At the recent International Salon Business Network’s (ISBN) annual convention in Indian Wells, CA, Beauty Store Business (BSB) had the opportunity to sit down with Gordon Logan, the soft-spoken, cowboy hat-wearing founder and CEO of Georgetown, TX-based Sport Clips Inc., who just took over the IBSN presidency. We wanted to find out about his plans for leading the chain salon organization during his coming term in office. We also talked about the meteoric growth of his men’s hair salon operation. We are pleased to share his comments with BSB readers.
BSB: What’s new at ISBN? What’s the story you want to share with the industry?
Gordon Logan (GL): We have expanded our membership to include and welcome more spa owner/operators who have many of the same challenges in their operations with a few large, complex locations that other members share in smaller but more numerous locations. The entrepreneurial spirit in this industry is amazing, and we are pleased and fortunate to have so many bright young professionals join with us as they begin their careers building multi-unit salon and/or spa concepts. I have learned so much over the past 15+ years we have been participating in the ISBN networking meetings, and there is so much talent and knowledge among our members that anyone can benefit from experiencing the energy so apparent at our annual meetings. The nice part of this industry and the ISBN in particular is that those who have gone before are so willing to share their experiences and knowledge with those who are just beginning their entrepreneurial careers. We all learn from each other…..no matter what level or what niche we operate in, there is always another great idea to be learned when we get together!
BSB: What is the history of ISBN? How has it evolved in the 30-some years since it was founded and what are some of the significant changes the organization has made to continue to be viable and valuable for its members?
GL: ISBN began life some 30+ years ago under the banner of the International Chain Salon Association (ICSA). The founding members were some of the industry greats, such as Seymour Finkelstein (Glemby’s) and Dennis Ratner (Hair Cuttery). This was a relatively small group who operated in different markets therefore there was no hesitancy about sharing with each other, including financial statements and operating ratios. Programs were more focused on sharing operating tips rather than having outside speakers come in to make presentations. Meetings were mostly social events at very nice resorts, with only one or two corporate sponsors (usually product manufacturers) who were looking to establish direct accounts with the multi-unit operators. Over the years, many of the founding members were absorbed by other chains, and as we expanded our operations, many of us were operating in the same markets, sometimes competing with one another for Clients, Stylists and real estate. The fact that our organization survived this transition is a testament to the value we all place on the relationships that we have developed over the years and the value we get from each other even though we sometimes overlap markets. We have all realized that we have much more to gain by sharing openly than by trying to protect secrets that aren’t really secrets anyway….there aren’t any secrets in this business….it’s all about execution! Programs became more structured, with well-known speakers (this year we had Joe Calloway, author of “Category of One” and other great books; in the past we have had ISBN member John DiJulius present to us his thoughts on providing an outstanding Client Experience) and multiple sponsors - there were fewer “show and tell” presentations from the members. We began to see many more younger, aggressive salon owners joining us, which was a healthy sign that the entrepreneurial spirit of the founders is still alive and well today. We decided to change the name of our organization recently to recognize that there are many spa operators with two or three locations who can benefit from membership, and contribute to the body of knowledge of our membership. We also wanted to emphasize the primary focus of our group…..networking with each other to build our businesses. We have a business-oriented focus vs. the more creative focus of other valuable organizations in this industry; ISBN serves a unique purpose for our members that they cannot realize through membership in other organizations, although many if not most of our members also belong to other respected industry groups such as Intercoiffure or TSA.
BSB: Who can join the ISBN?
GL: We have three classes of members: Our Regular Membership is open to those who own and operate five salons and/or spas and employ fifty or more professionals; or, those who own and operate two or more salons and/or spas with annual sales of $3 million or more. To encourage younger, growing entrepreneurs to join us, our Associate Membership is open to those who own and operate two or more salons and/or spas with annual sales of at least $750,000 and employ 20 or more professionals. Our third category is our Affiliate Membership which is open to those who supply goods or services to our membership or franchisors who would not otherwise qualify. We have an amazing diversity of members – those who operate multiple multi-million dollar salons/spas, who mostly cater to an up-scale clientele; those who have a small group of salons or spas at various price points; franchisors of large and small systems; and, suppliers of everything from computer software to nail supplies to salon, spa and/or tanning equipment. The diversity of our membership is a strength of ISBN.
BSB: What are the primary values of membership in ISBN?
GL: We have an exemplary Code of Ethics and value statement incorporated into our Bylaws. Our members agree not to directly recruit employees from one another; not to discriminate against any protected group in the providing of services; not to advertise their services in a misleading manner; not to divert professional products; not to use membership names and addresses for soliciting business not directly related to ISBN membership; and, to otherwise conduct their businesses in a highly ethical manner that will reflect positively on our industry and ISBN.
BSB: What about salon store chains? What might they gain from membership?
GL: We are all learning from each other….anyone who thinks they have no more to learn is most likely not being honest with themselves! At our annual meetings, we are introduced to new products and services from our event sponsors and associate members; we learn from each other new techniques for advertising, managing complex organizations, improving the automation of our businesses and using the data more effectively to market our businesses. It never fails that I come away from our ISBN meetings with a dozen or more ideas as to how we can improve some part of our system. You only have to get one good idea every now and then to more than pay for the trip and the modest membership dues. Obviously the more locations, the more sales volume you have, the more valuable one good idea may be when multiplied by multiple locations and/or many employees.
BSB: As the incoming ISBN president, what are some of your major initiatives?
GL: I am fortunate to follow in the footsteps of many very talented and accomplished former Presidents and Board Members, and to have an extremely talented Board of Directors to provide advice and counsel to me. While I have been on the Board for the past six years, I am still learning and will be reaching out to our membership for assistance in further developing ISBN to better serve our existing membership and to encourage other entrepreneurial professionals to join us. ISBN is a member of the Professional Beauty Association, which is a force for positive change in our industry in the area of expanding the public’s knowledge of and appreciation of our industry. We are supportive of efforts to facilitate the ability of Stylists and other salon professionals to move from one state to another as seamlessly as possible with regards to license transferability, which is important to all of us in the industry. We as an organization plan to broaden the scope of our membership to include more and more up and coming salon/spa operators to keep the energy level high and to encourage career development within our industry. Having been “up and coming” in the not so distant past, many of us remember the value we received from being a part of ISBN as we were starting our journey (or wish we had joined sooner!), and are more than willing to share our experiences to “pass the torch” to our younger members and help them continue the great tradition of innovative entrepreneurship in the salon/spa industry. The creativity and energy in this industry is incredible, and the more we can learn from each other the stronger the industry will be in the future. This industry has a unique group of entrepreneurs with a magic blend of creative passion and desire for excellence and business success that I have never seen in any other industry. It’s a fun business!
BSB: Who is the team that will help you to accomplish your goals?
GL: Our newly-elected Vice Presidents are Paul Brown, renowned Stylist, Salon/Spa/School owner, and founder/CEO of the Paul Brown Hawaii product line; and, Jason Volk, one of the principals and founders of the successful, fast-growing Chatters franchise system in Canada (and now the U.S.). Two of our Board Members recently were recognized with the North American Global Salon Business Award – Charles Penzone and his Family of Salons in Columbus, OH, and Jason Volk and the Chatters Canada group. RoseAnn Perea represents the largest salon operator in the world (Regis Corporation) on our Board; our past President Paula Malloy represents JC Penney, which operates almost 1,000 salons. Larry Walt (Design1 Salons, Grand Rapids, MI); Philip Gould (Gould’s Salons and Spas, Memphis, TN); Henry Pelusi (Philip Pelusi Salons, Pittsburgh and NYC); Patrick Neville (Beauty First Franchisee with salons in several states); and, Ron Provenzano (Zano’s Salons, Chicago, IL) all represent world-class salon/spa organizations and bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table. What a team!
BSB: What are some of the challenges the chain salon and the salon industry as a whole are facing that you and ISBN will be addressing?
GL: Our industry shares a lot of challenges with our society in general and many other industries. We are basically a people business….our future is our young people who chose our wonderful industry for a career. I am very encouraged by the caliber of the beauty schools today and the amazing young people who are entering our industry, full of enthusiasm, energy and a burning desire to succeed. It is our responsibility to help them channel their energies to help them succeed and help grow and continue to improve the salon/spa industry. Mentoring these young professionals in our own organizations, providing the support and encouragement they need to continue to develop their professional and business skills is one of our primary missions. ISBN can help our members to identify and develop the tools we need to accomplish this. And when these young entrepreneurs embark on their careers as owners of their own businesses, we can provide a tremendous amount of knowledge, experience and empathetic encouragement to help them realize their dreams.
BSB: One of the values of IBSN that is indicative of the association’s new name change is networking. Can you give me some examples of the type networking that is available for its members and for participating manufacturers?
GL: It is a fact that much of the knowledge and encouragement we get in life comes from our interaction with other successful people. ISBN is fortunate to have as our members an amazing group of extremely successful business people who are open and sharing and willing to help others in their careers. It constantly amazes me! Some of our members have a business background in other industries, but many are Stylists who learned how to build and run complex organizations the hard way…just figuring it out as they went along! I have learned so much from those who started behind the chair and built their companies over many years of hard work and creativity. Our annual meetings are packed with learning opportunities from our guest speakers, our roundtable discussions, our “show and tell” segments from our members, and from our sponsors who bring to us the latest in technology and techniques. Many of us interact between meetings…collecting business cards, Email addresses, etc. pays big dividends over the months as questions or situations come up that we remember someone from ISBN who had faced a similar situation and we can call on for help. We plan to enhance our web site to incorporate forums for on-going sharing of information so that we aren’t solely reliant on the annual meetings, but to expand the networking opportunities for our members.
BSB: Tell me about your background. How did you get to where you are today?
GL: I have an engineering degree, flew C-130s in the Air Force, then went back and got my MBA. After a few years as a consultant with Price Waterhouse, I became a franchisee and started my entrepreneurial career in 1978…this is my 30th anniversary of being in the hair care business! I was active in that organization in many ways over the years, and eventually became the franchisor after an earlier bankruptcy and several changes in ownership over the years. In the early 1990s we began evaluating various niches in the hair care industry and developed the Sport Clips concept in 1993 to target the men and boys market niche. (Same year David Raccuglia started American Crew to address the same market!) An ISBN story: We had been trying to come up with a salon design that would capture the spirit of what we were trying to accomplish with Sport Clips. Several attempts by salon designers failed to do this, and we were really frustrated…we didn’t want something that looked like a beauty salon with sports stuff on the wall! In January 1993 I attended an ISBN meeting in Scottsdale; ISBN had hired a retail store design company to look at some of our salons and recommend to us as a group how we could improve our merchandising of products for sale at retail. I was so impressed with their presentation and their grasp of what we were trying to accomplish as salon owners, we hired them to do the conceptual drawings for Sport Clips. Sport Clips stores today are about 90% consistent with their conceptual drawings presented to us in March 1993! If I had not been at that ISBN meeting, Sport Clips may not ever have achieved the success that we have been fortunate enough to accomplish these past 15 years.
BSB: Product diversion is a major problem in the US salon industry. What activities are IBSN member salons engaged in to ensure the salon only products are not being diverted?
GL: Our Code of Ethics specifically prohibits our members from diverting professional products; any member doing so is subject to immediate termination. (I am proud to say that we have never had to enforce that provision!) ISBN is supportive of efforts in the industry to curtail or minimize diversion; some of our members are leaders in this effort. Paul Finkelstein, CEO of Regis, one of the most vocal opponents of diversion, is a leader in efforts to encourage manufacturers to control this practice that has such a negative impact on our industry.
BSB: What do you see the organization’s biggest challenge in for the balance of this year and next?
GL: We plan to continue to work to get our message out to the industry, to encourage entrepreneurial salon/spa professionals to join with us to grow our businesses together, and to continue to improve the services we provide to our membership. We have tremendous benefits programs that have literally saved our members tens of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums, payroll services, employment screening and testing, credit card processing, gift card programs, discounts on styling books, and discounted magazine subscriptions. These benefits often more than pay for the annual dues and cost of our annual meeting…..in addition to the valuable networking benefits we enjoy.
BSB: What challenges do you see the industry facing, and how is ISBN addressing those challenges?
GL: see above, this is very similar to the question about chain salons
BSB: What trends are having a positive affect on the salon industry?
GL: The most positive trends I see in the industry are the improvements in the professional beauty schools and the quality of the young people who are being attracted to our industry as a career. It is encouraging to see the Empire Education Group continue to expand their system of outstanding schools in 18 states. (CEO Frank Schoeneman has been an active ISBN member for many years, and was recently honored by the American Association of Cosmetology Schools with their highest honor for excellence.) John Paul Mitchell Systems is rapidly expanding their school program, with well-designed programs that teach business skills as well as technical skills. When you have outstanding organizations like these leading the charge, and many, many outstanding independently owned schools providing first-class education, more and more creative, talented young people are choosing our industry as their career. In my 30 years in the industry I have never seen a more encouraging development that will mean so much to our future.
BSB: Have you had any mentors in the professional beauty business, and if so, who are they?
GL: I have learned so much from so many people in this industry I hate to list them for fear of missing some. In our ISBN family, I have learned a lot from Charles Penzone and Paul Brown, two brilliant hair stylists who have built amazing companies. Henry Pelusi has been a great friend and role model as a fellow businessman running a dynamic salon company. My wife Bettye has been my mentor and guide through most of my career in the hair care industry….I like to say I like Stylists so much I married one! Her ability to focus on what’s important to deliver an outstanding Client Experience and to motivate/encourage others to achieve more than they ever dreamed they could has been a key to our success. John Paul DeJoria has been a friend and supporter over the years, and what a role model for any business person to follow! I feel very fortunate to have been exposed to and given the opportunity to get to know so many wonderful people who make our industry so special.
BSB: What’s new at Sport Clips?
GL: We continue to develop our system as we recently opened our 570th Sport Clips and project that we will end the year with 650 open stores in 36 states! Last month we had our annual meeting in Austin, Texas, with almost 1,100 Franchisees, Salon Managers and Stylists attending to network, learn valuable life lessons from John Paul DeJoria and Coach Lou Holtz…and have fun! We “crowned” our winner of our annual styling contest on stage - Naomi Thomas from San Antonio was selected by our esteemed panel of judges which included Ivan Zoot of Andis and representatives from Paul Mitchell and American Crew. We raised $85,000 to build a home for Vidal Sassoon’s Hairdressers Unlocking Hope campaign, and almost $90,000 for the VFW Operation Uplink program to provide pre-paid phone cards to our service men and women overseas so they can call home to stay I touch with their loved ones. We are having fun and continuing to help our Stylists achieve their dreams!
BSB: Tell me about your background. How did you profess from being a Price Waterhouse Consultant to being a salon chain leader?
GL: see above
BSB: How has being a member of ISBN helped you and your company grow?
GL: I think I have covered this above…call me if you need more.
BSB: Anything you would like to address that I have not asked?
GL: I’m tired! Call me if you need more or if you have questions!
Reach Gordon Logan at 512-869-1201, or gordon@sportclips.com.