Jeff McKay • Little Rock, Arkansas
Matt Houle • Phoenix, Arizona
Don Scott & Rob Folk • Scottsdale, AZ
Don Scott and Rob Folk met back in 2010 when their daughters attended the same preschool in Peoria and quickly became golf buddies and friends along the way. Don is an Engineering graduate from Rutgers University, and completed his MBA program through Arizona State University. Rob obtained an Education degree from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, before moving down to the desert. He’s since lived in Las Vegas and Phoenix working with MetLife Bank and First Horizon Home Loans. With their backgrounds in Real Estate, and having been affected by the subprime bubble correction, they were exploring which businesses would be somewhat recession proof and putting those high on their priority list. On one of the many golf outings, the benefits of owning a V’s Barbershop came up, and after debating it from many angles, the upside was very apparent. Don and Rob liked the V’s model so much that they have now committed to opening three V’s Barbershops in the future, with their first one already up and running at the Scottsdale Promenade Shopping Centre.
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Elijah & Teedra Bernard • Franchisees since March 2015 • Houston, TX
In 2012, Teedra and I discovered V’s Barbershop via the internet. I was commuting back and forth to Houston, TX from New York City and was in search of a barbershop that specialized in straight razor shaving. As this skill set was not very popular among traditional African American barbershops, I constantly found myself going to back to New York where I had been going to the same barbershop for nearly 4 years. After my first experience at the River Oaks V’s Barbershop location in Houston, I was completely amazed with the V’s Barbershop brand and after several visits the idea of owning my own V’s Barbershop began to form. Teedra and I had been reviewing several small business opportunities for about two years however, none of them resonated with me at the level of V’s. The combination of the old world classic experience, simplicity of the business model and access to the key decision makers within V’s Corporate made the decision easy. At every step of the way prior to purchasing our franchise, I could simply pick up the phone and call Mr. V and he never once didn’t have time to answer a question large or small. Furthermore, throughout the real estate search, lease negotiations and buildout, Mr. V and the V’s Corporate team were there every step of the way providing support and encouragement.
The franchise has “Family” feel to it and the support you receive is just that, “Family” in every aspect from Franchise Sales, Operations, Marketing, Training, Finance and Support. The V’s team takes complete ownership of issues and are highly accessible. Our 1st year has been incredible, while our start up was slower than we would have liked, after about 3 or 4 months in, when our marketing efforts begin to take shape and we found the RIGHT combination of barbers we have since met or exceeded all our core financial objectives and business is steadily growing. We are currently evaluating the possibility of opening a second V’s location and look forward to bringing this great brand to another area of Houston in the near future.
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Marla Hansen • Franchisee since March 2015 • Bellingham, WA
My V’s Experience started out working along side Evah Thurman, the previous owner of the shop which I now currently own. I worked in and out of the shop for over a year and became familiar with V’s and what they are about. When Evah moved out of state and decided to sell, I thought long and hard about the opportunity that had presented itself to me. I was at a point in my life where I wanted to take something on and have an opportunity to grow. I am a licensed cosmetologist and it was always a dream to run my own shop. I was familiar with the industry and this shop, so it seemed like a great opportunity. After making the big decision, I made the leap, and purchased the V’s Barbershop in Bellingham Washington. It was all pretty smooth sailing after that. Since I had already worked for the previous owner, I knew most of the ins and outs of the shop. However, there was plenty of additional stuff I would be learning as an owner and the franchise was great to work with on that. They are very helpful in every aspect and they are all very personable. Being that I was only 28 at the time of purchase, not once did they make me feel like I was too young to take something on like this. Even though V’s is a franchise with many locations, it doesn’t feel that way. They are genuinely concerned with what you may need help with or what’s happening at your location. There isn’t a time where I feel like I can’t email, text, or phone them. Starting a business can be hard and with their help it did not feel that way. They continue to help me along the way of my business journey.
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