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Taylor & Colt: Not your grandfather’s barber shop
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Photos courtesy Taylor & Colt Barber Spa
By Derek Fandrick
Calgary lies roughly 200 kilometres east of Field, B.C. If you drove, it would take about two and a half hours. By train, it’s anywhere from eight to 10, which is how I made
the trip, albeit from a locomotive. As a conductor with Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) for the better part of a decade, my days were spent moving cargo along this route. And while the money was good,
I wanted a better quality of life for myself and my family. Truth is, I wasn’t happy sitting in Field on Friday nights while
my family was at home in Calgary, which is why I decided to make a change.
These days, I own and operate a Taylor
& Colt Barber Spa franchise at Calgary International Airport.
A job that didn’t make the cut
I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up on my parents’ farm, which is located in southeastern Alberta near Medicine Hat. Mom and dad grew grain and raised cattle, which they sold in the spring or fall or when the market was right. Theirs was a family-run farm—my older brother Travis and I helped out by doing chores. Being a farmer is tough work and I like to think
I got my work ethic from my parents.
I enjoyed school for the most part and got decent grades, although I wouldn’t say I was a straight-A student. Graduating high school in 1992, I had my eye on a career in civil engineering and got into the program at Lethbridge Community College. However, two years in, I got sidelined when I was in a car accident and broke my femur. Recovery took a while and by then I had decided that finding a job was a priority. Moving back to Medicine Hat in 1995, I got a job with CP in the signals and communications department. From Monday to Thursday, I worked along the 800-km territory from Swift Current, Sask., to Golden, B.C., travelling with a crew and staying in a lot of hotels along the way. This was pretty much my life for five or six years; it had its moments, but getting laid off in the winter months was difficult and
I decided to move on. My next gig found me working on rigs in the oil patch, which I didn’t enjoy at all, although I did it for two years. Rigs move every six to eight days, so you’re always on the road. It wasn’t long before I felt alienated from the rest of the world and started to look for another job.
A tip from a friend at CP led to me landing a job as a train conductor in 1999. I must have made the trip from Calgary to Red Deer, Alta., and back again more than a thousand times over the next eight years. I grew bored and felt my quality of life wasn’t what it should be. Deciding
I wanted to get into a management position, I enrolled in the University of Phoenix in Tempe, Ariz., and got a bachelor of science in business administration. With my degree in hand, I was offered a position managing a locomotive fleet for CP on the line from Vancouver to Thunder Bay, Ont., which I held for three years. In 2008, I took another management position and was responsible for operations in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
I have a great team behind me, including one of my barbers, Tanya Paul (left), and the store’s manager/barber, Lisa Mayrhofer.
I was happy doing what I was doing, but things changed following the 2013 floods in Alberta. Although CP’s operations centre is in downtown Calgary, I was told
I would be deployed to Cranbrook, B.C. By this time, I had settled down and my wife Nicole and I had just welcomed our son Archer. Working away from home didn’t sit well with neither me nor my wife. Choosing family over career, I decided to leave CP and took up day trading.
A boy’s club
It wasn’t long before we started to look at getting into some sort of business, and in particular, buying a franchise. I was pretty convinced I would take this route, rather than start something of my own. Getting a business up and running is much easier when it’s a franchise compared to establishing one from scratch. Of course, there are benefits to each avenue, but I felt there was a lot of value with a brand that is already established and has some recognition in the marketplace.
My wife and I researched different franchises online and came across Taylor & Colt Barber Spa. The concept intrigued us right from the start, as we had noticed more and more businesses geared toward offering men their own space in which to get their hair cut. Taylor & Colt was particularly appealing, as it was fairly new and the market wasn’t saturated with this brand. Nicole and I saw it as a way to get into a multi-billion-dollar industry.
The grooming industry for men is changing—more men are conscious about the way they look and what they’re wearing. Ten years ago, it would have been much more difficult to convince a man to spend money on a nicer shampoo, conditioner or top-quality shaving creams. These days, it’s a regular occurrence, which is why GS Beauty Group—which operates Trade Secrets, Glamour Secrets and others—developed Taylor & Colt in 2010. With only one location in Toronto at the time, the brand was starting to expand to other parts of Canada, offering men everything from a hot towel shave to teeth whitening while enjoying free Wi-Fi, flat-screen TVs and a coffee bar.
While there are other franchises similar to Taylor & Colt, we were drawn to the fact it is geared toward the businessman, which is why you will find one in the Path, the underground pedestrian walkway in Toronto’s downtown district. Men’s grooming is definitely a niche market. Yet, unlike some barber shop franchises,
Taylor & Colt’s upscale ambiance appeals to fashion-savvy professionals and wealthier clientele who don’t necessarily care about playing video games while waiting for their appointment. Taylor & Colt’s style fits with most downtown districts quite well, more so than maybe some of our competitors with a different look. However, that’s not to say the concept won’t work in other locales, as I would soon find out.
One of the things I liked most about Taylor & Colt was the upscale look of its locations.
A cut above
I was convinced Taylor & Colt was the right business for me, so I reached out to Doug Warren, Taylor & Colt’s director of franchising. Flying to Toronto, I visited the first franchised location in Canada, which is located in the Royal Bank Plaza tower and is owned by Mohib Amanza. Stepping into the store, I was immediately struck by the ambiance and recognized the appeal it would hold for male clients working in the building and surrounding towers. Sitting down in a plush chair, I was treated to a hot towel shave for a little bit of man pampering. Its relaxing effect is pretty much what sold me and I signed a five-location agreement to be a Taylor & Colt franchisee.
Soon enough, I found myself back in Toronto learning all there is to know about being a Taylor & Colt franchisee, including three weeks at Mohib’s store working the cash register. I also trained at head office for a week on the day-to-day operations of the business and learning the financial aspect of running the business, such as setting up the chart of accounts and doing payroll. Through it all, I was grateful for the support and guidance the franchisor offered, since I was new to being a business owner.
In addition to getting a feel for the business, I also got to pick the brain of an existing franchisee, in this case, Mohib. He offered some pretty good advice, which was to make sure we had the right location before moving ahead. Turns out, Doug and his team had a place in mind: Calgary’s airport. Having already set up a different franchise from the group in the departure’s area, GS Beauty was keen on opening a Taylor & Colt. This location would tap into the airport’s visitor and employee population, that latter totaling about 24,000, although this number also includes female staff.
Each day, anywhere from 200 to 225 flights depart from the airport during business hours, which happen to be
7 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. In a male-dominated industry, that means 225 pilots, 225 co-pilots and male stewards who have to be clean-shaven and well-groomed for their jobs. That’s not to mention the potential for passengers to drop in for a quick cut or shave during a layover.
In April 2015, I opened the doors of my four-chair barber shop at the airport and so far things are going well. With responsible employees in place, I can run the business remotely, logging into the system to check daily cash sales, print reports and do some of the administrative work from home. In fact, I’m only in the store eight to 10 hours a week, going in to maintain a presence and reorder inventory, which doesn’t take long. The rest of my time is spent with my family—which now includes our son Evander—trading stock and working with Taylor & Colt to open four more barber shops.
Would I consider a mall location? Absolutely. You may not have the employee population of an airport, but the mall itself is the draw for clients. Ideally, my preference is to set up a store in a downtown tower location to capture the upscale client base. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to stay on top of marketing, though. Even with a high-traffic location like the airport, I use Pattison Outdoor Advertising, as well as paid Facebook and Google ads to market my business, reaching customers within a three- or four-km radius of the store.
There are challenges in this business, just like any other, but many experts consider grooming recession-proof.
Styling staff
What keeps me up at night? Well, I would have to say staffing. My experience is that finding new employees who fit with existing staff can be tricky. You want the right mix of people. A barber shop is an intimate setting, what with the close quarters. When staff members aren’t getting along, clients can pick up on that tension. To avoid this, I try to hire the same type of people personality-wise. It’s not a guarantee, but if I get along with them, then they will probably mesh well with my other employees. You want to create the right dynamic among staff in the workplace. Once you have that, you’re off to the races.
There are challenges in this business, just like any other; however, grooming seems to be a recession-proof industry. Everybody has to get their hair cut, even in a city run by oil and gas and currently facing tough times. Clients might think about passing on the hot towel shave, although when they’re stressed and want to relax, they might go for it. It’s the equivalent of having a massage.
Who is the ideal Taylor & Colt franchisee? He or she has to be hard working and be able to pay attention to the specifics of operating a business. They don’t have to be hairdressers and can come from any career background. In fact, once the store is up and running and responsible staff is in place, it’s possible for the franchisee to have a full-time job and run the store during off-hours.
My quality of life has definitely improved a lot, mostly because I’m not being deployed out of town or working night shifts. I also feel a pride of ownership, kind of like owning a fancy sports car—you just feel good because it’s yours. The barber shop kind of fits that big ticket item of owning something that’s cool and trendy. And at the end of the day, you go home smelling like a salon, not like an oil rig.
Derek Fandrick is a Taylor & Colt Barber Spa franchisee at Calgary International Airport. He can be reached via e-mail at derekfandrick@gmail.com.
Taylor & Colt Barber Spa
Established: 2012
Date of first franchise: 2012
Franchised/corporate units: 7
Investment range: $274,700 to $416,600
Initial franchise fee: $25,000
Website: www.taylorandcolt.com
E-mail: franchising@gsbeautygroup.com
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