Reginald Gray began his barber career cutting hair for his football team in 1982 after one of his teammates was given a bad haircut. After becoming the unofficial barber for the football team he went on to provide services for the basketball team. Gray is now cutting hair in the heart of the city as his shop, Atlanta Barber Company and he spoke with rolling out about finances and barbers saving for retirement.
How should barbers handle their finances?
Quarterly taxes for a barber are vitally important and I say that because you want to stay in favor with the government. You don’t want to fall behind because it can turn into something ugly even if you’re a businessman. At some point, the government is trying to push for a barbershop to function, there have to be receipts and a cash register. That takes the finances and the actual money out of the barber’s hand, and now it’s being regulated.
You have to understand that you must regulate shoplifters come into our store and sell [stolen] products. They say, “I got you a great deal, I can give you the Polo jacket for $30.” If I can curb and deter that, keep those people out of my business and my shop, for me, it keeps more money in my pocket. I’m not contributing to the negativity that goes on outside or around the shop. It keeps me intact. It keeps me respected.
What should retirement look like for a barber?
You have to come up with some retirement plan depending on who you are. I suggest any individual that has a checking and savings account, make a third account where you just put money away and it not be touched. That’s something that I started recently because you have to think about everything. You want to take care of a situation but you also want to stay comfortable while you’re taking care of your family.
I don’t have a lot of familiarity with Bitcoin or cryptocurrency yet. I’ve heard some pros and cons. Just watch yourself on stuff like that because sometimes it’s trendy and it’s supposed to be a great thing, but it’s one of those things where you have to do the research and be smart about how you invest what you have because you can lose what you have.
