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?”
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 function was Mr. Mother, caring for his 5-year-old boy and youthful twin women whereas his spouse labored as an actual property lawyer close to their Atlanta residence.
Parenting was rewarding however onerous; his son had what he believes had been sensory points (frequent amongst younger youngsters), which made some duties difficult. “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, taking part in 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 places and goals to succeed in the 100-unit mark by the top of this yr. Right here, he talks about learn how 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 bought a few of my previous ham of us again collectively, and we spent the subsequent year-and-change placing the methods in place.
Hair and ham are totally 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 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 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 business. I did not notice how massive 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 youngsters’s section of it and turned it right into a nationwide model.
What sorts of franchisees do greatest together with your model?
We’ve had a variety of ladies with 2-year-olds. They’ve a toddler they usually really feel like they’re able to get again into the office, they usually strategy us. We even have a variety of husband-and-wife groups. We’re not focusing on hairstylists. We’re focusing on businesspeople with individuals abilities. You have to wish to work with a group, be part of your neighborhood, take pleasure in individuals — youngsters and oldsters.
What recommendation do you’ve got for would-be franchisors?
You have to be versatile. Markets change. Circumstances change. Every part modifications. We went by way of a recession and came upon our enterprise was recession-proof. We went by way of a pandemic that fully shut us down for complete durations of time. You’ve got simply bought to have a product or a service that may survive the tough instances which can be unanticipated. You must be prepared to alter.
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