By Kelly Duncan
Austin Lee doesn’t mind being the only employee at Slim Clippers., which opened in October of last year.
For Lee, developing his barber shop into a successful business is all about building trust with his new customers.
It affords him the opportunity to take his your time and get to know his customers. “One of the hardest things is just to acquire your base of regular customers. Once you find a barber you like, it’s hard to change,” he said.
Lee said that he will soon be looking to start training an apprentice, who he hopes will further build trust in the shop.
“I’ve always liked to train my staff, start them at the bottom and [have them] work their way up,” Lee said. “The customer likes seeing the regularity of the person and their commitment to the shop.”
Lee, who lives in South Trenton, is no stranger to the haircutting business. He started when he was just 16 years old and, for seven years prior to opening Slim Clippers, was the owner of The Broad Street Barber Shop in Trenton, which he bought from his uncle.
But the city he had worked in for so long was changing. When a friend told Lee about a location in Ewing that used to be a barber shop, his interest was sparked.
The community surrounding the location of Slim Clippers also attracted Lee.
“It’s not a small town, but it has that small-town feeling,” Lee said of Ewing. When my friend told me about the spot and I came and checked it out, I got inspired to bring a mixture of an urban style [and ] a traditional cut.”
Lee said the mixture is especially important since many of his customers are students from the College of New Jersey.
For Lee, the combination of a personalized touch and a great product is starting to expand his clientele outside of the college crowd.
Gez Ford, of Morrisville, Pa., was one of Lee’s first customers. Ford said prior to his haircut at Slim Clippers, he had not let anyone touch his hair in 25 years.
Jac Kuzniacki, of Ewing, agreed about the service.
“This is my third cut,” Kuzniacki said. “I actually went to the same barber for like 25 years, but one of my coworkers got a cut here and it was so phenomenal that I decided to come and now I’m a regular.”
Slim Clippers is located at 1685 Pennington Road and can be reached at (609) 882-5588.
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