In 2004, Wade Brannon was teaching his son’s T-ball staff 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 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 house.
Parenting was rewarding however onerous; his son had what he believes have 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 identify 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 motion pictures, enjoying with the practice 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 areas 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 an area enterprise right into a thriving franchise.
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How a lot of the Pigtails & Crewcuts mannequin was in place while 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 completely different industries. What made you suppose it might 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 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 bundle that might be recreated in all places. 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 understand how huge the hair trade was till I began this. Goodness gracious, it is a $65 billion trade. However no person had taken the kids’s section of it and turned it right into a nationwide model.
What sorts of franchisees do greatest along with your model?
We have now had quite a lot 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 quite a lot of husband-and-wife groups. We’re not concentrating on hairstylists. We’re concentrating on businesspeople with individuals abilities. You have to wish to work with a staff, be part of your neighborhood, get pleasure from individuals — youngsters and fogeys.
What recommendation do you’ve got for would-be franchisors?
You have to be versatile. Markets change. Circumstances change. All the pieces 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 have simply received to have a product or a service that may survive the troublesome instances which can be unanticipated. It’s a must to be prepared to alter.
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