Name: Sher Mills and Richard Mills

Business: Icon Men

Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9am till 5pm, Saturdays 9am to 4.30pm, Sunday 10am to 3pm

When did you start your business and why?

We’ve been open 13 years this week, and we opened it just because we wanted a change really. I’d been working in a dentistry in Wrexham for 22 years, and I fancied something different.

One day I was walking through town and saw the shop up for rent, and thought a barber shop would go well here. So I enquired about it and it went from there really. I already had a barbers in St Martins at the time, so it was something I was familiar with.

We then had the recession and it was a bit scary because we didn’t know how it would go. But we opened on the Saturday and 50 customers came in that day, so that in itself was amazing.

Why in this location?

I REALLY like Oswestry – it’s got a nice, friendly, family feel to it, and it’s not overly busy like a city, meaning you’re able to get a rapport going with customers and fellow businesses.

Tell us about your business

We HAVE really good, reliable customers – we have three generations of some families coming in for haircuts.

Our signature is cuts for all the family and we have the cheapest cuts around, why pay more? We also have no appointments, so it’s a walk-in basis.

We listen to our customers, which is why we started working Sundays. It makes it easier for people who work full-time in the week to come along and have a haircut. We’re so busy now that we have two girls working on a Sunday, every Sunday from 10am till 3pm. So we listen to our customers who tell us what they want.

Our customers bring memorabilia in and we put it on the wall. We have them there as talking points – we don’t want people sitting as though they’re waiting to go to the dentist. We also offer dry cuts for ladies, so the whole family can come along to have their hair cut.

What is your proudest moment?

I THINK the proudest moment was actually opening on the first day and wondering if anyone would come through the door, and then we had 50 people. Then opening on the Sundays and finding out people want that as well.

On top of that, being thanked by our customers for listening to them and offering services they would like us to offer has been amazing.

Not just the relationship we have with our customers either, it’s our staff as well – they are absolutely amazing.

We’ve been away before as far away as Birmingham and London and people have recognised us from when they’ve been working up in Oswestry.

Any strange requests?

People have asked if we could shave up their noses before, but we’ve had to draw the line at that. We can help with peoples’ ears, but not their noses.

We’re a dog-friendly barbers and we love dogs, but we once had someone come in and ask if we could shave their dog!