Jim Shaw, the creative businessman knows no limits. He’s worked backstage at many fantastic events including V Festival, The Urban Music Awards, The Brits and more; where he puts together and leads teams to do the hair at the events. He has also led London Fashion Week for Men’s Fashion Week, has headed up Top Man shows and campaigns and worked on the Essensuals/Toni & Guy Men’s Window Campaign every year.
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All of this whilst putting together show stopping collections that have won him a number of awards and accolades including the British Hairdressing Awards Men’s Hairdresser of the Year title twice and the International Hairdressing Awards Best Men’s Commercial Category twice – branding him as one of the best hairdressers in the world. Does the guy come up for air?
Not only that, Jim is the Director of Toni & Guy Billericay, a salon that he has been running for twenty years and that is one of the most successful within the Toni & Guy group.
The salon
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Jim was one of the first to bring hairdressing and barbering together when he approached Toni & Guy to open a male grooming concept hair salon, EssensualsMEN.
Ahead of the game, Jim believed that men’s hairdressing and the grooming market was going to grow rapidly. He opened the male grooming salon before men’s grooming became extremely popular, it was one of the first of its kind and was a great success and encouraged many other men’s grooming salons to open. Ten years later commercial rents went up and Jim decided to consolidate the Essensuals and EssensualsMEN salons together whereby he now has a unisex salon that boasts an incredible men’s hairdressing space – now named Toni & Guy Billericay.
Jim has also travelled around the world, setting up five star male grooming salons in hotels and offices and helping a friend establish a male grooming floor in the biggest salon in Hong Kong.
He now works in the Toni & Guy Billericay salon four days a week where he manages, grows and develops his team, allowing them to move on and open up their own shops, whilst also balancing his creative work.
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Jim’s top tips to become a creative businessman
- Have a helping hand – don’t let everything get on top of you. If you need help, ask for it. If you’re out travelling and doing something creative, have someone in the salon who can help manage and keep on top of things. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it.
- Be passionate – if you’re passionate about both aspects (creative and business) you will do everything you can to succeed in both areas. Never let your passion die! Stay inspired by watching other creatives on stage, listening to business men and women, network with other likeminded people in your industry.
- Stay organised (whether it’s with a to do list, well thought out plan or both) always have goals that will motivate you to do your best and that will make you want to strive to always be better.
- Step out of your comfort zone. Take risks, enter awards, and constantly try to better yourself.
- Delve into education that will allow you to improve your skills and knowledge. You can always learn something new and the more you learn, the more of an expert in the area you will become.
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