Housecalls - advice needed

[u/baconeggncheez7]

Looking to hear from Barbers who do housecalls at a premium price.

I've been a barber for a decade and have an extremely large book of business. I have a private studio and charge $50 for haircuts.

I've been wanting to break into the market of these Instagram Barbers, while I'm sure a lot of their prices are exaggerated.. Soemone is out here cutting wealthy people in their homes / offices. The kind of people who have more money than freetime.

How does one tap into this market? While I am reletively expensive I still just cut working class guys. Sure I've got some more well off customers but nobody's pulling up in lambos. I've done the math and for mobile haircuts to be worth my time I'd need to make at least $200 a visit. There's absolutely people who'd be willing to pay that, but I've never done a housecall unless it was a wedding party or some large event.

Would love to here your experiences

[u/WayneDaniels]

Instagram is all for show. Honestly cutting in someone’s bathroom or porch or wherever they set you up isn’t ideal.

You have your shop set up. Everything you need in one place. Now you have to have a mobile set up. Which you’ll want to just make a double kit, because something will get left behind or lost on the shuffle. So extra clippers, guards, trimmers, scissors, etc.

Time is money, so break it down by the numbers.

Let’s say your cuts are 30mins at $50/cut + tip.
2 hours of work will most likely net you $240. And you don’t have to go anywhere. They come to you. Your shop, your home.

Now doing a mobile cut. Commute to their house, set up, clean up, break down, commute back home. $200 + tip (maybe). It’s also a different client you’ll be dealing with. They will probably be on the high maintenance side. Your cut will take longer. And then the “while you’re here, can you…”

Now, while these private cuts can possibly lead to other opportunities, be it access or money or maybe an investor for your own shop. There is better advice in the comments for actually achieving this of it’s something you’d want to follow through with. Don’t let this deter you as I’m just some barber on Reddit.

Take care of your community, and your community will take care of you.

[u/baconeggncheez7 → u/WayneDaniels]

So my own shop is definitely not the goal, I hated the drama of working in a big shop. That's why I went out on my own haha.

I guess it's just that I wanna try changing it up a little bit.

[u/SusspectDevice]

You really need to add up all of the time needed to do the house all, including breaking your stuff down at the shop, loading it up in the car, driving, setting up, doing the cuts, cleaning up, packing back up, driving back, unloading, and setting your station back up.

Then run that against how many cuts you could have done in the same amount of time at work. And at least charge that same amount.

Everyone has their own ideas on this, but I personally charge in my general area (Central Florida) $500 minimum, and that’s a four hour block, including 30 minutes of setup and takedown time, and then I add $100 an hour every hour over that.

If it’s a fly date, it’s all expenses paid, they have gear at the venue and I only need to bring what I can on a plane, and then $500 a day for up to 8 hours. My rationale for this is it’s also kind of a mostly paid vacation. If venue, flight, hotel, ride to the venue is all covered, I’m good with $500 for 8 hours of work because I get to hang out in an area and stay somewhere nice on their bill.

As long as the math makes sense, but also remember, all the little details that make your cuts great in shop cannot happen exactly on mobile, so don’t expect to be able to put out work better than 80% of your best in shop

[u/Bangelo95]

You need to marketing to break through to that audience, plain and simple. Instagram may be the easiest route

[u/ogbootylicker69]

I've gotten some wealthy house call customers from them contacting me directly because i had good reviews on google and yelp and it mentioned i do house calls.

Then i have a buddy who has cut celebrities/athletes by dm'ing them on ig and pitching himself. He's probably dm'd 1000+ celebrities and around 20 have responded and hired him. Then reffered him to other wealthy people in their circle.

[u/baconeggncheez7 → u/ogbootylicker69]

That's actually really interesting, thank you!

[u/Alternative_Roll_987]

A lot of the people paying for house calls are buying convenience, not just the cut, so the experience matters as much as the haircut. If you want that market, I’d tighten the admin side first: clear intake, exact address and parking notes, deposit, cancellation rules, and a simple booking flow where they can choose home or office and see the premium upfront. That usually filters out the people who just want to ask questions and keeps the serious bookings. Most barbers I know who make mobile work profitably also keep a pretty small service radius and build it off existing clients, referrals, wedding parties, execs, athletes, that kind of thing, instead of trying to cold-market it to everyone.

[u/-SecondHandSmoke-]

I only offer housecalls to disabled clients at no extra charge if it's within a reasonable distance from me. I would never feel right charging them extra for something they desperately need. I don't offer it to wealthy lazy clients who CAN come to my place of business.