Franchise Player: Sport Clips Snips With Sizzle
We recently started frequenting a local outpost of one of the fastest-growing franchises in the nation--Sport Clips. The concept alone has to make any entrepreneur green with envy (and probably green with cash if he happens to own one).
Sport Clips is a hair salon for men. Fine. Simple. Well done. Where Fantastic Sam's and Supercuts are unisex, Sport Clips offers a no-question, no-fuss, moderately priced place for manly men to get their manes trimmed. Guys who come here don't have to worry about catching a cloud of hairspray or inhaling the skunky vapors of a coloring job in progress. No--it's all clippers and buzzing sounds and Jim Rome on the tube here.
But wait, there's more (and this is where Sport Clips appears to have an edge): Sport Clips has a three-pronged marketing bedrock with which it sharpens its shears (and crops its competition).
The first element is obvious. Sports sells. Men can keep their eye on the ball while doing something many don't like to do--getting their hair trimmed. Inside you'll find paraphernalia from area college teams (in this case, UCLA and USC banners, flags and stickers, the latter of which you can purchase). Hair-cutting stations are framed by lockers, each harboring an embedded television that's locked on ESPN. Levels of service have athletic themes, including the "Triple Play," (a cut, wash and scalp massage) and the "MVP" (add to the Triple Play a back and neck massage). This has the effect of making men more comfortable in what has, in recent years, been a woman's domain: the hair salon. Sure, guys are making themselves prettier, but they can grunt at the TV and pretend they're keeping score.
And this leads us to the second, genius aspect of the franchise: women. Our locale appears to employ only female stylists, all of whom wear tight, Lycra-esque black pants. The stylists are nice, but not too nice. The point is this: Guys, whether they admit it or not, are probably attracted to the nurturing aspect of this establishment. They want their hair in kind hands. Sport Clips delivers.
Third: It's more than a cut. It's therapy. We've known since way before The Barber of Seville that a hairstylist is more than a hairstylist. She's a psychoanalyst on the cheap. While Fantastic Sam's and Supercuts sometimes offer drive-through-level service, Sport Clips has found a way to build therapeutic hairstyling back into the franchise-haircut experience by offering messages as part of its Triple Play ($22 locally) and MVP ($25 locally) packages. Even a simple cut and shampoo gets a scalp rub that will nearly put you to sleep. (In fact, asked if customers do fall asleep at the wash bowl, a stylist said, "Yes, all the time.")
Our first visit to Sport Clips had us feeling a little self-conscious. The local franchise is in a small storefront that has its windows tinted. The back room, where the washing and massaging are done, is dark, with the feel of VIP rooms in certain gentlemen's establishments (not that we'd know); any likeness is probably purely intentional (and, again, genius). It's not a boy's club, however. And we've seen no grunting, cheering or unseemly conduct. If anything, the Sport Clips experience is quite professionally platonic. They take your name and the last four digits of your phone number, offer a frequent-cutter card, and track your visits via computer.
What keeps us coming back, though, is the no-fuss convenience paired with that little extra service bliss that just might be addictive.
I have looked into this business....the stores look great .....and I get my hair cut there....I love the concept....seems simple enough....I have spoken with several owners and they are not making money at all. They say that basically if they make debt service they are happy. so be very careful here. you have to nail the location and have cheap rent. then an incredible manager to make this work according to the owners
The experience I have had with Sports Clips after being a dedicated employee is they do not care if you are dependable or a great hair-cutter they will fire you if you don't sell enough products in a week. Regardless of how great a stylist you are. People need to realize we are in a recession and you cut on the things that are of less importance in tough times...PRODUCTS!!
Sports clips is the worst place for a stylist to work. They are paid very little and pressured to sell products in a failing economy and to push to upgrade the service the client receives if the stylist is unable to do this she is fired. Unbelievable the way they treat their employees!!
To the business broker, I offer this challenge: find buyers for most of the existing stores in California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, or Mississippi. IF you can get 50 cents on the dollar for the owners who have invested over 250K per store, you will be a hero!!! Many stores are selling for 10 or 15K, after the owners have out a quarter million into the operation.
I agree that location is a key. SC should do a much better job of making sure that stores are only opening in GREAT locations rather than pushing Franchisees to open stores just so they can start collecting royalties.
I normally do not comment on these blogs or whatever they are called, in fact I have never commented, but I want to point out a few things to the readers. I am 21 year veteran business broker (so I have a little experience in business, but 0 experience in hair cutting) and we opened the 49th Sport Clips franchise in 2002 and 2 more in the next 5 years, all in a market of less than 100,000 people for a total of 3. We have been profitable in all three, 2 of the 3 in 3 months after opening.
Sport Clips now has almost 700 stores. Does Sport Clips,Inc. make mistakes? Yes and they sure hear about it. However after selling 270 businesses I will tell you that this is a solid business as long as you follow the system, but like many franchises, it is hard to get all the franchisees to buy in. I would agree that some stores do not make money, either bad location (too much rent) or bad staff or combination of both, but if you are patient and find a great location and pick good staff, it is a great business, end of story.
When you are looking at buying a franchise you want to make sure that the franchisor has all their bases covered. Make sure they have invested in the right process and systems. Just because a company can run a good business doesn’t mean they will be a good franchisor.
Look for franchise systems who have partnered with franchise experts. That will make all the difference
They've closed one store in our market - the guy lost his shirt and backed out of 2 leases that I know of. This is the Detroit Market
Sounds like they snatched the idea from "MVP Hair for Men"...or expanded on it...or thought of it separately.
Good concept though!
What a surprise: an Area Developer spewing the party line!!
I stand by my earlier posts. In the immediate market area, Team Leaders are struggling. They are NOT breaking even. None of them are planning to open new stores.
How about some statistics on how many Franchisees are closing stores? How many have 250K into a store and "sell it" for pennies on the dollar, or just close the doors?
Sport Clips is a house of cards. The people making money here are the Franchiser and perhaps 20% of the Team Leaders, and most of them are in TX.
As a Sport Clips Area Developer, I challenge the comment that "none of them" (Sport Clips) are even breaking even. Many Sport Clips Team Leaders (Franchisees) have intentions of increasing their investment in opening additional stores.... that's a pretty good indicator of how the system is performing.
Of all the new hair care stores opened in 2007, Sport Clips opened about 60% of the total market with 121 net new stores opened. The next closest haircare chains were GC with net increase of 80 stores and SC with a net increase of 24 stores.
Sport Clips recently reported 8% same store sales growth in 2008 vs. same period in 2007 and a 5% client growth (the other haircare franchises reported either flat or declining sales). The Wall Street Journal even included Sport Clips' excellent SBA loan ranking in a story earlier this year. So, I'd say Dennis Romero's article is right on the money.
To clarify, the "NONE of them" refers to the Franchisees in this area. Other than a single store in San Diego, none of the stores in the state of CA are making any money. Outside the state of TX and a few scattered stores in some cities, the majority of the Sports Clip owners are struggling.
That is hard to believe that none of over 660 stores in 37 states is making any money.
Re the "green with cash" comment, I suggest that you contact some of the Franchisees. I have it on good authority that NONE of them are even breaking even in this business. You can pick up any of the stores that are open for significantly less than the owner has invested in them.