Entrepreneurship

In the span of 6 years in barbering, I’ve ended two business partnerships.

Not from failing or falling out but for reasons outside of my control.

My first setup, The Burrow, was a tiny space I rented from a lifestyle-cafe that wanted a barbershop to be part of their brand.

Everything was already straighten out – the fixtures, the chairs, the decor – all I had to do was show up. Plug and play.

I was impressed by the quality of the interior even though I myself wouldn’t have gone with a classic design. It felt like an imitation of decade old barbershops that continue to exist bringing nothing fresh to the scene.

The design they’ve chosen resembled a posh British barbershop with wooden fittings, honeycomb floor tiles, shiny leather chairs, and a sink in front of the mirror for the ease of hair washing.

Despite my misgivings about the design, it was a good deal.

Managing a new shop on my own in a completely new postcode was not without its challenges especially after moving out of a township I was based in for a year prior.

New clients were hard to come by because nobody knew that there we were on the first floor of the building we were in let alone a barbershop inside the cafe.

Eventually with the help of social media, a timeout article, and good ol reliable word of mouth, the business took off.

Unfortunately for the cafe, there wasn’t enough foot traffic to trickle to them. Most of my clientele were regulars and the way I operated my business was to serve one client at a time.

After a while, the cafe business was struggling to cover their losses and eventually decided to call it quits.

I had no choice but to also leave as it was impossible to take over such a huge space alone while paying rent at 3x what I was paying for a two-chair setup.

The choice then was to either start from scratch in a neighbourhood nearby or to go and join my ex-colleague in another township.

It was in mid-2019 when I chose the latter because at the time Nine and I were planning to leave Malaysia the very next year so it wouldn’t make sense to pour more money into setting up a new premise.

But I didn’t want to just join Others TA without some form of ownership so I bought some shares and I ran it together with my ex-colleague.

We had a tremendous run. Made enough in two years to enjoy some dividends.

Even with the pandemic and all its lockdown iterations, we managed to come out alive.

There was talk of dissolving but it never came to that.

And now after 3 years, Nine and I are ready to leave Malaysia so once again I have to close the doors on another business venture.

Most people close from the financial burden that comes with operating a brick and mortar business so I feel really lucky to be doing so by choice – unrelated to the health of the business.

I’m not much of a business person as in I don’t think I necessarily have the eye for it. And it’s not like I am raking it in either with the barber business but I’m really proud of what I’ve achieved.

The fact that I am not crippled with debt or lost my investments is a lot more than most people can say for an entrepreneur.