A father-of-two who gave up a lucrative career in banking to chase his dreams of opening a children’s hairdressers now has an empire of nine shops and more than 30 staff.
David O’Neal, from Milton Keynes, took the brave decision to move on from his office job and launch his own business after missing out on a promotion at work.
Having built up a knack for cutting hair by practicing on his sons, the 32-year-old decided to launch his own hairdressers just for children, calling it Shortcuts.
Businessman David O’Neal left his office job and launched his own hairdressers for children
He has made the environment as child-friendly as possible, bringing in Playstations and TVs on which children can watch cartoons
The children’s salon is kitted out with racing cars for seats and game consoles to keep the youngster’s entertained during their snip.
Just three years after getting out a £25,000 loan to launch the business, Mr O’Neal now has nine salons in cities including Leeds, Bristol and Leicester.
He told the MailOnline: ‘In most hairdressers, they all put their heads down when a child comes in, but here we have hairdressers who are happy to work with children and that’s key.
‘We still do get the occasion meltdown. We don’t promise parents everything will go entirely to plan but generally the kids like it and so do their parents.’
‘We try to make the environment as child-friendly as possible. We have the cars for them to sit in and Playstations.
‘We have parents contacting us saying “my child hates having their hair cut”, but we’ve seen it all before so it doesn’t worry us.’
He says the secret to his success is finding hairdressers who are happy to cut children’s hair
He first worked on the financial side, but trained as a hairdresser himself so he could help out
He got the idea for the business after managing to tempt his own children, now aged 11 and eight, to have their hair cut by offering them a game on the Playstation during the cut.
Mr O’Neal launched the business with a single salon in Milton Keynes in 2014, with a team comprising himself and two other hairdressers.
‘I worked in retail banker, before I started so I knew how the sector worked. It was a bit of a risk for me at first, but it’s a lot more fun than working in an office.
‘I didn’t cut any hair at first but I trained how to become a barber so I could step in if needed.’
Since launching the business, his thriving firm has been given concessions in Mothercare stores, further increasing their reach.
He took a risk but says his new job is much more fun than working in a office at a bank
As well as his original store, the company now has eight other outlets around the UK