We recently connected with Terry Guido and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Terry thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Barbering became so popular, and one thing that started to happen is rich business people starting barbershops instead of actual barbers. They tend to not care about quality or the actual relationships with the people patronizing the business. It’s all about getting as many people in and making as much money as possible, which is just not something that should be done barbering is so much more than just doing a haircut, it’s being a part of peoples lives and building our relationship that could last years. I think people can feel the difference when they come into our shop it doesn’t feel corporate. It feels like it has a pulse and a heartbeat and I love when we get reviews confirm that. I also treat my employees the way I would want to be treated if I worked at a shop they have a lot of freedom and I think that draws in really motivated and talented barbers.

Terry, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Going up I always really cared about my hair and I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I finally got a real haircut at a barbershop instead of just going to one of the chains. When I graduated high school, I visited a beauty school and thought about doing that, but ended up just doing the College thing, I worked in corporate America for a few years and totally hated it. I could never see an actual future so when I was 27 I decided to go to Barber College and figure if I could cut hair and be good at it. That would be the best job in the world , I went to school at the Flint Institute of barbering and started working Mondays at a walk-in shop while I was in school to get more experience. I ended up getting the opportunity to open a small one share shop inside of a hat shop in downtown Ferndale I knew I wanted to own a shop one day, so it just seemed Perfect. I did that for about two years and built a really steady clientele and was booking a few weeks out so I knew the time was coming where I needed to expand. I saw the lease for our current location on 9 mile pop up and it was the perfect size so I just ran with it, it’s funny a lot of people ask me what the theme is or what I’m going for and it literally is just what my office at home looks like random stuff, thrift vintage stuff on the walls blink-182 shirts hanging and I think that gives it this genuine feel. Think a lot of shops opening look at old shops, and say hey, I’m gonna put a deer head here or an old Coke sign , but reality the Barber is then we weren’t doing that to be cool. They probably actually killed that deer and the old Coke sign was just a Coke sign. I also make a huge point on being overly friendly when someone walks in the door. We don’t have a front door or front desk person and it can sometimes be intimidating for someone to walk in so I try to make them feel at home right away I worked really hard at trying to be the best I could at cutting hair School taught me a lot, but it was definitely a whole New World getting into a shop and actually feeling comfortable with whatever a customer or client might ask for. It was a fun challenge and still is to this day, but I have to say there’s no better feeling than getting a client for the first time they sit down you give them exactly what they want and take the time to understand their shape and hair texture and then even make suggestions That leave them with easily maintainable haircut that makes them feel and look good. I’m really proud of our shop and all the barbers that work there and all the barbers that have worked before and now went on to open their own spaces. It’s sad to lose Barbers but I love knowing that Leftys is kind of the last stop before you go branch out on your own.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had opened my five chair shop in September 2019 so when Covid happened in 2020 we were only six months old. Because I didn’t have any profit in 2019 in those three months because I had written off all the expenses of opening the business. I didn’t qualify for any of the Covid relief money that other small businesses were getting I had a child on the way and no money to my name and a ton of debt. That’s the first time I think I really understood anxiety. Thankfully I had clients by gift cards and T-shirts to support and we ended up being able to qualify for unemployment at least so I had some money coming in. trying to build a business post was definitely difficult. We were super busy right when barbershops were able to open back up but then it was still slower after those initial Covid cuts. I think people just got more comfortable having their hair a little longer so some that used to come every three weeks we’re coming every five weeks so you need more bodies to fill up your schedule in a month. But I had good barbers, and I trust the process and I think I’ve built one of the best barbershops out there. It’s also nice knowing that I’ve already gone through one of the hardest things, a small business owner, or Barber will go through.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source for new clients has definitely been Google reviews in word-of-mouth. And barbering if you do a good job, the first time, the odds are actually very high that they’re gonna come back. I also send out a quarterly email asking people to review their experience with us and a lot of my new business when I ask how they found us say you guys had the best reviews.

Contact Info:

• Website: Leftysbarber.shop
• Instagram: Leftysbarbershop_ferndale
• Facebook: Leftysbarbershop

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