A Better Barber Shop - The Gents Place - Founder - Ben Davis

🎧 Discover the fascinating journey of Ben Davis, founder of Gents Place, in the latest episode of Self Funded with Spencer! 🎙️

From starting his business during the 2008 financial crisis to navigating the insurance world, Ben's story is a rollercoaster of entrepreneurship and resilience. Tune in to hear how he turned a men's hair salon into a country club meets Speakeasy meets barber shop experience.

Ben describes the model of The Gents Place as "Country club meets speakeasy meets barbershop", which blends sophistication, a coolness factor, and networking into a single location for the modern man to get a great haircut and other men's grooming services.

Ben actually started The Gents Place at the young age of 25, using an SBA loan two weeks before The Lehman Brothers collapse, bringing much of the financial and real estate markets with it.

Interestingly, Ben actually started his professional career at Goosehead Insurance, where actually was accompanied by another past guest of the podcast - Lee Lewis. At the time of its inception, Goosehead disrupted the brick and mortar model of personal lines insurance, turning the solution into a 100% virtual experience for it's customers.

Ben left Goosehead to create the vision he had in mind for Gents Place in 2008, without any personal experience in hair or barbershops. He first considered buying an existing franchise, but found those models lacking for what he envisioned. So, rather than going down that road, he decide to create the salon from scratch.

Using his success as a key executive with Goosehead, and connections he had in the banking industry through his time there, he was able to pitch this idea and receive funding for it in very short order, partially because pre-crash, it was a lot easier to get a loan from a bank than it is today.

Ben also has soft-spot for American Veterans, creating a few non-profit organizations dedicated to helping our soldiers. One in particular - Operation Gentlemen® - ties into the Gents Place, where every September they collect gently used suits and work attire at his salons on behalf of Veterans, and then distribute them free of charge at Fort Hood to members of our Armed Services transitioning into the civilian workforce.

Ben is also launching a podcast called "The Untrapped Entrepreneur".

The Podcast helps business owners who are feeling trapped in their businesses and want to unlock the secrets to more freedom and success? In the podcast, Ben dives deep into the strategies and stories of entrepreneurs who have broken free from the grind and found true fulfillment.

💼 In each episode, he interviews real people who have discovered the hacks to untrap themselves from the never-ending work cycle. From escaping 80-hour workweeks to saving marriages, these entrepreneurs have experienced it all. But here's the catch: untrapping yourself is an ongoing journey. The podcast shares people's experiences and lessons learned, so that you can avoid falling into new traps along the way.

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Entrepreneur's journey in insurance industry

(00:05:40) Genesis of Goosehead Insurance

(00:11:03) Starting a Men's Grooming Business

(00:16:51) Evolution of the Gents Place

(00:22:32) Operation Gentlemen: Helping Homeless Veterans

(00:28:15) Supporting Veterans and US Manufacturing

(00:34:23) Entrepreneurship and Diverse Ventures

(00:40:23) Embracing Change and Risk

(00:46:15) The Importance of Teamwork

(00:52:05) Untrapped Entrepreneurship

(00:57:36) The Importance of Being Open to Learning

#entrepreneurship #businessjourney #insuranceindustry #groomingbusiness

#veteransupport #USmanufacturing #diverseventures #embracingchange

#teamwork #untrappedentrepreneurship

Victoria Derbyshire

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