For prospective franchisees, one of the most attractive features of the Sport Clips Haircuts model can also be one of the most easily misunderstood. Franchisees, known as Team Leaders within the brand, do not need to cut hair, manage the front desk or spend every working day inside their stores. Instead, Sport Clips runs on a manager-led operating structure in which store managers oversee day-to-day operations and licensed stylists serve clients.
“We carefully use the term manager-led model rather than using semi-absentee, because so many investors hear that and think full-absentee,” said Brent Greenwood, vice president of franchise development. “But this is not absentee ownership. It does require hands-on ownership, just not within the four walls of the store every day.”
That distinction shapes how Sport Clips evaluates prospective Team Leaders. With nearly 1,800 locations across North America and a model designed to support multi-unit ownership, the brand is not simply searching for candidates with enough capital to open stores. It is searching for leaders who can recruit great people, develop managers, build culture and ultimately create an organization capable of growing beyond a single location.
For a prospective Team Leader, it starts with a people-first mindset. Sport Clips doesn't require Team Leaders to come from the hair care industry, but it does expect them to understand that their success will ultimately depend on the people they recruit and lead. That is why Sport Clips’ ideal Team Leader profile can encompass people from a wide range of industries. Greenwood said three backgrounds tend to stand out.
“Team Leaders come from all walks of life, and we’ve had many successful ones that come from various backgrounds,” he said. “The three distinct categories that stand out are people who have built a successful career in corporate America leading other people, folks that come from employed, multi-unit leadership types of roles and then those who are already business owners who are looking to diversify and enter the industry that offers the recurring revenue that we offer.”
The common denominator is not hair care experience. It is leadership experience.
For Sport Clips, the language used to describe the operating model matters. The brand deliberately avoids positioning itself as a “semi-absentee” opportunity because the term can create the impression that a Team Leader simply provides the capital, hires a manager and waits for the business to run itself.
“You are spending time leading store managers, managing KPIs, recruiting and retention, a lot of the things that can be done outside of the four walls,” Greenwood said. “Building culture and the time spent in the store really helps with that, but at the end of the day, you don’t have to be in the four walls.”
Rather than performing technical service or running every shift, Team Leaders create the conditions for their managers and stylists to succeed.
That can mean reviewing performance with a store manager, recruiting stylists, developing future managers, building relationships within the local community or simply visiting a store to stay connected to the team.
“Once somebody has scaled, the day in the life is really just reaching out to the store manager, discussing KPIs, stopping in for an hour or so a week to connect with staff,” Greenwood said. “Maybe fix a television that was broken. You’re not in the day-to-day operations of the business.”
Local marketing is another important part of that leadership role. “Local marketing outreach is another part of that day-to-day, increasing awareness for the brand, forming partnerships with local stores,” Greenwood said. “Those are some of the primary responsibilities.”
Most importantly, the responsibility for building the organization never disappears. “Recruiting and retention is another piece and is something we are always doing as owners,” Greenwood said. “Always finding a place for a great new team member [in the] infrastructure, whether that is hiring a new stylist or creating new bench strength.”
The amount of involvement required can also change as a Team Leader’s business matures.
A first-time owner will naturally spend more time learning the system, establishing culture, recruiting the initial team and supporting the store manager. The goal, however, is not to make the owner indispensable to that location. The goal is to build a leadership structure that eventually lets the business operate without the Team Leader managing every detail.
“Somebody working on scaling the business and working on the first store, they are going to spend a lot more time in the store than once it’s built out,” Greenwood said. “As you grow, you can also pass off many of those day-to-day responsibilities.”
Longtime Team Leaders Mark and Jan Mansfield, for example, signed on in 1999 and quickly learned that finding the right manager was key to growing beyond their first store.
“Once we found the right manager who was committed and really helped us get to where we needed to be, we signed a lease for a second store probably within six months,” Mark Mansfield said.
The Mansfields eventually grew to five locations and became area developers for a group encompassing 125 stores. “Our job as Team Leaders is to support the manager and their team, and then help with marketing,” Mansfield said.
For Al Rodriguez, who ultimately built a portfolio of 36 Sport Clips locations, the same structure let him build his business while maintaining his corporate career. “I needed a concept that would allow me to work on it, instead of in it,” Rodriguez said. “Having my day job when I started forced me to work on it, not in it. I had to work through people, and hiring a good store manager was a critical component of it.”
Once Rodriguez reached five or six stores, he promoted one of those managers to area manager. “And from there, we scaled,” he said.
Sport Clips’ franchise development process reflects the same philosophy. Financial qualifications matter, particularly because the model is structured around the potential for multi-unit growth. But Greenwood says capital is only one part of what the brand needs to see in a candidate.
“For Sport Clips, there’s no getting around the need to have the proper amount of capital, because we’re designed to scale,” he said. “It’s not just about opening that first store. It’s about being able to scale in a reasonable amount of time and achieve both personal goals and brand expectations.”
At the same time, money cannot substitute for leadership. “I don’t want to discount the importance of grit,” Greenwood said. “Those who come in with determination typically exceed expectations and ramp up more quickly.”
That is why the discovery process is designed to evaluate more than a candidate’s résumé or net worth.
“You can’t just look at someone’s background and jump to conclusions,” Greenwood said. “You really have to spend the proper amount of time getting to know each individual person — what drives them, what made them express interest and what they bring to the table.”
Sport Clips supplements those conversations with personality assessments and firsthand exposure to the store environment. Candidates spend time inside a Sport Clips location, speak with managers and stylists and get a clearer picture of the organization they would actually be responsible for leading.
“They’re assessing us, and we’re assessing them,” Greenwood said.
Sport Clips takes a measured approach to franchise development, emphasizing candidates who fit the system. The company remains privately held, allowing it to focus on long-term growth without chasing store count.
“We don’t have that pressure,” Greenwood said. “We focus on selecting the right Team Leaders and building long-term relationships. We’re not chasing store count. We’re focused on doing it the right way.”
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/sport-clips.
Sport Clips
SPONSORED
Manager-led isn't hands-off. VP of Franchise Development Brent Greenwood shares how Sport Clips uses its model to find hands-on leaders who can build great teams and grow the business.
For prospective franchisees, one of the most attractive features of the Sport Clips Haircuts model can also be one of the most easily misunderstood. Franchisees, known as Team Leaders within the brand, do not need to cut hair, manage the front desk or spend every working day inside their stores. Instead, Sport Clips runs on a manager-led operating structure in which store managers oversee day-to-day operations and licensed stylists serve clients.
“We carefully use the term manager-led model rather than using semi-absentee, because so many investors hear that and think full-absentee,” said Brent Greenwood, vice president of franchise development. “But this is not absentee ownership. It does require hands-on ownership, just not within the four walls of the store every day.”
That distinction shapes how Sport Clips evaluates prospective Team Leaders. With nearly 1,800 locations across North America and a model designed to support multi-unit ownership, the brand is not simply searching for candidates with enough capital to open stores. It is searching for leaders who can recruit great people, develop managers, build culture and ultimately create an organization capable of growing beyond a single location.
For a prospective Team Leader, it starts with a people-first mindset. Sport Clips doesn't require Team Leaders to come from the hair care industry, but it does expect them to understand that their success will ultimately depend on the people they recruit and lead. That is why Sport Clips’ ideal Team Leader profile can encompass people from a wide range of industries. Greenwood said three backgrounds tend to stand out.
“Team Leaders come from all walks of life, and we’ve had many successful ones that come from various backgrounds,” he said. “The three distinct categories that stand out are people who have built a successful career in corporate America leading other people, folks that come from employed, multi-unit leadership types of roles and then those who are already business owners who are looking to diversify and enter the industry that offers the recurring revenue that we offer.”
The common denominator is not hair care experience. It is leadership experience.
For Sport Clips, the language used to describe the operating model matters. The brand deliberately avoids positioning itself as a “semi-absentee” opportunity because the term can create the impression that a Team Leader simply provides the capital, hires a manager and waits for the business to run itself.
“You are spending time leading store managers, managing KPIs, recruiting and retention, a lot of the things that can be done outside of the four walls,” Greenwood said. “Building culture and the time spent in the store really helps with that, but at the end of the day, you don’t have to be in the four walls.”
Rather than performing technical service or running every shift, Team Leaders create the conditions for their managers and stylists to succeed.
That can mean reviewing performance with a store manager, recruiting stylists, developing future managers, building relationships within the local community or simply visiting a store to stay connected to the team.
“Once somebody has scaled, the day in the life is really just reaching out to the store manager, discussing KPIs, stopping in for an hour or so a week to connect with staff,” Greenwood said. “Maybe fix a television that was broken. You’re not in the day-to-day operations of the business.”
Local marketing is another important part of that leadership role. “Local marketing outreach is another part of that day-to-day, increasing awareness for the brand, forming partnerships with local stores,” Greenwood said. “Those are some of the primary responsibilities.”
Most importantly, the responsibility for building the organization never disappears. “Recruiting and retention is another piece and is something we are always doing as owners,” Greenwood said. “Always finding a place for a great new team member [in the] infrastructure, whether that is hiring a new stylist or creating new bench strength.”
The amount of involvement required can also change as a Team Leader’s business matures.
A first-time owner will naturally spend more time learning the system, establishing culture, recruiting the initial team and supporting the store manager. The goal, however, is not to make the owner indispensable to that location. The goal is to build a leadership structure that eventually lets the business operate without the Team Leader managing every detail.
“Somebody working on scaling the business and working on the first store, they are going to spend a lot more time in the store than once it’s built out,” Greenwood said. “As you grow, you can also pass off many of those day-to-day responsibilities.”
Longtime Team Leaders Mark and Jan Mansfield, for example, signed on in 1999 and quickly learned that finding the right manager was key to growing beyond their first store.
“Once we found the right manager who was committed and really helped us get to where we needed to be, we signed a lease for a second store probably within six months,” Mark Mansfield said.
The Mansfields eventually grew to five locations and became area developers for a group encompassing 125 stores. “Our job as Team Leaders is to support the manager and their team, and then help with marketing,” Mansfield said.
For Al Rodriguez, who ultimately built a portfolio of 36 Sport Clips locations, the same structure let him build his business while maintaining his corporate career. “I needed a concept that would allow me to work on it, instead of in it,” Rodriguez said. “Having my day job when I started forced me to work on it, not in it. I had to work through people, and hiring a good store manager was a critical component of it.”
Once Rodriguez reached five or six stores, he promoted one of those managers to area manager. “And from there, we scaled,” he said.
Sport Clips’ franchise development process reflects the same philosophy. Financial qualifications matter, particularly because the model is structured around the potential for multi-unit growth. But Greenwood says capital is only one part of what the brand needs to see in a candidate.
“For Sport Clips, there’s no getting around the need to have the proper amount of capital, because we’re designed to scale,” he said. “It’s not just about opening that first store. It’s about being able to scale in a reasonable amount of time and achieve both personal goals and brand expectations.”
At the same time, money cannot substitute for leadership. “I don’t want to discount the importance of grit,” Greenwood said. “Those who come in with determination typically exceed expectations and ramp up more quickly.”
That is why the discovery process is designed to evaluate more than a candidate’s résumé or net worth.
“You can’t just look at someone’s background and jump to conclusions,” Greenwood said. “You really have to spend the proper amount of time getting to know each individual person — what drives them, what made them express interest and what they bring to the table.”
Sport Clips supplements those conversations with personality assessments and firsthand exposure to the store environment. Candidates spend time inside a Sport Clips location, speak with managers and stylists and get a clearer picture of the organization they would actually be responsible for leading.
“They’re assessing us, and we’re assessing them,” Greenwood said.
Sport Clips takes a measured approach to franchise development, emphasizing candidates who fit the system. The company remains privately held, allowing it to focus on long-term growth without chasing store count.
“We don’t have that pressure,” Greenwood said. “We focus on selecting the right Team Leaders and building long-term relationships. We’re not chasing store count. We’re focused on doing it the right way.”
To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://1851franchise.com/sport-clips.
Sign up for the 1851 Franchise newsletter to get our biggest stories before everyone else
By signing up, you agree to our user agreement (including class action waiver and arbitration provisions), and acknowledge our privacy policy.
No related articles found
