(MUSIC) It's the foundation of the American dream and the goal of every person who is
wired with the entrepreneurial spirit.
It's having your very own business.
But with that comes the reality of making it happen, especially when you've never done
it before.
So here with some great insight into how to make your dream of business ownership a reality,
is Beth Caron.
She's Director of Franchise Development with Great Clips.
Good morning.
Alright, so I have so many questions because I've even thought of doing this myself.
Owning my own franchise.
So what's the best option for someone who's thinking about.
Well you know a lot of people think that business ownership is an incredibly scary experience.
It can be.
Well absolutely if you've never done it before.
Absolutely.
So the beautiful thing about doing your business ownership through a franchise system is that
you're buying into a system and an established process, and an established brand.
So you may have an incredibly strong skill set in finance and accounting.
But you might not know anything about marketing or real estate.
So when you're coming into a franchise system, they have that system in process in place
so that it'll fill in the gaps for you in the areas that you might not be as strong.
Ultimately, you are still the business owner and you're the boss, at the end of the day.
But you've got that system to help you.
So how do I find that best fit for me, or the best brand?
That's probably one of the scariest parts of the process, to be honest.
Is narrowing that down using some key criteria.
Cause there's about 4,000 different franchise opportunities available right now.
So I would say in my personal experience, using about 4 key criteria is gonna be the
best thing for you.
Number 1, how much time do you wanna be spending in the business.
Do you wanna be buying yourself another job and finding an owner operator business or
do you wanna manage the manager?
Great Clips, it's a manage the manager situation.
So you are managing a manager who's running the daily operation of your business but you
don't have to be in your salon 24/7.
The second thing that I would look at is what kind of business is it?
Is it cyclical?
Is it something that people are going to be interested in doing year round.
For frozen yogurt, for example, it's very exciting in the summer, but in the middle
of January, people might not be quite as excited about frozen yogurt.
Great Clips, you've people coming back every 4 to 6 weeks to get their hair cut.
So repeat business is built right into the business model.
The third thing is the economy.
How does the economy impact your business.
With Great Clips, it's recession resistant.
It is, because every woman out there will get their hair done no matter what.
Absolutely.
And guys too.
Guys are coming back every 4 to 6 weeks to get their hair cut.
So it doesn't matter what the economy looks like.
People always need to get a haircut.
The last thing that I would look at is just the general stability of the brand.
Great Clips has been around for 34 years and we've been franchising for 33 of them.
We have almost 4,000 units across the United States and Canada.
So we're not going anywhere any time soon.
Alright, so let's talk money.
How much am I going to invest if I say OK I wanna do this?
Cause that's also another scary reality.
You know it's one of those things where it does take some money to make some money, unfortunately.
So we do require that anyone looking at being a Great Clips franchisee has a minimum net
worth of at least $300,000 and access to about $50,000 in liquid capital.
That can change a little bit varying on the market and what the cost of living is.
But generally that $300,000 is pretty typical.
That's different than the actual initial investment.
So the initial investment ranges from about 125 to 230,000.
So that includes your buildout costs, it includes your grand opening marketing strategy.
It also includes some months of working capital as well.
OK, I have talents, hair is not my talent.
So let's say I'm interested in this, do I feel like I need to know how to cut hair?
What skills do I need to know?
You know, that is probably the biggest misconception when people are evaluating this franchise
opportunity.
Is that they think they need to be a licensed stylist.
Logically.
Right, but it's actually not true.
What we are looking for is people who have management skills and we're looking for people
who have business skills.
If you can build those relationships and you can run your business through your salon manager,
you don't need to know anything about cutting hair.
How many franchises would you say are first time and have multiples?
Well Great Clips is actually a multi-unit franchisee.
The expectation is that you're going to come in and own multiple units.
But about 75 to 80 percent of the people who are doing this are looking at a franchise
for the first time.
But they need to have that growth mindset cause that's what it is to be a good match
for Great Clips.
To know that you're going into it looking for multiple units.
Typically when people get to that 3, 4, 5 salon mark.
Wow!
Right?
While we have people have over 60 salons.
No!
Right?
But about 3 to 5 salons is kind of that sweet spot where people take a look at transitioning
from their corporate career, leaving that and moving solely into business ownership.
You're a little bit scared about leaving the corporate job and leaving the security of
that paycheck every 2 weeks, the 401K contribution.
You can kinda have the best of both worlds and keep that full time job and eventually
transition into full time business ownership when you feel a little bit more comfortable.
And you know it's really growing.
I was reading here, you're the largest, fastest growing hair salon brand in the world, and
your salons are 100% franchisee owned.
What I also love is you really do give back too.
It's not only just taking in, it's giving back.
That's a huge part of the Great Clips culture.
All of our franchisees are salon owners are independent business owners in their own communities.
So they're very focused on giving back within that community.
So that could be something as simple as cleaning up the local park, all the way to doing cut-a-thins
for cancer research, or even being involved in the local children's hospitals.
We do have a program that's called Clips of Kindness, and that's something that's near
and dear to our hearts because we want to ensure to make life a little bit better for
people who are suffering from hair loss from cancer treatments.
And so we give free clipper cuts to people who are part of that process.
So not only are you your own business owner, you have control of your life, you don't have
that boss nagging you, and people leave there feeling beautiful.
Yes.
I love it.
Thank you so much for your time.
For our viewers out there who'd like more information, what's the website?
Greatclipsfranchise.com.
Right.
Thank you so much Beth.
And for more information, you can go to our website, thebalancingact.com.