How This Former Franchisor Is Using His Industry Experience To Help Beauty Pros Thrive With Sola Salons Franchise

After years of running his own franchise system with over 200 locations across the country, Mike Rippey knows what makes a franchise work — and what franchisees need to succeed. That’s exactly why he chose to invest in Sola Salons as a franchisee himself. With a mission to support independent beauty professionals and a franchisor committed to robust operational resources, Sola checked every box. Now, with six locations open across the East Bay — including a brand-new salon at Ygnacio Plaza in Walnut Creek — Rippey is all in on helping beauty pros build their businesses while creating strong demand for future expansion.

1851 spoke with Rippey to hear more about how his franchising experience led him to the Sola Salons brand. 

1851 Franchise: Frame your personal story for us. What do you want us to know?

Mike Rippey: I’ve had two or three other businesses along the way. I actually used to be a franchisor in the radiator and air conditioning industry with 1-800 Radiator. At one point, I had about 220 franchisees in just about every U.S. market. So I’m kind of unique in the franchisee world — I’ve been on both sides.

1851: What was your perception of franchising prior to becoming a franchisee, and what do you want people to know about franchising now that you are in it?

Rippey: When I sold my franchise business, what attracted me to Sola was that the franchisor had a lot of tools to help owners succeed. Since I knew franchising already, I was really impressed by that.

1851: What made you pick this brand? What excites you most about this company?

Rippey: What really stood out is that Sola helps individual stylists and beauticians, too. When they join us, they succeed because we offer so many tools to help them grow their business. We have tons of platforms that help increase revenue for beauty pros. It really benefits them to come and sign up with us.

It’s also fun working with stylists because they’re all different. We try to understand what they’re looking for and help them dial in their goals. We have a full-time social media professional on staff who meets with them one-on-one. A lot of stylists need help in that area, so he helps them come up with good content and build their presence.

If you can benefit your clients — in our case, the beauty pros — then everything else falls into place. That’s everything, really. We started about 10 years ago and have opened five locations so far in the East Bay. We just opened our sixth.

This newest one is in a shopping center, so a lot of clients are already coming through. We’re already seeing a lot of interest in the area.

1851: What do you hope to achieve with your business? What are your plans for growth?

Rippey: Right now, our main focus is helping the beauty pros we already work with. Before we open any more locations, we want to really dial in our support and help drive their businesses. That creates more demand for future locations.

We customize support based on the pro’s individual goals — we can build a program for that. A lot of salon suite locations are in out-of-the-way buildings or downtown in tougher areas. It’s way better to be in a well-lit shopping center where people don’t have to worry about that stuff. Foot traffic matters. Our pros benefit from being in the right location.

1851: What advice do you have for other people thinking about becoming franchise owners?

Rippey: The best due diligence you can do is talk to other franchisees in similar markets. Talk to people who’ve been in those areas for a long time so you can understand how it works. That’s how you’ll really get a feel for what success looks like. The main advice is that it’s not all about the money. It’s all about improving the lives of our clients. Some want more money. Others want a more fulfilling and less hectic life. If we are dedicated to that, the money will come.

ABOUT SOLA SALONS:

In 2004, Sola Salons was established with the opening of its first location in Denver, Colorado. Now with more than 740+ locations open in the U.S. and Canada, Sola is proud to offer 22,000+ independent beauty professionals the freedom and benefits of salon ownership without the risk and overhead of opening a traditional salon. Its innovative salon model empowers hairdressers, estheticians, nail techs, massage therapists and other like-minded professionals to take control of their lives and their careers. Sola provides beauty professionals with beautiful, fully-equipped salon studios alongside the support and tools they need to launch their salon business in no time. For more information about Sola Salons, please visit https://www.solasalonstudios.com/.