Spruced Up: We Talk Marketing, Makeovers and Menswear with Shop Owner Taylor Romero

Spruce is a barbershop and clothier that's unlike any other business you've encountered before. Taylor and Becca Romero’s small business in Denver Colorado offers style consultations for men, with an emphasis on swapping the lumberjack duds favored by the guys in the store’s neighborhood for sharper looks.

On top of this, Spruce also has a web-based app for booking appointments and building a style profile for every client that was customized by Taylor himself. It also alerts employees to the next appointment, giving them time to review a profile page and welcome customers by name.

We chatted with Taylor about how they came up with the idea for starting their business, what's working for them on social media and the tips they most want to get from *you* around getting new customers.

Name: Taylor Romero

Business: Spruce

Started: June 2015

How did you create your awesome jobs?

I’m a software developer and I was working at a startup when my wife, Becca, said she wanted to open a women’s boutique. She came into my office not long after and spied one of my colleagues, who she described as a “diamond in the rough.” She said she wanted to help him look a little more dapper and asked him if he’d be up for a makeover. He said yes, confessing that he hadn’t bought new clothes since high school.

After she took him shopping and to get a haircut, we met to play skeeball later that night. A girl started hitting on him — which he said had never happened before! — and he came over to me later with tears in his eyes to tell me he was having the most fun he’d ever had out in public.

I asked Becca what she thought about opening a men’s store instead. She said yes, and we settled on the name “Spruce.” From there, we bought a domain name, hooked up with an illustrator from Latvia who designed our logo, found a place to rent, bought products and I created all the store’s software systems.

When did you know your business was going to work?

Honestly, I don’t know yet if it will! 

The barbershop is doing well, which makes it a lot less stressful, but we’re still building our retail business. We broke even our second month, but then expenses caught up to us. 

Last week was our first break-even week since, so we’re working hard to get the same result this week. We’re keeping our costs down, though, and will give it a couple more years.

How do you price your products and services?

We compared pricing and the length of time haircuts take at salons we consider to be our competition and set our fees comparatively. 

We refer to keystone pricing for our clothes, which is generally a 50% markup. Using a style consultant is free at Spruce, but we’re still figuring out how to compensate employees for clothing sales. We settled on a 20% commission for every item sold, but we need to either lower this percentage or raise our prices. 

I’ve spoken to the sales staff about the possibility of decreasing these bonuses, and everyone is on board even though it’s detrimental to their bottom line. We haven’t made a call on that yet, though.

What is your most effective means of getting new customers?

Facebook — it’s incredible. Ads are tied into our reservation system, so I know what was spent on an ad and how much revenue it generated in appointments. It’s so cool! We can quickly tell if an ad is working or not. Getting that information, especially when you’re strapped for cash, is amazing.

We also use  Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. We find different types of clients on each of these platforms. 

On Instagram, we meet other barbers and industry people. On Twitter, we meet investors, entrepreneurs and event holders. Facebook is where we attract customers. It’s important for us to hit every channel, though, because we want to connect with all of those people.

If you could go back in time, what’s the one thing you would do differently when starting your business?

I’d do several things differently! 

I’ve asked people I admire to mentor me once a month by showing them how Spruce is progressing and asking for ideas and feedback. I wish I’d started doing this before we opened, because I’ve learned so much. One mentor taught me to pull out a spreadsheet and build it so that I can calculate maximum revenue potential, which is important to know.

Additionally, I would have spent more time calculating employee commissions because it’s hard to roll them back after the fact. I’d also definitely triple my fixed costs outside of my startup expenses, especially taxes. We pay the same amount in taxes that we do in rent each month, and Becca and I still don’t draw a salary.

What would you like to learn today from a community of other small business owners and self-employed professionals?

I’d really like to hear stories from other people here that will help us with the retail side of our company. 

How can we build awareness, let people know what we offer and get more customers into the shop?

Let's help Taylor and Becca out!

Do *you* have fresh ideas that Taylor and Becca can use for getting the word out about their shop? Are there any new tactics they can try that will help them get more folks to come through their doors?

If you have a story to share, tell us more in the comments below! :-)