In our latest interview, we spoke to Karina Swann, whose new barbering business, The Dandy Cat, is taking Petersfield by storm with its sounds, style and spirit…
“Our company is very community focused, we love where we live and feel that the only way to make it better is to invest in it. It’s the old adage - shop local and you help build a better community. ”
Who or what is the inspiration behind The Dandy Cat?
The Dandy Cat has been inspired by our own search for style.
We've always admired the timeless elegance of the golden age of Hollywood and wanted to bring a little of that seemingly effortless panache into our life. In order to do this we often had to either travel to London or trawl the internet.
Whilst we enjoyed these searches and travel, we thought how nice it would be if there was a local place that could serve our needs - one that was friendly and affordable but still had that exclusive feel.
As such a place didn't exist in Petersfield we decided to meet that need ourselves. Thus The Dandy Cat was born; bringing a little bit of Piccadilly to Petersfield.
I've heard you serve cocktails and play vintage music at The Dandy Cat - what would be the perfect cocktail-sounds combination?
A double Cinnabar Rum on the rocks with a twist of lime listening to Voodoo Rhythm and Blues.
Which social media platforms do you use for your business - any top tips for fellow small business owners?
We use Instagram and Facebook and our advice is, do it regularly and have fun with it - don't take yourself too seriously, and be careful of latching on to every Insta whim; trying to cram a message into a trend won't work.
What's the best aspect of running a small business and why?
Definitely the freedom; the ability to work with other local businesses and artisans - we've just commissioned some small batches of bespoke products from local producers, if we were a franchise or big company we couldn't do that as we'd have to buy in bulk.
Our company is very community focused, we love where we live and feel that the only way to make it better is to invest in it. It's the old adage - shop local and you help build a better community.
CONTACT
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