Gordon Logan Cuts Through The Competition

You don’t grow your franchise brand to just shy of 1,500 locations with dumb luck. Just ask the team at Sport Clips*.

Company founder and CEO Gordon Logan began franchising Sport Clips in 1995. From that time on, growth has been steady, as have been the accolades.

Entrepreneur Magazine ranked the brand as one of its “Top 10 Fastest-Growing Franchises.” Forbes highlighted it as a “Top 10 Best Franchise” to invest in. You get the picture.

Logan graduated from both MIT and The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, but the idea that led him to such great heights in the franchise world was a simple one: Guys often aren’t excited to get a haircut; what if we changed that?

“From the time you walk through the front door, you know this a ‘guy place’ where sports are playing on TVs all over,” Logan told MFV Franchise Expo.

Logan opened his first Sport Clips location in Austin, Texas in 1993 with help from his wife.

“We had both been in the hair care industry since the late 1970s, and felt that there was a real need for a concept that specialized in and targeted men and boys due to the decreasing number of traditional barber shops,” he said. “We were looking for a sizable niche market that would be viable for many years to come, and Sport Clips was the result of our analysis.”

Their analysis was right. The company grew to 772 franchise units by 2011, 1,167 by 2013 and currently stands at 1,331. Much of this growth comes from multi-unit operators, as Entrepreneur Magazine reported that 98 percent of all franchisees own more than one unit.

As for what’s led to his success, Logan’s explanation is as straightforward as his franchise concept.

“Focus on quality, work hard to make your franchisees successful, don't sell products to your franchisees, and make continual improvement a way of life,” he said.

Of course, creating a business around a necessary service that people require on a recurring basis that markets toward an underrepresented demographic doesn’t hurt, either.