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 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 dwelling.
Parenting was rewarding however laborious; 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 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 known 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 prepare 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 places and goals to achieve 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.
Associated: He Started Promoting Insurance coverage to the Hispanic Group within the Nineteen Seventies. Now His Household Owns a Nationwide Franchise With a Sensible Technique.
How a lot of the Pigtails & Crewcuts mannequin was in place whenever 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 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 or not it’s replicated? Can or not 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 may very well 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 understand how huge the hair trade was till I began taking a look at 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?
Now we have 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 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 abilities. You have to need to work with a crew, be part of your group, get pleasure from folks — kids and oldsters.
What recommendation do you have got for would-be franchisors?
You have to be versatile. Markets change. Situations change. All the things 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 total intervals of time. You have simply received to have a product or a service that may survive the troublesome occasions which can be unanticipated. You need to be prepared to vary.
Associated: The Actual Price of Franchising Your Enterprise