Great Clips’ Largest Franchisee Celebrates the Opening of Her 81st Salon

Clara Osterhage is Great Clips’ largest franchisee, and she has just opened her 81st salon — amid a pandemic no less — with North America’s largest hair salon brand. Osterhage has been franchising with Great Clips for 25 years, helping the brand establish itself as the world’s largest affordable salon-service provider, with more than 4,400 locations.

Osterhage said she was attracted to the opportunity to franchise with Great Clips because of the brand’s simple model, growing name-brand recognition, and low inventory requirements. “I could have hung my own shingle. I could have been a therapist and opened my own practice, but that was never going to be my thing. I didn’t have a brand or have trust in myself. And I had to continue with my day job to keep food on our table. Franchising was the perfect fit,” said Osterhage of her decision to get into franchising.

As a now-seasoned veteran in the space, Osterhage said opening another salon during the pandemic was a fairly straightforward process. In fact, she’s opened five new locations since just before the start of it.

And as far as business goes, Osterhage says her salons are slowly getting closer to “normal.” Most of her salons are much closer now to pre-COVID customer counts than they were in April 2020.

According to Steve Hockett, CEO of Great Clips, Inc., this upward trend has been standard across all salons. He notes that the brand’s commitment to cleanliness and innovative technologies have contributed to its continued success.

“In the several weeks after the majority of Great Clips salons reopened in May and June 2020, we saw around a 25% increase in new customers. We’re confident that many of those new customers were trying us for the first time because of our innovative technologies like Online Check-In and our proven customer care standards around sanitization and efficiency,” said Hockett.

Osterhage says she’s always run her business on two principles: time and faith. And now more than ever, those principles are fueling her drive, as well as that of the managers she partners with for success.

“After 25 years in business, I’ve seen the economy from all sides. This time, it’s about having faith, believing in ourselves, and planning to come back just as strong as we were. We were on track to have a tremendous year in the beginning of 2020,” she said. “And we will have tremendous years again.”

For those considering taking the leap and franchising with Great Clips, Osterhage has reassuring advice: Now’s as good a time as any.

“Mindset is everything. In my opinion, there’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s the same investment at risk during a pandemic as in non-pandemic times, so I wouldn’t hold back.”