I’ve had the pleasure to reach out to Miguel Carmona III, who’s 28 and the creator of the #Clipnwhip app. This organization is a black-owned business that lists makeup artists, lash techs, hairstylists, Aestheticians, and barbers that are available in your local area. The talented professionals come to your home to provide the style you need, or you come to their shop/location. You can book and view their work on Apple or the Android app (for free). You can also follow them and book an appointment on their Instagram page(@clipnwhip_), Facebook (Clipnwhip), Google (Clipnwhip), Yelp (Clipnwhip), and TikTok(@Clipnwhip). They have artists available in Atlanta and most surround cities.
Before Clip n Whip, did you have any businesses related to this type of industry?
I started researching on the top 10 industries that would be exploding in the next 10 years and beauty services was the number one industry that kept coming up in like all my searches. The biggest shift was that articles were mentioning the transition from the brick and mortar locations and a declining need for in-shop reservations. I thought of the increasing popularity behind Uber Eats and realized that it was a matter of time for this to continue to groceries and soon after Instacart came out. I began to wonder if the remote concept would work with beauty services and it all started when I was really missing my haircut for three weeks. And at the time, I was working at a big transportation lease company. Being a typical millennial worker, I began to ponder the time savings if someone just came to my house to style my hair.
How did you sell this idea to barbers & hair stylists?
There’s a lot of key benefits, but the biggest thing that we always emphasize is that the worker has complete control of their work environment. They can decide what days they want to work, what area they’ll service, how many hours they work, and how much they will charge. You don’t get those aspects out of a standard brick and mortar store. If you have a physical studio, then you are tied to a specific geographic area. That limitation also effects your client demographics, prices, and gear. Even if you have talent and have earned master distinction in your service, you’re still limited by where you’re at. The flexibility of hours is very important with our artist who have their own personal lives or have parental responsibilities. Does a 9-5 work environment work for you or would you rather tackle an evening schedule? One of our first barbers really benefited from our pricing modules. He used to charge as low as $40 for a single haircut but is now charging around $75 because he was able to find a different client base.
What type of people do you work with and do they treat the app as a side gig or a full-time role?
On the male side, it’s currently geared towards a 50/50 split. Half of the clients use the app as a full-time business and the other half consider the app as a great additional revenue source outside of their typical job. With the female portion of the business, a lot of the talent we work with consider the app as a side hustle that they can do here and there. I’m seeing more hours being added to the timeframe on our app and that the women beauty services (hairstylist, makeup, lashes) on our platform have been increasing their clientele. Our goal is to start increasing our full-time professionals for all our beauty categories by 2023.
What is the main source of revenue for the business?
We focus on a 70-30 split in our business. Our company receives 30% of the final sale from the service rendered and the other 70% goes to the artist. Our team has been happy to work that model so far. The fact that they don’t have to worry about a booth rental and accumulate recurring fees is a positive benefit for many professionals. Those payments can begin to add up and even if you’re providing high-priced haircuts, you might still find it difficult to be profitable. In a typical barbershop you’ll find a stylist who’s cracking jokes to the entire building, because they are trying to market themselves and find nearby clients. If people haven’t had a haircut with you before, then the barrier to entry can be a little troublesome or nerve-wracking to cross. On our app, you can see their portfolio and research the quality of their work. This transparent system removes the barrier to entry that makes it difficult for others to enter the business.
What has been the best avenue to find talent & clients for your app?
The biggest avenue has easily been Google. Google has been going crazy for us because we have really researched the analytics behind some of our ad placements. Even our Instagram has been helping us by using engaging hashtags like #clipnwhip and our calls through Yelp have skyrocketed over the past year. The next big avenue is just word of mouth because we attend a lot of pop up shows. We had one in August that was a back to school program where we gave out free haircuts. At this event, we pass out a couple of cards and parents were relieved to know that they don’t have to go into a shop on a Saturday morning when they’re trying to relax to have someone come to their house and cut a child’s hair.
What has the expansion been like from Atlanta to North Carolina?
We’re looking to maybe work with a local youth basketball group or a local Facebook group that does a lot of ATV and off roading. Getting more involved with the North Carolina community would really help the expansion improve in our business. We’re also looking at Florida and Alabama as well due to incoming service requests from the cities throughout that area. I’m heavily searching for talent that works with non-invasive cosmetic procedures like body contouring. That field is really starting to pop up a lot more in Atlanta, Florida, and Louisiana. We are working with a young lady now to try to either help get her a machine or assist her in promoting her services until she gets her machine to work on it. I think non-invasive cosmetic surgery is going to be a big thing in the next couple years, just because it’s relatively cost effective compared to getting the whole surgery.
What’s the TikTok engagement been like for your hairstyles?
We post business tips and hacks to maintain a healthy cosmetic lifestyle. Our business model relies heavily on helping people promote their brands. As our society is getting more social media driven, it’s going to be more important that your online brand is just as notable. We rely on TikTok sketches as well and pretty much post daily around 6PM on Instagram.
Are there any upcoming projects that you wanted to mention?
Outside of our geographical expansions, we’re also looking at adding more to female services. We’re partnering with local schools out here; I was offered the opportunity to be on the advisory board for Paul Mitchell School in Atlanta. I’m happy to start working with them more on recruiting some of their students and being a part of our program. We’re going to continue to get more into the schools and try getting into some aspect training or beauty educational videos. I will say that was kind of the shocking thing from going through the career fairs this year. With the effects of Covid-19, many students were asking about any tutorials or other beauty education information we could provide through our media outlets. We looked at our platform and thought the educational component that could be offered in podcasts, YouTube videos, and other components would be a huge advantage. These videos would teach viewers how to do a fade, blowout, twist, or even a cut crease.
