How one woman entrepreneur became a top-performer with the iconic men’s haircut franchise

If you wanted to find out how to become a top-performing franchise owner with Sport Clips, asking Team Lead Melissa Strick would be an excellent place to start.

After opening her first location in Hagerstown, Maryland in January 2021, Melissa is already looking for her second location. She shows how our business model is built for growth, and that the significant training and ongoing support can help a first-time business owner exceed their goals.

“This experience of owning a Sport Clips has been incredibly rewarding,” Melissa says. “I knew before we opened that Sport Clips had a great reputation, but they’ve gone above and beyond. Ever since we opened our doors, support has been pouring in every day.”

In many ways, Melissa had the inside scoop on Sport Clips long before she became a Team Lead. Her sister works in the hair salon industry, and had not only managed a Sport Clips location, but she had also worked for Great Clips and Super Cuts, and Sport Clips was by far her favorite.

“When my husband and I were fortunate enough to explore business ownership, we looked at a lot of different brands,” Melissa says. “We looked at Massage Envy, we looked at lash bars, and family entertainment franchises. When we came upon Sport Clips, I knew it was the right choice. It was a manager-based business model, which was my wheelhouse, and my sister was a manager of a few different hair salon brands, and Sport Clips was such a positive experience.”

Even during their process researching franchise opportunities, the couple found that the way Sport Clips treated them was far different than the other franchise concepts they were exploring at the same time.

“The other franchise opportunities made us feel like they were only interested in us for our money,” Melissa says. “With Sport Clips, it felt like they were trying to get to know us as people. They wanted to know about our family, our goals, and our values – and that’s exactly what we cared about. We wanted a brand with a strong culture, strong values, and proven track record.”

Melissa found that Sport Clips made good on their culture of support and Heart of a Champion ethos right away when she went to her initial training session.

“When I first came to the Team Lead training, I was drinking little sips of the Sport Clips Kool-Aid, but by the time I’d graduated, I was drinking whole gulps,” she says, with a laugh. “The level of support at every level of the business model has been phenomenal.”

Melissa is focused on creating a culture of care and support in her store. This means visiting her store frequently, and making her stylists feel like valued members of her own family.

“It’s so important to make sure that my stylists feel important, because they truly are,” Melissa says. “I’m in my store often, and I like to make sure they feel appreciated. I give out gift certificates for hitting their goals or doing a great job, I bring coffee, and I listen to what they need. You have to create a culture of support with your stylists to retain them, and making them feel valued goes a long way.”

A little over one year into her new business, Melissa is ready to grow. Her experience in the business has given her confidence to expand into multi-unit ownership – and she’s already looking for a second location.

“I believe in Sport Clips so much that I told my Area Developer that I want all of the available territory,” Melissa says. “I’m very excited about the future, and can’t wait to keep growing.”

Ready to start your next chapter as a Sport Clips Team Leader?

If you’re interested in learning more about the Sport Clips franchise opportunity, simply fill out an inquiry form on this website and a member of our team will be in touch with you shortly. We can’t wait to learn more about you!

 

While some companies struggled to maintain growth during the pandemic, Sport Clips Haircuts has stayed strong through temporary closures to earn the respect and recognition of its peers by ranking in the top 20 of Entrepreneur “Franchise 500.” 

Entrepreneur recognizes franchises in its ranking for exceptional performance in areas including financial strength and stability, brand strength, size and growth, costs and fees, and support. We jumped up 20 places in 2020 to be ranked number 17 in 2021.  

Jim Atkinson, Sport Clips vice president of franchise development, said, “We are delighted to be recognized by Entrepreneur, as this is a real testament to all the efforts our support team put forth to sustain the system through unprecedented times, save stores, and further collaborate with our franchisees and advisory council members.” 

Our new ranking with Entrepreneur reminds us that a thoughtful approach, teamwork, and commitment pay off.  Additionally, Sport Clips ranked as the #60 franchise in this year’s Franchise Direct’s “Top 100 Global Franchises”, as well as ranking #9 in Franchise Gator’s Top 100 Franchises list. 

Navigating Uncharted Territory with Franchisees 

Since our inception in 1993, we’ve worked to become a strong, success-oriented franchise network with a high-quality support team focused on unit-level success.  We were committed to working hand-in-hand during the pandemic—often virtually—to navigate the uncharted territory we faced in 2020. We believe we have come through it stronger than we have ever been.  

A significant part of our success during pandemic-related closures was franchisees and team members adapting to the ever-changing environment to serve our valued clients in a safe, sanitary, and efficient setting. Maintaining a “Championship Haircut Experience” was also part of our success plan.  

Edward Logan, Sport Clips president and CEO, said, “We recognized early in 2020, when the degree of disruption about to occur became clear, that those who handle the rapid change with the most complete approach will grow and accelerate faster than others and be in a better competitive position moving into the future.”  

Continued Recognition for Growth & Increased Sales 

Because we made sure to have a solid plan in place during and after temporary closures, Sport Clips was able to continue expanding our reach and getting recognized for it. We ranked the number 60 franchise in Franchise Direct’s 2021 “Top 100 Global Franchises.” This ranking focuses explicitly on sales revenue, growth, franchising years, corporate citizenship, and more. 

As the first hair franchise or beauty salon business with a presence in all 50 states, we continue to exceed expectations and make our presence known. With over 1,800 locations across North America, we are primed to continue growing even as we see a potential second wave of the pandemic this year.  

Learn more about the Sport Clips’ franchise growth here!

For in-depth details about the Sport Clips franchise opportunity, download our Free Franchise Opportunity Report. You can also learn more by visiting our research pages!

As parents of young children, Brandon and Carissa Garrett started to discuss what they wanted their future to look like. It was important to them to create a foundation for more freedom and flexibility in their lives as their girls grew. “We knew it would take several years to get any kind of business up off the ground, and we didn’t want to wait too long,” recalls Brandon.   

Brandon, who works in the animal healthcare industry, wanted to create the option for a future exit strategy from the corporate world. Carissa, who took some time off from her corporate and teaching career to stay home with her children, realized she missed having a project to work on. They began a search for business opportunities that would align with their personal and financial goals.  

From the onset, franchising appealed to the Garretts. Brandon says, “My dad had built a survey engineering business from the ground up and I saw how much work goes into creating something from scratch. We didn’t want to have to reinvent the wheel, we wanted something that already had the format there.”  

As they looked for business models that would fit their lifestyle goals, they found the semi-absentee model to be the best fit. Brandon says, “The owner-operator models we looked at, particularly those in food, did not fit our goals. We would have to be too involved in the daily operations, and that wasn’t for us. We would rather hire managers to take care of the day-to-day while we built the business and networked in our community.”  

Having settled on an ownership model, they further narrowed their search down to the haircare industry. Sport Clips Haircuts, in particular, caught their attention. “We looked into a few haircutting brands, but we felt the market was too saturated with some of the other brands. However, we saw plenty of potential for growth with Sport Clips,” says Brandon.  

The brand’s culture and values also resonated with the pair. Brandon says, “Sport Clips’ culture is built on trust and doing what’s right. This fits with our own personal values.” 

When they first looked into Sport Clips, there was no availability in their market. Brandon says, “We knew this was the brand and business model for us, so we checked back over the years.” 

Finally, in May of 2018, opportunity presented itself, and the Garretts built their first store just outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They are now in the process of building their second store.  As the Garretts work to grow their team, they have relied on help from the Sport Clips support team, training and playbook to help shorten the learning curve and scale.  

“We are able to leverage the expertise and recommendations of the Sport Clips support team to help us see where the issues are and how we can improve,” says Carissa. “We feel our current store team is a rockstar team, and we are so lucky to have them. The first four team members we hired back in March 2019 (with 17 years of collective Sport Clips experience) are still with us, and we strongly feel that is why the numbers in that store are so amazing!” 

Currently, the Garretts are spending much of their time intentionally building a positive store culture. “We run a variety of store contests, do a lot of recognition, and overall just listen to the needs of our team. We are always looking for ways to grow in this area because it is so vital to our store’s success,” explains Carissa.   

Brandon’s advice to someone considering investing in Sport Clips is this: “You will have to put in a lot of work upfront. You will only get out what you put in, so set your expectations accordingly. You and your partner need to be on the same page. While I maintain my current employment, Carissa focuses on the store. It only works for us because we are able to divide and conquer.”  

Learn more about the Garretts and how Sport Clips is helping them lay the foundation to achieve their future lifestyle and financial goals on this month’s Validation Conference Call.  

Learn more about your success with a Sport Clips franchise here!

For in-depth details about the Sport Clips franchise opportunity, download our Free Franchise Opportunity Report. You can also learn more by visiting our research pages!