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Snip-its - where Nintendo meets Edward Scissorshands with a little Dr. Seuss and Disney thrown in

When your kids' hair needs a trim, where do you go? If you're like most people, you probably still head for the nearest family salon. But a growing number of hair salons catering strictly to kids are out to change that. In the huge hair care industry, the children's sector alone is estimated at $5 billion+. The fastest growing franchise in this arena is Snip-its, a concept based on a strong brand with its own cartoon characters, computer play stations, Magic Box, and distinctive hair care products just for kids.

Joanna Meiseles came up with the idea for Snip-its when her oldest son had his first haircut as a toddler. It was 1993 and there was no choice but to take the little guy to an adult salon. "I came home and told my husband there should be a better way. It was a light bulb moment for me," says Meiseles. Her preliminary research turned up some startling statistics. For example, in the U.S. there are over 35 million children aged 9 and under who need haircuts every 6-8 weeks. Meiseles was sure she could come up with an alternative that could be something great. To that end, she created a salon concept designed exclusively for the 9-and-under market, featuring proprietary cartoon characters incorporated into an educational adventure with activities and games. The first salon debuted in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1995 where over 1,000 children are served each week.

Meiseles fine-tuned the concept in that one salon, but right from the start Snip-its was designed to be a chain. "I wanted to do something unique and have a really strong brand that people would recognize whether they were in a Snip-its in California or Massachusetts. Even though I was only opening one at first, the goal was to build a brand that would have staying power and strong recognition. I also wanted something the kids would have an affinity for so I came up with the idea of the characters. I had a lot of inspirations, but one of the biggest was Beauty and the Beast. In that movie the household objects come to life. I figured if they could do it with a teapot and a candelabra, why not a pair of scissors? Maybe the kids wouldn't be afraid of the scissors if there's was a nice welcoming pair to greet them at the door," says Meiseles.

Better than homemade

Even though Snip-its stands out among franchised children's salons, there is plenty of competition from family salon chains as well as the usual mom and pops. But the biggest competition comes from home haircuts. "A lot of moms cut the kids' hair at home. We are trying to get them to change that habit," says Meiseles. "In fact, we fix a lot of the haircuts that the moms have done. Of course, some moms are good at it and can do it. It's a talent and a skill that you can learn if you put your mind to it. But we just try to get across that the experience should be a positive one for kids and that kids should feel good about taking care of their hair and their bodies and their hygiene and grooming habits starting from a young age. We think it's really important to have that salon experience where they learn to feel good about themselves without it being a tortuous traumatic thing."

The key to competing in this huge industry, according to Meiseles, is branding. "What people notice right away is the design of the salons and the brand that we have. We're still new at it, but we're growing quickly and we've been able to develop systems to really support our franchisees." Meiseles says the one big thing that isn't so obvious on the outside can be found on the inside - the training programs, operations, and marketing. She continues, "We really are committed to building a world class franchise system. We joke here saying, 'we don't cut corners, we only cut hair.' But we really meant that. We want to make sure that we are choosing good franchisees who are really going to build on our brand and not destroy it. In return, we make sure we give them all the tools necessary in terms of training and technology. We have an awesome (proprietary) technology platform."

Training for franchisees is conducted at corporate headquarters for a week before stores open. "When they get ready to open," says Meiseles, "we have a support person as well as a stylist trainer go to their store and do 3 days of training in advance, followed by 2 days of working alongside their staff after opening. We call this getting snipified. The franchisees' stylists might have 20 or 30 years working on hair but if they haven't worked on kids - or even if they have - we teach them our way of doing things. They need to learn our commitment to customer service to ensure that they're going to get lifetime customers. We also have a train-the-trainer course where each individual franchise store has certified systems trainers. When a franchisee hires a new employee, we don't have to go back and train that person. There is someone right there on staff that can do it."