Jeff Broadie - I'm Ready For What's Next

By Monica Montgomery

Photos Provided by Todd Youngblood

Jeffery Broadie is a thirty-year veteran in the barbering and beauty industry. At age thirtyfive, Broadie exchanged his banking business suits for a barber’s apron and has never looked back. At sixty-five, he’s built more than just a business. Broadie has created a launch pad for anyone serious about entrepreneurship and ready to go to the next level.

Broadie worked in banking, but barbering was always his dream. “In 1991, my company transferred me from Ashville, North Carolina, to Charlotte. I knew that if I was going to go after my dream, that was the perfect time to make a fresh start,” Broadie explained.

Jeff’s career change was fueled in equal parts by desire and a businessman’s ability to discern an excellent opportunity to offer quality service to a flooded market.

“Anyone who works a regular nine to five knows the struggle of getting a haircut after work. It’s almost impossible, and you must go in on a Saturday if you miss them. This particular day, I got to the shop at 6:00 A.M. The shop opened at 8:00 A.M. The barber didn’t arrive until 9:30-10:00 A.M. By the time I left, it was after 1:00 P.M. On top of that, I got the wrong haircut!” Broadie said with a frustrated eye roll.

“Eventually, I bought a pair of clippers and started cutting my own hair. The job transfer presented me with a choice. Do I continue to chase a dollar in the corporate world or do what I really wanted to do? I made my choice, and I’ve never looked back.”

In February 1992, Broadie started barber college at Black World Barber college. After finishing barber college, Broadie was ready to pursue his dream and his purpose. “In 1994, we bought Just for You, a barber and beauty salon, from an owner dealing with health issues. We decided to keep the name, so if we sold it, the buyer would inherit the recognizable name and reputation, making it easy to sell.” But almost thirty years later, the Just for You moniker dawns seven salons and a beauty and barber college in the Charlotte area. It’s safe to say they won’t be selling any time soon.

“We’ve built Just for You into a brand that represents quality hair care for the family,” Broadie explains. “This was accomplished by teaching, training, and hiring barbers and stylists who are not only talented but who can handle diverse clientele and have a vision and plans of their own.”

In his new book Beyond The Chair: Dare to Go! Broadie shares his key to success as a businessman and entrepreneur. “There is nothing wrong with being a barber or a stylist, but I want to help people see that there is so much more to this industry than cutting hair,” Broadie says passionately. “My goal is to teach people how to invest in themselves and take ownership of their dreams. Don’t just work in a shop. Own it!”

Succeeding in any industry has its advantages and its obstacles. Most importantly, Broadie’s book doesn’t sugarcoat the work it takes to reach your goals. Early in his journey, Just for You had its share of trials. “If God had shown me what I would go through to get to this point, I don’t know if I would have stepped out. It was a hard road, and if it were not for my faith, I wouldn’t have had the strength to push through,” Broadie says, referring to a major setback they experienced when opening the Just for You Beauty and Barber school.

“There is competition in any business arena. That’s to be expected. I guess what surprised me was the lengths to which people will go,” Broadie says with a chuckle. “We opened the school inside the mall, about two miles from the white school.” In 1997 there were only two schools in the area for barbering, and neither of them taught students how to meet the needs of African Americans. This was the need Broadie and his partners were trying to address.

“We acquired a loan, hired a contractor, and went to the mall manager to find out what permits and paperwork we needed to begin construction. The manager told us we didn’t need a permit because we were under the building licensing and permits of the mall. We started building in March and were scheduled to open in July 1998. Two days before the school was scheduled to open, I received a call from the city pulling the plug. They said I needed a permit to build out the space inside the mall. They told us not only could we not open or accept any students, but we had to tear everything out, get the permit and start over,” Broadie explained.

With an eighty-thousand-dollar loan out for the construction of the school, Broadie stood to lose everything. If not for his business savvy, all would have been lost. “By the grace of God, when the mall manager told me we didn’t need a permit to start construction, I had the foresight to say, ‘Put it in writing.’ Because I had what we were told in writing, the mall had to tear everything out and build it themselves. It did cause a six-month delay in opening, but it could have been much worse.”

Broadie says his book, Beyond The Chair: Dare to Go! He emphasizes the four things that have gotten him to where he is today: God, Family, Integrity, and Business Savvy. “Your name is everything!” Broadie explains. “You have to have integrity in everything you do. Your clients have to trust you. When they do, they return and bring other people with them. That’s how you grow your business.”

In his book, Broadie says he challenges those who dream of entrepreneurship not to limit themselves but to be courageous and step out. One way he is helping operators take the next step towards ownership is by giving them a stake in the salon.

“I pay attention and select people I trust. People who are responsible and reliable. Stylists who think beyond the chair offer them a 49% stake in the salon. I hope they won’t stop there, but they will go out and start their own salons and build enterprises that will give others opportunities. That’s what it’s all about for me. Giving people, people that look like me, the opportunity to build something they can be proud of.”

Broadie is taking his own advice and continuing to grow and stretch as he works to grow the barber and beauty industry Beyond The Chair. “Our school trains quality instructors all over the state, and I have been called on as a consultant to help start other schools.”

Another way Broadie and Just for You is giving back is they have started a training program, the first one like it in the state for youth ages sixteen to seventeen in detention centers. “These are juveniles who have gotten into trouble. By teaching them barbering, they will leave with a skill set that can be a determining factor as to whether or not they return to the juvenile system or go on to live productive lives.” Broadie explains.

The one thing Jeff Broadie if there is one thing he hopes those who read his book walk away with, is this. Play Chess, not Checkers.

“Checkers is a basic game of survival. It allows you to skip steps, and if you get blocked, you can move backward. Chess, on the other hand, is about planning, growing, building, and most importantly, you can only move forward.”