On beards and
entrepreneurship
was
interviewed for and by the
BetterMan Insiders.
To listen to the full interview
join by going to https://
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SHAUN PIERCY
ERIK KRUGER: So Shaun, take us through the founding
of Captain’s Beard in a bit more detail; you were growing
out your beard and you were looking for quality products,
battling to find them and so you decided that the best way
is to just “do it myself”. So what did that look like?
SHAUN PIERCY: I was dating a girl at the time and the
business was sort of born in her parents' kitchen. So I
started buying things from Dischem; all sorts of essential
oils and began playing with a recipe. Screwing it up royally
the first couple of times. Eventually I got a mix that worked
and everyone wanted it. I launched it about two weeks
before the Capital Craft Beer Fest and through a friend I
managed to get a stand at the event. That was my entry into
the market, my test. I made about 200 bottles and sold
about half of them on the first day, and then the name
spread so quickly that it took off by itself.
ERIK KRUGER: I’m hearing a lot of success, which is
great, but I’m wondering, were there no occasions where
you were bashing your head against the wall trying to get to
this success?
SHAUN PIERCY: Yes, about 7 months ago I
decided to bring in a partner and we
completely restructured everything. We
employed a full-time sales reps and hired
a barber for our events and just the
growth of going from something I
started alone at home with no help, to
having a team with a couple of
employees was quite a big
stumbling block. It’s all trial and
error and was a hectic teething
phase but we’re through it now
and running properly. It was
quite a big setback which now, I
suppose is normal.
ERIK KRUGER: Based on the
journey, until now, what would
be your best advice to
entrepreneurs?
SHAUN PIERCY: Mainly not to
jump into anything. That’s a big
issue that I have; I get very
excited very quickly and I just
jump into any opportunity, even
though it may not make sense. I
think acting impulsively is a bad
thing. It can work but it can
really bring you down. The
other piece of advice is that
when things are going baddon’t give up. We’ve had really
bad times; we’ve had a hard
month here and there where
people haven’t taken salaries,
and we’ve had incredible
months and now we’re just
flying. If we had given up during
the tough times we wouldn’t be
anywhere now and the company
would be dead. So in short; just
force it and make it work.
ERIK KRUGER: I’ve seen
there are beard oils but then it
gets a bit more prolific as well:
there are soaps, shampoos etc.
is all of that really necessary?
SHAUN PIERCY: Absolutely.
A little while into this we
started realizing that guys were
still getting dry skin and we
realized it was from using
shampoos and conditioners on
your beard. What people don’t
understand is the hair on your
face and the hair on your head
are completely different. As
different types of hair they
require different nutrients and
using a normal shampoo that
is going to have a lot of sulfates
in it is going to dry it out and
make the situation a lot worse.
We had a lab make us a beard
wash which is milder on the
skin and it works a lot better
than anything else. We then
developed a moisturizer into
the wash, so that it softens the
beard while washing!
ERIK KRUGER: Do you have
a specific book, or two or three
that you can highly
recommend to people?
SHAUN PIERCY: The only
book I actually recommend is
Freakonomics; It’s such an
incredible read and teaches
you how to look at situations in
depth, and how to look at every
set of circumstances
differently.
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