In 2004, Wade Brannon was teaching his son’s T-ball crew when one other participant’s mom requested, “You are the ham man, proper?”
Properly, 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 bought 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 residence.
Parenting was rewarding however arduous; his son had what he believes had been sensory points (widespread amongst younger youngsters), which made some duties tough. “I took him to my barber store, and he screamed the entire time,” Brannon remembers. “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 children salon referred to as Pigtails & Crewcuts, and Brannon had simply taken his son there. “He simply liked it,” Brannon says. “He was watching films, taking part in with the prepare tables, interacting with different youngsters.” So when Adair mentioned 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 top of this 12 months. Right here, he talks about easy methods 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 obtained a few of my previous ham of us again collectively, and we spent the subsequent year-and-change placing the techniques in place.
Hair and ham are completely 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 it’s replicated? Can it’s copied and executed correctly by the typical individual with enterprise sense?
How did you go about replicating the service?
We needed to get a design package deal that could possibly be recreated all over the 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 trade. I did not notice how large the hair trade was till I began this. Goodness gracious, it is a $65 billion trade. However no person had taken the youngsters’s section of it and turned it right into a nationwide model.
What sorts of franchisees do greatest together with your model?
We now have had a variety of girls with 2-year-olds. They’ve a toddler they usually really feel like they’re able to get again into the office, they usually method us. We even have a variety of husband-and-wife groups. We’re not concentrating on hairstylists. We’re concentrating on businesspeople with folks expertise. You have to wish to work with a crew, be part of your group, take pleasure in folks — youngsters and fogeys.
What recommendation do you’ve gotten for would-be franchisors?
You have to be versatile. Markets change. Situations change. All the things modifications. We went via a recession and discovered our enterprise was recession-proof. We went via a pandemic that utterly shut us down for whole durations of time. You have simply obtained to have a product or a service that may survive the troublesome occasions which are unanticipated. It’s important to be prepared to vary.
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