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New business owner tries to stay a cut above
Hair franchises keep Burroughs moving at fast clip
Staff photo by GRETCHEN PHILLIPS
Jeff Burroughs, owner of three Sport Clips locations in Southern Maryland, gets his hair styled by Caitlin Falken at the Waldorf Sport Clips.
Wearing two shirts: He might admit to not knowing about styling hair, but Jeff Burroughs makes it his business to know about Sport Clips.
Burroughs, of Huntingtown, is the owner of three Sport Clips locations in Southern Maryland — a sports-themed hair-care franchise that caters to men and boys.
The three locations are in Waldorf, Lexington Park and Prince Frederick.
When not in Sport Clips attire Burroughs, 40, is wearing a Waldorf Ford shirt as a commercial sales representative at the Waldorf car dealership.
He continues to work with Ford, where he has been for 18 years, while he expands Sport Clips.
Burroughs jokes about wearing two shirts every day. While at the dealership he has his Ford shirt on and keeps a Sport Clips shirt in his car for when he stops by one of his Sport Clips locations.
Sometimes his two jobs collide, as he said he has had customers purchase a vehicle from him and then later stop by Sport Clips for a fresh haircut.
Sports fan: Burroughs said his goal has always been to have a business of his own, “to create a career, a business, that was local.”
After doing some research on franchises, Burroughs was drawn in by the sports atmosphere and the success of Sport Clips, which is based in Georgetown, Texas, and has more than 900 locations across the country.
“I looked at it as an opportunity to take a love of sports and tie it into a business,” he said.
Burroughs spent a lot of time involved in playing and coaching sports, such as baseball and football, over the years.
At Sport Clips, he said he feels a lot like a coach among his team of employees when it comes to keeping up morale and working together.
Family affair: All three of his shops are involved in the community via sponsorships and supporting local benefits, Burroughs said. Sport Clips employees were most recently spotted at a Southern Maryland Blue Crabs game dyeing willing participants’ hair pink for a breast cancer awareness night.
Burroughs does not claim to know anything about hair, let alone attempt to do any of the hair-cutting; he has a team of professional hair stylists to do that for him.
His wife, Robyn Hanson, and high school-age son, Tyler, are also part owners of the three shops in Southern Maryland.
Burroughs said he is not the type to get into a franchise to make money and sell it right away. He said his family will continue to be actively engaged in the franchise.
“This is my future,” he said.
Not just a haircut: Burroughs is looking to open a fourth store in La Plata in the near future.
While the store’s atmosphere screams sports fan and the company’s website indicates a store geared to men, Burroughs said women are not limited to the sidelines.
“In Lexington Park, our first three customers were women,” he said.
What customers will find at the store is a quick and simple haircut, Burroughs said. The timeliness and the fact that there are no appointments, Burroughs said, really attract guys who have a short window of time.
Sport Clips also offers neck and shoulder massages and a steamed-towel face treatment.
Sports programs are always playing on the television at the store and local sports memorabilia hang on the walls.
“We are not just a haircut. We are about an experience,” Burroughs said, “an enjoyable experience all the way through.”
GRETCHEN PHILLIPS
Got an idea for someone to profile in On the job? Send your suggestions to Angela Breck at abreck@somdnews.com or 7 Industrial Park Drive, Waldorf, MD 20602. Call 301-764-2847.