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!
