MICHAEL BARSAMIAN UNCUT
Huffington Post
July 11 2014
by Stacey Alcorn
Get ready to be inspired. I’ve interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs
but this one offers fresh albeit uncommon advice for business builders
looking to gain massive traction in their businesses. He is still
building his empire, working in the trenches daily, amassing luxury
spas and hair salons like some of us collect designer shoes. Michael
Barsamian is known in Boston and New York as king of the beauty
empire, with twenty six luxury salons including Lord’s& Lady’s, Mizu,
James Joseph, Corbu Spa and Salon at The Charles Hotel, and Green
Tangerine. He employs more than 750 people and if it sounds like he’s
got his hands full, you’re right. However, that hasn’t stopped him
from venturing into additional businesses, including building a 39
unit apartment building in West Roxbury, a neighborhood of Boston in
2012 while now contemplating building a luxury apartment building and
hotel in Saugus, just outside of Boston. If there were such thing as
the Energizer Bunny, I found him. He is entrepreneur extraordinaire,
Michael Barsamian. I recently had the opportunity to chat with him
about success and here are five lessons to building empires the
Barsamian way.
Take Risks – According to Barsamian, you can’t be an entrepreneur
unless you are willing to take risks. Risk taking is in the genes. If
you are not pre-disposed to risk, says Barsamian, you should be working
for someone else. Michael shared the story of how he built his 39
unit apartment building, Belgrade Place, in 2012. He broke ground just
prior to his building permit expiring so that he wouldn’t have to go
through permitting again. The only problem was that he didn’t have the
money to build the units. He broke ground and kept telling himself,
“The money will come.” Barsamian was declined by local banks for
financing because he had never built an apartment building before so
he was considered high risk. That didn’t deter him from looking for
other options. Barsamian was right, the money did come. He found a
company in Maine that was in the business of pre-fabricated modular
apartment buildings. This company would assemble the entire building
in Maine and ship it to Boston on 75 trucks. The pre-fab apartment
company also agreed to finance the building if Barsamian could find
a bank who would refinance it once it was up. Although banks were
unwilling to finance the building of the apartments, there was one
bank who was willing to refinance it if Barsamian could get it built.
The rest is history. Belgrade Place just celebrated its two year
anniversary and Barsamian has had no problem renting out the units.
What’s interesting about this story is that 99.99% of people would
have given up when they were declined for financing. Barsamian kept
pushing until he found a way.
Never Give Up – Having built twenty-six successful salons I asked
Barsamian if he ever fails. “Of course,” he replied. However, he was
quick to note that failure is just a moment in time and his goal has
always been to run with the bad until you can make it good. In other
words, Barsamian never accepts failure as fatal. Failure is a pit stop
which he hurdles in order to turn that failure into massive success.
Straddle – According to Barsamian, if you want to build massive
business empires, you must always keep your focus on the next deal. I
sat with him just outside his brand new Green Tangerine salon inside
The Sheraton Boston. It’s the first time he’s opened a salon inside a
convention center hotel. Even while the finishing touches were being
made to this salon, Barsamian admitted that he’s already working on
the next deal, another salon that will open in the coming year. As
Barsamian notes, the only way to keep growing is to always be focusing
on what’s next while perfecting the opportunity you have right in
front of you. He said that if you spend all of your time working on
the one business opportunity that’s staring you in the face, once it’s
running, you’ve got to start prospecting for the next deal. Barsamian
says he never has to worry about a gap in opportunities because he’s
always focused on the next deal while finishing up the current one.
Embrace Opportunity – Barsamian talks about how every single one of
us is surrounded by opportunity. All we have to do is embrace it.
Barsamian is the son of Armenian immigrants. His mother’s entire family
was killed during the Armenian genocide, while at seven years old, she
hid under a bed and was eventually saved, only to live in an orphanage
for many years until her father’s brother found her in the orphanage
and brought her to the United States where she eventually married
Barsamian’s dad, also an Armenian immigrant and also a survivor of
genocide. Barsamian grew up with five siblings and to say money was
tight for his family was an understatement. His family couldn’t afford
college, and so Barsamian went to hairdressing school so that he could
learn a trade that would produce income. He eventually met his wife,
and she joked that he told her she couldn’t eat at their own wedding
because even with the wedding gifts he wasn’t sure if they could afford
to pay for the wedding. It seems that turning nothing into something
is in his Armenian blood. His parents barely survived genocide
only to eventually come to the United States to raise a healthy
family. Barsamian himself scraped nickels together to create his own
beginnings and today, forty three years after starting his first salon,
he’s running twenty six of them. This is a guy that doesn’t sit back
and worry, instead he keeps on moving forward. He is so confident in
his own hard work and perseverance that he’s literally unstoppable.
Trust – I asked Michael what the number one quality is in an employee
and he said trust. He said that he gives 100% of his employees the
benefit of the doubt because he believes most people are trustworthy.
That being said, when occasionally someone breaks that trust, it’s
difficult, if not impossible to regain it again in his eyes.
Michael Barsamian is a self-made man born to parents who faced
unimaginable hardship head-on. He’s now running an empire that
generates north of $25 million a year, but Michael Barsamian is as down
to earth as they come. I attended the Grand Opening of Green Tangerine
in Boston and got to see for myself just how highly his people think
of him. He was showered with hugs all evening by employees, many of
who have been with him for decades. The biggest lesson I walked away
with is this: Big businesses can be built by everyday ordinary people
who have an undying passion to win.