HUMAN HAIR VENDORS TO SHARE OR NOT TO SHARE?

t is common practice in the human hair industry to expose a dishonest and untrustworthy vendor publicly and to keep an honest and trustworthy vendor private and confidential. Finding a human hair vendor that is consistent, honest, and reliable in this business is such a rarity that nobody wants to reveal this information to anyone who is seeking vendor information in order establish their human hair retail business.

Before I became a manufacturer I too had the displeasure of being denied this information by my peers and this denial empowered me into learning everything there is to learn about the human hair industry. I was so frustrated so I took that negative energy and turned it into an opportunity. In retrospect, not having access to this vendor information was actually the best thing that ever happened to me because it motivated me to cut out the middleman “the vendors” and through trials and errors, and errors! and errors! I became the manufacturer that I am today.

So why does everyone keep their vendors such a closely guarded secret?? The obvious answer would be competition, right? Well I tend to disagree and I will tell you why. There are so many Fortune 500 companies that sell the same products that are extremely successful and instead of competing with each other they actually co-exist and share the market e.g. Coca Cola and Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and Dominoes, Nike and Adidas, Burger King and McDonalds, etc., etc.

I was at a seminar regarding the black hair industry and one of the speakers introduced to the audience a new word that was the topic of a conversation between him and the head of a major beauty hair care industry “CO-OPETITION”. He was explaining how two major hair product companies, instead of being rivals with each other and recognizing each other as COMPETITORS they actually CO-OPERATED with each other and equally made $millions$ by CO-OPETITION.

Even though I had never heard this word before it made so much sense to me. What most small human hair entrepreneurs lack is the knowledge of how to co-exist with each other. The person who you think is a major competitor just might be a healthy CO-PETITOR if you are smart enough to recognize that.

“CO-OPETITION” (Instead of competing, Competitors within the same industry Cooperates and engages in joint a business venture in order to enrich and expand their businesses. The moment I started to be a “CO-PETITOR” my life and earning potential changed for the better. It is pointless to try to compete in an environment in which numerous other companies are already offering the same product you wish to sell.

The hair industry is saturated and everybody, including. major and minor celebrities, attorneys, doctors, retired multi-multi- millionaires and even a judge is selling hair! I know this because I trained these people and others have reached out to me in some way or another. As crazy as this might sound, I recently had the pleasure of training a cardiologist how to weft!!!

In order to stay in the game, you have to lower your price to the same level as the competition. Then all the other inexperience wanna-bees ignore the standard price in the market and offer in most cases the same quality hair at even lower prices. Eventually, prices are lowered to the point where nobody can make a profit. Most of the people that I encountered are seeking ways of getting really cheap hair (bottom tier and substandard quality) so that they can sell at rock bottom prices in very large volume. This hair is literally the same hair you can buy at the Korean beauty supply store being sold as “VIRGIN HAIR”.

The Sad Truth: All These Black Owned Hair Businesses That Are Popping Up All Over The Web Are Literally Using The Same Tactics As The Korean Beauty Supply Store. They Are All Selling Misrepresented Hair. The Only Difference, We Sell This Misrepresented Bottom Tier Hair Directly To Each Other So It Appears To Be Better Quality Hair. The Koreans Are Laughing All The Way To The Bank.

HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR COMPETITION WORK FOR YOU??

The answer CO-OPETITION, “a business strategy based on a combination of cooperation and competition from an understanding that business competitors could benefit you and lead to expansion of the market and the formation of new business relationship”.

I would be rich if I got a dollar for every time someone asks, “why are you training your competitors?” My answer, “it is a survival and expansion strategy”. Your competitor could have strengths in areas you lack and a strategic combination can win a new segment of the market. I was able to do this by sharing my skills and knowledge with my competitors. Crazy as it sounds, you must take the risk, but keep your wits about you.

So the next time you run into someone who is new to the human hair retail business and ask for your assistant with vendor information, mmmm….WILL YOU SHARE? OR NOT?