Beyond Today's Trim: Long-Term Financial Success for Barbers

Bree and Cassy discuss the importance of financial planning from insurance to retirement plans. Things new barbers should think about and plan for the future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome back to Philosophy of the Barber. Hello, Cassie. Hello, hello. How have you been?

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Oh. I'll be better once it stops being so hot.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Yeah, same. So if you guys happen to hear a whirr in the background, it's because AC is necessary. 100%. So we would apologize, but we're not sorry to be cool right now.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

Nope. Worth it.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

So this week we're gonna be discussing um some adulting topics like financial responsibility and planning for the future and things that uh I would say new barbers don't really think about. Yeah. And I don't know about you, did did this touch like did it get touched on in school?

SPEAKER_03 0:50

Um I wanna say more so barber school. Um because cosmetology school so many times you're it's you're an employee. Yeah, you're an employee in so many situations, so like it's not something you have to worry about future investments and such. But um they touched on it briefly in barber school, I wanna say. But it was more so something I had to learn when I became a booth renter. Is when I had to really like get into all of the different things that I have to say for, prep for, consider, like things you just don't think about. Some of those things I technically still haven't put into action yet, but I know I need to do them and we'll we'll get there.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

The nitty-gritty of the what the full budget breaks down.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Yeah, yeah. I mean, even just the bare minimum of starting out as an independent contractor, saving for your taxes.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Right. Oh, and learning how to create a profit and loss statement so you can actually see where money is going, where it's being spent, and what you come out with at the bottom. And that's I feel like I take that for granted because I've been in business for so long, but it's like I picked those things up. Like I didn't take a business class.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Yeah. So fun fact, I've never done what you just talked about, so there's that.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

I've never seen what that looks like. We can fix that, that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

It's basically a summary that's like itemized to going basically like how you file your taxes, your deductions and such, uh how you categorize them, that is included in your profit and loss.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Oh, okay, gotcha, gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

That way you can really see exactly where you're spending what money and like where you might be hemorrhaging it the most. You're like, why on earth am I spending that much there? Especially things like advertising, which I am historically really, really not an investor in advertising. Because like there's so many ways to do it without spending money or without spending much money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That I'm I'm very into non-traditional advertising. But that's because like the return on investment for advertising can be sometimes so low or so hard to find.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

That I'm like, mm.

unknown 3:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

I I make it a a really uphill battle for anybody who's trying to sell me advertisement space. Be like, please tell me how your advertising space is going to help me. Yeah. Comparatively. Because it's like local paper stuff. I mean, especially if it's a free paper where like that's where they make their money is ad space. Everybody just looks at the article headlines, like they just look right past your ads. At least my generation.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Unless they're completely eye-catching or ginormous.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yes. And those suckers are expensive. Yes. They're so expensive. Whereas, like, I mean, having a sign in front of your business or a barber pole will do just as much, if not way more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Radio ads sometimes can be like a secondary like reminder for people, and I've done those in the past when it's like a good deal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

Um do people listen to the radio like that though?

SPEAKER_01 4:19

People around here, remember median age here is 42. Fair. So like the average person here is Gen X. Fair.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Or older. I know I listen to the radio sometimes, but that's only because my commute's so short, I'm tired of my Spotify doing dumb stuff with my shop Spotify. So I just leave the radio on in my car for my four-minute drive and just call it golden.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

So our ad space specifically was during Red Sox games and Bruins games. Oh, so plus mentions throughout the week. Yep, okay. So the mentions and then like the actual ad during sports. That makes sense. Sports radio would definitely get a little more of our demographic we're looking for.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

Yes, oh absolutely. That's really smart.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, so that worked out. Especially because they offered like smaller time uh slots rather than a traditional like full minute ad. Go ahead, talk about a barbershop for a full minute. Try. But like that they offered like 30-second ones. Mm-hmm. Those we could do, not a problem. But yeah, so outside of those things, which were only if like it was reasonable, and even the radio stuff was expensive, as far as my measurement of advertising.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Well, I I'm curious, what did something like that cost? And this was however long ago. Well, yeah, several years ago, like pre-COVID. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

I want to say it was like$375 a month for whatever the season was. So what we did, we we split it up between the barbers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it became way more manageable.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Yeah. That's uh that's smart to divvy it up that way.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Because everybody should be because the shop's benefiting it from it as a whole. Correct. So the whole should invest in it. Yep. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Especially as booth printers. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's how like it wasn't a huge chunk of money for any one person. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I can only imagine what it would be now. Uh who knows? I mean, because it goes both ways where it's like, uh yeah, we have inflation, but also radio listeners have probably dropped. Mm-hmm. Fair. Especially with since then, like Spotify was not as crazy popular as it is now.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Yeah, between Spotify and like Apple Music, it's just that.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Yeah, and podcasts hadn't blown up yet. So people have a lot more options when it comes to listening in their car than they used to.

SPEAKER_03 6:48

Mm-hmm. Who knows? Could be us.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Terrible thought.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Why?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

My voice in someone's car says the woman who is currently recording a podcast. I know, I'm sorry to all y'all. For the record, she has yet to listen to a single episode with her voice. Nope.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

I don't need to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Whereas I, who have to do the editing, have to listen to us both several times. Every uh um and awkward silence. So, back on topic. Yes. Adulting. Yes, adulting. Uh financial responsibility. Yes. Now this I feel like we should focus more on like personally, as the independent contractor or self-employed person, not like as a as the business part, but like as you as your person. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um things like supplemental insurance. Things like AfLAC. Yeah. Like everybody knows the AfLAC commercial, but nobody knows what Aflac insurance is. Yeah. So supplemental insurance being if you get injured, you break a finger or break a hand or whatever, and you can't work for a certain period of time, they will give you money during that time.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

I really need to talk to this duck. You told me once about this Aflac and their Well, that's just one company. No, I know, but that's the most prevalent one for you. Right.

unknown 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

So that is a handy thing to have, especially when I mean we have a low-risk profession, but some of us like to do higher risk activities in our free time, not me. Uh some of us are also just naturally clumsy. True. Me. So that way you're not just out of luck and can't have any money and are like burning through your savings entirely because of it. So you have health insurance to cover the the medical stuff, and then supplemental insurance to be able to give you money in your wallet while you're out of work. So that's a handy thing to have. Yeah, absolutely. And they're usually pretty like super low premiums. Like I've been paying twenty-six dollars a month for like twelve years and I've never used it. But better to have it and not need it.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Yeah, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

And I locked it in when I was in my early to mid-20s. So locked in that rate because as you get older you get to be a higher risk person. So keep that in mind, especially with things like life insurance. Yeah. Also a thing that everyone should have. Life insurance. Yeah. Well, you really want everybody to be up a creek without a paddle trying to figure out what to do with your body when you die? Throw it in a few. And have to figure out how to pay for it. Throw it in a creek without a paddle.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Viking burial, just light me on fire. Well send me off on a boat.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

If you make your landlord the executor of your estate.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

My lord of the land. So yeah, fair health life insurance is not a bad idea.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

And the earlier you get it, the cheaper it is. Yeah. And once you pass 35.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

It's already more expensive for me because I smoke. Yep. Slash vape. Yep. Yeah. And have for a long time. Uh-huh. Discriminatory.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

But it's not. I know. Statistics. They don't lie. Four uh IRAs. Ira. Yeah. Plan for that retirement. Yes. Because I feel like people now are just like, oh the money in my pocket, cool. Let me go buy a car. Or it's like, mm, that's fine. But what are you gonna do when you're old?

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Another thing that's on my list. Now don't get me don't get me wrong. I understand that there's the old saying, like, barbers don't retire, they die. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would not use that as a goal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

We should still aim for a retirement phase of our lives. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

You know, to be able to only cut, you know, a couple days a week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or to do it and snowbird somewhere in the winter. You know, find a young buck to run the shop solo while you're away for the winter.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that'd be a fun retirement.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

And I feel like if you've been cutting hair for a year or more, at some point you have to have attracted a financial advisor in your chair at one point or another. So use that network that you're building in your clientele. Mm-hmm. It all just becomes so confusing for me sometimes. Well, so with the financial advisor thing, the reason I was comfortable to move forward with it is because I had conversations with my client when he was getting a haircut about it. That way I could wrap my brain around it. Like we got experts in our chair. Let's hear 'em out.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

So typically I do try and avoid people's work in their chair.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Same, that's why I don't But for curiosity purposes. Yes, I asked to an extent on certain things. Like the difference between a mutual fund and an index fund?

SPEAKER_01 12:08

I was like, please explain. I want to understand.

SPEAKER_03 12:12

Yeah. I've never heard either one of those terms, so that's solid. Because they sounded kind of important.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Yeah, we're talking about adulting.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

When people talk about their financial portfolios.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

And diversifying their portfolios. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

I've heard those terms on TV.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

I've never had conversations with actual people that you never feel more like an adult until you're talking finances like that. Yeah, I would sound like a croc of shit. It'd be like, yeah, you just Googled some words that meant finance. Threw them in a sentence. My buddy Roth.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Well, and that's the other thing, knowing the difference between a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA. What?

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Yeah. I only knew about Roth. I didn't know there was a traditional one. Yep. See what I mean about being confusing. Well, the nice thing is there's only two. And then they start throwing just letter abbreviations in there. And I'm partially dyslexic sometimes, so then it just means all sorts of different other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Well, that's why it's important to talk to the professional. That way they can break it down. And they're more than happy to do it. That's what they do. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

They want my money.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Well, they don't want your money. They want to help you invest your money. Oh. You don't pay them? Well, they get a cut, but it's it's not substantial. Oh. We'll say it's not substantial for like me. I'm not somebody who's independently wealthy and has a lot of money to be invested and moved around and that sort of thing. They make money off of those people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's a lot bigger pot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

But they're different out of gas.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Either the saucepan.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

So yeah, uh totally different caliber of situation. And they're very upfront with what their fee is, and they usually work it into what's, you know, automatically being withdrawn and all that sort of stuff. And you get monthly statements. And you can like you can choose to do mu mutual funds or index funds. You can choose individual stocks that you want to buy into, and then you can switch up what you want to buy on a monthly basis after a certain amount of time, whatever. Like they assess your um how open you are to risk, and so they'll only suggest things that are within your comfort zone as far as risk. Oh, interesting. That way they're not like pressuring you to do something that you're not comfortable doing. Yeah, yeah. Like if you're really low risk, they're not gonna be like, check out this startup, you know, they just went public.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Yeah. Yeah. I just got the good old savings so far working on padding up.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

And savings is super important. I feel like there's a lot of people that don't even know how to do that. No. And thankfully there are um or companies like Square that we use that offer a very convenient way to save. Like taking out of your daily sales automatically and putting it aside, whatever percentage you're comfortable with, and then being able to make folders. That's on there? What?

SPEAKER_03 15:30

On square? Yeah. I can do that on square. Ooh, I didn't. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

No, you didn't know it? No. That's how I c uh keep my uh my quarterlies come out.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

That's genius! Yeah. Then the maths never are. Correct. Oh my god. You just opened up my whole world right now. I don't do that. I have a weird folder that I deplete every month out of my bank account app for my quarterlies. So every time I empty it, it's red like I'm behind on my goal, but I'm not because that's not the point of it. Interesting. I'm gonna set that up later.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

That's super handy.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

Yeah. Oh yeah. Especially for quarterlies. Please just take it out of my- Take it from me. I don't need to see it, it doesn't need to go into my bank account. Stop letting me have access to it, because then it's harder to put away. Because then it gets put away differently. Because it's not like I'm going at the end of my day every day and being like, oh, which I could. In theory I could. But I'm not at the end of my day going, oh, I need to tail take this percentage out and pull that aside. It it doesn't happen like that. It happens like during the week I throw a couple hundred bucks into this folder, kind of thing. And then as I get closer, I do the math to see how far off I am by having thrown things in there and then work on that. And now that I've vocalized this and said my my actions out loud, I feel like I'm doing things wrong. Well, not wrong. It's not wrong. It's just more difficult.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

More difficult.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

It's not not very practical, but I'm not the practical one out of us two, so no one expects that of me. You still do a pretty good job considering.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Yeah, that's fair. I still technically need to do my taxes for this year.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yes, but yeah, you're you have months. Yeah. It's fine.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

I did file for a uh extension. Extension. So I'm responsibly irresponsible. And a lot of people are.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

Yeah. Oh, Square's savings about to change the game for me. Yeah. Super handy. Because that is one thing I I will say that I'm decent at is saving money. Unfortunately, having opened the shop and like doing things in my life, I've had to tap into that so it's not as big as it once was, but I'm usually very good about not touching those things. It may not always get added to, I may not be in the budget to add to, but oh, it has to be real desperate times for me to actually pull from those. Because once it's I feel once it's out of my checking account, that's it. I I'm not I don't want to move it back in. I don't ever want to have to move funds back into the checking account. I want them to stay in their prospective folders and saving spots and all the things. Fair. It's just easier that way. That's why I was really good about saving cash. Anytime I'd get like a$50 or$100 bill, I'd just tuck it in a pocket of my wallet. And then it's just like I never even got it.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Well, and historically, we'll touch on the um elephant in the room when it comes to barbers and cash. Historically, barbers have really enjoyed being cash-only establishments. Mm-hmm. For a number of different reasons, including accounting. Now, Uncle Sam is not a fan of that. I am not personally a fan of doing anything that would cause me to look over my shoulder. Yeah. Or worry about an audit. Yes. Or anything like that. Yes. So I won't condone that, but we will say that it does exist. It does exist. It definitely does exist. And you know, you have those generations who hid cash in mattresses and in the freezer, cold hard cash. Long history of people doing that. And that's uh other ways of saving. Yes. It's like, hey, if you're somebody that is, you know, somebody who only will spend if it's your card and your account, cool. Whereas like if if it's out of sight, out of mind for you, and you can just stash it away, and then it's like cool, you know you're not gonna touch it. If that's how you need to do that, then make sure you do that. Just make sure that your books reflect it. Yes, oh god, yes.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

God yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

That is the concern with the square uh savings when you also have a square loan, though. Because square loan automatically gets taken out daily, a certain percentage that you've agreed to through them. The savings does the same thing at the same time. Which means you still considered your income. Right. Yeah. But it's it's more when you see your daily deposit, it will obviously be significantly lower than what you actually made.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

You're like, I did so many haircuts yesterday. Now am I only getting this much in my account?

SPEAKER_01 20:48

It's because of the percentage that's being taken out on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Yeah, the double percentage, I got you.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Yeah. So that's something to be aware of and not be like, what happened?

SPEAKER_03 20:58

Where'd my money go?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Right. So pros and cons of things automatically being done for you.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Yeah, I will say that I've found already that pro and con of the square loan just in and itself, because like the days that I do make a good chunk of money and it takes out so much more, I'm like, I wanted that extra$90. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

But the nice thing is that means that the faster you're getting the loan paid off.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

Yes, I will say that. It's it's moving nice, which is really cool. I remember when I first got it set up and they were like, you have to have because they obviously they do it the month to month, and it's by 18 months, and you have to hit like a certain minimum every single time. Minimum Yes. And I was like, oh no. Like I immediately got nervous that that wasn't gonna happen, and then I like that happened in like th three weeks. I was like, Oh, okay, this is fine. I get it now. Yep. I don't have to worry about anything.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

And they already know that you can do that because they base their calculation on your income that they know you've already made. Yeah. They're like, oh yeah, based on your history, you're fine. You got this. That's why they offer you that loan amount to begin with. So it's like, cool, you're doing that math for me. But it is also not the best interest rate, but it is a trade-off for major convenience. Major convenience.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

I got it with the funds were in my account. Next to next day. Yeah. So fast. Approved for it same day. Yeah. Within minutes. And we're not sponsored by Square.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

We just really like them. We have we're just Pro Square. And that is something else to like remember business wise. It's like I'm very much the I don't like to be personally in debt. Like yes I have credit cards but I have paid the majority of them off and I use one for business purposes. And that's the difference between like personal finances and business finances. It's like business finances it there's like almost an expectation that you should be in a bit of debt business wise. Yes. In order to continue to to move and to grow to progress because it's like when you're buying retail like you're going to put a chunk of money down to to buy stock from retail. So you wanna just save up your hard earned money to just buy all that stuff out of pocket? Or are you gonna, you know, put it on a card and you're making money on that retail every time it's sold so it's like it'll pay for itself as well as make you money as long as you sell it. Yeah. As long as it keeps moving out. Right. So what other adulting type of things financially responsible things we need to cover? I mean so basics for savings like I'm gonna go to the Dame Dave Ramsey route first. It's like have a thousand dollar emergency fund because an emergency will happen. Yeah. Eventually it will. It's not if it's when yes so always having$1,000 emergency for the car thing that messes up. Yeah yeah like whatever happens like usually having a thousand dollars put aside for who knows what we usually cover it.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Uh we're almost there. We'll get there one of these days. There is an emergency fund. It can cover maybe some tires Hey tires are expensive.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Yes very but that's the other thing is like having that be only for emergencies. Yes exactly whereas like planning for things that are a will happen not a if they happen like anything mechanical anything mechanical will fail. So planning on that failure is important.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Yes. What's the rest of this Dave Ramsey method? Is that the name you said? Yeah he's got a whole thing. Does he really books and books and programs and I'm unfamiliar. I only know the other Ramsay. Gordon? Yeah Gordon Gordon What other pockets of saving like what other categories are pointed out for this Ramsey fellow with when it comes to saving?

SPEAKER_01 25:10

I will say that I have not uh memorized his whole method. No I remember those because they were pointed out to me in barber school. So you guys did talk about did you guys go into depth with stuff like that in school we definitely covered as much as anybody was curious to cover when we hit that business chapter um and just by virtue of the school owners slash instructors being shop owners multiple shops. Yeah they had plenty of experience to be able to offer and break down like the basic math of like the general assumption in the public is that barbers don't make a whole lot of money. It's the barbers can make money. Yeah and it's about you know looking at all how many hours you're working how many haircuts can you do in a certain amount of time how many days a week you work and then doing that basic math but that's gross income. That's not net income. And so being able to see that and be like oh you you can make some yeah you can make some money. And that was in the days of walk-ins and I mean still there are shops that take walk-ins only now so if you want to do twenty haircuts a day you can yeah and you can make bank especially because prices for haircuts have doubled in the time that I've been a barber. Yeah which I mean great for the profession we're now you know caught up to salon prices as far as haircuts go which is like cool I'm glad of that because given our expertise we have just as much training and experience and skill set as you know hairdressers in our given areas. Yeah. They were they were willing to break down business wise um but they also introduced the concept of the Dave Ramsey's method. That's actually where I first met the person that I signed up with for the supplemental insurance was the the barber school. I guess we Where did you start with supplemental insurance? Like I already already covered done check. Yeah I'm the one that lives a super safe lifestyle. Yeah the lowest of risk well there's even weird things that not weird things interesting things that you can add on. They had like what they called a cancer writer which is like it's an extra bit like add-on thing that like if you were to get cancer since it's more common now than it ever has been um it would cover like a long term chunk of time. Yeah. I really should get some insurance then not saying that that's gonna happen but I'm but that is one of like it that's one of those things that like you don't think about until it happens going how does what does a self-employed person do if they get diagnosed with cancer?

unknown 28:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Hope that you get approved for social security? Like what? Like as much as people don't like to talk about those things, it's very important to plan for them.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

Yeah, oh for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Same thing with like alright I I'm getting to the age now obviously I'm nowhere near like you know the average human mortality rate but I want to start thinking about alright where do I want to be buried? Like what do I want the funeral to consist of uh you know getting that cost taken care of. Yeah. So if I gotta have that taken care of cool that's one less thing people don't have to worry about for me. It's good to go. But I also think that's because uh the majority of my friends are over the age of fifty fair so fair enough these things are coming to my attention a couple of decades ahead of time. It's not bad to be prepared. No I would rather have it and not need it. I feel like there's justification for hoarding. It is for sure like my yarn well all of the yarn is a matter of you having it and not needing it. How about some planning for self-care and like planning vacations because vacations are important.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

Oh yeah especially since you don't have to you don't get paid you don't get paid because you not only have to like cover the time off but you have to be able to cover what you would have brought in that week to be able to still cover your overhead for the month.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 29:37

Believe me I've having so this month I took I had some family visiting and on separate weeks I've accrued I'd take three days off this month that I usually don't and just trying to prepare for that made me nervous and made me like start to think about if I was to take like a week off or whatever I'd have to save a good chunk of change beforehand to make sure that I could do that. We'd have to start a vacation folder.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Oh definitely for next year maybe hopefully well and I try and be strategic on when I take the time yes based on like proximity to a quarterly payment and uh rent payment making sure that like all right those obligations are met and good to go and I'm not gonna be like tight like I'm never gonna be like oh no I'm negative no but like some times of year are more lucrative than others. Yes. Whether it's you know if you're in Florida and winter's insane or whether you're up here with us and summer's insane like feast and famine are real in our profession. So being able to map out those ebbs and flows and go, alright cool I'm not gonna I'm not going to take a vacation in February because I'm already it's a short month uh which means March's rent comes just a couple of days faster. Uh it's also a slow month as far as haircuts go because after you know looking good for Valentine's Day which half the men today seem to just be really resentful of like there's nothing good there's nothing to look good for until Easter at that point. So like our clientele drops as far as frequency. So February's not a great month in my opinion to to take vacation unless it's at the beginning of the month. Yeah. Because that way you have the rest of the month to cover your overhead and be good to go. Because I mean also conversely it can be a good time because it's so slow but it's such a balancing act you gotta like figure that out for you. Yeah yeah yeah because that's why I would take vacation in October because that's also another like lull that we have but it's like alright we took care of the back to school cuts and we haven't gone to the Thanksgiving cuts yet. But it's it's fall and still summer really in Florida. Yeah it's like that's a good time to get away. It's a really nice time of year and you don't have to worry about a short month. Yeah yeah that's really I don't care what anybody says three days four days makes all the difference.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Yes especially in this profession.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

So I'd rather ha have a vacation during a 31 day month than a 28 day month. But that's me.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

Yeah. Luckily with things like that I've already planned on kind of adapting to like monkey see monkey do and like since I've seen you like that it works with the time with the way it is up here especially like you've learned the ebbs and flows of the seasons and stuff in this area so like I'm just gonna follow suit and basically either same week or backdoor the week just so that way this place isn't completely closed up.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Right for the sake of UPS and FedEx It wouldn't know what to do. Everything would be sent back I I would probably still be here and my July vacation is really not technically a vacation, but like I'm not making any money. It's a maintenance week. Right so because I put that aside business wise because I'm dedicating that time to business even though it's I'm not making money uh those are things that need to be done. And I don't otherwise necessarily have time to do them. Like sometimes I need to make a giant mess in here that I don't have to clean up right away. Yeah yeah so and that's my opportunity to take a detailed look around really see what I want to change w what I want to move around improve um and it gives me that time to look at the canvas and go, all right and look at it from the perspective of a client going what do they see? What do I not like that they see and fix those things without rushing. But it's also strategically placed and I've taken the same week for twelve years 2020 being the only exception because seven weeks was enough of a break for us. Yeah yeah yeah that I pick the last full week of July number one for consistency because then it's not the last week of July which is sometimes only half a week which is confusing for people. So the last full week of July I always take that way it's far out enough from the Fourth of July that it's not insanity like it normally is here. But it's also so far away from the beginning of school for anybody college students, high school students doesn't matter that it's not impacting any of those main reasons for people to get cleaned up. Yeah. So it's like yes it's still in summer but we live in a summer vacation destination so nobody in my clientele is gonna fault me for closing down for a little bit of summer. Yeah god no in fact they'll be like oh great where are you going? Nowhere nowhere I'll be here. Not to say that I won't enjoy some of the time like I'm gonna go visit my friend in Kenny Bunk. I'm gonna, you know, do some stuff here and there. Not magnetfish. Uh no so like I'm not wasting the time but I'm also not like burning myself out in work stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

So that's you have to find a balance with your half vacation.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Yeah it's important that like alright well you can slow down take whatever time and pace that is comfortable for you and not feel like you've got to squeeze it into the weekend.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

Yeah. Because it's a lot especially after a work week you've already worked all week your weekend's supposed to be not work so it's hard to want to do work projects then.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

For me.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

Um you like to be here more than I do I'm the person who is here on Saturday despite not working on Saturday so yeah I'm already thinking of like what I want to do to make a mess in here and I'm probably going to rearrange the bookshelf library.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

I'm not surprised especially since it's become a Lona library as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Well and I do have a library card kit. Of course you do so I might actually like set that up yeah oh it's already done for the barber textbooks. Go ahead pick one look in the back and cute unfortunately I think it says polish and proper no it doesn't no specification sweet title author and I'm pretty sure with the rest of my kit I have the the stamp the name stamp. I was hoping you would say that's part that's what makes it legit. Yeah I was actually thinking about getting a an emboss seal thing as an alternative to do it on like title page. Mm-hmm that'd be cool yeah that way it's like it's not a marker and adhesive yeah yeah yeah so I'm fueling my habit. Yeah everything's a tax deduction now every book for my library another another adulting thing alright barbers if you out own a shop make sure that whatever your like thing is your pastime your hobby incorporate it into the vibe of the shop and you can buy things for the hobby and make them deductions for your business as long as they're in the shop once they're gold. Gold I have an operating library that my clients can check books out of because I have a book buying habit. In fact as we speak I am thinking on buying another bookshelf but then I would have to rearrange everything. The whole room yes any other adulting thoughts or topics or uh questions?

SPEAKER_03 38:01

No the only questions I have are for a financial advisor.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Alright well you guys have a wonderful night we'll see you all next week have a good night