Parenting is a full-time job with plenty of stress, as well as rewards. Yet there are many moms and dads with a strong entrepreneurial spirit who seek the best franchise opportunities for parents.
Restaurant franchises of all kinds can keep them away from home for long hours and late into the night. Other concepts require franchisees to step in if an employee doesn’t show up, or the business model adds to stress levels because of complex operations or a lack of support. There are myriad reasons why finding the right franchise opportunity for parents is difficult.
Here are four questions to ask to identify the best franchise opportunities for entrepreneurial moms and dads:
1. Does the Franchise Brand Focus on and Understand Kids?
Who knows kids better than parents? Parents are experts at knowing what excites children, what makes them happy, what makes them scared and what makes them feel secure. The Pigtails & Crewcuts concept aligns with the parental instincts that drive moms and dads to provide joy and security for their children.
Pigtails & Crewcuts offers a memorable and stress-free haircutting experience that parents often struggle to find. They typically feel a sense of relief when they see their young son and/or daughter enjoy receiving their haircut thanks in large part to the brightly colored salon interiors and themed chairs, along with children’s movies, books, and toys. Many of our current franchisees were so inspired by the experience as customers that they decided to join the Pigtails & Crewcuts family by becoming an owner.
2. Does the Franchisor Promote Work-Life Balance?
With so many of our franchisees and corporate team members being parents, we understand how important a work-life balance is for them. Whether franchise owners want to work as an owner-operator or absentee owner, the Pigtails & Crewcuts franchise opportunity allows franchisees to spend more time with their families.
Pigtails & Crewcuts salons are not open late, which allows franchisees to be home for dinner, to spend time with their kids, provide homework help, and to put their children to bed. Because our franchisees are their own boss, they have the flexibility to leave the salon whenever they want to attend school functions or stay home to care for a sick child.
Our business model does not require that franchisees be present at their salon full-time, which makes multi-unit ownership possible while maintaining a work-life balance. You can leave the day-to-day operations up to the team of stylists you hire, which allows owners to focus on other aspects of their life, including expanding their Pigtails & Crewcuts footprint.
3. Is there a Community of Like-Minded, Supportive Franchisees?
We are as much a family-friendly franchise for our owners as we are a family-friendly business for our customers. Like a family, we provide you with an abundance of support from all members.
The Pigtails & Crewcuts peer-to-peer network provides support among fellow franchisees just like you – parents. The peer-to-peer network makes communication easy for franchise owners to discuss a variety of questions about the business and to problem-solve together through multiple channels. For example, the network’s private Facebook group allows salon owners to share experiences that others can learn from on a daily basis.
The corporate team also provides superior assistance and training, which continues as long as you own your hair salon. Our protected territories along with marketing, operation, and retail training give you the advantage over other children’s hair salons in your market. New franchisees attend a five-day training program in Atlanta, where they receive training in the classroom and in a salon. Each franchisee is also assigned a franchise support specialist for continuous training that includes tips for hiring and retaining top-notch employees and hairstylists.
4. Are there Actual Parents within the Franchise System?
Our CEO and President Wade Brannon is a father to a son and two twin girls. He fell in love with Pigtails & Crewcuts before acquiring and franchising it when he brought his children to one of our salons for a haircut. Besides the smiles the salon experience brought to his kids’ faces, Wade immediately recognized the concept would be ideal for franchisees who were seeking more time with their families.
Utilizing his vast franchising experience, which included growing Heavenly Ham to more than 230 locations throughout the United States as the brand’s Vice President and principal, he began franchising Pigtails & Crewcuts in 2005.
Because an understanding of parenting was important to the Pigtails & Crewcuts culture, Wade brought parents onto the leadership team. Michelle Holliman, Vice President of Franchise Development, and Theresa Underwood, Vice President of Franchise Support, are both moms with extensive franchise experience. They’ve been instrumental in developing work-life balance as an essential value of the Pigtails & Crewcuts franchise opportunity, as well as growing the franchise system.
Offering franchise opportunities for parents comes naturally for us.
Learn more about the Pigtails & Crewcuts franchise opportunity!
