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What It's About
A man in Canada discovers the Zen-like feeling that comes with a regular wet shave routine and encourages more men to get rid of their disposable razors.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
Know your products and services inside out and then just go for it! You can run profitability scenarios and come up with a million reasons why not to do it and how it won’t work. Even if it fails completely, what’s at stake? What does complete failure really look like? As a side hustle, it’s probably just time and some money. But the lessons learned and experiences you gained will make your next venture even better.
Fun Fact
Shahan’s first class went really well, however, there was a scheduling mix-up for his second class. When he and his wife arrived to set up they were greeted by a few hundred toddlers dancing to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s "Baby Got Back." While amusing, this clearly wasn’t going to work for a shaving class, so they canceled that class. But ultimately that scheduling snafu lead to Shahan successfully approaching his day job about using their showroom for his classes, which is where he still runs many of his classes today.
Notes from Chris
Episode 277
By day, Shahan Fancy is a Marketing and Sales Professional for a kitchen cabinet manufacturer in Saskatchewan, Canada. By night, Shahan has managed to turn an everyday irritation into a side hustle. Like many people, Shahan struggled with shaving. He was never really taught how to shave properly—he was simply given a cartridge razor, a can of shave cream and the lovingly fatherly advice of “try not to cut your throat.” After years of frustration of the cost of overpriced shave cartridges and subpar results, he gave up and quit shaving altogether. Thankfully, designer stubble was sort of in style at the time. But in 2012, Shahan began longing for that clean-shaven feeling again so he turned to Google and did a deep dive into all things shaving. About 9 pages of search results in, he discovered an article on traditional wet shaving. With his interest piqued, Shahan eagerly read through the article which made the claim of an irritation free shave and talked about how old school tools and processes made shaving “Zen-like.” Not to mention how inexpensive it was. He purchased his first safety razor, and mustered up the courage to do his first shave which resulted in—you guessed it—a perfect irritation-free shave. Suddenly the sun was shining and it was a whole new world of smooth cheeks. He even converted a few friends here and there, directing them to a few of his favorite online retailers. Everything was going smoothly until a few friends purchased a safety razor online and had terrible results due to poor technique. When Shahan heard the bad news he knew that if he could have just spent some time with them, to demonstrate proper technique, they would have had a great shave. It was then that Shahan realized there were a couple opportunities on the table. First of all, there wasn’t much available by way of traditional shaving supplies in the Canadian province he lived in. Second, safety razors require a bit of practice and learning the proper technique, but he couldn’t find anyone willing to teach those interested. So in March 2017, Shahan and his wife Donna-Lee drafted plans to solve both of these problems with the in-person free classes where they would sell products and shaving kits. Before they knew it, Shave Valet was born! Shahan has continued to offer free classes in his area and has slowly grown his social media following and customer base. Shave Valet is only a few months old and is already bringing in about $550 a month, and is still growing. As Shahan put it, “Although margins in the shave game are ‘razor-thin’ by ‘staying sharp’ Shave Valet continues to turn a profit.” MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:- Shave Valet: Learn more about wet shaving and join Shahan at one of his classes!
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