So, you can’t decide whether to go into the food or clothing business? Why not do both? Deviation from traditional small business models is currently trending, and if you can make yourself stand out it works wonders.
Guven Hassen is a hairdresser and a barista in one. Together with his wife – Elif – he runs a cosy hair salon, LilyMaila, that lures in customers in the heart of Clerkenwell with the smell of freshly brewed coffee. He tells Islington Now how he ended up marrying the seemingly incompatible worlds of coffee and hair.
“I was bored of just doing hairdressing so I thought I might as well run a coffee shop. Coffee is so popular here – there are pop-ups everywhere in London,” says Guven. For him, it is simple. Both involve working with people, and people “generally feel good when they can have a cup of coffee while having a haircut”.
The idea had been taking shape for a while before Guven finally decided to take a leap into the barista business two years ago. Curiously, it all started with a piece of furniture.
“I saw this counter,” he says, patting it tenderly as we speak. “That was it – it made my mind up, all things have fallen into place. I realised it was going to be possible.”
Yet it was not easy to win over the more conservative customers who like to keep coffee and hair separate. Many were sceptical of the idea, finding it confusing and seeing it as a deterrent.
Now, Guven says that the coffee has become a magnet for his clients, who discover his salon when stepping by for a morning cup of coffee and stay for cuts and blow-dries.
But he says the project is never finished. “It’s constantly changing, isn’t it?”
With its unpretentious and laid-back approach, LilyMaila appeals not only to local residents and people working in the area, but also to those whom Guven describes as “creative types”.
So, on top of brewing and combing, he rents unused space in the back of the salon to photographers and web designers. Diversity is key.
As the footfall increases, Guven’s only concern is to convey the right message: “If it looks only like a coffee shop, we might be losing hair clients, while obviously there is more money in hairdressing than there is in coffee. I should probably do something with that.“
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