We’re about to deliver our new franchise website: www.GreatClipsfranchise.com

“It’s been a labor of love for six months, and we expect to go LIVE! within days,” says Rob Goggins, our vice president of franchise development who conceived the idea for the new site.

New features include:

• a 360-degree virtual tour of a new salon,

• an easy-to-use map clearly showing available territories,

• updated franchise owner videos and testimonials,

• our latest Great Clips TV commercials,

• a more comprehensive “Frequently Asked Questions” section,

• and quick access for qualified prospects to the Great Clips online educational center.

“Check back with us no later than August 15, for the new site. You’ll find the navigation to be much more user-friendly; the content refreshingly conversational; the graphics smartly colorful; and, the site will be pleasantly approachable and accessible,” promises Rob. “If we can’t greet you personally with a genuine smile and an outstretched hand, you’ll find our new website to be as warm and inviting as any member of our Great Clips family.”

Interview with Josh Grove

Editor’s note: We asked, “What are you looking for?” in the way of content. One reader responded, “Hearing from other staff who are working directly with franchisees to get a sense for the type of people that support your franchise network.” We hear you, so with this posting we begin a series of interviews with Great Clips pros who are on the front lines supporting our franchise owners.

Great Clips Marketing Manager Josh Grove sees the forest from the trees

My connection to the owners is as a marketing manager responsible for developing their local marketing communications calendars—plans that include everything from broadcast media to couponing. I also gather competitive information and support their Grand Opening programs.

Our biggest challenge is keeping an eye on the big picture, particularly when everyone seems focused on the recession. Hair doesn’t stop growing because the economy is receding. Whatever we do today has to fit within a larger, long-term plan to win customers and to beat our competitors.

Great Clips’ owners benefit in several ways: I’m in the field meeting with owners to make sure they get the best possible marketing support in the industry. And, whatever we do locally has to complement our national campaigns (e.g., NASCAR sponsorships, NFL TV, etc.) ensuring that we invest smarter and our dollars go further.

In a nutshell we’re the customer-driving arm of the business. Our objective is to increase customer counts, and for the owners that means growing sales and profits.

Saplings in the Grove; My wife and I have a 15-month old daughter with another child on the way. If we could harness the vitality of little kids, we wouldn’t have an energy crisis.

Josh time; right now I’m working toward an MBA degree and hope to graduate in a year, so ‘time’ is a precious commodity. When I can grab moments, I enjoy watching, playing and coaching baseball. I also like playing in the dirt; that is tending to my garden.

Thank you, Josh, we can see you’ll be a great role model for your children.

Great Clips Teams with the NFL to Score Points with Male Customers

With men representing 70% of our customers, the marketing playbook has several tabs devoted to sports, with the first two labeled NASCAR and pro football.

In 1998, Great Clips motored into NASCAR. This year we’ll sponsor cars in both NASCAR and ARCA—Automobile Racing Club of America—to get more mileage out of our investment, and we’ll compete in a handful of Camping World Truck Series races.

But the news is we’re about to kick-off a $2 million, two-year promotion with NFL football that includes banner ads on NFL-owned NFL.com and broadcast advertising on the NFL Network.

The NFL Network is available in 50 million households across the U.S. and Canada, and NFL.com, with more than 11 million unique hits a month, is the league portal and the key site for Fantasy Football.

Our game plan includes promoting a Game-Day Sweepstakes during October on our turf—in our 2700 North American salons. “With Great Clips having a 70% male customer base, we couldn’t have a better partner than the NFL to surpass our billion dollar revenue goal,” said Terri Miller, vice president of marketing for Great Clips, Inc. “We’ll huddle with NFL executives and examine other assets to share. We may even come full circle and include a NASCAR tie-in. Great Clips and the NFL, we make a special team.”

We just opened our 65th North American training center

A successful franchise system expands much the same way a military operation advances—on the shoulders of its supply lines. At Great Clips, we recently opened two training centers, one in Toronto (# 64) and another in Boston (# 65). In both cases, our objective was not to saturate the market with owners first, so we could afford to install the training center. No, instead we built the training center after just a few salons were open in each market (and in Boston, after just one salon was open). This local support and training affords our owners the best opportunity to succeed in the market. Too often franchisors, in their haste to open units, will forego logistics and infrastructure for short-term revenues. They’ll open stores randomly rather than strategically, sacrificing economies of scale, marketing leverage, and accessibility to training and support resources.

Our 65 state-of-the-art training centers support our approximately 30,000 stylists in nearly 2,800 salons across 140 markets. In all our centers, an on-site salon operations specialist instructs stylists in the latest techniques and customer-service protocols, as well guiding managers in their day-to-day salon operations. The centers are also available for owner meetings, vendor presentations, and regional conferences.

We have several more training center openings planned this year including a high-profile facility we’ve earmarked for Washington, D.C. Our nation’s capital is another underserved market where demand for our value-priced, no appointment necessary service is monumental.

Great Clips is growing; growing prudently for our system and the right way for our franchise owners.

The July/August issue of Franchise Entrepreneur has us covered

Franchise Entrepreneur magazine, Canada’s premiere franchise publication, features Great Clips salon owner, John Kellett, on the cover and offers more coverage about our newest True North franchisee on page 27 [click here].

It makes sense that FE picked John to grace their banner position: He’s a hugely successful computer software executive, and the type of savvy businessman and entrepreneur that franchisors are clamoring to attract.

Like many of our franchise owners, John was drawn to Great Clips because we gave him the opportunity to keep his day job, own an equity business, manage it from a home office, and implement a 3-5 year transition strategy from software VIP to business owner/CEO. John recently opened his first salon in Toronto and plans to open two more in the next three months.

Of our 2700 North American salons, we have 60 in Canada. Canada is wide-open territory for us, but we don’t feel like pioneers. We now have 68 training centers throughout the U.S. and Canada, including our new 1,350-square foot training facility that we recently opened outside of Toronto in Vaughan, Ontario. We also have experienced personnel in the field, and dedicated professionals at our home office committed to the success of our franchise owners.

Franchise Entrepreneur, we salute your cover choice for the July/August edition.

Why are you looking? Do you love hair – or do you love business?

Prospective franchisees look at franchise opportunities for a variety of reasons: recent job loss, pending job loss, bored with retirement, helping a relative, etc. But most prospective franchisees will quickly start to make a list of things they want to see in a franchise concept – and things they don’t want to see. During a conference call last week, one of our East coast franchisees – who owns two Great Clips salons – shared his criteria for a franchise concept.

1) He didn’t want a food franchise.

2) He wanted a product or service that couldn’t be outsourced.

3) He wanted something recession-proof, or at least highly recession-resistant.

The cat’s already out of the bag – he’s a relatively new Great Clips franchisee so you know he met his criteria by joining our franchise system. What are you looking for? If you haven’t yet made a list of your criteria, it may be wise to take some time to think about it and write it down. Many of our franchisees will usually share criteria similar to the ones listed here. Very few of them say they “love hair”!

If you’d like to listen to the full recorded conference call, featuring this franchisee taking questions from prospective franchisees like yourselves, simply [CLICK HERE] to access our online Confidential Application.

It's About Time. Or is it?

Frequently we’re asked: “How much time does it take to run a salon?” It depends. (You probably didn’t want to hear that, but it does.) Why? Because it depends on the skills and makeup of the franchise owner. Let’s face it, some people like to be hands on—they enjoy it—others in our system prefer to delegate as much as they can. That’s why we firmly hedge. We encourage prospective franchisees to speak with Great Clips owners—they have the answers. Case in point, at our last Great Clips convention I was sandwiched between two franchisees at lunch (please forgive me; I relish a play on words.)

The franchisee on my right owned one salon for a number of years. She impressed upon me that her salon required a minimum of 40 hours per week of her time . She felt she needed (as a very hands-on owner) to be in the salon often and for long durations of time—and no, she didn’t cut hair!

The franchisee on my left owned eight salons and maintained his corporate job up until he opened his fifth salon. He proceeded to tell me how he (the delegator) made time to meet with his managers weekly, run his reports, talk with vendors, etc., all from his home office.

As you can imagine, there was a lively conversation between the two of them with me in the middle. The key, I believe, for any prospective franchisee investigating any franchise system is to assess your skills and makeup and then speak with like-minded owners. If you’re like the franchisee who feels the need to keep an eye on the details, you may be content with one unit (nothing wrong with that). If you’re like the franchisee who owns multiple salons, our business model works especially well for you. But, how much time it takes to run one salon or several salons is up to you. Whatever makes you happy gives you the best opportunity for success, no matter how you define it.

What are you looking for?

Ten percent of all visitors to the www.greatclipsfranchise.com website find their way to this blog page. Frankly, that number continues to amaze me. I'm gratified because it’s a lot more viewers than I expected when we launched this blog. To continue to serve you, I'd like to know more about what you're looking for. Are you satisfied with posts just from me? Would you like to hear from other Great Clips home office staff? How about from franchisees? Or, from "all of the above"? And, what topics would you like to see covered? We want to accommodate your research, so please let us know what information you'd like us to provide. It’s very simple, just click on the “Comments” hyperlink immediately beneath this post, and write your reply. I hope to hear from you. We'll do our best to help you in your investigation. Thanks!

Great Clips featured in The Latino Journal

When you work for a company with more than a thousand franchise owners, there are many inspiring stories about success, leadership, compassion and generosity. Recently Great Clips owner Ken Gallegos was featured in The Latino Journal E-News, an e-zine that focuses on “public policy and government from a Latino perspective.” The article reports on the growth of Latino-owned businesses. Ken reveals that he was raised in a family of red, white and blue entrepreneurs who “‘ran a bar, restaurant and gas station.’” I’m happy to report that Ken borrowed on his DNA and opened his first Great Clips franchise seven years ago. Today he owns salons in Golden, Alamosa and Windsor, Colorado, and Taos, New Mexico, and plans to open two more. We’re proud Ken is part of our franchise family, and gratified that we can be a source of success and security for his family’s future.

Staff Recruiting, a bit easier with Great Clips

A well-known national brand carries with it certain benefits. Most times people associate a dominant retail brand with customers: more of them shopping more often. However, there's an overlooked benefit that's essential to business success: staff recruiting. Case in point, I was in Phoenix on business and had my hair cut at a Great Clips salon. The stylist cutting my hair said she had worked for the same franchisee twice over the past ten years. She worked briefly for an independent salon, but that didn’t work out, so she came right back to Great Clips and was welcomed with open arms. I asked what brought her to Great Clips in the first place. She said her cousin was a stylist at Great Clips for 15 years and always encouraged her to join the "family." These cousins had a combined 25 years of service working for Great Clips. Most white collar firms would be envious of this sort of longevity.

Several months ago on a visit to a local Great Clips here in Minneapolis, I mentioned to the stylist that we'd recently opened the Boston market to new franchisees. "Boston?!," she exclaimed. "I love Boston, and have always wanted to work there!" Then she revealed something I didn't expect: this was her fifth Great Clips salon in 20 years in five different cities. She loves living in different areas and Great Clips is her anchor. "The first thing I do when I get to town is contact the local Great Clips franchise owner and inquire about a job," she said. "I know the system so well I just hit the ground running."

Time and again our franchisees recount similar stories – prospective employees seek them out because of our network of locations and system standardization. North America's largest hair salon franchise brand carries with it many benefits for our franchisees, including making staff recruiting just a bit easier.

Creating Brand Believers Builds Brands

Who are "brand believers"? They're owners and employees who know what the company stands for, appreciate the value of the product or service offered, and have a genuine desire to create satisfied customers. They help drive retail customers in the door, keep them coming back, and for the franchise system, help recruit new franchisees so that the brand grows exponentially faster. Sounds obvious, but many franchisors really struggle when trying to get owners or their staff to help recruit new franchisees. Most franchisors ask employees to display recruitment materials throughout the stores, we do that. Most franchisors offer a referral bonus, we do that, too. But, "believers" are the difference makers. Recently Heather, a Great Clips stylist on the east coast, talked positively about the Great Clips franchise with one of her customers. The customer picked up some recruitment literature that the owner made available in the salon, inquired online, and eventually joined the Great Clips family of franchisees. Heather received a generous $2,000 referral bonus, which she admitted was going to help her quite a bit, but she also pointed out that she would have done it anyway--she really enjoys working at a Great Clips salon. Heather is a happy employee; she's a brand believer. Franchisors have to earn that from their employees. They can't buy it. But it's certainly worth rewarding.

IFA Convention: President Clinton warns, “Don’t bet against America.”

At the recent International Franchise Association (IFA) Convention in San Diego, thousands of attendees had the privilege to hear from a former President of the United States, Bill Clinton. Regardless of political affiliations, it seemed me that the reviews for his presentation were quit favorable, particularly as he broke down the current challenges into easily digestible “chunks," and then proceeded to remind everyone that America has been through challenging times before, and come through as a stronger and better country. In his words: “Don’t bet against America." (You can read about his speech here). Of course he shared some other key messages, but those two seemed to resonate most with the audience. I left the room encouraged at the prospect that small businesses can help lead the charge in the effort to “fix” things. During my conversations with other franchisors, we agreed that there's an opportunity to take advantage of lower rents, readily available staff, and market share that's up for grabs. The franchise community is ready to strike while the iron is hot.

Connecting with the customer

Forbes.com recently ran an article on Jim Skinner, CEO of McDonald's. The message was that Skinner was in tune with his customers because he actually visited the stores. Sound obvious? Yes, but with all he had to do, why would he make it a priority? Shortly after I joined Great Clips, our president, Rhoda Olson, told the entire executive team that we were each expected to visit 20 Great Clips salons in that quarter. I was waiting for someone to raise their hand and clarify the request; certainly we weren’t expected to take time away from our responsibilities to visit 20 salons…were we? Heck, I only get my hair cut every month, and almost always at the same salon – so I still had to visit 19 salons! What amazed me was that Rhoda made it her priority to get out into the field. She's rarely in the office. Instead, she's on the road visiting our franchisees or one of our 2,700+ salons. Needless to say, I got out of my comfort zone and hit the road, too. There were several Aha! moments for me because what I learned was that by understanding what the customer is experiencing and how they feel about our brand we can design and deliver the necessary training, marketing and support that our franchisees need in order to succeed. Somehow Jim Skinner and Rhoda Olson already knew that. I have a lot more to learn, but what I know is that successful franchise leaders have a sense for what the “end user” customer needs, and make it a priority to deliver it.

IFA Convention

Along with about 2,500 other franchise professionals, I attended the annual International Franchise Association (IFA; www.franchise.org) convention in San Diego from 2/13 through 2/17. It’s very energizing to spend time with so many smart, dedicated franchise folks. At the convention we heard speeches from Bill Clinton, Steve Greenbaum (CEO of PostNet), Dina Dwyer-Owens (CEO of The Dwyer Group), Ken Walker (CEO of Driven Brands) and many others.

The primary message was that franchisees and franchise organizations will help lead us out of this recession. These two groups have the drive, the ideas and the commitment to create real opportunity for themselves and the rest of the world. They are so enthusiastic to capitalize on the unique “recession-created” opportunities before them.

I talked with retail franchisors that were taking advantage of prime sites available for their system; service franchisors that were growing sales in what many would consider to be “recession-prone” industries, and lenders that were providing the capital to fuel this growth. While many would rightfully say the economic outlook is still overcast for some period of time to come, there are many out there that see the sun peeking through clouds. I’m proud to be part of an industry that, as a group, sees the silver lining and is smart enough to seize the day.

I get a kick out of all the franchise systems that claim to be recession resistant

In my travels I’m finding virtually every franchise organization is claiming to be "recession-resistant." Yep, we say it, too, but only because our franchise owners can back it up.

I talk with Great Clips franchisees every day. And of course I speak with prospective franchisees every week. Lately the latter group has been addressing the former group with one particular question, "How is the economy impacting your salons"? One would expect to hear an answer filled with equal amounts of shock, horror and carnage. But instead, franchise prospects are hearing, “Today is an ideal time to start a Great Clips business: commercial landlords are eager to retain tenants and to find new ones, and their eagerness may result in more favorable leasing terms than we’ve seen over the last five years, and staff is plentiful."

Unlike many retailers, Great Clips is growing at a healthy pace – partly because (and let me brag here) we have intelligent, aggressive franchisees who are jumping all over a strategy Warren Buffett champions: “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy, and to be greedy only when others are fearful." If you’re considering a franchise, do your homework, and dig deep particularly when you hear that recession-resistant claim. Then the real question becomes, do their franchisees back it up?

Non-Traditional Franchising Lenders Fueling Great Clips’ Expansion Across Canada

Non-Traditional Franchising Lenders Fueling Great Clips’ Expansion Across Canada

North America’s number one haircare salon brand turns to proven funding sources for franchise growth.

Minneapolis, MN, January 20, 2009 – Rob Goggins, vice president of franchise development for Great Clips, announced a partnership with Canadian lenders Investec Solutions and LiftCapital Corporation to accelerate franchise expansion throughout Alberta, BC and Ontario.

“With many lenders becoming more conservative we decided it was time to be proactive in partnering with creative and assertive Canadian lenders who can offer secure capital options to our prospective franchisees and franchise owners,” says Goggins. “Investec and LiftCapital are perfect partners for our expansion efforts that are well under way.”

Investec Solutions, headquartered in South Surrey, south of Vancouver, was founded five years ago by entrepreneur, Gord Bylo, who created the i-Finance Program to enable investors to borrow the full value of their RRSP, locked-in pension, or locked-in retirement account (LIRA), while simultaneously preserving their capital and actually helping it grow.

“We show franchisees how to be their own banker without being bound by a bank’s rules, and to earn some long-term gain, which is totally sheltered,” says Bylo. “Franchisees like the fact that their loan will not affect their credit rating, and that the interest rate is fixed for up to 10 years.”

“When using Investec’s funding solution prospective franchisees won’t have to worry about putting up their homes as collateral,” says Goggins. “The i-finance Program also has a built-in advantage: The loans are exempt from pre-payment penalties.

LiftCapital, headquartered in Toronto, is a Canadian owned and operated commercial finance and leasing company. “The founders of the company were executives with several of the largest leasing companies in Canada, so we have the expertise and know-how to support franchisees,” says Mike Cole, LiftCapital’s national accounts manager.

“Our program allows Great Clips franchisees to grow from one salon to several while conserving capital during their development process,” says Cole.

“We’re creating a partnership with Great Clips franchise owners to get them started and to help them grow. So in five years when they’re looking for financing to upgrade their computer system or signage, we have the resources to support them.


“We’re thrilled to be working with Great Clips. We see them as a leader in the franchise community, and we’re excited to be involved in their growth across Canada.”

“There’s no question that our system can benefit from the resources available from these two established Canadian lending organizations,” says Goggins. “Our existing franchisees will have access to new, creative sources of capital and our prospective franchisees will quickly understand that our recession-resistant business model attracts high-quality lenders willing to assist them in their salon build-out, grand opening and future growth.”

Great Clips Records 35% Increase in Franchise Deals for 2008

Great Clips Records 35% Increase in Franchise Deals for 2008

New deals account for more than 130 additional salons across North America

Minneapolis, MN, January 7, 2009 – Rob Goggins, vice president of franchise development for Great Clips, Inc., formally announced that franchise deals for the year ending December 31, 2008, were up 35% over 2007, and 54% greater than 2006.

“We blew the doors off,” said Goggins. “When you consider the economy last year and its affect on franchise recruiting, what we accomplished is absolutely incredible. It was a team effort of talented individuals.”

Great Clips is North America’s largest haircare brand with more than 2,700 salons conveniently located in high-visibility strip malls in nearly 140 markets. Great Clips employs almost 30,000 stylists who are trained at 65 centers across the country and receive ongoing brush-ups on trends in the haircare industry.

“Middle to upper-level executives who want to keep their day jobs and start a business, are drawn to our Great Clips business model,” said Goggins. “We show them how they can take control of their transition from corporate America to the American Dream.”

For a relatively low investment, Great Clips is a strong cash-flow business with moderate risk and steady growth. Great Clips serves more than one million customers weekly.

“While other salon franchise systems are experiencing the ill effects of the recession, our value-priced, no appointment positioning is proving resistant to the mood swings of the economy,” said Goggins.