The Road to Entrepreneurship: How To Create a Business Around What You Love

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Chan with a Plan, Max Speaks with Mikey Styles, entrepreneur, barber, and creative director at Status Barbershop. In this conversation Mikey discusses his entrepreneurial journey, how he got into being a barber, and he gives us a look into the hair business.

QUOTES FROM MIKEY

• “It was a big process. It started as a hobby. Like I said earlier, do the right thing from the beginning. If you want to talk a lot, if you want to relax, if you want to kind of just chill, you go to a specific barber to enjoy yourself. What I would say is when people leave, it's because the barber shop was toxic.”
• “My industry is hair care, barbering, beauty, making men feel like themselves. Confident. Take over the world vibes.”
• “I have a strategy for anyone that has a problem with walk-ins because, there's obviously no one to take care of them. Hire someone that doesn't have a lot of clientele and that's willing to be in the business and understand this is predominantly what you're going to do in the business is when you get started there's a lot of kids cuts. That's what I did. That's what I know a lot of barbers.”

 

TIMESTAMPS

• [02:07] Insights to owning a business
• [03:12] Finding his career as a barber
• [08:58] Navigating COVID
• [14:40] Location, location, location
• [17:10] Business traffic
• [21:40] Balding and losing hair, how to approach difficult conversations
• [26:01] Hiring processes
• [28:50] Coming up with a business name
• [31:55] Pivoting in the market
• [37:58] Running the show for himself
• [43:25] What makes new barbers quit
• [47:02] Brand building strategies
• [52:33] Over delivering
• [56:10] Pay structure
• [01:00:43] Future business goals
• [01:04:15] One big career challenge

 

RESOURCES & RELEVANT LINKS

• Mikey Styles on Social Media:
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
• Chan With A Plan
• Max Chan on Social Media