let him leave the house for weeks.

The boy was under 5 I would guess and probably couldn't care less about his hair.

I think now a lot of parents are worse than the children, but good for barbers I guess

[BoRED S2upid]

Monkeylegend said:

Not h poo at all, my other half does her book keeping so I see every detail of her running costs etc.


She employs about 10 staff to be fair and her minimum cut and blow dry is about £30 with things like extensions costing up to £300, but the cost of the products is very high.

I am just making the point that when you say you charge £10 for a haircut, if you are running your own shop and even more so if you are VAT registered, you will only take about £2 maybe £3 of that for yourself.

Her staff are always moaning about how much she charges and the fact that they only earn not much above minimum wage, but as in all these case they don't realise how much a business like this costs to run in an accessible town centre ish slot.

Her business rates and shop rent alone are nearly £6k a month.

Edited to add that anybody who thinks they can do a 9 week intensive course and suddenly become a proficient hairdresser/barber are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Her trainees do a minimum 2 year college course followed by continual in shop assessments until they reach qualified junior stylist level, and then need to gain further shop experience before they are freely let loose on customers.

The last thing you want is somebody who thinks they are now a fully qualified barber/hairdresser having done a 9 weeks course given free reign with your established customers.

They will very soon become somebody elses customers

There is also ongoing college training to keep up to date with changing styles, methods of cutting etc.

Edited by Monkeylegend on Wednesday 19th June 12:38

Employing 10 staff is a completely different ball game to 1 chap in a small shop with 1 chair 1 light doing a few cuts an hour. Your wife’s costs will be massive in comparison. Staff are very expensive to employ.

[BoRED S2upid]

Alickadoo said:

BoRED S2upid said:

Monkeylegend said:

Countdown said:

I shave my head so haven't needed a barber for 5-8 years

However there are two local to me; one is an asian guy who started off charging £5 a cut until he'd built up a customer base and now charges £8, the other one is much more "trendy/fashionable" type place which charges £25.

I'd be surprised if the £8 guy is making less than £150 a day. There are always 4/5 people in his shop waiting for a cut.

At £150 a day with all his running costs he would find it very hard , if not impossible, to survive and make a decent living.

Horse st. That’s like £4000 a week £200,000 a year for what is probably a tiny shop a pair of scissors and a shaver!

Que?

£150 x 6 = er £900. Have I not been paying attention - again?

lol I meant month. And it’s likely to be more than £150 a day point being the one man barber would make a living out of it quite easily. How often do barbers go bust?

[Monkeylegend]

BoRED S2upid said:

Employing 10 staff is a completely different ball game to 1 chap in a small shop with 1 chair 1 light doing a few cuts an hour. Your wife’s costs will be massive in comparison. Staff are very expensive to employ.

The problem is as I see it either Petrus sets up on his own which will be costly to get the right premises etc, or he works for his friend who himself might have quite heavy overheads and will probably charge a chair rent.

Either way he will be moving from a presumably safe, well paid position, to one that he has no experience or skill in, and typically going in at that level earns little more than minimum wage certainly for the short term, and will take time to prove his worth and build up a client base.

I suspect it will never pay as well as anticipated but as long as Petrus is ok with that it should not be an issue.

The downside of being effectively self employed is not getting all the benefits of being in the employ of a bigger company, including pensions, holiday and sick pay etc, the value of which should not be underestimated.

It would also be wise to have Public Liability insurance for those inevitable early cock ups

[BoRED S2upid]

Monkeylegend said:

The problem is as I see it either Petrus sets up on his own which will be costly to get the right premises etc, or he works for his friend who himself might have quite heavy overheads and will probably charge a chair rent.

Either way he will be moving from a presumably safe, well paid position, to one that he has no experience or skill in, and typically going in at that level earns little more than minimum wage certainly for the short term, and will take time to prove his worth and build up a client base.

I suspect it will never pay as well as anticipated but as long as Petrus is ok with that it should not be an issue.

The downside of being effectively self employed is not getting all the benefits of being in the employ of a bigger company, including pensions, holiday and sick pay etc, the value of which should not be underestimated.

It would also be wise to have Public Liability insurance for those inevitable early cock ups

West Wales. Shouldn’t be too costly.

[Countdown]

Monkeylegend said:

My partners daughter has her own salon with both male and female customers and her VAT bill alone is roughly £13k every 3 months.

Her monthly running costs including rent, rates, utilities, wages, products etc are well over £20k

Even without staff costs she would need to clear at least £12k a month before she starts earning anything for herself.

The only way Petrus could make any decent money is to rent a chair in another shop or become an employee if you only charge £10 for a haircut and even then he wouldn't be earning much above the minimum wage.

The bloke I'm talking about never takes longer than 10 minutes per haircut. Even if he does 4 an hour that's 4 x £8 x 7.

To be honest we could argue figures/gross profit/overheads all week. The proof of the pudding is in the eating; he started out at £5 a cut, he's now charging £8 a cut. he'd probably be charging much more about 3 "Turkish" barbers have also opened in what is quite a small town and they charge between £12 - £15. if he wasn't making what he considered a a fair amont of money he'd close up.

[Petrus1983]

Thanks for the concern re my wage etc.

I haven't worked for a few years - I sold my financial company, bought a boat, did some travelling, moved to a new place and have taken some time to myself. It's been nice.

Almost 8 years to the day I put my savings into a little known company called Nvidia. In those 8 years it's done ok.

I respect people who want superyachts - but I don't have that many friends so I'd look weird on one, I respect people who want supercars - but I don't really like driving anymore and it wouldn't be as good as my racing days anyway.

Basically I'm looking for something I'd enjoy, keep me busy, and ultimately see what happens.

[Petrus1983]

BoRED S2upid said:

lol I meant month. And it’s likely to be more than £150 a day point being the one man barber would make a living out of it quite easily. How often do barbers go bust?

A friend is an Uber driver - he works 5 days a week and once he hits £150 that's him done for the day. But then he has his car costs/fuel (hybrid) to cover from that. He's happy.

[BoRED S2upid]

Petrus1983 said:

BoRED S2upid said:

lol I meant month. And it’s likely to be more than £150 a day point being the one man barber would make a living out of it quite easily. How often do barbers go bust?

A friend is an Uber driver - he works 5 days a week and once he hits £150 that's him done for the day. But then he has his car costs/fuel (hybrid) to cover from that. He's happy.

I keep suggesting this to my wife. You get promoted leave the kids to me but myself a nice wafty 5 series and do Uber.

[okgo]

Petrus1983 said:

Thanks for the concern re my wage etc.

I haven't worked for a few years - I sold my financial company, bought a boat, did some travelling, moved to a new place and have taken some time to myself. It's been nice.

Almost 8 years to the day I put my savings into a little known company called Nvidia. In those 8 years it's done ok.

I respect people who want superyachts - but I don't have that many friends so I'd look weird on one, I respect people who want supercars - but I don't really like driving anymore and it wouldn't be as good as my racing days anyway.

Basically I'm looking for something I'd enjoy, keep me busy, and ultimately see what happens.

How did you decide on nvidia all that time back? Must be quite an interesting story. And now I can see why money isn’t a problem

[Monkeylegend]

As an aside remember you will be dealing with quite a number of the great unwashed, complete with dandruff and loads of grease

Make sure you wash your hands before eating your lunchtime sandwich.

[Petrus1983]

Monkeylegend said:

As an aside remember you will be dealing with quite a number of the great unwashed, complete with dandruff and loads of grease

Make sure you wash your hands before eating your lunchtime sandwich.

Nah - they're banned - they'll be a sign on the door