Supercuts and Fantastic Sams: Enjoying Extraordinary Hair-Raising Success

by Patricia Schaefer

Virtually all societies and civilizations have cut and styled their hair. Primitive man believed that bad spirits could be driven out of an individual by cutting the hair -- says barberpole.com -- so various fashions of hair cutting were practiced by the different tribes and this made the barber the most important man in the community.

Today's man may not believe that good and bad spirits enter the body through the hairs on the head, but modern man is no less preoccupied with his mane. A "good" or "bad" hair day today can still have a significant impact in lifting or sinking spirits on an otherwise routine day. And although a particularly good haircutter may no long be the most important person in town, there are some who feel he or she is still a close second.

So where do Americans go to have their tresses cut and coiffed? Two of the leading hair salon franchises in this country are Supercuts and Fantastic Sams. Each shared with Franchise Trade among other things the reasons for their franchise success.

Fantastic Sams

With more than 1,350 salons nationwide, Fantastic Sams claims to be the nation's largest full service hair salon franchise, offering all services related to hair care including cuts, styles, color and texturizing services. Perhaps most importantly, they feel their salon owners and staff provide an important service to the public, one in which they feel make a tremendous difference in their guest's lives -- by giving personalized care and "making each guest look fantastic."

Fantastic Sams spokesperson Anne Halvorsen shared some other key elements she feels makes their hair salon franchise stand out among others: "In addition to the brand recognition that comes from our 1,350 plus salons nationwide -- and over 30 years in the industry -- we differentiate ourselves by catering to all the various hair care needs of our customer base; women, men and children."

"Our commitment to education is another point that makes us stand out. We have a tremendous management and soft-skills training curriculum through our Fantastic Sams University. Our stylists also receive superior training through the internationally recognized Pivot Point Master Designer program, which is delivered to salon stylists by our skilled regional educator staff. These programs are delivered both in person by skilled instructors and online. In short, we provide our franchise owners with robust support through many national and regional programs."

Fantastic Sams prides itself on delivering superior guest experience through both the quality of the hair care service and the way in which it is delivered to each and every guest. In addition, they believe they deliver good value to their guests with each and every service performed and product sold.

Halvorsen says they owe their success to their "many skilled regional owners who provide support on a local level to the salons, as well as to our fantastic franchisees who partner with us every day to grow our brand recognition and service excellence standards."

This is what Fantastic Sams says they have to offer prospective franchisees: "We have a strong brand name that is highly recognized around the country. In addition, we have a proven operating and support system that has been successful for over 30 years. The hair care business in general is an exciting, creative, recession-resistant and low inventory business, and Fantastic Sams in particular stands out because we provide full-service hair care as well as a full, successful line of professional private label hair care products to maximize salon revenues."

Prior experience in the hair care industry is not necessary to becoming a franchisee. Rather, Halvorsen says, "We look for someone who is first and foremost a 'people person.' In a service business like hair care, it is extremely important that you enjoy working with people because you will be relying on your family of stylists to grow your business with you.

"But otherwise, as long as you have a dedication to the success of your business and a willingness to participate in the vast array of support programs we offer our franchisees, you are the franchisee we are looking for. Our salon and region owners include many minority and women business owners and we strongly encourage all interested prospective franchise owners to join the Fantastic Sams system."

Supercuts

This Regis Corporation franchise doesn't ever want to wash that man right out-a their hair; in fact, their success has been based in large part on washin' and cutin' that man's hair. Supercuts' primary customer base is adult men who want to get a current look at an affordable price.

Supercuts Brand Director Patti Langworthy relayed the fact that Supercuts was "the first entrant in the affordable hair care category about 30 years ago, and retains many of the original franchise owners." Today it has 2016 hair salons, and Supercuts is rated #1 in the 2006 Entrepreneur magazine rankings in the hair salon category.

And what sets Supercuts apart from other hair salon franchises? "The biggest area of differentiation is the Hair Stylist Academy (HSA), a week-long training program required before working at any Supercuts," says Langworthy. "It concentrates largely on the Supercuts Technique, a proprietary system of hair cutting, as well as current trends and other services. HSA helps ensure that the services are consistent from salon to salon, stylist to stylist."

"As a large organization with almost 1000 franchised salons and over 1000 corporate salons," notes Langworthy, "the participants in the Supercuts system are amazingly open and agile when it comes to change or new ideas. As a group, the system works very well together."

Vice President of Franchise Development Alan Storry described some of what Supercuts has to offer prospective franchisees: "When a person is considering a franchise, a critical item to look at is support. You look at a franchise in the first place because you know you'll need help to be successful. That's something we do very, very well at Regis. Our support is among the best in the industry. We have ten departments that support our franchisees from operations, to marketing, to real estate."

And what is Supercuts looking for in prospective franchisees? "The value of franchising is that you are going into it with someone who knows the business," says Storry. "We like to see people with good business sense, who will listen to our advisors -- we refer to these people as aggressive followers. We become partners in success."

Copyright 2006, Attard Communications, Inc.