Going mobile in North Philly: How local entrepreneurs are taking work on the road

When you sit down in the barber chair at Nicecutz, it feels like any other neighborhood barbershop. There’s a flatscreen TV, fresh wallpaper, mirrors and the usual haircutting tools.

The difference comes before the haircut.

Customers climb a few steps into a converted box truck near the corner of North Broad and York streets, right next to a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot. The side of the truck proudly declares: “I fix $10 haircuts.”

On his barber license, he’s William Sanders, but everyone knows him as Siddiq.

He learned to cut hair at 15 but it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that the idea for a mobile barbershop took shape.

Siddiq had stopped cutting hair during lockdowns and was selling home and beauty products out of this truck when he saw photos of a high-end barber truck with marble tile built inside a Mercedes van.

“I looked at it and said, ‘My truck is bigger than that; I can do something with that.’ Of course I don’t have that type of money, but I can do something with this truck and make it nice. That was my inspiration,” he said.

He had cut hair in various shops in North Philly for years and customers kept asking if he was going to return.

So he built out the truck mostly himself, wiring it, adding heat and air conditioning, all powered by a small generator that runs outside. Siddiq says lots of people notice as they drive on Broad Street, even if they don’t stop right away.

“And maybe a month later, [they’ll say], ‘Hey, I ride by you all the time man; I gotta come and check that out.’”

Trading booth rent for freedom

All the years he cut hair in traditional shops, Siddiq was paying “booth rent” to the shop owner.

“And that booth rent has to be paid every week, it doesn’t matter if you’re there or you’re not there,” he said. “This right here — I enjoy my freedom, of “OK I don’t want to cut. OK, I’ll cut.” And I don’t have to pay anything if I’m not here.”

While operating the truck used to cost him $7 a day, with today’s gas prices, it’s been as high as $15 a day.  That doesn’t count the money he spent buying or outfitting the truck.

It’s a far cry from the $175 a week he was paying in booth rent. It is much easier for him to earn a living charging $40 for an adult haircut and $25 for a kid’s cut with the lower operating expenses.

However, there are limitations to the truck set-up. Siddiq has to pay attention to extreme weather. He doesn’t open the shop if it’s going to get to 100 degrees; his AC just can’t keep up. Similarly, the heat struggles if it gets in the single digits.

“I was here when it dropped to single digits and still had to cut,” he said, and that wasn’t easy for him or his customers.

While he mostly keeps the truck at the same location, Siddiq does get hired to come to neighborhood events, especially back-to-school gatherings.

Businesses moving to opportunity

Philly has lots of mobile businesses. PNC Bank has a fleet of “mobile branches” where you can set up an account.  You can have a pet groomer van come to you, and there are countless car repair and detailing businesses that will pull up to your location. Of course, food trucks are the pioneers of the mobile business model and offer a more affordable way to start a food business.

There are 620 active food truck licenses in the city, and the thousands of inactive ones show it’s a tough way to make a living. The group Roaming Hunger has 336 member food trucks in the Philadelphia area, but they don’t all necessarily work regularly in the city.

There are other smaller food truck associations as well. Erion Meni has seen wild success and real struggles. He doesn’t own a food truck; he builds them at American Mobile Vending on Castor Avenue in Port Richmond.

In the 20 years he’s been building food trucks, he says the COVID-19 pandemic years were the only ones when business didn’t grow. He got his start with small hot dog stands after moving to the U.S. from Albania in 2005 and now builds high-end trucks that cost $125,000 and more. He says those costs can be lower if you buy a used truck as the base.

“I respect every dollar people pay to me, because I started from the bottom in my life,” Meni says, trying to work with customers on a plan they can afford.

While his business has focused on high-end trucks, he says he inspects used trucks that clients are considering buying because he’s seen too many of those purchases go badly. Some of that is the typical risk of buying a used vehicle that could need a new transmission or an engine rebuild. But the problems he’s seen really add up when the kitchen can’t pass a health inspection. Not only can that be expensive, but you can’t do any business until city inspectors are satisfied.

Meni has been a welder all his life, but never got into food trucks until coming to America, where they are far more common, he says, than in European countries where he worked. He has three or four employees at a time; they’re mainly other Albanian immigrants like him.

With that crew, they can work on two or three trucks at one time, each taking eight to 12 weeks.

“Some clients say, ‘Erion, I need to finish in two weeks.’ No, I can’t finish in two weeks. If you want to finish in two weeks, you go somewhere [else], not to me,” he says.  He insists on taking enough time so he can guarantee a high-quality truck that will pass inspections.

If you look at photos on his company website, you’ll see trucks selling burgers, BBQ, crepes and birria. Some are the kind that have mostly permanent locations near Penn or Temple. Some get hired as mobile catering and plenty go on the food truck circuit at festivals.

Meni says he’s been impressed that clients who began in food trucks and make the jump to having traditional restaurants often want to keep their trucks. Some clients have fleets of seven or eight vehicles.

Even though Meni’s business continues to grow, opening a food truck, or any mobile business, faces many of the same risks as traditional ones. If you search online, you’ll see 60% to 80% food truck failure rates quoted. If you dig into them enough, they mostly lead back to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report that includes all food service businesses, not differentiating mobile vs. brick-and-mortar. Because of lower up-front costs, mobile businesses generally have larger profit margins than regular restaurants.

Hoping for growth

The neighborhood where Siddiq operates the Nicecutz Barber Truck is not known for economic mobility. Children who grew up in this area of North Philly now have a median income of $17,000 by the age of 35, according to analysis by Opportunity Insights. That is lower than the generation before in the same neighborhood.

“This is just where I started at; I don’t think it’s where I’m going to finish, because I have big goals. I have big goals to expand,” Siddiq said.

Lately he’s been getting quite a bit of media attention — including from the Inquirer, PhillyCAM and 6ABC. He’s hoping the exposure will help him with those dreams.

“I’m looking for people who want to collaborate. Looking for people with more business savvy, who could help structure it better and resources to help grow,” he said.

His first step is to use the attention and his growing following on Instagram to connect with other barbers who are interested in joining him.

“To fellow barbers, connect with me. I want to do some big things. Maybe you can be part of this.”

This story originally was published in Metro Philadelphia. It is part of a national initiative exploring how geography, policy, and local conditions influence access to opportunity. Find more stories at economicopportunitylab.com.