Entrepreneurship and building community: Why Yaw Antwi-Adjei is a Black Changemaker
CBC
Yaw Antwi-Adjei may be best known as the co-owner of 1949 Barber Shop in St. John's, but he was reluctant to even join the business when he first moved to Newfoundland and Labrador to earn a master's of philosophy degree at Memorial University in 2016.
But now his involvement in business, sport and community building is why he has been named one of CBC's Black Changemakers in Atlantic Canada.
Antwi-Adjei had been a barber back home in Ghana and in Toronto, but when he moved to St. John's he wanted to focus on school.
His now business partner Gustavo was insistent that the pair joined forces, he said. So they did.
"I was a little bit skeptical because I just arrived here and I haven't even found my footing. I didn't even know if I was going to stay or not, so it was kind of a difficult decision," he said.
At the time, Antwi-Adjei says, the Mayor Avenue barber shop was known as the United Nations of barbershops, serving a city with growing diversity — evidenced by dozens of pins stuck in a map on the wall showing all the places around the world where their clients had come from.
At first the shop was more of a hangout, Antwi-Adjei said, but then he started making changes to the business to shore up its success.
Fast-forward to this year, 1949 Barber Shop now has two locations in St. John's — one on Torbay Road and one in the Village Mall — and employs about 16 people. Antwi-Adjei says he's now working to open a third location in Conception Bay South.
"I knew if we do things right, we're going to expand, and you cannot even think of business if you don't have the mindset of expansion," said Antwi-Adjei.
"So I'm not surprised we are where we are now."
He's also got another entrepreneurial venture in his sights.
"I buy cars — new, used — and ship them to Africa," he said.
He hopes to expand on that too, by soon opening a mechanic shop in St. John's, with retail and e-sports, as well.
People who come to either of the 1949 Barber Shop locations are there for more than a trim, they come for connection.
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