About Black Cat Barber Company

Kevin Clement attended barber school with the goal of running his own business — a dream he achieved by founding Black Cat Barber Company, a growing barbershop and brand in Utah. In Black Cat’s early days, word of mouth brought in many new clients, before they invested in online marketing to get the word out and grow faster. Today, the barbershop has expanded to eight barbers and serves more than 10,000 clients.

Finding a smooth, all-in-one booking system

The objective

Kevin wanted to increase sales and brand awareness for Black Cat Barber, taking it from a single location in Utah to a brand with national recognition. As the number of barbers grew, so did the need for a strong digital presence and the tools to help clients efficiently book with his business. 

The challenge

Kevin raised his profile and that of Black Cat by working as an ambassador and educator for his preferred brands of pomade products. As his business began to gain national and even global attention, Kevin needed a solution that allowed clients to smoothly book online and for his barbers to seamlessly manage their clients and calendars. With demand for services in a growing business, a user-friendly online booking option was a must-have tool. Plus, Kevin wanted to do it all in a way that had a professional appearance and was easy for clients to use and understand. 

  “We’re a pretty high-quality, high-value company, and to be that caliber, you have to have a seamless system in the background as well.” – Kevin Clement, Founder and Barber at Black Cat Barber Co.

The Solution: Square Appointments

Square Appointments and other Square products help Kevin seamlessly process clients from the moment they book an appointment until they check out with Square Register. All of the tools, from Square Appointments to Square Payroll, are easy for the team at Black Cat Barber Co. to use and are convenient for clients. His business even qualified for Square Loans to help get the business off the ground and deal with the costs needed to grow clients and staff. 

“Our entire POS system is state-of-the-art for a startup business. Square is what helps us stand out. We get compliments all the time on our booking software and just how easy it is to use.”

The client experience starts online for many Black Cat Barber clients, so Kevin has optimized the website for booking with custom prompts.

The team creates schedules a few months out so that every barber has control of their calendar online and in real time, meaning a client can book for themselves online or with a barber at the shop.

“With Square Appointments, we enter all of our barbers’ schedules into Appointments for a full team view. Each barber can also manage their own calendar, so when a barber finishes a client they can easily book their next appointment on a date that works best.”

When the appointment is over, clients can pay at Square Register in the shop. With a business like Black Cat Barber, where every member of the team is an independent contractor, this is a huge benefit that allows them to individually track transactions that are reflected in their payroll. 

“After barbers have done their haircuts, they go to our point of sale and type in their codes to log the cuts under them. They ring up whatever transaction they did. Square evenly cuts the commission split into it.”

In Square Dashboard, Kevin set up custom commission rates for each team member which can be applied per service or item based on volume or total sales. After barbers finish their haircuts, they can go to the point of sale, type in their codes, and log their cuts. They ring up their transaction and Square automatically calculates commissions and syncs directly with Square Payroll, so all Kevin has to do is pull a report. 

 ”I can have payroll done in literally less than 10 minutes and that’s including all the commissions that my barbers get and certain sales goals they reach. I couldn’t do that if I didn’t have something that had already dissected their commission split and then shows exactly how much they sold in each category that we have. I love you guys.”

Square Dashboard is intuitive and even includes pictures of products and variations, which cuts down on point-of-purchase mistakes and helps keep inventory in check. The Black Cat Barber team uses Dashboard to visually group and show images of items they sell, and they rely on it for low-stock alerts to place new orders.

Kevin also uses Square Reports to help him stay on top of developments at his barbershop to keep business moving in the right direction. 

 “I personally believe Reports are your insight into how everything’s going. It’s like giving you the pulse of your company. You can spot trends and issues and even compare data with reporting features in Square.”

Kevin has been able to learn and predict business ebbs and flows thanks to analytics data from Square, including tracking overall sales volumes. Black Cat Barber has nearly quadrupled their first-year sales in 2021, and is on pace to for even higher growth in 2022. 

Reporting helps Clement manage clients and growth as well. He’s making plans to build a brick-and-mortar location in the next two years and continue to grow his database of more than 10,000 clients.

Quick stats

Thanks to Square:

• Black Cat expanded to 8 barbers and 7 chairs, an increase from himself and 3 chairs to start
• The database grew to more than 10,000 clients 
• Sales nearly quadrupled in their first year in 2021 and they’re on pace for even higher growth in 2022

“Letting people pay with the Cash App is brilliant. We’ve already had people use it to make payments, and it’s awesome.”

Square empowers sellers large and small with tools that work together, saving time and resources. See how Square can work for your business.

Note: Square loans are offered by Square Financial Services, Inc., Member FDIC.