Over the years, Marian Young has developed an in-depth understanding of
the unique lease contract needs of Sport Clips Haircuts stores. This understanding,
combined with her strong negotiation skills, has helped Sport Clips Team
Leaders negotiate more than 2,200 leases and lease renewals in her more
than two decades working with the brand.
Young is owner and President of Millennium Management Group. She lends
her expertise in the areas of retail leases, renewals and resales as a
Real Estate Consultant and preferred vendor for Sport Clips.
Of her relationship with Sport Clips she says, “Most franchisors
don’t have preferred vendors. This is a Sport Clips differentiator,
they give their Team Leaders a resource for anything and
everything they would need to operate their business successfully. They don’t need to search
for anything.”
She described her decision to work almost exclusively with the brand as
an easy one. Young says, “Sport Clips’ values, ethics and
morals really stood out to me. They are a company that truly lives out
their mission statement. Not all franchisors are that way.”
Landlords seem to agree with her. Young finds them usually very eager to
work with the Sport Clips Team Leaders for several reasons.
She says, “Sport Clips’ exceptionally
high continuity rate is rare. The brand has a reputation of being reliable with paying their
rent. It is a family-oriented business, attracting high quality business
for a center. They also drive in more male customers, and they do not
have exclusive use clauses like many other hair-cutting franchises do.
They are great tenants overall.”
Young leverages her expertise, long term relationships with various developers
and her extensive industry experience negotiating leases. Her professional
experience on both sides of the tenant/landlord table gives her a keen
understanding of the process, particularly when it comes to timing and
lease language.
This acumen, in tandem with her knowledge of Sport Clips’ operations,
helps her negotiate terms to maximize store revenue for Team Leaders.
Young explains, “There are certain things you need to make sure are
written into the lease. Some examples of this are being able to put up
satellite dishes and acrylic window signs. Often lease language restricts
those and they need to be negotiated. Another really important thing is
for a site to have the ability to follow the brand’s suggested operating
hours, not the shopping centers. I look at those types of things to make
sure Team Leaders can follow the system without any lease restrictions,
because when they follow the system they are successful. I want them to
be successful. ”
She continues, “Landlords don’t always have the interest of
the franchisee at heart; they are concerned about their bottom line. A
lot of times they will buy out centers from other landlords and they aren’t
even aware of what their leases require. For this reason, a broker who
understands the Sport Clips business model is so important.”
The Sport Clips business model is proven and tested. Young is an example
of how the brand strives to provide all the resources needed to run a
successful business. Starting with real estate and all the way through
scaling your business, Sport Clips works diligently to provide support and resources that benefit
their Team Leaders.
For more information on Sport Clips,
click here.
