I really believe in hospitality.
I really believe in good customer service.
I believe in giving what everybody deserves.
I focus on serving community, focus on providing quality care.
My name is Mani Singh.
I'm 38 years old, and my business is bringing over $2 million a year in sales.
I breathe business, so I just wake up, I'm thinking about business.
I'm going to bed, I'm thinking about business.
Most of the money has actually just gone into the business, to grow the business so we can help our peers, our colleagues, make more money.
When they make more money, I make more money.
So that's the whole goal.
My dad was shot by a terrorist in 1988, and then we had a bomb blast in 1991 in front of our business, and then we had floods.
And all that led to a situation where we were struggling a lot.
I was in kind of depression for that one year.
Socially, I was very alone.
That first one or two years were very, very hard.
First job was like, I think $8 per hour or like $6 per hour.
That's how we started.
And I was working a lot.
I was working like 80 hours a week.
And it was so bad that I was working 14 hours on a weekend, 12 hours on a weekend.
And I'm so tired and exhausted.
That six months really burned me out.
I created a website.
I had some of the classmates that I studied with and I literally hired him so he can help me do the marketing online.
I ended up getting so much business.
I was giving it to some other people.
Then I thought, well, you know, if it's enough, then why don't I just open my own cap company?
And then I registered my own cap company in Mountain View at that time in 2009.
So a solo operator or solo small business owner.
It's very difficult for them to compete with bigger businesses.
So what we did was I talked to the drivers and I told them that hey, you know, the industry is going to die.
So I discussed their challenges.
And based on that, I created this company called Drivers Network.
I said, don't pay me any advertising money.
I'm not going to charge you anything, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to advertise for you, and you pay me only when you get the lead.
The rideshare business was going, so I thought I should also think of investing in something.
And then this space was available where we're sitting now.
And then I just happened to rent it.
And honestly, I didn't even know what I'm going to do here at that time.
She suggested like, well, you take care of your beard.
You have a good routine.
Why don't you open a beard shop?
And I said, okay, well, let's just do that then.
I was helping her running her salon and advertising.
So I knew what are the basic needs of the business that is needed.
And I also learned from the mistakes and the good things from the family, what they have done.
You have to go through permitting, you have to go through dealing with the city, dealing with community.
It took me a solid one year to get the license to even open the shop.
So I was paying rent for one year before I could even open the shop.
And then after six months, COVID hit, he had to part the ways.
That's when I joined the barber school.
A lot of barbers, they don't know how to do beards well.
Schools don't teach the beards well.
I went there and I was the one teaching beards to the people, and I was not even getting paid for that.
I had some savings.
I had borrowed money from some friends.
Whatever I had saved up, I had to sell everything.
So make sure that business stays open.
I'm supposed to pay about 300 a month or something, but I'm paying about six to 700 a month right now.
So I just want to pay it off quickly.
The shop itself.
Originally started with the beard stylist, but as we got more engaged with the community, almost everybody wanted to come to Dandy's.
So we started expanding into different skill sets.
Are you looking for layers?
Are you curly hair?
Are you Indian hair?
So are you Middle Eastern?
So it helps us understand the client's needs.
Based on that, we match with the right kind of barber, which is qualified in that skill set.
So that has helped us provide a better quality work for everybody.
Whatever I can do to advertise and help them and provide my support systems and tools to elevate them, especially single operators or small businesses mom and pop shops, motor and brick businesses.
They don't have a lot of budget in marketing.
They can't really spend a lot of money.
So the way we do that is we do a lot of pooling of the money.
So we bring the money and we do a much more aggressive marketing.
It helps barber become a lot more independent and efficient.
A barber can work in any shop they desire.
They can reserve a chair.
They can go there.
The client can reserve a chair.
The client can request a barber to home.
There's a lot more functionalities that is there within the app, which also helps small business owners, like barbershop owners, to use that software for their day-to-day operations.
I want to, by the age of 65 or something, have enough money invested that I can withdraw my living expenses without worrying about anything.
Right now, my full focus is mostly on Dandy's and Barber's Network.
I'm slowly taking more time to myself.
I just like to read books, spend time with family, go to Gurdwara, temple.
I try to be humble.
I'm always thinking about how to be grateful.
Stay within your roots, stay connected, give back to the community.
So I really focus on those things.
I don't think I'll ever retire.
I would want to work all the way through.
That's just what I breathe.
