Five Year Anniversary (That time we had our grand opening at the beginning of a global pandemic)
Editor’s note - I just finished this post, and the whole thing falls somewhere between “a fart in church” and “breaking your arm the morning of your wedding.” Like, it definitely sucks in the moment, but you know that it will make for a hilarious story one day.
One day, far, far, far in the future.
I was cleaning up one of my hard drives at the end of January when I came across a letter that I had wrote to myself years prior.
“Today is March 4th, 2015.
I am 28 years old, male, 138 pounds on a good day, but still failing to get up to 155 as weight keeps falling off me. At 18 I started working at a call center in an entry level. I never decided to go to college, homeschooling kind of taught me that it made more sense to just do things yourself and have a sense of accomplishment to it. That, and how to cheat in Spanish and French. A decade later, after various other positions all within various different call centers, I have landed right back to where I started.
Fucking.
Entry.
Level.
Position.
Two days ago, a man yelled at me for 5 minutes straight because he couldn’t understand how his television worked. He then tried rationalizing suicide because “this world isn’t worth living in with the technology that is taking people away from each other”.
Yesterday, as I sat across from Tina, the woman interviewing me for school, she asked if I had any last questions for her.
“Do you think it will be more difficult, since I don’t know anything about it?”
“I don’t think I have ever seen as much motivation as you have. You are going to do wonderful.”
I have had a failed marriage. I have gone through bankruptcy. I have worked at jobs I hate for bosses even worse. But I have a second chance. I’m engaged, and I’m not making the same mistakes again.
Today I’m making a change in my life. I have no idea about the field I am going into, but I’m about to learn. I’ve been working on a business plan with my soon to be wife and we’ve waited for the time to be right. It’s time to go at this full force. I have never been more motivated to make something work in my life. And I want to document my entire experience.
Starting April 21st, I will be going to school to be a barber. And goddammit, I’m going to be good at this.
”
It’s been five years since I made the decision to change my life. In this letter, I outlined that I had a business plan and a goal. That plan was always to learn as much about the industry before diving too deep. I wanted to look at the milestones of The Barber Story.
First 6 Months - Barber School
An entirely new career
The PMTS Boise - 2:1 student/teacher ratio for the first 2 months
Mistakes = Lessons on what not to do.
First year of professional career in downtown barbershop
Developed award winning marketing campaign
Experienced a more classically male centric barbershop culture with the experience of both a barber and as a co-owner
Married my girlfriend on Leap Year 2016
Second year of career spent in a neighborhood salon
Developed “The Barber Story’s” brand from an online blog into a business entity
Experienced operation management as an independent contractor
Organized first fundraiser for Movember, held at Spacebar
Opening “The Barber Story”
Brick & Mortar opened in December 2017.
Opened shop with Jimbo Davis cutting in the back and Chris in the front.
Walls and general decor were left bare so we could grow into the space.
Chase Hoskins joins the team in March 2018
Placed 3rd in 2018 Boise Weekly - Best of Boise competition in June 2018
First year providing services at AFSP Suicide Prevention Walk
Liz Rodriguez joins the team in March 2019
Placed 3rd in 2019 Boise Weekly - Best of Boise competition in June 2019
Regional barbershop research begins
Salt Lake City, UT - June 2019
Portland, OR - June 2019
Boulder, CO - August 2019
Seattle, WA - September 2019
Second year providing services at AFSP Suicide Prevention Walk
Began rebranding in November 2019.
Added final decor (including the rebranded menu board) to the front of barbershop in January 2020 based off of the lessons learned in the second half of 2019
Announced the Grand Opening Celebration at the end of January 2020.
Tried to bring on part time barber and adjusted schedule to accommodate transition.
Part time barber didn’t work out, adopted Mon-Fri schedule to have a shared weekend with my wife for the first time since the barber story began.
Celebrated the first anniversary with my wife on Leap Day 2020.
Wednesday, March the 11th 2020 - The World Health Organization Declares Covid-19 a Global Pandemic
Friday, March the 13th, 2020 - Grand Opening.
I am constantly asked, “Haven’t you guys been here for a few years?” & “Why do your grand opening now?”
Every one of these steps needed to take place before the shop was going to be something where I felt it was worth throwing a party for. I don’t want to celebrate or introduce people to mediocrity, and had we done a grand opening when we first started, we would have welcomed people into our empty space. I had a very specific goal that needed to be achieved before I wanted to introduce the general population to it, so I preferred that all of our success had come through word of mouth.
The second question that came up was this, “Are you going to cancel your grand opening with everything that has been going on?”
Here is how I choose to respond, and the statement I want to make on behalf of The Barber Story with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The entire team at The Barber Story have always held ourselves to the highest standards of excellence, in all regards. From the way we treat our clients, the way the shop treats our barbers, to the considerations made in atmosphere and culture, and all the way down to the smallest of details, we have always, and will always strive to ensure your experience is among the absolute best that Boise has to offer.
Health and sanitation take no exception to this. We have always passed our health inspections with A ratings, and we keep the utmost of standards with regards to cleanliness in and around the shop.
Since the initial reports of the outbreak, as an owner, I have taken the early initiative to ensure we were stocked up on additional cleaning supplies, including installing automated hand washing stations in every room of the shop, as well as a new automated soap dispenser in the restroom.
The shop has also recently purchased a brand new LG All-in-One washer/dryer combo for the towels used in the shop. I have asked that the team use the “sanitize” option with this new machine, because, while this is more inefficient with time, it heats the water to a temperature that kills 99.9% of all viruses and bacteria that can be found on surfaces.
For the time being, our commitment to the community will be found in the same commitment you find in our schedules at the shop, so long as health and local laws permit. We will ask our barbers to stay home for 14 days if they begin to feel unwell, and we ask for your consideration if your barber reaches out to you for a medical consideration. We understand barbershops are the epicenter of community interaction, branching out to people from all walks of life, and we ask for your understanding when I say that The Barber Story will have a zero tolerance policy towards illness in the shop for the immediate future. All medical cancellations will be understood, and you will not face a penalty of cancellation fees, just please reach out to your barber prior to your scheduled appointments. If you show up to the shop sick, you will be refused service, and you will additionally be charged your appointment’s last minute cancellation fee to cover the cost of disinfecting the space. THIS WILL ONLY BE FOR CLIENTS WHO SHOW UP TO THE SHOP SICK, NOT FOR CLIENTS WHO CANCEL IN ADVANCE. If you reach out to your barber in advance or cancel through the booking system for an illness or quarantine related reason, you will not be charged a cancellation penalty.
I know this seems harsh, however I say this from a place of compassion. The barbers that work at The Barber Story lease their stations as independent contractors, operating their own private businesses. They don’t accrue PTO or sick time like a lot of workers at larger companies in the Treasure Valley.
When you support independent barbers, you support their families, their weekends, their vacations, their ability to go to the doctor, and ultimately you support their ability to stay a part of the community that you love.
Continue supporting your local barbershops, and stay healthy.
So why did I still do the grand opening during a global pandemic?
Let me answer by first providing the context of how I view unnecessary risk in comparison to risk mitigation. Here’s an example of what I viewed to be an unnecessary risk. One week prior to the grand opening, on March 8th, I was scheduled to cut hair at a barber bash in Nampa. I backed out last minute because I didn't think it was a necessary health risk with everything that had been going on. This was going to be an event with potentially 20-50 stylists from half as many shops, all with a unique set of shop clients from different communities, all sharing a small space that I personally didn’t clean.
To me, I can’t control how other people run their shops, but I know I’ve personally fired more people than I’ve hired because they couldn’t live up to my shop standards. Since I knew I couldn’t control the amount of clean of everyone else’s shop, I decided to back out so nothing would come back into my own shop.
With my approach to risk mitigation, I considered the following before moving forward.
Automated cleaning stations had been installed prior to event
I reduced ad spending to prevent large gatherings
I reduced the amount of outside vendors that were present for the event
I hired a trustworthy vendor that was able to provide a separate entertaining space from the general population
The amount of risk was reduced to that of us being open a normal day, so we went with it.
Proper business management isn’t pretty, but it is worth celebrating, especially when the fruits of the efforts have already been acknowledged by the community. The Barber Story has won awards for our quality services, and now we were prepared to show the public our attention to detail in every other aspect of our jobs.
So enough gloom and doom about a virus that we all know the media is blowing largely out of proportion. While I go stock my safe up at home with rolls of toilet paper, you can enjoy some pictures of the faces that showed up during the grand opening.
It really was a great time. The Double Decker Espresso bus showed up, a bunch of shop regulars came and hung out, we had some raffle prizes and raised money for Boise Bully Breed Rescue Mission, and there was even some gluten free pizza.
We’ll see what the future throws at us, but I have faith that we will see it through to the next chapter.
-Chris