FranDev Players: Beth Nilssen, Director of Franchise Development at Great Clips

When she left college, Beth Nilssen wanted to go into broadcast journalism. A brief internship in the industry quickly changed her mind. Now she’s at 4,500-plus-unit salon franchise Great Clips*, where for 13 years, her career has grown in step with the world’s largest haircutting brand.

With more than 40 years in the business and thousands of stores across the U.S. and Canada, Great Clips has remained 100% franchisee-owned. And, in doing so, the brand has remained true to the values that drew Nilssen to the company 13 years ago. 

1851 caught up with Nilssen to talk weathering the pandemic, strategies for growth and what’s ahead for 2021. 

1851 Franchise: Everyone knows Great Clips, but how do you describe the brand? 

Beth Nilssen: Great Clips is actually the largest haircutting brand in the world right now. In 2020 we hit 4,500 stores across the U.S. and Canada. We’ve been in business almost 40 years, and we’re 100% franchised under a single brand. We don’t have any corporate stores or competing brands in the industry. We’re just completely devoted to supporting our franchisees. We’re a haircutting brand completely dedicated to serving the whole family. 

1851: How did you get into franchising?

Nilssen: Completely by accident. My original story is, I went to school thinking I wanted to go into broadcast media, but I quickly realized through an internship that wasn’t at all what I wanted to do. Thank goodness for internships.

When I came out of university, a mutual connection connected me to Great Clips. It was one of those opportunities where I interviewed knowing nothing about the industry and nothing about hair care, but I realized the values and culture were something I really appreciated. I’ve been here for 13 years now because it's been a great opportunity and I fell in love with it. 

1851: Are there any keys to consistent franchise growth?

Nilssen: I think from a franchise perspective, the keys to growth often revolve around our vision, which says everything. The first two words of our vision statement are “working together.” That means we’re working together to build the most profitable salons by building the most powerful and enduring brand.

That hits a lot of different components in a franchise brand. We really focus on how we operate on working together. It’s not corporate versus franchisees. We only achieve growth if it’s profitable together. That makes franchisees want to grow and reinvest. We do that because we’ve created a system with a recognizable brand and as a simple model people can get behind. Our model is not overcomplicated, and people are gonna get a haircut no matter what the economy looks like. It allows us to replicate that system and continue to grow it. 

1851: What are the biggest hurdles to successful franchise growth right now?

Nilssen: COVID-19 obviously made it hugely challenging for everyone. It’s everywhere. There’s fear from a consumer standpoint — not knowing what's safe or not — fear from people looking at whether or not to invest in a franchise, and just a lot of uncertainty. All of that fear builds on itself. 

About 50% of people I talk to are incapable of moving through that fear to make a decision. It’s really challenging on multiple fronts.

The other 50% say it's a unique opportunity they can take advantage of. A lot of people are mobilized by fear right now and that makes a really challenging business environment.

1851: How did the COVID crisis affect franchise growth opportunities?

Nilssen: I talk to a lot of people who realize that people want haircuts. It was never our intent, but it became a very recognizable thing when people said, “We don’t feel good about ourselves, and getting our haircut makes us feel like the best version of ourselves.”

Getting our haircut is a simple thing that no matter what our economy looks like, it helps us feel good. We feel we’re recession-resistant, but we’re not recession-proof. But especially in a convenience-based business like Great Clips, if people are in an economically challenged position where they don’t know what their next paycheck is going to be, they know Great Clips that can make that work. People feel a lot more comfortable going for a more affordable haircut at Great Clips than at a boutique where they might want you to sip a beer and get a haircut. 

1851: Are there any common mistakes you see franchisors making when trying to grow?

Nilssen: I think the key thing in my experience working with GreatClips is that they’re really focused on where we need to grow. For us that means a hub and spoke model. Focus on growing in an area, get a strong presence and the support we need, and then grow from there. We’ve stuck to that plan for 40 years. There are some infamous stories about people outside the target areas that want to franchise with us and we say we can't because we can't support them. The last thing we want to do is put someone in a position where we can’t support them.

When we see companies that jump at the opportunity to develop a market because people are there, it seems like the wrong approach because it’s taking a convenient opportunity versus focused growth when they can’t support that market. We have a plan, we stick with it and we work within that specific plan.

We stuck to our biz model because this is what we do — we cut hair. So many have approached us over the years saying, “Why don’t you expand, offer more services? Let’s grow your focus.”

Great Clips takes a really strong line and says that’s not what we do, we cut hair. By sticking with it and staying focused on our customers allowed us to build a really strong business model and stay in our lane. Do we expand and build using tech to support these things? Yes, but we’re not using them to replace the plan and business model we had as we continue to grow. 

1851: What are your biggest goals or plans for 2021?

Nilssen: 2020 was basically getting back to the basics and making sure we have bases covered. 2021 is about getting back to growing and asking, “How do we continue to identify geographic areas where we can continue to expand the Great Clips presence?”

2021 will be about getting back to marketing plans to target people where we have plans and working the plans.