From One to 27 Locations: How This Sola Salons Franchisee Achieved Rapid Growth and Success

Kristin Kranias became a franchisee with Sola Salons after her husband, Greg, met the Sola team through his investment firm, which led them to explore franchising as a business opportunity. At the time, Kranias was feeling burnt out from her corporate career and was looking for more independence and flexibility. Their first acquisition was in Tucson, Arizona, in September 2020, amidst the pandemic, which presented unique challenges, but grew to be a very successful venture.

Over the next four years, Kranias and her husband expanded their franchise portfolio to 27 locations across five states, mostly through acquisitions. Their strategy focused on buying existing locations to achieve rapid growth, though they did build one location from scratch. With 27 locations, Kranias has her work cut out for her, but she has found that the switch to franchising has come with many benefits.

“I do think that franchising — and this was one of the reasons that I was attracted to it — does give you a lot of independence,” said Kranias. “I work hard, and I do this very full time, but I also have found that there is flexibility to make time for my kids and be there when I need to be there. I am able to work on my own schedule.”

Managing such a large and geographically dispersed franchise network requires robust infrastructure and a dedicated team. Maintaining continuity has been vital and Kranias accomplishes this by retaining existing staff during acquisitions to ensure smooth transitions and stability for the stylists and salon owners. To manage operations effectively, she hired an operations manager, a controller and a marketing professional to streamline processes across all locations.

Kranias’ approach balances growth with sustainability. She takes the time to visit locations — particularly those needing more support — and values the collaborative community within the Sola Salons franchise network. Her success is owed in part to the supportive nature of the franchisor and the camaraderie among franchisees.

A transcript of Kranias’ interview with 1851 Founder and Publisher Nick Powills has been provided below. It has been edited for clarity, brevity and style.

Nick Powills: What’s your franchise story? How did you even end up in franchising?

Kristin Kranias: It was a surprise to me as well that this is where I am, and I’m loving it, but it was not expected. We are a bit different than most of the other Sola franchisees, at least in that we have acquired 26 of our 27 locations. We fell into franchising because my husband, Greg, met the Sola team. I don’t think we would have been franchisees of another business if that meeting hadn’t happened. At his last investment firm, Greg was looking at the franchisor for an investment. In the process, he got to know all of the executives at Sola and the business model. At the same time, I was getting quite burnt out of my corporate career and commuting for almost two hours every day, which became unsustainable. I was looking for something with a lot more independence and flexibility. Greg made the connection, and we started looking for acquisitions in the market.

Powills: What year did you buy your first one?

Kranias: It was September of 2020, which, as we all remember, was not an amazing time to be buying businesses. It was a little bit of a scary time to be buying a business, but we actually started looking in May of 2020, had our first meeting, got the deal done during that time period, and took over in September.

Powills: How many states do you guys have with the 27 locations?

Kranias: We are in five states right now. We are mostly in the Midwest, not in Illinois, but around Illinois, and also in Tucson, Arizona. Tucson was our first market.

Powills: Did you have the mindset of scale going into this — like, are you looking at an end goal that’s different from someone that’s going into it looking at one?

Kranias: I do think that was the reason that we chose to buy versus build. We knew that the building path would take a lot longer to get to a scale that we were excited about, so that was the decision to look to buy. We do want to build more as well, but kind of like building around the markets where we bought. That was the mindset we had going into it — let’s find franchisees who are ready to exit the business. We were doing it at a time when there hadn’t been a lot of deals within the system yet, so it was an educational process for us and for them.

Powills: You said 26 out of 27 you acquired, which means one you built. What was that like?

Kranias: That was a lot harder for me, partly because it was in Arizona during the pandemic. It was more challenging to travel, more challenging to get the supplies that we needed and all of that. I love the process and the mission now that we’re on the other side. It’s beautiful, and I feel a lot of ownership and pride in that location because I built it from the ground up.

Powills: How have you built infrastructure to manage, culturally, all these different units, and how do you keep your mindset comfortable with the fact that your hands aren’t going to be able to touch your businesses on a daily basis?

Kranias: I think that’s the toughest part, but we’ve been lucky through our acquisitions to really buy from owners who cared about their businesses and cared about all the stylists and the community they were building. When we look to acquire, in about half of these cases, we’ve kept on the existing team, which has been beneficial from a transition perspective. The stylists don’t feel too much change, particularly because they’re working with the same manager who has covered them since they started. They know the manager cares about them, and that transitions to us as new owners. In markets where we’ve had to bring on managers, it is certainly a process of finding the right fit — someone who has both a sales mentality and an operating mentality, which can be hard to find. We’ve been lucky to find people who have both, and we have to extend a lot of trust to all those more remote markets.

Powills: Are you having to travel there to interact with the staff?

Kranias: Yes, I do. I try to get around to all of the locations as much as I can. That’s certainly not easy, and I probably go to the locations that need more support or face time more frequently. Tucson, as our first market, is where I feel like I know the stylists and our salon owners the best. I feel a strong connection there and try to visit as much as I can, particularly in the winter. In the other locations, where the manager has had such a strong presence, it’s easier to give them a lot of ownership over the market.

Powills: Where does the dream go from here?

Kranias: We are not planning to stop. We are taking a small pause so that we can get the infrastructure in place that we need. We have managers in all of the different states, but we didn’t have any sort of centralized corporate infrastructure. So I’ve focused on hiring there — an operations manager who sits across all locations, a controller, and now marketing — so that we can streamline a lot of the processes that happen on the backside. Once we feel like the team is operating efficiently, we will have more time to focus on finding the next market or the next new build.

Powills: If there’s a franchise buyer thinking about getting into Sola, what would you tell them?

Kranias: I really do love the brand. I would tell them that it has been an incredibly supportive corporate team at this franchisor, which has been essential for me being new to this business. I’ve also found a lot of community with the other franchisees. It’s a smart and collaborative group of people. You might think there would be competition or stepping on toes, but this has been incredibly collaborative. I always find people who are happy to share their experience. I would advise that it’s a great decision because you’ll feel a lot of support from the community. Regarding building versus buying, it depends on where they are in the country and where they want to build. If you have strong growth ambitions, do both, because that’s a way to get some scale in a certain area. I have found that having locations clustered does help.

To watch the full interview, click here. 

To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/sola-salons. 

About Sola Salons:

In 2004, Sola Salons was established with the opening of its first location in Denver, Colorado. Now with more than 725 locations open in the U.S. and Canada, Sola is proud to offer 20,000+ 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.