“What got me into barbering? There was these older guys, by Chickasaw, Markie D and Big Norm. I swept hair for them, so I wanted to be like them. One of them gave me a pair of clippers and I started cutting hair in my house for a dollar. I was 13 and I’m 47 now. That was a long time ago. I didn’t get my barber license until I was 20. I was a youngster and I was intrigued by it.

Well, I was a barber for almost three years, then I started Miller Tyme. What I did was come out of school and I worked for a man named Brown Sugar off 8th & Broadway. I learned from him how to run a business and how not to run a business. After that, I worked at Fadz on 23rd & Broadway. I opened that up for a gentleman and that’s what taught me how to open a shop because I opened that one up for him. After that, the rest is history. I’ve been having Miller Tyme for 23 years.

My grandparent instilled in me to treat everybody fair and that’s why business keeps coming back. Yeah, they instilled in me to treat everybody fair, do the best I can, and wake up early and come to work. Don’t stay in the bed. The early bird gets the worm. 

The kids inspire me. A lot of them are lost and some of them are not lost. I wanna reach the ones that are by talking to them and cutting their hair. You know, let them see what I do and maybe follow my footsteps. 

My advice to anybody who wants to start a business is to treat people fair. Have firm hours. You want people to get to you. You don’t want to come to work at one o’clock, you wanna come early. When you open up your business, open up early and leave late. You gotta do what you gotta do. It’s gonna be struggles but opening up early is the best advice. Put that stamp on it and help the community. 

The West End needs hope. We need some of these businesses, like Brown Forman and Reynolds, that are in the West End to put something back into and help develop the West End. What are you doing as a big business, that’s making billions of dollars, to help the community that you’re in? We also need good mentors and good policemen. We’re being rejected, look around. 

Put the guns down and let’s all be together as one. It don’t matter the color, put the guns down.” Mark, owner of Miller Tymes’s Barber Shop in California