Danny Smith on managing three Barbersmiths studios across London

Meet Danny, founder of the London-based barbershop, BarberSmiths. 

Danny opened his first studio in Angel, North London, with the aim to create a traditional barbershop, with a warm atmosphere and highly skilled barbers, all at an affordable price. 

Now open in Shoreditch and Marylebone, too, Danny’s brand is ever growing. 

We sat down with him to talk about what it’s like being a business owner, and how he’s found working with Fresha to grow his barbershop into what it is today. 

“The best way to learn is to throw yourself in at the deep end”

After falling in love with barbering, and London, Danny decided to open his own barbershop after three years of working in the industry. 

“I found that there was a lot I didn’t know. I probably went into it maybe slightly too quickly: but sometimes that’s the best way to learn.”

What makes Danny most proud, though, is the fact that his clients just keep coming back. “I can walk into every store and just see first hand that clients are coming in and keep coming in. Not just for the brand, but for the barbers themselves”. 

We asked Danny what made him start using Fresha. 

“I chose Fresha because, after looking through it, I realised it was super super simple to use.”

“My favourite feature is the retention rate: each individual barber has their own, so every month you can see what percentage people are running at. And I look at my own retention rate and male sure that I’m keeping the standard as high as possible.”

“Each barber has their own profile, too, which allows them to look after their own schedule. And they can make edits when needed. So I have more freedom to concentrate on other things within the business.”

Fresha gives business owners the chance to see everything that’s going on even when they have multiple shops. It saves them time and allows their team to have a little more independence. Fresha Reporting and insights also allows Danny to keep an eye on “the finer details of the business”. 

Danny adds another of his favourite features: the ability to set up cancellation and no-show policies to either ask for an upfront payment or charge a client's card on file when they don’t show up. “Before the no-show feature we had a lot of issues with people not letting us know when they were going to turn up and we lost money. The feature allowed us to be able to charge people for not letting us know within a certain timeframe.”

“I would 100% recommend Fresha to anybody in barbering or anybody in the beauty industry. It’s been superb and it’s helped me sort of grow from the bottom to where I am now.”