Find a Niche

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (from the August 16, 2012 issue) highlights one of the key strategies for a start-up. Find an under-served niche and, well, serve it. One such example is Gordon Logan, who over the last nineteen years has built a small empire of hair care salons for men. His company, Sport Clips (http://www.sportclips.com/)  is now in almost all 50 states and will be opening its 1000^th store before the end of the year.

 

It is said the quickest path to entrepreneurial success is to find a problem and then solve it; just look at what Mr. Logan said in the Journal article:

WSJ: How did you get the idea for the sports-theme salon?

Mr. Logan: My wife and I have been in the salon industry for 33-plus years. We evaluated industry trends in the early 1990s, and identified that the traditional barber shop was fading away. Men had to go to unisex salons, beauty salons, or one of the chain salons that were positioned as family haircutters. We felt that if we developed a concept where a man or boy would look around when they walked in the front door and said to themselves, "this is my kind of place, I feel comfortable here," there was a huge niche market waiting to be explored.

We realized that men and boys don't typically look forward to getting a haircut, so we place a great deal of emphasis on the overall experience, [including] the ambiance [and] stylists who are trained in techniques of how to deal with male haircuts.

That’s perfect. The problem wasn’t earth-shattering by any stretch of the imagination but it was a problem. And Mr. Logan et al have obviously solved it to the tune of over $250 million dollars in annual revenue.

By the way, for students who want to read WSJ articles but can’t afford a subscription, you can gain access through Factiva, which is available through the Miriam Library databases, http://www.csuchico.edu/lref/dbaz.html.  Just go to Factiva and search for “Sport Clips Inc.” in the Wall Street Journal.