Chris Colter thought he was following all the right steps. He joined the military, went to college, and took a corporate job. Along the way, he had a passion that he really wanted to pursue, but he kept getting sidetracked. From his early twenties, Chris knew he wanted to be a barber. After his military service, he bought a pair of clippers. Barbering became his side hustle that kept food on his plate through college. When he later got fired from his corporate job, he wholeheartedly committed himself to his passion and decided to go to barber college.
Chris’s experience at barber college is what initially sparked his business idea. When he first started looking at local schools, he found that there were few options and the only college in Oakland had an 8-month waiting list. “I didn’t have time to wait,” he says. So he commuted to a college in San Francisco but felt that something was lacking. With the training he received in the military, he knew how to build structures to help others succeed. “All the people I trained in the military, all the classrooms I sat in – I know this stuff and I’m eager to teach it to somebody else.”
But Chris hit a roadblock in his plans: paperwork. In order to establish an accredited barber college, there are several regulations to follow, bureaucracies to navigate, and a hefty application fee that can be prohibitively expensive for those just starting out. Chris felt discouraged. He continued working as a barber in downtown Oakland and put the dream of starting his own college on the shelf.
After several years and life changes, Chris found himself revisiting his business ambitions. He turned to social media to find resources and inspiration to push through the barriers he had faced when he first tried to start his own college. Equipped with templates and guidance from Youtube, Chris was able to complete his application and pass the approval process. “That was a big obstacle,” he reflects. “Now, the next obstacle was to find a location and get some money to do this thing.”
When Chris first approached Main Street Launch for a loan, he felt snagged again by that familiar foe, paperwork. “When I talked to Mike McGrane [VP – Senior Relationship Manager], he was asking for all these documents and financials and I was overwhelmed.” Like many small business owners, Chris struggled with managing the documentation and financial management of business operations. “I had never started a business and operated it properly. I thought I was, but I was just doing it on my own,” he explains.
Then the pandemic hit, and Chris was forced to take time out and focus. Stuck at home, he turned once again to social media to educate himself about business finance, from creating his business entity to learning Quickbooks to produce balance sheets and income statements. He hired an accountant and got all of his documents in order. When he came back to Main Street Launch, he felt much more prepared. “Mike worked with me to get all of my information up to standard, and I got approved.”
Oakland Barber Academy received $50,000 from Main Street Launch to finance business startup costs to open the new storefront in East Oakland. Up to that point, Chris had felt limited by his budget because he was paying out of pocket for everything himself. “The loan really gave me the motivation to do this the way I wanted to, so I’m not just bootstrapping everything. Now I look like a real contender,” he says.
With Oakland’s only other barber college located downtown, Chris sees a real need and opportunity in East Oakland. “It’s a perfect fit in East Oakland. I wasn’t gonna put it any other place.” From his own experience as a barber and an entrepreneur, he’s learned the importance of business acumen–something many barber college curriculums lack. “The barber college is going to allow me to pull all of my life experiences into the classroom and teach others, so I have a lot to offer through the school,” he says. With his business, Chris aims to create jobs, mitigate displacement, and foster economic opportunity for the community while honoring the profession that he is deeply passionate about.