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In 2004, Wade Brannon was teaching his son’s T-ball group when one other participant’s mom requested, "You are the ham man, proper?"
Nicely, he was the ham man: He based Heavenly Ham, constructed it as much as $150 million in income with greater than 200 franchises in 33 states, after which offered it to Honey Baked Ham. However by 2004, his position was Mr. Mother, caring for his 5-year-old boy and youthful twin ladies whereas his spouse labored as an actual property lawyer close to their Atlanta house.
Parenting was rewarding however onerous; his son had what he believes had been sensory points (frequent amongst younger youngsters), which made some duties tough. "I took him to my barber store, and he screamed the entire time," Brannon recollects. "Each of us would depart sweaty with hair caught throughout us."
The T-ball mother, whose title was Nanette Adair, occurred to have an answer for that: She’d opened a children salon referred to as Pigtails & Crewcuts, and Brannon had simply taken his son there. "He simply cherished it," Brannon says. "He was watching motion pictures, taking part in with the prepare tables, interacting with different youngsters." So when Adair stated she had some questions on franchising for Brannon, he was very intrigued.
After a couple of conferences, in late 2004, Brannon purchased Pigtails & Crewcuts from Adair. The corporate now has greater than 80 franchise places and goals to succeed in the 100-unit mark by the top of this yr. Right here, he talks about the right way to construct a neighborhood enterprise right into a thriving franchise.
How a lot of the Pigtails & Crewcuts mannequin was in place if you purchased it?
It was a single salon right here in Atlanta, had a federally registered trademark, and had a glance and a really feel. I received a few of my previous ham people again collectively, and we spent the following year-and-change placing the methods in place.
Hair and ham are totally different industries. What made you assume it will work?
There have been two main issues I checked out. I requested if there was a necessity — which I believed there was, given my son’s response as soon as he skilled it. After which I requested: Can or not it’s replicated? Can or not it’s copied and executed correctly by the common particular person with enterprise sense?
How did you go about replicating the service?
We needed to get a design package deal that might be recreated in every single place. We needed to write operations manuals. We needed to write franchise agreements and franchise disclosure paperwork. I talked to lots of people within the hair business. I did not understand how huge the hair business was till I began taking a look at this. Goodness gracious, it is a $65 billion business. However no one had taken the kids’s phase of it and turned it right into a nationwide model.
What sorts of franchisees do greatest together with your model?
We’ve had plenty of girls with 2-year-olds. They’ve a toddler and so they really feel like they’re able to get again into the office, and so they strategy us. We even have plenty of husband-and-wife groups. We’re not concentrating on hairstylists. We’re concentrating on businesspeople with folks abilities. You have to wish to work with a group, be part of your group, take pleasure in folks — youngsters and oldsters.
What recommendation do you could have for would-be franchisors?
You have to be versatile. Markets change. Situations change. The whole lot adjustments. We went via a recession and came upon our enterprise was recession-proof. We went via a pandemic that utterly shut us down for complete intervals of time. You’ve got simply received to have a product or a service that may survive the troublesome occasions which might be unanticipated. You need to be prepared to alter.
Associated: The Actual Value of Franchising Your Enterprise
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