By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer

Rodrick Samuels tried to follow in his mother’s footsteps and become a teacher, but that career choice didn’t cut it for him. Barbering was his dream.

The 28-year-old Samuels, who had been cutting hair since age 13, dropped out of Francis Marion University, where he majored in education, obtained a barbering license and got a job as an instructor at the Academy of Cosmetology in North Charleston.

Four years ago, Samuels began planning his own barber college. He noticed a high failure rate among local barbershops and attributed it to a lack of training. He believed his college would help aspiring barbers become more successful by teaching them barbering theory in addition to hair-cutting techniques.

With the help of counselors from the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE, Samuels rewrote his business plan repeatedly until he nailed down the need his barber college would fulfill, the college’s operating and equipment costs, the tuition plans available to students, the number of instructors, his marketing strategy and demographics and other crucial information.

With his business plan in hand, Samuels sought a loan. After getting turned down by four banks, Samuels turned to the Charleston Citywide Local Development Corp., a nonprofit economic development organization that lends money to small businesses by obtaining funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

After several attempts, Samuels finally received a $50,000 startup loan from the LDC. He signed a five-year lease with Retail Properties Inc. for a 4,000-square-foot space in North Charleston’s Oakridge Plaza. Samuels is paying $8 a square foot.

The optimistic and goal-driven Samuels plans to open his barber college, The Profile Barber Institute, in about two months.

That opening will be the culmination of much stress, strain and setbacks.

Drive and determination

“When Patrick King of the LDC told me I got the loan, I cried,” Samuels said.

A religious man, Samuels brought his Bible to King’s office, where he waited while King persuaded the LDC’s board to approve the loan.

The loan approval process had been tough for Samuels. His previous attempts at getting the full $50,000 amount ran into roadblocks when the LDC board cited Samuels’ lack of collateral, issues with his credit, a less than concrete marketing plan and the lack of a student loan source to help students with tuition.

Samuels thought he had the collateral problem licked when, one by one, he drew the interest of potential investors. Unfortunately, one by one, each potential investor backed out. Finally, Samuels put up his truck for collateral and received financial support from a prominent businessman.

Samuels paid off his debt to improve his credit, reworked his marketing plan under the guidance of SCORE counselors and latched on to a student loan company through which aspiring barbers and cosmetologists can get funding for the college’s $6,200 tuition fee for the nine-month program.

To learn the realities of running a barber college, he traveled as far as Wisconsin to talk with other barber college owners.

“They told me horror stories of what not to do,” Samuels said.

It was Samuels’ drive, determination and success at meeting the LDC’s requirements that impressed the board and led to the loan approval, King said.

King pointed out that in his nine years as a loan officer, only a few clients have been able to view entrepreneurship plainly, without the proverbial rose-colored glasses. Samuels was one of them, he said.

“He’s wiped the dreamy dollar signs out of his eyes and has a solid, realistic approach,” King said.

As Samuels conceived his barber college plan, he sought advice from Bernie Mazyck, president and chief executive officer of the Charleston-based South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.

Mazyck saw in Samuels the same qualities that impressed King.

“I saw in Rodrick (his) passion for a dream,” Mazyck said. “When he first approached me about his idea, he was willing to listen to some very honest advice about starting a venture. One piece of advice I gave him was not to give up. Rodrick has demonstrated patience, which is not a quality often seen in young entrepreneurs today.”

More than a barber college

The Profile Barber Institute is registered with the U.S. Department of Labor and accredited by the National Private Schools Accreditation Group, making the institute the Lowcountry’s only accredited barber college and the first such minority-owned college in the area, according to Samuels.

The institute will include at least 10 stations for barbering and styling training, two classrooms, two flat-screened televisions for instructional videos, a waiting area and a computer center equipped with about 12 computers for students to establish e-mail accounts and receive online tutorial help.

So far Samuels has received 25 applicants. His staff consists of two instructors and an administrative assistant. He sees the potential for adding two more instructors and wants to limit classes to 20 students per instructor.

The institute will be more than a barber college, Samuels said. Through an affiliation Samuels established with Empire Business Brokers, students will have the opportunity to learn about starting a business. Students will also be able to learn job-hunting, interviewing and resume-writing skills through the Trident One-Stop Career System.

“I want to give people an opportunity to do something with their lives,” Samuels said.

Samuels wants to extend that opportunity to convicts and is negotiating with the federal Bureau of Prisons to conduct barbering classes in South Carolina prisons. He has already participated in a job fair at the federal prison in Estill. Providing inmates a job skill they can rely on when they are released will help reduce recidivism, Samuels said.

Samuels’ message, particularly to young black men, whose 10.2% unemployment rate is nearly twice that of white males, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is perseverance.

“You can’t give up,” he said. “You can make it.”

Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.

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