While following celebrity food author Miguel Barclay’s adventures on Instagram – he films himself doing anything and everything – I saw something rather brilliant.
In one of Miguel’s Instagram Stories, Miguel was walking along a street talking to his phone like he does when he spotted something unusual in the back of a van.
Stopping to take a look, Miguel filmed something he didn’t expect to see.
The sliding side door was open and there in the back of the van was a full on professional barber shop.
Sitting in the barber’s chair was a gentleman being given a short back and sides.
Looking closer you can see the van’s livery says ‘Trim-it’, which is the name of the company set up by twentysomethings Darren Tenkorang and Nana Darko.
Before ‘Trim-It’ was born, Darren had been studying business management at Sussex and was working a one-year placement at a re-insurance firm in London.
It was at University where he met his business partner Nana and also discovered that he struggled with dyslexia.
After being officially diagnosed with dyslexia, Darren had to revaluate his career plans and after stepping out of the train station in Brighton one day and seeing a barber shop that specialised in Afro-Caribbean hair, his future was revealed to him.
Afro-Caribbean hair is different to European hair and very few high street barbers and hairdressers know how to work with it.
Darren realised that there was a lot of potential customers in and around South London and that many of his potential customers are busy business owners and entrepreneurs who struggle to find the time to ‘pop to the barbers’.
Many of them want to ‘cut and go’ and don’t want to spend too long waiting in reception so for them, a mobile barbers which you can order through the app developed by Daniel and Nana is ideal.
The mobile barbers come to you wherever you are.
Darren has fond memories of going to the barbers with his dad when he was young.
“My dad used to take me to the barber’s in the morning and we’d be there for hours,” says Darren. “We’d watch the football, and he would usually sip a pint of Guinness, chilling with his boys.”
As he grew older, Darren became increasingly frustrated with the slow tempo of the experience he once enjoyed as a child.
“I got sick of waiting for an hour at the barber, especially on a Friday or Saturday,” he says.
“Or it would be your turn next in the queue, and then the barber would go to eat, or to pick up a child,” he remembers.
Darren wanted to offer busy entrepreneurs a faster and more exclusively tailored service, and that meant taking the barber out of the shop and onto the road.
Mobile hairdressing itself is nothing new.
For years hairdressers have been visiting mainly women in their homes, and cutting hair in kitchens or lounges using the home owners own chairs.
Hair dressing equipment is thrown into a big bag or suitcase with wheels meaning that the traditional mobile hairdresser is restricted to what they can carry.
When you set yourself up in the back of a van, you can kit it out fully and you can manage any mess far easier. Plus there is no ‘setting up’ or ‘getting ready’. You simply pull up at the arranged destination and throw open the door.
This is a brilliant business model and a perfect way to take your business to your ‘busy’ customers for who time is short.
You are offering a service which makes their busy lives easier. It is convenient and as we know, people pay good money for convenience.
Why do you think there are so many takeaway food outlets around?
Takeaway food means that people do not need to cook and there are very few pots to wash after eating, if any. Takeaway food saves time.
With the barbers in a van concept, people do not need to leave their homes or their place of work, drive several miles across town only to struggle to find a place to park – which can be quite expensive – then having to wait alongside other people in a busy and often hot shop.
The van barber removes all of those problems.
The person who orders a hair cut or a shave, simply steps out of where they are and into the back of the van as soon as it arrives.
I love this idea.
I believe Trim-It currently has three vans doing the rounds in London.
There are many large towns and cities in the UK where this type of service could easily be replicated.
I’m more than certain there are other businesses which could run similar services.
Nail technician in a van?
Massage in a van? (Not that kind of massage! Although saying that, the brothel in Sheffield did try that once!)
Can you think of one?
Read More about Darren, Nana & Trim-It here: The BBC Article
Kind Regards
John Harrison.
PS… If you are looking for a good business idea which might work in the back of a van… or just as a business in general, I can help you with that with my book The Stolen Files.
In the book you will find 133 business ideas to choose from… even if you don’t pick one, they will give you a lot to think about and will help you come up with your own profitable business idea which you may be able to run from the back of a van!
To get your copy go to: