The Self-Cut System
Founder: Ryford Estores
Web • Facebook • Twitter • YouTube
72 N. State Rd., Building #242, Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510
To read a Q&A with The Self-Cut System’s Ryford Estores, click here.
The Self-Cut System is a unique three-way mirror that enables anyone with a short crop to cut his or her own hair. For consumers who are tired of an expensive, time-consuming weekly trip to the barbershop just to keep their look consistent, the Self-Cut System is a godsend.
HOW MENTORING WILL HELP: “I’ve heard a lot of positive things about the 100 Urban Entrepreneurs mentoring program, and I’m sure it will help me better understand how to execute my company’s ultimate goals,” Estores says. “I’m expecting to learn valuable things from business experts that you can’t learn in business school.”
HOW $10,000 WILL HELP: “The money will help us to manufacture our own ‘branded’ hair clippers and trimmers, as well as other hair-cutting accessories to develop our complete personal self-grooming set — the missing component of our product,” Estores says. “We will also invest the money to cover the cost of goods and improve our online marketing.”
•••
SAVING TIME AND MONEY (not to mention looking good) are core tenets of entrepreneurship. Ryford Estores, a born entrepreneur himself, knows that as well as anyone; he’s thus blended all three features in his development of the Self-Cut System, a unique three-way mirror that enables anyone to cut his own hair.
Estores, 27, runs his company from his home in Ossining, New York, just up the Hudson River from Manhattan. A part-time nurse, he’s long wanted to run his own company. A device that helps people take control of their hairstyle seems, as he puts it, like “a highly sellable product.”
His primary markets? African-American men, as well as one institutional customer with plenty of commercial weight to throw around: the U.S. military. Estores recently partnered with infomercial titan Kevin Harrington, of Shark Tank (Estores narrowly missed out on a slot on the show last year), whose money is behind the soon-to-debut Military Shopping Channel — an outlet with explosive sales potential for Estores. •
