jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt
A white VIP sprinter bus juts out from the Clifton Hill beach facility’s parking lot on a sweltering Monday afternoon.
At first glance it is easy to think that a tour operator may have been contracted to transport eager remaining foreigners or members of the T&T diaspora to a last-minute post-Carnival cool down before departing our shores.
But you would be wrong because when the door slides open you will be one on one with a fully outfitted and operational barbershop that has been on the road for the last three months.
“Cut to suit” is a phrase 33 -year-old Kyle Marecheau, the owner of Kyle Kutz, knows all too well.
The saying can be translated as acting in accordance with one’s financial limitations and it is something the Cochrane Village resident has been continuously challenging as he seeks to break through the limitations through his entrepreneurial prowess.
Marecheau’s mobile barbering approach is putting a twist to an experience that many look forward to.
While a barbershop can be a space for conversations, laughter and “ole talk”, it can also be an exercise in patience for those waiting to be styled. It is why he has added wheels to his shop and has not taken away from the interaction many have come to love.
During an interview with the Sunday Business Guardian Marecheau explained how the waiting game played at barbershops was not one he was willing to keep playing and why he dug deep to find a solution.
“What made me get into barbering was the long wait to get a haircut, I honestly hated that since I was a child. My mum used to send me to the barbershop every Saturday in the morning when cartoons were going on and I not leaving the barber shop until like three in the afternoon, for me that was torture.”
Marecheau explained the final straw to break his barbershop bond was at the age of 16 when he was forced to wait over seven hours for a haircut that was urgent for a job interview.
Seventeen years later and Marecheau’s journey with barbering continues and with his developing skills and growing clientele, he knew he would have to think out of the box in order to excel up the path.
“I was irritated at having to wait by the barber, so I was like, I don’t mind being a barber but I don’t want to be the regular barber. For me as a businessman I used to say that is time-wasting, you sit down and wait three to four hours for a trim, you know how many things I could do within that time. I told myself I am coming with a difference. I want to be able to come to my clients, they can stop what they doing at that moment give me time to cut their hair and then they go directly back at what they were doing, that is how it started, I saw a problem and found a solution.”
Eventually, Marecheau would come to a costly crossroad.
“I saw this vehicle when I started trimming, I said I want to be different. I sat at work and I was like what can I do to be different, at first, I was thinking to buy a portable AC then I was like that will not make sense, it might be too much.