Copy Examples

Elevator pitch examples for barbers

An elevator pitch fails when it describes the business instead of giving the listener a reason to ask a second question. These end somewhere the other person can pick up.

Ten of them follow, written for barbers rather than filled in from a template. Your customer is someone who has been going somewhere they have outgrown, and what they are weighing up before they get in touch is sitting down with someone who will not listen and cutting it too short.

The one-liner

I am a barber in [your town] — I do cuts and fades and beard trims and shaping for someone who has been going somewhere they have outgrown.

Use this when you have one sentence and no idea who you are talking to.

Problem first

The thing people worry about with barbers is sitting down with someone who will not listen and cutting it too short. That is the part I deal with. I am a barber, and I talk about the cut before the clippers come out.

Use this where the problem is instantly recognisable and the service is not.

Names who it is for

I work for someone who has been going somewhere they have outgrown. Mostly cuts and fades and beard trims and shaping. If that is not you, you probably know someone.

Use this at an event where most people are not your customer, to find the ones who are.

Credential first

I am a licensed barber. Licensed, with tools sanitised between every client, in a shop where the standard does not slip on a Saturday. I mostly do cuts and fades and beard trims and shaping.

Use this in a room where qualification is the thing that buys attention.

The contrast

Most barbers [what the default does]. I am the one that listens for the two minutes before the cut. That is more or less the whole difference.

Use this when your market has a clear default and you are not it.

With a number in it

I am a barber — [number] years, [number] appointments, and I ask before going shorter.

Use this when you have a real number. Do not invent one.

The origin

I started because sitting down with someone who will not listen and cutting it too short was normal in this trade and it did not need to be. So that is the business: a barber where I talk about the cut before the clippers come out.

Use this when the reason you started is short and true.

Ten seconds

Barber. Cuts and fades, mostly. [your town].

Use this when someone asks what you do and is already half-turned away.

Ends with the ask

I am a barber doing cuts and fades and beard trims and shaping. If you ever hear someone say [the thing your customers say], that is me.

Use this when the point of the conversation is a referral, not a sale.

The warm version

[their question] — I am a barber. The part people usually ask about is listening for the two minutes before the cut.

Use this where the pitch would land badly and a conversation would not.

Writing for barbers: what actually matters

What should a barber’s website say that a generic one does not?

Three things, in this order. That you are licensed and insured. That you understand the thing people are actually worried about, which for barbers is sitting down with someone who will not listen and cutting it too short. And what happens next: I talk through what you want before anyone picks up clippers. Everything else on the page is decoration by comparison.

What does someone who has been going somewhere they have outgrown check first?

The credential, then the proof. For barbers it sounds like this. I ask before going shorter. You can have the same barber every time. Walk-ins are genuinely welcome. Put at least one of those above the fold rather than on a separate page nobody opens.

What is the most common mistake on a barber’s website?

Writing about the business instead of the customer. "We have been established since 1998" answers a question nobody asked. "I talk through what you want before anyone picks up clippers" answers the one they are actually holding. If you only fix one thing, fix that.

How long should the copy be?

Shorter than you think, except where trust is being built. An About page of 120 well-chosen words beats 500 vague ones. The exception is anything explaining sitting down with someone who will not listen and cutting it too short — there, specifics earn their length.

Everything else for barbers

Elevator pitch for other trades

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