About this video:
I understand that this is not how majority of the industry thinks.
You look at any barber on social media and they will preach "add more services" or "customer experience".
I would say neither of those give you any edge when you are charging under $100.
The opposite is rather true.
Lean and scrappy is how you want to think of your service delivery.
Reason being is that honestly, you have zero clue of who your ideal client is at anything under $100.
The problem solution base is just too broad to even dive into and you will just be creating more work for yourself by adding un-needed services on.
have made that mistake multiple times, and ,multiple times I found myself taking away any services I did add, simply because they did not make the boat go faster.
Why the idea of more services will equal more pay is backward
If that wasn't enough, the whole basis of the "why" adding services isn't even logical.
Any barber or service provider doing this is explicitly saying "my money I paid for my education to get a license doesn't warrant me for charging anything more than $30".
Complete madness.
Why the goal should not just be cover up your shitty core service with a bunch of hype services.
The goal is to offer the least amount of service for the most $$. Barbers cover up the inefficient and lack of worth with services instead of working on the core issue
We are in a service-based business, not an “I offer more services, therefore, I have a business” industry
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Click the button below to book a call with me and my team to see if we can help your business scale!
Hey everyone, Daniel Contreras (@dlucs_) here founder of The New Era Of Barbering. Again, it took a little break to be able to execute on some things, uh, and be more of a doer than a talker. A lot of times. And you guys, uh, know very well. Um, couple heads up one. I painted my nails. I know a lot of people will be like, wow, you painting your nails. But again, it's one of those things where I, I flipped my binary poles, where when I want to do something, I'm just going to do it. I'm not really gonna think or really care about what anybody thinks. It's just like, uh, when I, you know, dye my hair or cut my beard, it's just one of those things where, Hey, I want to do it. Um, I used to color my nails a lot when I was, or a couple of times when I was younger as a kid.Uh, I thought, why not just do it again? So, um, that's first and foremost, because I know everybody's going to be thinking about that. Number two, uh, this video might be a little bit shaky now. Um, I lost my tripod. I don't really know where it's at. Um, and I really don't want to take any more time trying to search for it. Uh, I'd rather just go ahead and record the content. So as you could see, right from here, I'm literally holding it up with my arm, um, inside of the ring light. So if it gets shaky like that, because my arm will get tired on me. Uh, my apologies, but,You know, that's just what we got to dealWith to be able to create this content. But, uh, other than that, the content in this will be really, really, uh, beneficial and a value. Just bear with me a little bit, right. Until I find something, um, really today, what I want to talk about in this video, you know, I've been off for about three weeks on YouTube. Um, I've been working very diligently on, uh, not only my elevated mentorship program, but also with my students, uh, who are borrowers in the industry and going through these times of the pandemic, um, or at least coming outside of, uh, you know, Corona virus, what is really a big stressing point? I'm trying not to shake this. Wasn't really a big stressing point for us, at least right down, um, is to really hone in on with Barber's and changing their mentality, right? Because especially coming out of something, uh, where maybe they haven't made as much money, um, they want to raise prices and people are very, very adamant about like earning more money and understanding like they have been on the constant or the comfortable cycle and the hamster wheel of, of barbering and just kind of very comfortable where they were at.I think it really shocked a lot of people, how much of an influence, something like this has, and really puts an emphasis on, okay, where do I get to go with my business now to ensure that it is safe and that I'm still making the most amount of money? So I think a lot of barbers currently are in my experience with Barber industry, they want to be able to raise prices. And from what I've heard from a lot of barbers and just watching and observing what the industry is kind of doing, um, you know, people always, and Barber's associated, I try to stay away, stay away from the, the same barbers because essentially it's just people in general, right? People in general, whenever we go into business, uh, we tend to think that the more services that we offer, the more, that means that we can raise our prices, but this is really opposite of what should be happening.Actually less service delivery equals more cash. And I'll get into like a little bit of more what I mean of this. Uh, also how it has benefited me in my business, not only cutting hair, uh, but also teaching a lot of them and, and, and mentoring a lot of my students, uh, in the Barber industry to be able to raise their prices up. Uh, like at South Bay, Chris was now charging a hundred dollars per haircut. Um, and he's not doing anything much different than what he was doing at, you know, running and charging 30 bucks for a haircut. Um, there are tweaks that we do in terms of marketing. There are tweaks that we do with a service delivery, but it's not like we all of a sudden offer, uh, the, you know, kitchen and a steak dinner and a beer with, um, the service to be able to associate our price res. And I think with a lot of barbers and, and a lot of people, at least, um, this really goesDeeper than just business-wise.It has a lot to do with how they view themselves and how much they really truly think they're worth. Because if you understood how much value you brought and actually brought true value to whatever client you're serving, you would understand, you didn't need to, you wouldn't need to raise or, or raise, I shouldn't say race, you wouldn't need the, or feel the necessity to add on more services. You would feel comfortable and competent the service that you deliver that offers the right value. And at the price point that you want to charge it. Right? So for this, you know, a lot of barbers and a lot of people in the barber industry, um, they go ahead and start adding on services, like, you know, doing crazy facials, doing a bunch of random and doing heroin units, which I don't think is bad at all, butIt's, if they're notOverall like affecting the main service of what you offer, you're just adding a bunch of more, um, services onto a product already, right. And product Mac mixed in with services is still going to produce a result.So I think theIdea and the focus focal point at least should be less on the overall how many services can I add on to produce up my value and just upping your overall value on your original service.That's what people pay you for. Right.And it's not in terms of, of like, okay, cool. Um, I just don't need to add anything or change anything. And dlucs is saying, well, I can go ahead and raise my prices right now. No, there's a lot of big changes that you need to make, but it's not in what you offer, uh, or more of what you offer. Um, really like a lot of barbers in a lot of people that I see that raise prices in any industry, right? Let's say, just say for the barber industry, let's say somebody does want to charge a hundred bucks.They'll beOffering a $30 haircut service and then adding on everything else that takes more time out of their day. And honestly more work on them. And in the labor industry, a little bit labor mindset of a barber, um, our people up in the barberIndustry, this is whereLike the disconnect is that because we don't want to add more work onto our plate just to make more money. There is no difference in doing a hour or a three hour long service that we charge a hundred bucks for over like a $30 haircut service. You're still your per hour rate is still about 33 bucks per hour. So it's not in the level of, okay, how much stuff can I add on? Um, and, and, and it's really an understanding of, well, what is my per hour rate? What do I charge per minute? What is my, the value inside of that service? And what, where can I grow with this? And I think a lot of barbers and a lot of people in the industry, um, they try to sway off this really hard truth. Like they just want to go ahead and say, Oh, okay, well, whatever you're doing right now, it's fine.Section off this hair like this, uh, add a little product here and then make sure you sell a product with it. Right. That's how you're going to earn more money. Well, your product's still. Your haircut's not great. And honestly, like the way that you deliver the service is pretty up. Right. And, and it's not gonna allow somebody to want to go ahead and come back to you and paying a high rate because I'm not going to Denny's to get a stake in paying, you know, a hundred dollars for all the extra add-ons, you know, let's say they add on, like, let's say, free drinks, beers, a bottle of wine, cheap wine, be that too, um, French fries, chicken strips, and all this other onto there to validate their a hundred dollars service when I could just go to a steakhouse and pay a hundred dollars of a worthy steak.Right. And I think that's what a lot of people and how they approach business. Um, and it's not their fault because nobody really talks about this in the industry. A lot of people and a lot of educators too, honestly, like what I've noticed is they're like, well, just add more services to up your value, adding more services and mean you upped your value, right? You could do like pedicures and, but that doesn't up your value as being a barber, right? Some of the top barbers in the industry, there's people who are charging a lot more that just do a simple service. And it's the focal point on the actual product and changing the understanding of how do we attack that then, right. That needs to shift. And for me, when I work with my students one-on-one and mentoring, um, this is like the biggest mental shift over any type of social media stuff that we could do.Right? Social media is like the, the core of how we build our business. But I see a lot of barbers who have a hundred thousand followers who have a lot who have a big following and creating a lots of, of, of momentum on social media. But when you click on their booking link, they're charging $30 per haircut. And at that too, it's not that great, right? It's not that great of a product. So can they go ahead and service $30 haircuts people and like be able to market themselves to that? Of course, but they're still going to have to work 16 hour days for what I'm trying, what I'm implementing in our students with the elevated mentorship of being only to do in about five hours, maybe even four hours of work. Um, and it's the labor mentality of, of, and I've talked about this before, especially if you've listened to the podcast, the warrior mentality, right.Shifting the idea of, uh, I have to struggle in order to make money versus just changing your perception and your worldview of what it really takes to make money. Right? A lot of people, a lot of people that come into the Barbra industry, like let's face it. A lot of us didn't go to college. I know I didn't go to college. Right. Uh, and a lot of us stick to like a really, uh, grind it out mentality, whether it be from sports background, whether it be from just like hustling on the side type of deal and thinking the more energy that you output equals the more money, but at some point in time, that machine is going to break and you are going to tire yourself out. And honestly, I got to that point too, in my career where I was doing about doing, you know, cutting $20 per hair hair cut.Uh, and I got away from overall aspect of like, trying to figure out, okay, what is the, what is the product that I'm actually servicing and try to honestly do like 10 minute haircuts? Like that was my goal. I think that's the goal of everybody at some point in time when they give up and don't understand these core issues of like, okay, well, it's not the fact that I need to cut hair faster. It just, I need to actually produce a better product. And what is it going to take? And what are those points of emphasis? Um, you know, I think in my experience, so it sounds good. Right? It's and I think that's why like educators in the industry, um, really voiced that because, well, for one it's redundant, a lot of educators don't, they don't question exactly what should be done in the industry.So it's very, very redundant of the information that's being passed around. Um, but it also sounds good. Right? It makes sense to somebody who comes from a labored mindset, right. Who comes from like, well, my time is, is, and my, my money is equal to the amount of effort I exert out. Right? So the more services I have to offer, of course, I'm going to make my higher pay. So what aligns with them, but that's going to get you tired. That's going to get you really not spending time with family. That's also going to get you really stuck behind a barber chair until you want to go and move on to something else and not do it at a very high, efficient level. Um, you know, when it comes to practicality, like I said before, the is the model doesn't work. And I'm sure a lot of you watching this right now.I've done it myself too, like trying to make that work. And you're like, does this even work? Like, okay, they said this, but it's not really like giving me the result I want. And if it's not giving you the result you want, and you have to really ask yourself, well, is this really true? What is truth in this, in this, uh, to be able to make money in this industry? Because obviously like, if you're working yourself, doc hours and don't mind my sweat, my upper lip, I had to turn off my AC real quick, just to just cause I don't want the background noise. So Mike, a little sweaty in this one, but you have to really understand like, okay, cool. What is truth in this? Is this true? Or, or is there a better way to do this? Where are they even coming from?What is their experience level? And really do I really want to be living like that? Do I want to be living in the side of a barbershop, you know, 14, 16 hours every single day for the rest of my life, just make 500 bucks a day or is there an easier way, right. And you know, I've talked about this before, when I started charging a hundred, hundred $5,200 and making that much per haircut. Um, it almost became like an unfair game. I really started looking around like, Holy. I only did like two or three haircuts. Um, and I'm making like double, triple what I used to make, being in here, like for 16, 17 hours out of the day. Um, and the only thing that changed wasn't my skill level changed a little bit, but it wasn't. And the biggest difference, the biggest difference in me was my understanding of what actually read my book business.It wasn't in adding on services. It wasn't in doing a bunch of different or doing hair units or whitening teeth, right. It was simply focusing in on what really matters, what makes my boat go faster? What makes my business go further and actually grow instead of avoiding the actual issue and really looking at myself, being honest with myself and saying, okay, is this really up to par? Or am I just trying to avoid the, the elephant in the room of my really just not that good at the moment. Um, you know, the, the, the goal should not be how, how best of a job can I do to cover up my service? And I think that's where a lot of people do. They try to cover up a service with a bunch of hyped up services, black masks, um, which look I've done before, right?But at the end of the day, people don't come to you. People don't come to a Barber and this is getting really shaky. My, my arm is getting tired. People don't come to a barber just to get a black mask. They come to get their haircut, right. So how do you execute on that? And how can you go ahead and, and, and really up the level of play, uh, and really the goal is to offer the least amount of services for the most money. Really, you should only be offering a haircut and a haircut and beard, and really be able to, to, uh, escalate that, that of amount that you're charging, because really at the core of it, that's really all that matters or whatever else you do. Maybe you do a lot of shear work or styling or stuff like that. But, you know, I know, um, there's a lot of people who, you know, I talked to a lot of barbers too.They they're like, Oh, I need to take a class on, you know, coloring is getting really big in the industry, right. I need to take class on coloring because you know, that looks cool. Or I need to go ahead and learn how to section a little bit better. I need to, I don't know how to do this section, or I need to, um, you know, I need to learn how to do extractions on, on, on, uh, black heads. You know, that, that, that, that's, that's what I need to do. It's like, okay, well, what about your haircut service? What does that like? Oh, well, it's only like 30 minutes. I only take about 30 minutes. It only takes me about that long to cut a hair because it's got some head and, and then, um, get that the next person in my chair. It's like, well, don't wonder why you can't raise prices.Nobody wants to go ahead and pay more for, and I'm not saying also you have to shorten down your time. Right. And, and that's another thing people barbers in the industry think you have to shorten downtime to be able to make more money. That's actually the opposite. Now. I'm not saying elongated like before, right. But probably about an hour service, you can get a very good and decent and very well done. Masterful service done in that timeframe. 30 minutes, your arm is about to fall off your arm is like going through a shoulder workout. Uh, and you might have, you might tear your, uh, uh, what, what does that, uh, you might have to get Tommy John surgery, right? That's, that's a, that baseballPlayers get when they up their, their arms, but, you know, cutting that, cutting like that at that rate, that fast every single day for that long wears on the body and longevity wise, that's not what we're here to do. We're here to really like elevate our skill level and elevate our understanding of, uh, what it means to be a barber. Right. What does it actually mean to, to, um, cut hair at a very high level? Because end of the day, th this nothing is new under the sun of like what the hair industry is. There's people who have been able to charge like myself 150, 200 bucks per haircut. There's people who charge daily, uh, two 20 bucks per haircut. Right. And it's possible for really anybody. Look, I live in Sacramento and, you know, I hear a lot of people say, well, my city, you know, my clientele doesn't want to pay that much.My city it's too small. People don't make enough money. I used to have when I was cutting hair full-time cause I don't anymore. I'm technically retired. Technically I, well, for me right now, I just teach students and teach barbers how to really elevate and think in this new way to be able to, uh, produce, uh, this type of result in their, in their career. But when I was cutting hair, um, I didn't really, I mean, I live in Sacramento, like I said, Sacramento is not LA we're about like six, seven hours away from LA. And honestly, it's not the Bay area. Uh, people actually moved to Sacramento to save money, so they don't have to pay high rates in the Bay area. So it's not a place where people come in, like already expect to pay a lot of money. We have a lot of state, uh, jobs, you know, at the state Capitol here in Sacramento.Um, so a lot of people, you know, they're on salary or they're make a fixed amount, uh, and they just try to budget. So it's not something it's not a place where people actually come to spend money or people like their big ballers. You're not, it's not to discredit Sacramento, but you know, for me, I used to have people that would drive, you know, all the way from Fresno or, or over four hours away. And, you know, twice, uh, once every two weeks, uh, just to get a haircut, I used to have people like, I remember there was a client that actually flew in just from Tampa Bay, um, to Sacramento got off the plane game and came to the barbershop. I cut his hair, he wanted to go see his parents and then hop back on a plane and went back to Tampa, literally just quick turnaround like that.Um, so when it's from, not because I offered extra services, he didn't come over, make that flight just to get a black mask. Right. He can, he could have got that in Tampa Bay. He didn't come over here just to get a, uh, extraction on a blackhead or, you know, to get his hair painted. He came to me for a core service that I offered and that I executed very, very well on. Um, and had no problem paying the price that, you know, of course not only the price of the haircut, but also, um, which is, I believe probably like 150, but also the price of a ticket, you know? And when I asked them, well, why are you here? He's like, well, honestly, I'm just here to get a haircut, Eddie, you know, since I'm here, I'll, I'll go say hi to my parents, then I'll go back. And that's just the understanding of like, I'm not adding on. We're not adding extra onto a service. We're producing a great service. Um,Um, and like I said before, the issue is more timeWhen we get to a deeper level of it. And then when I get to a deeper level of working with these barbers, uh, in my program, it's not the fact that,You know, theirService is. It really goes deeper to the point.Well, are you tryingHide the fact that you don't believe you're worth that much or that you could charge that much? Do you believe that you even deserve that much? Because honestly, when I was charging 20Bucks, I didn't,I didn't think I didn't value my worth at all. I didn't believe I deserved to be able to charge 200 bucks a haircut. I believe if I got to charging 40, I would be winning. Right. And that how, and it's crazy to even say that at this point now, um, because looking back what I've done, it just proves the fact of like what goes on in the industry of like what information is being passed around and what people truly believe as truth, you know, changing the, your paradigm and your worldview of how, not only how you see business, but also how you see, you know, cutting hair in general. How do you view yourself in the industry and what services you offer and offer? And then, you know, really, you know, for me, I asked the question, is my business just adding on more on top of my lack of belief in my service, or am I really pushing myself forward? And you have to be honest with yourself. And, and I remember when I asked myself that question, I was like, yeah, Holy. I'm not pushing my service for it. I'm just trying to add more, more on the street service. Um, and in business, that's never going to win. You're, you're just, you're the, Denny's trying to add on more to a steak instead of just offering a really swell quality steak for that price.Um, andHonestly, most of the industry wants like these, these gimmicks and tactics and ad-ons it's instead of addressing the core issue and the core issue, like I said before, it's not only just in your service, it's also in the individual as well. Well, why do you not feel like you're worth that much? Why do you feel that you as a barber in this industry or where you're at is not capable of even charging that much? And a lot of people said, well, no, I'm capable. W why haven't you done it yet? You know, what's, if you believe you're capable and you feel like you deserve it, what's taken you so long. And that's the real question that gets a lot of barbers stumped, stumbled up when I talked to them, uh, to get them into elevate dementia. It's like,Why not? Why haven't you done it so far? Um, you know, on top of that to kind of, when you,When you start doing all these kind of like services, or just, I'm just making all this thing shake when you start adding on services, um, or even doing like deals. Right. I, I see Barber's like, Oh, well, um, you know, if, uh, if, if a client comes in to me and this is to build their business up, right, just to get clients in, well, if they come into me and then they bring me three clients, I'll give them like seven haircuts discounted off at 43%. If they, you know, um, book with me before 3:00 PM on a Saturday, it's like, you just got way too complicated. Like, you're, over-complicating this thing you're trying to do too many gimmicks. And on top of that too, you're only gonna attract people who want deals and want discounts, and will only come to you because you offer the discount.Not because you offer a great service. I, I, when I stopped offering services, I even stopped taking walk-ins. At some point in time, people would walk in and be like, I want to get a haircut from you. I'm like great book an appointment, because I don't take anybody outside of, you know, just appointments in general. And, you know, that might go against like what people believe. But at the end of the day, like, if people feel like they can just walk in, they don't value your time. They don't value their time as well either. They just see you as like, Oh, okay, I'll just pop up on him because he's not worth that much. And you're only gonna attract cheap clients who see value in freestyleAnd free ad-ons and extras instead of like what your overall service is. So,Um, you know, we are in a service-based business, not I offer more services, therefore I have a businessIndustry. So understand what makes your serviceMore, understand what, what makes you as an individual worth more and stop trying to hide this?Because mostlyThe industry is trying to hide behind a lot of gimmicks, a lot of fake facades, a lot of social media, uh, clout, um, instead of, well, what are your results?And like I said, anElevated mentorship, that's what I try to preach a lot is like, look, all this other. What's the result we're trying to go after. What is the result that you want? And let's get you there because I'm not trying to go around and just have you look the part, be a talker. We're trying to create doers with this thing, because the industry is at a spot where, especially where we're coming out of the pandemic, a lot of people are really looking at the, uh, at what they're doing as Holy. Maybe I should switch things up. Maybe I should go and do something else. And like, and I'm always a firm believer of that's fine. Like, I don't think anybody should be a barber full time, uh, for the PR or not full-time, but for the rest of their life.But if you don'tDo this at the top level and execute at a very efficient high level, what makes you believe that you're going to a different industry will make it any different? Right? A lot of barbers I talked to want to get into real estate. What makes you believe if you don't fix your character traits and your habits that you exude in your business, in Barbara, that which is very easy and wide open, what makes you believe you're going to act differently when you get into real estate? Oh, well, there's, there's more money in real estate. Well, there's more money in barbering, but you're still not going after it. Right? So you might as well just, you know, instead of wasting time and learning something new, learn how to end the principles and, and what it's going to take for you to get up to that top tier level of execution of actually being at the top of your game and actually being on top of the industry.And then if you want to go do something else you can, because you know what it takes to get to the top of the industry instead of like, ah, this one being a victim to the industry. But I see that I can't make money in this. My clients won't pay me this, my city isn't isn't good enough because those same, those same actions, those same internal conversations are going to, it's going to follow you to the next industry that you go to and that doesn't do you any good? So that's all I have for this video. Um, you know, really for this less is more, don't try to hide behind extra services. Don't try to hide behind, um, add-ons when you're still doing a service, make a great service, um, with that too. I know I've been off for about three weeks or so.Like I said, um, I try to be a Dewar, not so much of a talker. So, you know, when I do go off of social media or do go get off my weekly uploads, um, it's more of just what I'm executing. So trust me, uh, there's more content coming. Um, I will be back on next week as well to each and every single week. Um, look out for new nail colors cause you know, it is what it is. And other than that makes you guys like, and subscribe to this video, if you liked this content, as well as look, um, as of right now, uh, the podcast is being put on hold just simply because like, uh, like I said, I'm doing a lot of execution in my business at this current moment, but, uh, there's a lot of great contents, very similar to this content like this.So this is your first time watching this, welcome to my channel. Uh, welcome to this content, uh, by all means I do post a video like this or these try to write, uh, every week, um, not so much, uh, Barbara tutorials, but when I do drop it, Barbara tutorial, it's like two years old. Um, but I do try to go ahead and make the content in there. Um, more about stuff of this, because I think there is less of this and too much redundancy in this industry of what's being talked about. Um, along with that too, like I said, the podcast is being put on hold, but there are like what I believe, like 50 episodes. Um, so I'll leave the links down in the description below. You can go and check out the podcast and listen to that, um, to be able to just see different points of view of like really what it takes to be able to make more money and build and grow in this industry and really get out of the hamster wheel, cutting hair on a daily basis. So with that, make sure you go ahead and check out the podcast makes you likely to subscribe to this video and this channel, this the first time watching and, uh, appreciate you. I'm going to see you next week.
Daniel Contreras is spearheading the industry with his New Era model that helps overworked and undervalued barbers to work less and make more. His students are some of the fastest-growing barbers in the industry and he has helped them gain market dominance in their respected areas of business and online. If you're interested in getting out of the old traditional model of barbering and start your New Era journey, click the "FREE Demo Breakdown" button above to request a strategy session.