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Meet James Rowe – the barber from the UK and the Booksy brand ambassador. Read as James talks about his career and the way Booksy has impacted his business.
Barbering and the hair industry was something that I was always interested in from a young age but it wasn't the route that I went down to start with. I started out as a professional footballer at AFC Bournemouth but due to a series of long term injuries the football career ended and I found myself wondering where to go next. I looked into barbering and hairdressing and decided that as it had always been an interest to me, including the fashion side of the trade, I would get an apprenticeship and learn every aspect of barbering. Whilst I was learning I used to be obsessive over how the barbers and hairdressers were holding their scissors and clippers, why they were holding them that way and how they were cutting hair to create works of art. I knew that this was the life long career that I would be in love with.
My first haircut was actually in women's hairdressing as i went down the route of becoming a women hairdresser as well as a barber because i knew that if I was going to make a career of the industry then I would want to learn as much as i possibly could including the scissor techniques and fundamentals of hairdressing. I had a vision of the type of barber i wanted to be from the beginning and that would involve merging hairdressing styles with the sharpness and precision of barbering. So when i got on to the barbering side my first use of the clippers was to simply shave all the hair off of one of my friends!
There are an endless list of things I love about being a barber such as the social aspect and meeting so many different people, being creative and developing different styles, changing a clients appearance and seeing the smile on their faces as they walk out of the shop with their chests pushed out and a spring in their step. I love the team that I have around me who are always switched on and hungry to be the best at what they do. we are always pushing each other and trying to achieve as much as we can.
You can never stop learning in this industry with new techniques of cutting, different styles becoming trends and the progression of the equipment and tools we use. I like to push myself to be better every day and will always seek to learn from anyone I can. Everyone has a different way of cutting and everyone has a valid opinion whether that comes from an apprentice or master, you can learn from anyone to improve what you do. The social media aspect of this trade has also helped in wanting to keep learning as well because is it easy to go onto instagram now and see the amazing cuts that are being produced by the likes of Alan Beak and Reece Beak at Ruger, Josh Lamonaca and Charlie Gray at Menspire and then across the water with the likes of Julius Cvesar and Famos.
We have been very Grateful about having such amazing clients. From day 1 they have really bought into the vision that we had for the shop and the social aspect of the barbershop. For us its a place where men can come and have man time! With all of us in the shop supporting different football teams the discussions can be quite heated but very funny at the same time!
HARD WORK! Hard work and determination will always outweigh any talent when talent isn't prepared to work hard. I have found that placing a good team around me, a fantastic relationship with my business partner Mark and the support and understanding from my family has helped me keep pushing myself to be a better barber and to continue to succeed to where I want to be in my career.
It is exciting times at the moment because I have started the ambassador role with Booksy and the future with them looks to be really promising on a personal level. I want to carry on working hard to produce the best haircuts I can and improving along the way, I would love to get more involved with cutting hair on stage and rubbing shoulders with the current big names in the uk barbering scene. The direction in which the shop is going is fantastic and having just promoted one of the barbers to manager and educator we can continue to grow as a business and help young aspiring barbers in the right direction and to hopefully have a long successful career with us at Boss Barbering.
Booksy has been a revelation for us at the shop. It has completely made life around a busy shop just that bit less stressful! Being able to offer customers an option to book appointments instead of having to wait, what can be 3 hours sometimes, has enabled us to gain more and more customers. We understand that time is precious to a lot of people and now being able to book a selected time and not have to wait has made the Boss customers very happy! The simplicity of the app has been a massive help for us too from a business point of view but also a customer point of view. I love being able to manage my day and having the ability to message blast our database of any offers, free appointments or upcoming staff absences. Booksy have given me a platform to be able to show what I can do with my haircuts and in turn has helped promote the shop to get it out there nationally as well as locally.
I have two favourite! The first would be the review section. You can not write a review about the shop if you haven't had an appointment. This for me has been a fantastic way of gaining new clients because all reviews that have been written are by customers that have had a service and been satisfied, if I were looking to have my haircut that would be the first thing i would look for. My second favourite is being able to share all of our information on the app of the customers to see e.g. the map, the opening/closing times, the call button and all of our social media platforms that they can click on a it will send them direct to our pages.
Everyone who has used the app has given fantastic feedback about how easy it is to use. It hasn't been difficult at all to get clients to use the app as it is making life so much easier for them to have the ability to book an appointment from anywhere they want, 24 hours a day and show up at the time of the appointment instead of having to try their luck and wait for hours.
I can not recommend it enough!! It will change your life for the better.
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