Jersey Mike’s Franchisees Find Success With Sola Salons

After varied backgrounds with brands like Hallmark and Dunkin’, Mitch Cohen and Marvin Goldfarb became partners in Jersey Mike’s, opening the first of their eight New York locations in 2017.

“In the year 2000, we became partners and opened up our first Dunkin’,” Goldfarb said. “We got to about 15 stores together, and we sold them in 2015. Two years after that, we were approached by Jersey Mike’s. They had just acquired the rights to the New York State market and were looking for franchisees. We thought they had a great concept.”

As the duo continued to grow the Jersey Mike’s business and open new locations, they learned about Sola Salons, the national salon suites franchise. They were intrigued but recognized the majority of their experience was in the food service space.

“Being involved with the International Franchise Association and the Multi-Unit Franchise Advisory Council has given me an opportunity to look at a lot of brands in the industry,” Cohen said. “When the salon studios business caught my eye, the first thing that attracted me was the flexibility. Coming from the quick service restaurant industry, this would be an opportunity to change my work-life balance. When I dug deeper, I also realized that having a smaller workforce was beneficial.”

Sola Salons would offer the opportunity to continue investing, but it had some key differentiators that would relieve a lot of the pressures the team had previously felt in the QSR space.

“We didn’t really understand the concept or how it worked; we wanted to get more information,” Goldfarb said. “And their answers to all of our questions were amazing. I remember one person told us that Sola Salons’ job is to make stylists’ lives easier. I thought, ‘Who’s in the business of making somebody else’s life easier?’ They elaborated, and I understood that it makes their lives easier, but it also makes them better, more profitable and more individualized.”

Goldfarb said the concept interested the rest of the investment group, and they began to understand just how much they could potentially change stylists’ lives — from a financial standpoint and by supporting work-life balance — through Sola Salons.

“We decided we had to do it and, to be honest, it’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had,” Goldfarb said.

“When we started our due diligence with Sola, what I learned was that a lot of the pros in traditional settings were not treated very well,” Cohen said. “In a QSR like Dunkin’, we can see 1,000 customers a day. How hard is it to please 1,000 guests every day?

In Sola Salons, we have 30 to 35 ‘customers’ per day. It’s the same customers every single day, and they often are people who have not been treated very well in their previous environments. If we can show them the same hospitality we showed the 1,000 people at Dunkin’, they’ll love us.

And that did play into how we decided to run our Solas and attract our Pros.”

Now, as the team operates multiple Jersey Mike’s and Sola Salons locations across New York, they continue to find fulfillment in both ventures and leverage their connection to Jersey Mike’s to care for the entrepreneurs in their Sola Salons locations. For example, the team will bring Jersey Mike’s platters to the Sola locations to celebrate Solapreneurs’ birthdays or provide lunch on busy days and during the holiday season. The hospitality-focused approach has driven success for the group and continues to be an important aspect of the strategy as they expand to more Sola locations.

While the expansion from Jersey Mike’s to Sola Salons offered Cohen and Goldfarb an opportunity for business diversification, it also provided a strong sense of purpose. Their backgrounds in the fast-paced restaurant industry gave them valuable context and tools for success. Restaurant experience directly informed their understanding of the Sola Salons mission and the impact they can have on Solapreneurs, and it continues to highlight the value of the Sola model — allowing franchisees to facilitate meaningful change in other entrepreneurs’ lives while capturing financial success for themselves.