Today we’d like to introduce you to Jwan Buckhalter.
Hi Jwan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I came to Memphis in 1997 with a fresh barber license from Louisiana, a set of clippers, and a head full of hope. No business degree. No blueprint. Just the belief that I could make it work. My older brother, six years older a United States Marine, was the reason I landed Memphis. Growing up, I cut his hair whenever he came home from the military. When his service was coming to an end, he asked me a simple question: “You want to come to Memphis and open a barbershop together?”
I didn’t hesitate. In 1998, we opened our first shop.
It sounded like a dream, but reality showed up quick. We loved each other as brothers, but we didn’t see business the same way. Different visions, different approaches, different tolerances for risk. By 2001, I realized something important: if I was going to fail or succeed, it needed to be on my own terms. So I started my own shop—with no experience running a business, no mentors, and no safety net. Just hunger.
And the shop took off.
We were busting at the seams. Ten barbers including myself, chairs full, money moving. I thought growth was the answer to everything, so four years later I opened a second location not far from the first. On paper, it looked like progress. In real life, it was pressure—more payroll, more problems, more responsibility.
Two years later, I tried to diversify. I got into the car hauling business. The money was good—better than cutting hair—but the lesson was brutal. When you’re the owner and the operator, support is everything. When that truck goes into the shop, the income stops. Period. No truck, no money. I learned real fast that high revenue doesn’t mean stability.
That’s when everything started colliding at once.
I was running two barbershops and managing a driver who lived on the road. One shop got shut down after a neighboring business complained about parking. I couldn’t secure a new location in time, so I had to merge operations and let some barbers go. At the same time, my hauling truck sat in the shop for six months. Six months with no income from that business. That was the end of car hauling.
Most people would’ve quit right there. I didn’t.
I call it relentlessness—some might call it hardheaded. In 2017, I opened a barber school. I wanted to teach what I had learned the hard way. For five years, I enjoyed training future barbers, but running a school takes a different level of discipline and sustained energy. I didn’t have what it required to push it over the hump long-term.
So I pivoted again.
Construction became my next chapter. For the last five years, I’ve been building Pinnacle Breed Contractors LLC—brick by brick, mistake by mistake—while still owning a barbershop. Same story, different industry. No formal background. No shortcuts. Just learning by doing, taking losses, adjusting, and refusing to stay down.
Looking back, the ups felt like freedom and the downs felt like survival. But every failure taught me something school never could. I didn’t come up the easy way but I came up the real way. And I’m still standing.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Nothing goes in a straight line. SO my answer is no! Finding good help, having too much business for some business centers, the pandemic was a challenge, closing for a year does not help a business. Still having to pay bills and trying to scale up
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What sets me apart part is that i’m resilient, I don’t give up easy. Love to figure thing out. I specialize in one of the being Barbers. Proud of My family. For as more about me… I’m a home builder that loves to cut hair part time also I work for the city of Memphis as a Construction Inspector. Certified in Concrete snd Asphalt. I’ve completed several homes projects and focus on building my companies.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
You can’t ware all the hats in business and in life so go find help, deligate or find a mentor.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pinnaclebreedcontractor.com
