Posted on July 28, 2022

We recently connected with Alex Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Alex thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?

Being that I am a 2nd Generation Barber. My parents instilled in me at an early age of giving back. Me and My Father volunteered our services at The Juvenile Detention Center to the Youth cutting hair every Weekend, was actually the starting point. Once I got my clientele going, I created a plan to give back school supplies in the shop to every Kid, an high school student at every school year. Once that started clients were so appreciative of that small gesture, that they were giving me proceeds to put back into the community for more school supplies which lead to backpacks and other essentials needed for the start of the school year for several years. Late nights of packing notebook paper, pens, pencils, glue, crayons putting them in backpacks. To give back to the Community was all the more to me showing my appreciation back to them of what was instilled in me from born leadership.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have 30+ years as a Licensed Barber with my most recent position as a Barbershop Owner/Clothing Line John Alex XIII.

What sets me apart from others is my creativity of evolving with the change of the hairstyles in which is a great task cause styles are steady changing, so you have to put a twist on the next style whether a freestyle design or 3-d part which is practice on Mannequins to get a Visual of what the part will actually look like once its performed, dependability of being available and the biggest most important is people skills an conversing with every client is another advantage of standing out amongst others. Branding and having Creative Ideas has always been in my DNA.

I Have attended barber seminars to increase my knowledge on hair education. Prior to the pandemic, I participated in barber Competitions to improve my skills as well as learning new techniques to elevate my Profession.

Although I Have a Diverse clientele, I have a passion for serving for Serving female clients that are Cancer survivors & those experiencing Auto Immune Diseases that require change to their hairstyles. It’s the best part of my profession, to change some one’s Life with a haircut to make them feel good not about their self with a pair of scissors, Clippers an showing them you care about not only there walk in this Journey but to also let them know your right there with them every step of the way in their Fight’

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Upon having a successful Clientele in a shop for 6 years, My Creativity elevated to me Creating my own website to reach more customers, to Eventually relocating to another shop, which is a start over process. Yet staying motivated and not giving up I rebuilt my clientele at a new location for 5 years then Covid hit in 2020 and that Pandemic change the dynamics of my every step once the state shut everyone down, yet not giving up and staying motivated I resided to cutting hair by being a mobile barber with a backpack, in the process of that in shutdown I received a call from the owner of my old shop of 6 years I once worked at, and the owner spoke with me and ask if I wanted to own my own shop, in 2020 in a Pandemic.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A very Pivotal moment came when in 2020 and a Major Pandemic shutdown an put the world on reset mode, upon the State opening back up. I went Back in Business not as Independent Contractor, but an Owner of my own business. But I also had Dual Responsibilities of working in a Barbershop and servicing my clients and maintaining my clientele, to also getting my other business up an going to fully commit of Ownership and not a Independent Contractor. Basically, working at 2 shops at the same time was beyond a Pivotal moment. Staying Focused and Motivated doing appts with Clients while leaving 1 shop going to another getting License, buying equipment, getting permits, going back to service my clients at my prior location in order to make Dapper Kutz Barber Lounge LLC a visual reality.

Stay Focused & Motivated a never give up no matter how hard the walk is for there will be Obstacles, Detours & All Kinds of Negative that will try to Faulter your journey. Stay Path for Marathon is Real

Contact Info:

Website: www.dapperkutzbl.com
Instagram: @dkutz_2020
Twitter: @dapperkutz
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dapper-kutz-barber-lounge-cedar-hill-2
Other: www.johnalex13.com my other Instagram is @johnalex_13

Image Credits
Alfred johnson

You can read the original article here.