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?”
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 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 house.
Parenting was rewarding however exhausting; his son had what he believes had been sensory points (widespread amongst younger kids), which made some duties difficult. “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 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 beloved it,” Brannon says. “He was watching motion pictures, taking part in with the practice tables, interacting with different kids.” So when Adair mentioned she had some questions on franchising for Brannon, he was very intrigued.
After just a few 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 tip 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 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 I bought a few of my outdated ham people again collectively, and we spent the subsequent year-and-change placing the methods in place.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 common individual with enterprise sense?
How did you go about replicating the service?
We needed to get a design bundle that could possibly 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 trade. I did not notice how huge the hair trade was till I began taking a look at this. Goodness gracious, it is a $65 billion trade. However no one had taken the kids’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 numerous 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 numerous husband-and-wife groups. We’re not concentrating on hairstylists. We’re concentrating on businesspeople with individuals expertise. You have to wish to work with a staff, be part of your neighborhood, get pleasure from individuals — kids and fogeys.
What recommendation do you’ve gotten for would-be franchisors?
You have to be versatile. Markets change. Circumstances change. Every part adjustments. We went by way of a recession and came upon our enterprise was recession-proof. We went by way of a pandemic that utterly shut us down for total intervals of time. You have simply bought to have a product or a service that may survive the tough instances which might be unanticipated. You must be prepared to alter.
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