Plan B Business
Beauty

Stop running on walk-ins
and start running on a booked book.

We work with barbershop owners doing $165K-$3.3M in annual revenue who are tired of unpredictable foot traffic and barbers leaving for chair rentals elsewhere. Our monthly engagement, no minimum term works toward disciplined appointment-first model, retail revenue, and a shop that compounds. How fast it moves depends on how seriously you work the plan - what you will see from the first meeting is exactly what is holding the business back.

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Industry Reality

8 patterns we see in most barbershops

80%
how often we see it

70%+ of revenue from walk-ins - no booked book

Root cause: Shop never adopted booking software. Customers expect walk-in. Slow Tuesdays, packed Saturdays, 2-hour waits.

What we do: Deploy a real booking platform. Shift to 70% appointment / 30% walk-in within 6 months. Barbers see steadier income, customers stop waiting, owner can forecast.

75%
how often we see it

Service price stuck at $25-30 when market supports $40-55

Root cause: Owner-barber set prices 8 years ago. Fear of losing the regulars. No tiered service menu.

What we do: Tiered service menu: classic cut ($30-35), premium cut + beard ($45-55), signature service ($65-85, includes hot towel, scalp massage, neck shave). Annual 5-8% price increase discipline.

85%
how often we see it

Zero retail revenue (pomades, beard oils, accessories)

Root cause: No display, no barber upsell, no commission. Owner sees retail as 'not what we do.'

What we do: Curated retail (4-6 SKUs, not 30). Barber commission of 15-25% on retail sales. Target $8-15 retail per ticket within 12 months. Retail at 8-15% of revenue is the goal.

70%
how often we see it

Barber retention crisis - top barbers leaving to rent chairs elsewhere

Root cause: Below-market commission split (40/60 or 50/50 in their favor isn't enough). No book ownership, no benefits, no clear path to chair-rental partner.

What we do: Restructure to 60/40 (barber/shop) with clear book ownership rules. Health stipend. Path to chair-rental partner at 18 months. Cap of 3 chairs reserved for employee-barbers, rest are rentals.

65%
how often we see it

No client retention discipline - 40%+ never return after first visit

Root cause: No rebook prompt at checkout. No SMS reminder system. No first-visit follow-up.

What we do: Mandatory rebook prompt in the booking system at every checkout (target 70%+ rebook rate). 48-hour SMS thank-you with rebook link. Win-back campaign for 60-day lapsed clients.

85%
how often we see it

No membership or subscription revenue

Root cause: All transactional. No reason for client to commit beyond their next cut.

What we do: Membership tiers: Classic ($65/mo - 2 cuts), Premium ($95/mo - 2 cuts + 1 beard trim + 10% retail), VIP ($145/mo - unlimited cuts + priority booking + 15% retail). Target 25-35% of clients on membership within 18 months.

75%
how often we see it

Less than 100 Google reviews with 4.5 average

Root cause: No systematic review request. Barbers don't ask. Owner doesn't enforce.

What we do: Post-service SMS review request automated out of the booking system. Cash bonus to barbers for review milestones. Target 400+ reviews at 4.8+ within 12 months.

70%
how often we see it

No corporate / event revenue (groomsmen, executive grooming)

Root cause: Shop never marketed to weddings, fraternities, executive offices.

What we do: Groomsmen package ($300-600 for party of 4-6). Executive on-site service for local offices. Pre-prom and back-to-school packages. Target 8-15% event revenue within 18 months.

Benchmarks

The numbers we aim at

These are the targets we work toward in an engagement - a bar to measure against, not an average anyone measured for you.

KPITypical starting pointPlan B target12-month goal
Average ticket (service + retail)$28-38$55-75$48-65
% revenue from appointments (not walk-in)20-40%70%+55-75%
Rebook rate at checkout25-40%70%+55-70%
Retail % of revenue0-3%10-15%7-13%
% clients on membership0-5%30%+20-32%
Barber annual retention rate40-55%85%+70-88%
Google reviews count60-130400+250-450
Engagement Model

What working with us looks like

  1. 01

    Month 1: Shop + book audit

    We pull 12 months of booking data. Service mix, rebook rate, barber productivity, walk-in vs appointment ratio. You leave with a written 90-day plan.

  2. 02

    Months 2-3: Service menu + rebook discipline

    We launch the tiered service menu. Mandatory rebook prompt deployed. SMS thank-you and reminder flows live. Review request automation live in the booking system.

  3. 03

    Months 4-6: Retail + membership

    Curated retail SKUs deployed with barber commission structure. Membership tiers launched, starting with top 30 clients. Win-back campaign for 60-day lapsed clients.

  4. 04

    Months 7-12: Barber comp + corporate

    Barber compensation restructured to 60/40 with clear book ownership. Groomsmen and executive grooming launched. Membership base at 20-30% of clients. We shift to monthly cadence.

Common questions from barbershops owners

What size shop is this for?−
Sweet spot: $165K-$3.3M in annual revenue in a 3-12 chair shop - the same band our Hebrew site states in shekels. Below it there are three ways in, not none: the academy at $33/month, the $365 paid diagnostic and B-Start at $365/month - plus business-plan work for an owner who has not opened yet. Above it you usually need a full-time GM in-house rather than an outside partner. It is a guide, not a gate - ask and we will tell you straight.
We're chair-rental only. Does this still apply?+
Partially. Chair-rental shops have different unit economics (you're a landlord, not an operator). We help with rent structure, common-area management, shop-wide marketing, and retail revenue (which the shop owns even if cuts are individual). About 40% of our methodology applies; we adapt the rest.
Booksy vs Square Appointments - which do you recommend?+
We do not pick winners between vendors and we do not sell software. What the booking system has to do: prompt a rebook at checkout so that skipping it takes a deliberate act, send the reminder without anyone remembering to, show rebook rate per barber, and automate the review request after the service. If yours does that, it is the right one. If you are running on walk-ins and a notebook, the platform is not the decision at all - moving to an appointment-first shop is, and that is the conversation we would rather have first.
Our barbers refuse to push retail. How do we change that?+
Common challenge. Three levers: commission (15-25% of retail sales, paid weekly), training (5-minute weekly product education), and culture (owner-barber models retail upsell on their own clients). Within 6 months, 60%+ of barbers are upselling without prompting.
What about beard salons / beard-only shops?+
Yes, the methodology applies. Beard specialists command $55-95 per service with stronger retail attach (beard oils, balms). The unit economics are even better than general barbershops.
We don't take walk-ins at all - is appointment-only viable?+
Yes, in the right market. Premium barbershops in dense urban areas can run appointment-only at $75-150 per service. Suburban shops usually need some walk-in capacity. We model your specific market before any commitment.
Who does the work?+
Ligal Frish and Eitan Eshtemaker - the two co-founders. Direct access, no associates.
What's your fee structure?+
Situation Room: $365 one-time. B-Grow: $1,430/month (most shops). B-Beyond: $2,750/month (multi-location or fast-scale). No minimum term and no notice period - you can end it at any time.
Do you handle marketing?+
We handle strategy, offers, and funnel structure. We don't run Google or Meta Ads. We partner with vetted local agencies if needed.

Stop waiting for walk-ins.

30-minute strategy call. We'll diagnose your top 2 levers and tell you if we're a fit. No pitch. No pressure.

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