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?”
Effectively, 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 legal professional close to their Atlanta residence.
Parenting was rewarding however onerous; his son had what he believes had been sensory points (widespread amongst younger kids), which made some duties tough. “I took him to my barber store, and he screamed the entire time,” Brannon recollects. “Each of us would go away 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 youngsters salon referred to as Pigtails & Crewcuts, and Brannon had simply taken his son there. “He simply cherished it,” Brannon says. “He was watching films, enjoying with the prepare tables, interacting with different kids.” So when Adair stated she had some questions on franchising for Brannon, he was very intrigued.
After a number of conferences, in late 2004, Brannon purchased Pigtails & Crewcuts from Adair. The corporate now has greater than 80 franchise areas and goals to achieve the 100-unit mark by the tip of this yr. Right here, he talks about how you can construct an area enterprise right into a thriving franchise.
How a lot of the Pigtails & Crewcuts mannequin was in place once 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 I acquired a few of my outdated ham of us again collectively, and we spent the following year-and-change placing the methods in place.
Hair and ham are completely different industries. What made you assume it could work?
There have been two major 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 it’s replicated? Can 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 may very well 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 large the hair business was till I began this. Goodness gracious, it is a $65 billion business. However no one had taken the youngsters’s section of it and turned it right into a nationwide model.
What sorts of franchisees do greatest along with your model?
We’ve got had lots of ladies 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 method us. We even have lots 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, get pleasure from folks — kids and fogeys.
What recommendation do you will have for would-be franchisors?
You have to be versatile. Markets change. Circumstances change. Every part modifications. We went by means of a recession and came upon our enterprise was recession-proof. We went by means of a pandemic that fully shut us down for whole intervals of time. You’ve got simply acquired to have a product or a service that may survive the tough instances which are unanticipated. It’s important to be prepared to vary.
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