Notes from Chris

Episode 277

By day, Shahan Fancy is a Marketing and Sales Professional for a kitchen cabinet manufacturer in Saskatchewan, Canada. By night, Shahan has managed to turn an everyday irritation into a side hustle. Like many people, Shahan struggled with shaving. He was never really taught how to shave properly—he was simply given a cartridge razor, a can of shave cream and the lovingly fatherly advice of “try not to cut your throat.”

After years of frustration of the cost of overpriced shave cartridges and subpar results, he gave up and quit shaving altogether. Thankfully, designer stubble was sort of in style at the time.

But in 2012, Shahan began longing for that clean-shaven feeling again so he turned to Google and did a deep dive into all things shaving. About 9 pages of search results in, he discovered an article on traditional wet shaving. With his interest piqued, Shahan eagerly read through the article which made the claim of an irritation free shave and talked about how old school tools and processes made shaving “Zen-like.” Not to mention how inexpensive it was.

He purchased his first safety razor, and mustered up the courage to do his first shave which resulted in—you guessed it—a perfect irritation-free shave. Suddenly the sun was shining and it was a whole new world of smooth cheeks.

He even converted a few friends here and there, directing them to a few of his favorite online retailers. Everything was going smoothly until a few friends purchased a safety razor online and had terrible results due to poor technique. When Shahan heard the bad news he knew that if he could have just spent some time with them, to demonstrate proper technique, they would have had a great shave.

It was then that Shahan realized there were a couple opportunities on the table. First of all, there wasn’t much available by way of traditional shaving supplies in the Canadian province he lived in. Second, safety razors require a bit of practice and learning the proper technique, but he couldn’t find anyone willing to teach those interested.

So in March 2017, Shahan and his wife Donna-Lee drafted plans to solve both of these problems with the in-person free classes where they would sell products and shaving kits. Before they knew it, Shave Valet was born!

Shahan has continued to offer free classes in his area and has slowly grown his social media following and customer base. Shave Valet is only a few months old and is already bringing in about $550 a month, and is still growing. As Shahan put it, “Although margins in the shave game are ‘razor-thin’ by ‘staying sharp’ Shave Valet continues to turn a profit.”

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Shave Valet: Learn more about wet shaving and join Shahan at one of his classes!
• Wordpress, Square, & Gmail: The trifecta that Shahan used to keep his startup costs low

SEE ALSO:

• Oncology Nurse Creates Products to Regrow Hair After Chemo; Earns $80,000: After kicking cancer to the curb, a Texas oncology nurse discovers the power of essential oils for hair regrowth and launches her own handmade hair care line
• Bearded Man Grows $500 A Month Grooming Business: A man grows a beard, and the rest is history. We weren’t sure about this bearded side hustling story, but then it grew on us.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,