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In 2004, Wade Brannon was coaching his son’s tee-ball team when another player’s mother asked, “You’re the Ham guy, right?”
Well, he was Ham Man: He founded Heavenly Ham and generated $150 million in revenue with more than 200 franchises in 33 states before selling it to Honey Baked Ham. But by 2004, he had taken on the role of caring for a 5-year-old son and twin daughters while his wife worked as a real estate lawyer near their Atlanta home.
Parenting was rewarding but challenging. His son had sensory issues (common in young children) that made some tasks difficult. “I took him to the barber and he was screaming the whole time,” Brannon recalls. “We both came home drenched in sweat and with hair stuck to our bodies.”
T-ball mom Nanette Adair happened to have the solution: She’d opened a kids’ salon called Pigtails & Crewcuts, and Brannon had just taken his son there. “He loved it there,” Brannon says. “He’d watch movies, play on the train table, and socialize with the other kids.” So when Adair mentioned she had some questions for Brannon about franchising, Brannon was super intrigued.
After several meetings, Brannon bought Pigtails & Crewcuts from Adair in late 2004. The company now has more than 80 franchise locations and hopes to hit 100 by the end of this year. Here, he talks about growing a local business into a thriving franchise.
Related: He started selling insurance to the Hispanic community in the 1970s, and now his family owns a national franchise with a smart strategy.
How prevalent was the Pigtails & Crewcuts model at the time of your purchase?
It was a salon here in Atlanta, with a federally registered trademark, the look and feel, I got some of my old ham buddies back together, and over the next year or so we got the system in place.
Hair and ham are two different industries, what made you think it would work?
I focused on two main things: first, I asked if there was a need, which I believed there was based on my son’s reaction to experiencing it, and second, could it be replicated, could the average person with business acumen copy it and run it properly?
How do I replicate a service?
We had to have a design package that could be replicated anywhere. We had to write an operations manual. We had to write franchise agreements and franchise disclosure documents. I talked to a lot of people in the hair industry. I didn’t realize how big an industry the hair industry was until I got into it. Wow, it’s a $65 billion industry. But nobody had taken that kids’ segment and turned it into a national brand.
What kind of franchisees are most successful with your brand?
We have a lot of women with two-year-old children. They have children and feel they are ready to go back to work, so they come to us. We have a lot of husband-wife teams. We are not targeting hairdressers. We are targeting business people with people skills. They need to want to work in a team, be part of a community, and enjoy interacting with people, whether that be kids or parents.
What advice would you give to aspiring franchisors?
You have to be flexible. Markets change. Circumstances change. Everything changes. We’ve been through a recession, and we’ve found that our business is recession-proof. We’ve been through a pandemic and been completely shut down for periods of time. You have to have products and services that can get you through unexpected and difficult times. You have to be ready to change.
Related: The Real Cost of Franchising a Business