Meet Frandy Pena | Owner and Barber of Mission Barbers, Owner of Mission Haircraft products

We had the good fortune of connecting with Frandy Pena and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Frandy, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
For a little background to Mission Barbers: I had a successful career in IT Project Management. I began cutting hair in NY in ’96 for fun. However, 5 years ago, 3 months before COVID, he opened MISSION BARBERS, one of the most popular non franchised barber shops in the east valley. We have 9 talented Barbers and we do volunteer work by cutting hair for kids in the Foster Care system, parent educational sessions regarding Mental Health and Suicide Preventation, fundraisers for Mental Health Treatment for Veterans and First Responders. Frandy and Lisette also sit on the Board for CUSD for their Social Services and Community Outreach initiatives. Frandy also speaks at schools on topics of finding your passion, believing in yourself, dedication to improvement, giving yourself grace and having a circle of mentors around you.

So I had a passion for cutting hair and I wanted to have a grooming location that was classy, fun, personalized and customized for the clients. My wife, Lisette and I wanted to call it Mission Barbers because of the Mission/Volunteer work that we do.

The Product Line, MISSION HAIRCRAFT was launched 1 year ago. We take a portion of the proceeds to make grooming and inspirational packages for kids in Children/Foster homes.

Lisette is a Home Birth Midwife for Aurora Midwifery and she is co-founder of Root n Rise Collective – a center for families to receive Pre & Post Natal care.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I kind of jumped ahead by putting this answer in the 1st question :-).
I think what set us apart is the way that we actually give back to the community consistently in different ways than most other barbershops. Clients love the more private set up of only 2 barbers per room. We get to customize the experience from music, mood, conversation and provide a safe space to discuss things that they may want to talk through or just want someone to listen to them. Even just a space that they can disconnect in, be quiet that they can rest if they want.

I feel that different things help me get to where I am today business wise. First having a partner that was very supportive of the vision and mission. I have a lot of business experience within different industries from start ups to some of the largest companies, so this has helped me gain knowledge and pull from that and incorporate certain things that have made us successful.

The journey has not been easy to decide to leave my past career to start barbering full time and then open a barbershop. Since it opened, it wasn’t a “cake walk” but with knowing our Core Values, our mission, how we wanted to: run the business, how we wanted to the clients feel/experience, and how wanted to positively impact the community around us….it wasn’t hard to know what decisions to make. We have had tremendous support from the community and our clients in helping us spread the word. We are extremely happy. We have 9 barbers whom are almost completely “booked out” every day of the week. We do not have a typical slow day.

Lessons that I learned: was to have continuous communication with your partner, family, employees, even if it is hard or sad. Especially since we have created a culture of service, and being there for each other.

I would love to continue to get the message out about Mission Barbers and Mission Haircraft (products) mission of impacting in a positive way every person that we can, volunteering, being a resource for our clients and community, gifting our time and products for kids in the Foster Care system.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Great question. Depending on the time of year and where they are coming from. But I would recommend, maybe we do a quick 1 night stay at a resort in the valley. That night we would go out to a nice steakhouse or other restaurant. We love hosting get togethers so I would probably have a gathering out our house with some great food, cocktails, some funny games. We love going out for breakfast, so a few of our favorite breakfast spots. For some dinners we will take them to Downtown Chandler & Gilbert as well as the EpiCenter. Another day we would go out on a hike and maybe rent a boat and go to Canyon Lake. We absolutely would take them up north, likely to Sedona. If it is during the football season then they are going with us to a Cardinals game and arriving 4 hours early to join us for our huge tailgates on the Great Lawn.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our success definitely has been a team effort. We have experienced some hard times. What pulled us through was love and our deep relationships with our family, friends, community and our faith. I have had a close knit group of mentors that I look up to for different aspects of life. I feel that we should always have gratitude, be humble and a hunger to continuously learn. I am blessed to have an amazing partner and best friend through this journey of life.

Website: www.missionbarbers.com & www.missionhaircraft.com

Instagram: missionbarbers & missionhaircraft