“Question: After establishing your business successfully in its first location, what were some key concerns when you began planning to expand to additional locations?”

Jacob Meltzer
Co-Owner
Keep It Cut – Unlimited Haircut Memberships
Sector: Barbershops

My partner and I focused on scalability — how to add locations with only marginally more work for us as owners and still ensure quality and consistency across all shops. To address this, we created clear policies and procedures that could easily be replicated by a shop manager and then quickly audited by us as owners. Once we had the system, we focused our attention on getting a strong manager on board. We wanted someone who was as excited as we were about our concept, our growth vision and our company values (ownership, hospitality and fun). Having a strong manager on board to handle all the day-to-day operations and maintain our company culture in the shop allows us to continue focusing on expansion.

We also looked at location. Was our first store a unicorn? For our second store, we didn’t take any risks. We surveyed our existing clients, looked at the overall demographics of the area around our first location, and then looked for a new location that matched as closely as possible. Sure enough, the results looked almost identical.

Jacob Meltzer holds a B.S. in Biology from Western Washington University and a M.Ed. in Higher Education from ASU. From 2005 to 2015, he worked in student leadership development and property management. In 2015, he transitioned to Keep It Cut, bringing Unlimited Haircut Memberships to market. 

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