Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series of stories highlighting business post-recession.
The holidays were beneficial for one business owner in the Third Avenue Village.
Ricardo Conde, owner of Razor Line Barber Shop at 268 Third Ave., said he has seen an up-tick in business since the holiday season.
“The holidays kind of picked up, we’ve seen more people coming around Third Avenue,” he said.
Conde, 24, said he had clients from out of town coming in to get a haircut. He also said his regular clients brought in family members to get a haircut in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
For the most part, Conde said, his business kept prices the same; but on certain days he offered a holiday special of $2 off haircuts.
A regular haircut costs $15, his special is a $12 straight razor shave, which he said is one of the cheapest prices in town.
The first-time business owner also credits a previous Star-News article for an increase in business.
“We had a handful of people that actually mentioned the article,” Conde said. “A lot of older people let us know that they had read about us in The Star-News.”
He said people ages 50 to 60 stopped by his business not to get a haircut but to check out the barbershop that they had read about in The Star-News.
Conde said most of his clients are 20- to 40-year-olds.
Conde said he is starting to see returning customers more frequently as they are developing a haircutting schedule, with some, he said, getting haircuts weekly and others biweekly.
He said it is hard to estimate how many clients he gets a week because that number fluctuates.
He said the challenging part of running a business is letting people know that there is a new barbershop on Third Avenue.
He said that he has been promoting his business by passing out flyers and through word-of-mouth.
So far, he said, people are starting to take notice of his shop.
“We’ve been noticing a lot of consistency,” he said.
Business had been so good for Conde that he is looking to hire a third barber in the next few months.
Conde said he isn’t in an industry that was victimized by a sluggish economy.
“I feel that everybody needs a haircut,” he said.
He said the one thing that he learned about running a business is that it is a lot of work. He said he spends most of his days at the barbershop.
