Heather Harris Brings Strategic Focus and Fresh Energy to Uni K Wax as CEO

Heather Harris brings a wealth of experience to her role as CEO of Uni K Wax, a brand with a strong foundation and a promising future in the skin-friendly hair removal space. She recently appeared on an episode of “Meet the Zor,” where she spoke with 1851 Franchise Founder and Publisher Nick Powills about her transition into franchising from a fashion background, her focus on business fundamentals and her strategic plans to grow Uni K Wax by refining operations, expanding memberships and emphasizing the brand’s unique differentiators, like its proprietary all-natural wax.

With a background in leading prominent fashion brands like Donna Karan and Calvin Klein Jeans, Harris entered the franchising world somewhat unexpectedly. "I always thought of franchising as McDonald’s and Burger King," she said, but her involvement with boutique fitness concepts, including CycleBar, helped her realize the potential of franchising. This pivotal career shift has allowed her to apply her extensive business acumen to franchise models, focusing on operational excellence and business fundamentals.

Throughout her career, Harris has been driven by a passion for cutting through red tape and simplifying processes. She emphasizes that her success has come from maintaining a focus on the fundamentals. This is a concept she honed through years of playing and coaching college sports, a process that she parallels with business growth. "The fundamentals are what make you better,” she said. “That’s what propels you over time as a good player or business.”

As CEO, Harris is concentrating on fine-tuning Uni K Wax’s model, capitalizing on the strong business foundation established since its founding in 1993. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity. We just launched a membership program,” she said. “Adding that facet for our franchisees is powerful.”

An important part of Uni K’s expansion strategy is evolving to meet modern consumer demands while staying true to the brand’s unique differentiators, such as its proprietary, all-natural, gluten-free wax. Harris sees tremendous opportunity is expanding Uni K Wax’s presence beyond its current strongholds in Manhattan and Florida, making it an exciting prospect for potential franchisees looking for growth opportunities in new territories.

“We’re also going to change our marketing approach in what has become a sea of vanilla,” Harris said. “We’re going to get a little fun, so I’m excited about that. We’ll have more personality and engage our membership base more effectively.”

A transcript of Harris’ interview with Powills has been provided below. It has been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

Nick Powills: What's up, everybody? Nick Powills, publisher of 1851 Franchise, here with another episode of  “Meet the Zor.” If you like these videos, be sure to subscribe so you can meet other franchise brands. Today, we are talking Uni-K Wax, coming up next.

All right, Heather, my overused, way overused statement is, "I will always bet on the jockey, not on the horse." So, I like to start with the jockey story, then we can get to the horse story. How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What’s your franchise backstory? 

Heather Harris: Oh, this is a great story. So, my franchising backstory is that I spent 20 years in Manhattan running fashion brands, like Donna Karan, Simmons, Calvin Klein Jeans. I was working for a company that was sold — a publicly traded company — to another publicly traded company. Because of that, we had a lot of franchise brokers interested in connecting with our leadership team. You know, I always thought of franchising as McDonald’s and Burger King. This was well before boutique fitness. But I got a call from a franchise broker about some boutique fitness opportunities, and I learned about a little company at the time called CycleBar, an indoor cycling company. I did some research, and that’s how I fell into franchising.

Powills: That is a good story. So, there are things I want to unpack from that. One is, when I hear "private equity" or "publicly traded," I hear politics. If you look back on your career, does that end up being a superpower of yours? Knowing how to navigate red tape, which franchisees also have to deal with?

Harris: Right. In fact, I like to cut the red tape. Where I found success throughout my career was in smaller divisions, whether they were global brands or not. They were smaller and had less red tape. So, I like to cut through that.

Powills: Is that something you started doing early? We’ll get into Uni-K eventually, but when you’re building your roadmap, is your focus to get the guard down, get back to operational excellence, and establish expectations?

Harris: Yeah, I like the fundamentals. I played college sports. When you’re coaching sports, you constantly coach the fundamentals. I played college basketball and soccer. When I coached little boys, they were in sixth grade, and all they wanted to do was shoot three-pointers. I wouldn’t let them. I made them work the offense because the fundamentals are what make you better. That’s what propels you over time as a good player or business. I’m constantly going back to fundamentals.

Powills: I couldn’t agree more. I think a gap in franchising is that sales departments have KPIs to hit, and the goals are often picked out of the sky, like “This year, we’re going to sell 500.” But what happens with accelerator brands, if you go too fast and don’t take time on discovery — who the person is and whether the franchise owner can return to the fundamentals — then the odds of success deteriorate. So, I’d imagine when you look at a system, cutting the red tape is about stopping them from taking the easy shots and resetting expectations. Especially in today’s franchise world, which is driven by Item 19s, it’s tempting to focus on the money, but you have to qualify the right people.

Harris: That’s right. It’s a lot like sports. You always recruit new talent, but you need to make sure that your consistent core — the OGs, the franchises that have been around — are continuing to grow. It’s a blend of both schools of thought.

Powills: So now that you’re involved in this brand, do you already have your playbook, or are you cross-applying it to get early wins? What’s your approach in this new role?

Harris: It’s interesting. I’ve had a playbook since CycleBar and Intelligent Office, and we’re deploying some of it now. Most businesses face the same issues. In all businesses I’ve been in, we competed against “free,” which is interesting. You don’t have to get a wax or go cycling; you can go for a walk or use a razor. So, some fundamental things need to be moving forward before you can take the big steps. A lot of what I’ve done in my career, even outside of franchising, involves similar business issues. It’s just the execution and the timeline that need to be accelerated because we’ve got locations already open.

Powills: Does that mean focusing on building confidence within existing franchisees before bringing in new blood, or do both have to happen simultaneously?

Harris: It depends. We’re ready to open new locations. We’ve been around since 1993. Our founder left the business about a year ago. Private equity came in, made some changes and now there’s some refinement that needs to happen. But based on our Item 19s, the business is strong. It’s just a matter of tweaking things to make it great.

Powills: What does your vision look like for the next 12 months? And when you were doing your due diligence, what did you uncover that should go front and center for franchisees?

Harris: I think there’s a lot of opportunity. We just started selling memberships. Recurring revenue has been part of these models for a while. Adding that facet for our franchisees is powerful. We’re also going to change our marketing approach in what has become a sea of vanilla. We’re going to get a little fun, so I’m excited about that. We’ll have more personality and engage our membership base more effectively.

Powills: So, the area of opportunity you’re seeing is the relationship with the customer. How do you accomplish more market share, which in turn increases the return to franchisees and the brand?

Harris: Yes, even when we capture her, we’re not meeting all her waxing needs. There are great incremental opportunities in how we train within our studios, educate our customers and emphasize our points of difference. There’s a lot of great opportunity ahead.

Powills: Let’s say a candidate is watching this and is intrigued by the business opportunity. What else do you want them to know about Uni-K?

Harris: First, there’s a lot of white space within our territory zones. We’re primarily in Manhattan and on the east coast of Florida, so there’s room for growth. Our recurring revenue model is strong, and hair does grow, so the demand is consistent. We also have a unique point of differentiation: we make and distribute our own proprietary wax. Our founder, Noemi [Grupenmager], created it out of a need for her family, as she had celiac disease and wanted an all-natural, gluten-free wax. That’s a huge point of difference in the market. Sanitation has always been a priority for us, not just through COVID. We’ve always used personalized wax pots, so it’s safer for our customers. And because of our wax, it’s applied at body temperature — no more risk of burns.

Powills: I love that. The ingredients and focus on what goes on your skin are key differentiators. Bigger brands aren’t thinking about that. This resonates with me because my father and brothers have celiac. They focus on what goes into their body, not necessarily what goes on their skin, but contamination can have an impact. I think this will be a big topic for the next generation of wellness.

Harris: For sure. My mother-in-law has celiac, so this really hits home for me too.

Powills: I love it. Heather, I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes. As I’ve said before, the jockey has a blueprint, and if I’m a franchise buyer, I’m intrigued by your game plan. You’ve done it before, and the white space you mentioned shows growth in concentric circles. You can protect brand awareness and increase AUVs. Now it’s time to replicate that in other states.

Harris: We’ve done almost 3.4 million Brazilians since 2010, and we’ve completed 8 million services. This isn’t a new brand. It’s not an investment in something new, but something different, which is a great opportunity for potential franchisees.

Powills: Love it. Thanks for doing this, Heather. For Heather, I’m Nick. This is “Meet the Zor.”

Watch the entire interview above or on YouTube.