Blind Barber, Local NYC Bar x Barber Shop Turned Global Men's Grooming Brand
As a salon owner or service provider, you’ve probably discovered by now that scaling your service-based business is much more complex than simply opening new locations and acquiring more happy clients. It also entails entering new markets and creating new revenue streams that aren’t limited to the surrounding population of your physical location.
Adam Kirschenbaum, Founder and COO of Blind Barber, not only expanded his first bar/barber shop concept in New York’s East Village to four new cities and seven locations, but also productized Blind Barber’s brand story into a global grooming product line that "combines high quality ingredients, their barbers’ expertise and natural ingredients from their favorite spirits like hops and juniper berry."
In this interview, Adam shares his biggest lessons in how to refine and successfully launch your brand in new international markets, structure distributor relationships, and to always remain aligned to your brand “tribe” and values when deciding on new international partner relationships.
Topics and timestamps
BRAND STORY
1:00 — How Blind Barber Got Started
2:19 — The Connection Between the Bar and Its Relation to Blind Barber Products
“Can you describe the connection between the bar and how it inspires your products?”
And what is unique to your products so that people understand, it's not just a gimmick, there's actually a really unique attribute your product?”
INTERNATIONAL MARKET ENTRY AND SALES
4:00 — Examples of Variations in Product Line Offerings Depending On The Market
4:48 —Blind Barber’s First International Distributor Engagement and Sales Outcomes
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR RELATIONSHIPS
7:01 — Distributor Contract Structure
“How did you set up that agreement initially?”
How did you figure out the distributor agreement?”
“Was it unique to offline and what were the responsibilities?”
8:12 — Distributor Not Making Payments
What would you have done differently from a contractual standpoint?”
9:33 — Blind Barber’s Approach to Pricing and Map Control
10:12 — Example of One Contract Breach of a Mexico Distributor Who Was Likely Offloading Product to Walmart to Be Sold at a Cheaper Price
ADVICE AND TAKEAWAYS FOR SMBS
12:55 — Find a passionate, interested partner/distributor.
13:37 — Vet the partner to ensure that they’re legitimate.
VANBASSADOR TAKEAWAYS
14:44 — Finding the right overseas partner is about who:
gets your brand
has the right voice in the market
has a good reputation among similar brands
pays you on time
14:57 — Even if you get started with a poor performing distributor, if you have the right legal parameters in place and benchmarks, you can separate yourself from a bad deal and still gain with in-country exposure that you can then leverage later down the road with other distributors.
15:12 — Try not to lock yourself into in-country distributor deals online. Right now Adam selling through online retailers and may or may not run into issues with regional distributors if his sales start to infringe on those distributor deals.
15:25 — You can set pricing or map in certain markets and in others, at least come to an unwritten understanding with distributors as to where you want the brand to be and therefore, the pricing to sit.
15:35 — Be global curious. If you're out there sharing your passion with the world, you will likely find new partners that will become partners for the long-term.
15:43 — Find your tribe. Don't underestimate the value of your story or your geography. The right partner may have heard you already, they may have heard of the town you're from, so make sure you play up your story.
UPDATE — DECEMBER 16, 2020
After my initial pre-pandemic chat with Adam, I followed up to get an update on how the Blind Barber team was navigating the constantly changing restrictions and devastating effects of the pandemic, especially considering their unique salon and bar hybrid business model.
By merely a couple of days before government mandates began rolling in country-wide, they decided to close down all their locations out of respect for their employees’ health concerns and the increasing news coverage about COVID-19’s swift spread.
Despite drastically reducing their weekly foot traffic from thousands to a hundred people as a result of shutting down and slowly reopening all of their locations in compliance with modified government mandates, they still managed to end the year strong by DOUBLING their previous year’s online sales.
Watch my follow-up interview with Adam to learn how they restructured all of their brick and mortar procedures and re-allocated their resources to the growth of their grooming product line sales.
Questions and timestamps
00:37 — Initial Changes to Business Operations at the Start of Pandemic Shutdowns
When and How They Decided to Close (and Reopen) Their Brick and Mortar Locations By City
Impact on Online Sales, Warehouses and Shipping
Changes to Safety Procedures, Payments, Interactions, Offerings, Client Communication, etc.
3:16 — What’s Open? Barber Shops and Bars
3:29 — Reallocation of Resources to Online Product Sales
Acquisition of Bigger Wholesale Accounts (e.g., Target)
5:02 — Acquisition of Government Loan Assistance for Physical Locations
5:28 — Percentage Change in Sales in Bars, Barber Shops, and Online Product Sales
7:02 — Types of Acquired Disaster Loans
How has your business been impacted by the pandemic? How have you pivoted your business operations and reallocated your resources to maintain profitability?
If you’re interested in being interviewed by the Vanbassador and would like to share about your company’s “Pandemic Pivot,” fill out my contact form for a chance to be featured!
