Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue III, 2014 | Page 28

2014 MVP AWARDS

“Do what’s right, do your best, and treat others
the way they want to be treated.”
if they’d started with the new store instead of the two existing stores, “We might have quit.”
Their involvement in the community through church,
school, philanthropy, and coaching their daughters’ sports
teams demonstrated the importance of networking and
brought new customers to their stores.
Today the Forrests have 8 high-performing Sport Clips
in Fort Worth and Dallas. “We’re continuing to grow, but
we’re doing it in a more strategic way. There’s no magic
number for us. We’ve never said we wanted to own, say, 40
stores. We really want to focus on having the best stores
and making sure we have more profitable averages,” he says.
They attribute the mark they’ve made with their units to
choosing a franchise “with a philosophy that aligned with
ours, and completely embracing the system.”
Often contacted for advice by fellow Sport Clips franchisees,
the Forrests are happy to give back. “People were willing to open
up to us when we got in and needed information, so we try to share
whenever we’re asked. We don’t consider other franchisees our
competitors. The better they are, the better we are,” he says.

PERSONAL
Formative influences/events: We’ve been influenced by our parents,
who were hard-working and pinnacles of integrity, and by our work experience. I worked for years in sales and management, and Lori, who has a master’s degree in land economics, came from real estate and finance.
Key accomplishments: We retired from our “career jobs” at age 50, and
now we have the flexibility in our lives that we were looking for.
Work week: About 40 to 50 hours combined.
What are you reading? The Bible.
Best advice you ever got: Be the best at whatever you do and have fun
doing it.
What’s your passion in business? Being the best while providing a
quality work environment for our employees to grow.

MANAGEMENT
Business philosophy: Find a niche and be the best at it. Big is not better—better is better.
Management method or style: Develop people and empower and trust
them.
Greatest challenge: Finding and developing managers.
How do others describe you? Fair, truthful, compassionate, passionate,
and energetic.
How do you hire and fire, train and retain? Most managers are
hired from within our organization. We set expectations when hiring. We train
them to meet expectations, continually train them, and fire them only when
they quit trying or quit caring.

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MULTI-UNIT FRANCHISEE IS S UE III, 2014

BOTTOM LINE
Annual revenue: $3.56 million.
2014 goals: $4 million.
Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? By client
count and net sales.
Vision meter: Where do you want to be in 5 years? In 10
years? We’d like to have 12 to 15 locations. Our goal is to have the best
stores—not the most. We look at average sales from all our stores combined
to benchmark against others.
What are you doing to take care of your employees? We do a
lot of small extras like an annual Christmas party and special recognitions. We
try to help them out in their personal lives as well as their professional lives.
We look for what motivates them in their personal life and try to help them
achieve it.
What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? We’re not
working on this yet, but it would likely involve selling the business or passing
it on to our children. Our oldest daughter just graduated from college so we
want her to work on her own for a while before making any decisions.

2014 MVP

Influencer Award, Husband & Wife Team
FOR DEMONSTRATING EXCELLENCE IN FRANCHISING
AS A HUSBAND & WIFE TEAM
Why do you think you were recognized with this award?
We think it’s because we have one of the highest multi-store averages in
the system and have bought existing under-performing stores and turned
them around in a big way. We are fair with our employees and we believe
in and embrace the Sport Clips philosophy. As a husband-and-wife team, our
strengths and weaknesses complement each other. Dividing our roles in the
business falls naturally into what we each do best.
How have you raised the bar in your own company? We continually challenge our managers to grow beyond what they think is possible.
What innovations have you created and used to build your
company? We have two training centers to show our commitment to excellence, and we have individuals committed to doing the training.
What core values do you think helped you win this award? We
follow the Sport Clips Heart of a Champion motto: Do what’s right, do your
best, and treat others the way they want to be treated.
How important is community involvement to you and your
company? We call it marketing, but most of the community marketing that
we do is really just goodwill that helps organizations such as schools, Boy
Scouts, churches, etc. We also get involved with projects like free back-toschool haircuts for low-income students. We feel it is important to give back to
the communities that make us successful.
What leadership qualities are important to you and your
team? Integrity, individual drive and motivation, a positive outlook, caring
about others, and leading by example.