Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Romero.
Nicholas, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My name is Nick Romero. Born and raised in the county of Dade. I started my journey walking through the isles of Circuit City by Dadeland, and I saw a pair of Conair Barber clippers. The main machine and a liner set. I asked my mom to buy them for me because I wanted to start cutting hair like my barber Freddy Rodriguez. See, one day I was going to Freddy’s to get a haircut before school started. I get to his house and I see about three guys sitting on the curb, I asked them what they’re doing here, they said they’re waiting for a haircut. Ok. I park my low rider bike and go into the house. I go to Freddy’s room and he’s cutting hair, there’s one guy in the bed and two guys playing the Super Nintendo, waiting for a haircut. It’s a normal weekend, I sit on the bed and watch, and Freddy looks at me and goes, “Nick, check this out” goes behind his TV and pulls out a wad of cash! Folded, looked like $500! I asked him what he’s doing? He said just cutting hair! And THAT’S the day I knew I wanted to be a barber! So, I’m 13 years old, I have these nice new Conair clippers, let’s get to work. I go around the neighborhood telling everyone, free haircuts, I need to get my feet wet!
At the age of 16, I get into a barbershop and get to cut in the same shop as Freddy, MrGoodBar Rob, and other good barbers, at Ace Of Fades off 88st next to the IHOP. I cut there for about a year, a little less. Then I had left and found the best barbershop in Miami, HeadHunters in the Hammocks, across the street from the police station.
Here is where I learned to be a barber. Here is where I learned customer service, the older barbers taught me and gave me a game! I would work from after school to close. When I graduated high school I was there from 9 am to 11 pm, the shop was opened 10-10. I gave HeadHunters everything I had! I loved cutting hair. Then, I left. I went to the Marines! The good ol’ Corps! I left the Marine Corps and took my clippers with me. I was cutting hair in combat training, at school, and my duty station in MCAS Miramar in San Diego, CA. I cut hair in the barracks, back yard, bathroom, garage, cut hair in Kuwait tents and van pads in Iraq. Where ever I went, my clippers went with me. Finally, in 2009, I left the Marines.
Married, with my oldest son, we had a decision, either go back to Miami and do us all over again, new life, new everything, or stay in San Diego, CA and open up a barbershop.
By this time, I was cutting some hair after work, but entirely busy Saturday and Sunday in the backyard or garage. My wife was reluctant to stay and build an empire. (Truthfully, being 23, she and my mom were afraid of me going back to Miami, I’m all Miami, I think you know what they meant.)
So we stayed! I opened up a barbershop in the neighborhood I lived in, where all the military housing was, and we’ve been opened since! We opened our doors on February 4th, 2011, and we’ve been rolling with the punches since. In 8 years, I’ve gone thru almost over 25 barbers, and I only have 6 chairs. My caliber and expectation of barbers are high for our clientele, and if they can’t meet it, they have to go. This has helped our shop become one of the best shops in San Diego, CA.
Now, that’s just the back story…
Here’s the story of ThankMyBarber! Cutting hair, going to hair shows and events, seminars and other cities, I kept seeing barbers trying to brand themselves and getting their name or brand out there. I would see things like “Barber King” and it was the Burger King logo, or California Barber Clothing, or other logos and names Insinuating that “hey, I’m a barber” I thought that was corny and with barbers hating on each other all the time, I couldn’t see “barbers” buying other barbers clothing at the rate you would want your product to sell in the economy. Right there like a spark, I thought, what about the customers? At our shop we are “Custees 1st” it’s all about the experience and the love you have for your craft. So, it came to me, “ThankMyBarber!” right away, I called my guy Alex, who worked with me at HeadHunters in Miami, and asked him to draw me up a logo. Within a week I had a logo. I trademarked it within 6 months and started creating T-shirts, stickers, hats, and other products I could see customers buying. The way I saw it, you’re hateful barbers won’t buy my barber shirt, but if I created a brand that was for the customers to wear, representing “their” barber, then, we have a different approach. At a 6 man shop, I’ll only sell six shirts to the barbers. But each barber has at least 25 customers! I’ll sell to their customers.
So, getting the brand up and running the shop, I go to college to finish up my Bachelors in Organizational Leadership at National University. At school is where I honed in on the problem of our industry. I finished school in a year and a half and at that time the ThankMyBarber! the brand went from a Tshirt company to an association for barbers to grow and become the mentors, leaders, professionals they are supposed to behind their chair and away. My capstone or thesis paper to graduate was written on the lack of professionalism in the barber industry and how ThankMyBarber! will help fulfill that void.
Now, ThankMyBarber! (TMB!) is here to help barbers with finance and tax education, giving customer service tactics and ways to make more money behind the chair. We help with all state regulations and keep barbers up to date on what’s new and upcoming. TMB! has group health and insurance for all members and their families. We can still get TMB! products at all barbershops and help raise community awareness through mutual programs assisting the homeless, doing back to school drives, can drives, book drives and anything that helps the community prosper through their local barbershop “community center” which they all are.
ThankMyBarber! does not have a brick and mortar at the moment but currently all online. We have barber shops in California, New York, Florida, Texas and even a shop in Cuba, Mexico and Brazil repping the ThankMyBarber! brand!
The TMB! brand will be the biggest thing to hit the industry. It will be the “go-to” for barber schools and the place all customers will gravitate to, a ThankMyBarber! affiliated barber (shop).
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Nothing good comes easy. You’ve heard it before. If it would, everyone would do it. There are only so few people who can resist and live the grind of entrepreneurship. I’m one of them.
There have been many great challenges in this venture. From being away from the family, to months of overwhelming bills, barbers coming and going, dealing with suppliers who can rob your time, scammers and ruthless folks who just want to drain you. But we have to see our cup as half full. I have a pitcher! And my pitcher is overflowing! Going to school full time, while operating a barbershop, while being at home with the wife and family, assisting coaching our son’s baseball team, going to council meetings and pushing myself to become greater every day, it’s a lot! But it’s what I needed. Now, taking a step back, and working smarter, building a team, creating a program and system, everything is flowing in place.
Please tell us about the business.
Most of my answers would be in the long “who am I” but, ThankMyBarber! is THE brand of the barber industry. It is the key to success behind the chair. What sets us apart is that there’s is nothing out there to help barbers become the professionals that they are supposed to be. You can go to a great school and pay $ 20-40K, but unless you work for a franchise or salon, barber shops tend to be the bottom of the barrel in the beauty industry. I have changed that, ThankMyBarber! will ensure the rest reap the benefits.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Our customers at Rawknykz Barber Shop, the ground floor of what ThankMyBarber! can do and work for others. We do hair paint at local elementary fall festivals, we cut hair for the homeless during the holidays, we do can drives and clothing drives, we do toys for tots with the Marines, we do as much as we can and give! That’s the way of TMB!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thankmybarber.com
- Phone: 7863685032
- Email: thankmybarber@gmail.com
- Instagram: ThankMyBarber
- Facebook: ThankMyBarber
- Twitter: ThankMyBarber
Image Credit:
Image taken from @TheBlockSD (IG)
Suggest a story: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
