Beyond the Clippers: Building a Business, a Legacy, and a Lifelong Partnership with Sport Clips

Name: Val Hill
Title: Managing Member
Company: Lee Hill Companies
No. of units by brand: 67 Sport Clips Haircuts, 1 Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming
Age: 57
Family: Wife Stacey and 5 children, Derek, 32, Tyler, 30, Nicole, 28, Brandon, 24, and Breezy, 23, and 7 grandchildren
Years in franchising: 20
Years in current position: 20

Val Hill had built a thriving career in construction contracting and supply chain management when a conversation with his longtime friend Jared Lee changed everything. The two had known each other since their days at Brigham Young University and often kicked around the idea of owning a business together. In 2005, Lee finally pushed: “Are we just going to keep talking about this, or are we going to do it?”

“I looked at a few franchise options, but when I came across Sport Clips, it resonated with me,” Hill says. “It is a really cool concept. At the time, there wasn’t anything like it that catered to men and boys. I mentioned it to Jared, and he hadn’t heard of it. He thought it was something involving sports highlight videos. When I explained it and my interest, he said, ‘Two dudes in the hair business?’ We went to a local salon and tried it, and we said, ‘This is pretty awesome.’”

By the end of 2005, they had purchased three licenses and taken over an existing salon. Hill kept his demanding job at Intel, juggling both careers as the Sport Clips footprint grew. But as the business expanded to 13 locations, the balancing act became impossible. Hill made the leap, leaving corporate life to focus fully on franchising. That decision paid off: Today, he and Lee run 67 Sport Clips salons across Arizona, Utah, Washington, and Oregon.

Hill and Lee thrived through their first 15 years in business, but Covid threatened to upend their operation. Salons shut down temporarily, and the real challenges came when doors reopened. Cushioned by stimulus checks and concerned for their health and safety, many employees throughout the hair salon industry did not return. Beauty schools, which had always supplied a pool of talent in a high-turnover field, closed for a year and did not produce graduates at a normal rate for about two years. Consumer behavior also changed with less emphasis on a professional appearance amid the shift to remote work. Others chose to cut their hair at home.

Calling that time “the hardest thing we’ve ever gone through,” Hill said that he and his partner doubled down on taking care of the more than 300 existing staff members across their 32 stores. They decided not to lay off any employees and continued to pay them, including their regular wages and the tips they would have earned. Hill says they weathered the initial storm better than many others in the industry, and they continue to provide employees with generous salaries and benefits to attract the best talent.

With the damage of the pandemic behind them, Hill and Lee recently decided to expand their franchise portfolio by opening their first Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming location earlier this year. They wanted another franchise in the service industry and knew the dog grooming and bakery concept had a proven business model that had been successful in several states. The partners plan to add about 10 Woof Gang locations in Arizona over the coming years while also continuing to grow their Sport Clips business.

Hill isn’t planning to retire anytime soon, but he can see the day when he and Lee step back and pass the business to his two of his sons who have been working alongside them for years. He said he would like to structure the company so that Tyler and Brandon become “the Val and Jared of the company.” Hill also takes pride in the lasting friendship and strong partnership he’s built with Lee throughout their journey.

“When people ask how a partnership works for that long, I say our business is significantly better with both of us than it would be with one of us,” Hill says. “We don’t worry about keeping score. We both have confidence that the other person is doing their part. There is a huge amount of trust. He is incredibly generous and open to the idea of my sons coming into the business. It has definitely been a blessing for both of us.”

PERSONAL

First job: I spent my summers working in my grandfather’s furnace cleaning business when I was a teenager, starting in seventh grade. It was great because I got to work with my grandpa, dad, and uncles.

Formative influences/events: There were two. The first was working in our family business when I was growing up. We worked six days a week, and it was a dirty job, but I look back on it with pride because that is where I learned how to work hard. The other was when I served a two-year church mission at age 19. I learned the importance of my faith and how to serve others without worrying too much about myself.

Key accomplishments: My family is my biggest accomplishment. On the business side, we were a three-time winner of Store of the Year (The Logan Trophy) for Sport Clips, a two-time Team Leader (Franchisee) of the Year, an IFA Franchisee of the Year, and CNBC’s Top Franchisees in America in 2016.

Biggest current challenge: Growing our client count back to pre-Covid levels.

Next big goal: The past five years have brought a lot of changes and upheaval into our business. It has felt like we’ve gone from one challenge to the next. My goal is to stabilize and strengthen the business so that we’re able to grow our client count, strengthen our margins, and continue to be the workplace of choice for our team members.

First turning point in your career: One of my close friends from business school, Jared Lee, and I had always talked about someday owning our own business. He always said, “You can’t win if you don’t play the game.” So, in 2005, we started looking, and I found Sport Clips. We investigated it and decided to jump in and become Sport Clips franchisees. By 2014, we had 13 Sport Clips stores when my business partner and I decided to focus on Sport Clips full-time. I had a good corporate job, and my wife was a little bit nervous about leaving the stock options and benefits behind. Fortunately, it worked out, and we never looked back.

Best business decision: After initially buying three Sport Clips licenses, we purchased an existing salon, which helped us hit the ground running and allowed us to open our next store, knowing the key elements of the business.

Hardest lesson learned: Be ready to change and adapt. When Covid hit, our business was devastated. With a lot of difficult decisions and hard work, we got rolling again and thought we were in good shape. Then the staffing crisis hit. Beauty schools had shut down, so no new stylists were coming into the industry for well over a year. We struggled to keep the doors open for full hours. We made some missteps, but we learned, and fortunately, we have a resilient organization that has weathered these storms and is back in growth mode. The quote, “Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal,” is a good one.

Work week: This year, I cut back my office days to Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I work from home or visit stores on Thursday, and I try to reserve Fridays for family or personal time.

Exercise/workout: I try to play golf a couple of times a month, and I have a weekly pickleball game with some buddies. I also enjoy anything outdoors, but I’m hit or miss at the gym.

Best advice you ever got: I love this quote by Stephen Covey: “Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people.” I’ve worked for leaders in my career who were great examples of this, and it’s something I’ve tried to emulate within our own organization.

What’s your passion in business? I love making a difference for other people, such as providing a space where our people can create great careers for themselves. I enjoy seeing them buy their first home or first car. I also love seeing the difference that our team members make in the lives of our clients. The personal connections that can be made in our industry make the world a better place.

How do you balance life and work? I have great people at the top of our organization who make sure things run smoothly. We have the very best operations and area leaders who oversee eight to 10 stores, and they do a great job. We trust them to keep things on track, which allows me to get away when needed.

Guilty pleasure: Flying. I have a Piper Archer airplane that I love to fly whenever I can.

Favorite book: I have a lot of favorite books, but Shoe Dog is probably at the top. It’s about Phil Knight and how he built Nike. I really love to learn how entrepreneurs build a business. Business bios and sports bios are my favorites.

Favorite movie: “Gladiator” and “Miracle” are my two favorites. I also love the movie “Moneyball.”

What do most people not know about you? I really enjoy cooking, especially outdoor cooking, like smoking meats.

Pet peeve: Not doing what you say you will do.

What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a pro basketball player.

Last vacation: My last vacation was a river cruise on the Rhine to see the Christmas Markets in December 2024.

Person you’d most like to have lunch with: Elon Musk—so much to tell. If he’s not available, Phil Mickelson.

MANAGEMENT

Business philosophy: Provide a great team member experience, and then your team will deliver a great customer experience.

Management method or style: Train, trust, and empower.

Greatest challenge: Creating an organization that can continue to set the standard for our industry in terms of team member pay, benefits, and client experience.

How do others describe you? Faith and family oriented, loves a challenge, results driven, detailed, and hardworking.

Have you ever been in a mentor-mentee relationship? What did you learn? I’m not sure that I have a lot of experience in a mentor/mentee relationship.

One thing you’re looking to do better: I can always improve on letting go of the day-to-day issues and spending my time focusing on the strategic aspects of the business.

How do you give your team room to innovate and experiment? Our leaders understand the nonnegotiables, and they know that outside of those items, we want to push the envelope. We’ve made changes to our pay and benefit structures based on feedback from our team. For example, we are among the first in our industry to have a matching 401(k) retirement plan available to all team members.

How close are you to operations? I’m still very close to operations. We have weekly meetings with our area leaders and discuss individual store performance. We have quarterly face-to-face, all-manager meetings in each of our markets.

What are the two most important things you rely on from your franchisor? Data is the number one thing I need. Having insights into client behaviors, marketing program performance, and store-by-store comparison data is very important. I also need solid technology, such as our app, online check-in system, and loyalty programs.

What you need from vendors: Quality and competitive pricing.

Have you changed your marketing strategy in response to the economy? How? For the past couple of years, after things settled from Covid, we have rededicated ourselves to marketing and bringing in new clients. Our strategy has been one of getting back to the basics that worked for us in the past. We’re using local store marketing and behind-the-chair marketing. We’re really trying to connect with our communities to drive new clients into our stores.

How is social media affecting your business? Obviously, social media continues to grow in importance. We focus very hard as an organization on our online reputation. We’re vigilant about resolving client concerns and responding to every online review, positive or negative. Our teams know that we build our business one client at a time.

In what ways are you using technology (like AI) to manage your business? This is definitely an emerging area for us. We’re just starting to explore how it can help us in our back-office tasks and training programs. There is nothing solidly in place yet.

How do you hire and fire? We do both carefully. We’re probably a little slower than others when it comes to firing people. We care about our employees, and we want to make sure we’ve given them plenty of opportunities to right the ship if there are issues.

How do you train and retain? Sport Clips has a great training program for every new team member called “Core Camp.” It is a multi-day training course to ingrain Sport Clips’ culture and processes into our new hires. Our organization also has specific training for team members in haircutting, product sales, efficiency, and leadership. Sport Clips is among the best when it comes to providing quality training. Our team members often mention this as a reason they love working for us.

How do you deal with problem employees? We evaluate whether it is a training issue or a commitment issue. Training issues are fixable. If the person doesn’t understand what to do, we get them the education they need. On the other hand, if it’s a commitment issue, we simply ask them if they’re going to get on board or not. If the answer is no, we part ways. We’re also pretty diligent in the three strikes and you’re out approach. We make sure to document the process.

Fastest way into your doghouse: Not caring about the client. If you don’t care about our customers, this isn’t the place for you.

BOTTOM LINE

Annual revenue: $31 million.

Goals over the next year: Three percent year-over-year same-store customer count growth.

Growth meter: Our top measurement is year-over-year same-store customer growth. The other is year-over-year same-store sales growth.

Vision meter: Where do you want to be in five years? 10 years? Within five years, I hope to have a strong footprint in the Phoenix area with five Woof Gang stores. We will continue to grow in our existing markets with Sport Clips. I expect we will be at 75-plus stores within five years. Within 10 years, I hope to be executing my exit plan and will probably shift to more of a consultant role.

Do you have brands in different segments? Why/why not? We love the service segments. So, we’ve just opened our first Woof Gang, a dog grooming and bakery shop. It’s coming up pretty well, and we are very excited about this brand. Of course, Sport Clips is and has been our primary brand for 20 years. We have grown with this brand and love the Logan family and the brand that they’ve built.

How is the economy in your region(s) affecting you, your employees, your customers? The economies in Arizona and Utah are growing quickly. This is driving rent and wages higher, and we’re doing all we can to maintain our prices. In the Pacific Northwest, the minimum wage laws drive higher wages and even higher prices. Fortunately, the rent costs haven’t grown as much in the Northwest as they have in Utah and Arizona.

Are you experiencing economic growth in your market? Yes. Our Utah market has really started to show some growth. Arizona and the Northwest are a bit slower.

How do changes in the economy affect the way you do business? We try to deliver a great service at a great value regardless of the economy. Wages primarily and rents secondarily are the main determinants of our pricing. We’ve generally found that haircuts are somewhat insulated from swings in the economy. For example, during slight downturns in the economy, we’ll see a little bit of a slump driven by clients going a little longer between haircuts.

How do you forecast for your business? We are pretty simple. We rely on our past years, take into account any new stores that have opened nearby, and then apply an expected growth rate.

What are the best sources for capital expansion? We’ve had the most success with smaller local or regional banks. The big banks are generally asset-based lenders and don’t typically work well with salons. The local/regional banks look more at cash flow, and we’ve had success there. We also have had seller financing for some of our deals, and that has worked out well. For the past several years, we’ve been building our new stores using cash from operations.

Experience with private equity, local banks, national banks, other institutions? Why/why not? We haven’t had experience with private equity. We’ve been able to grow through the other methods mentioned.

What are you doing to take care of your employees? I’m proud to say that we set the bar for our industry in terms of pay and benefits. We have store managers making six-figure incomes. We have a matching 401(k) retirement plan available for all team members. We have company-subsidized health insurance and paid time off for all team members. Through Sport Clips’ SupportLinc, our team members have access to counseling services, legal services, and financial services. It’s all free of charge.

How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, minimum wage, healthcare, etc.)? We’ve put some effort into improving our operational efficiency. This includes eliminating wasted labor, consolidating some of our back-office work, and bringing some things in-house. And, of course, we’ve had to pass some of these rising costs on to our customers.

What laws and regulations are affecting your business, and how are you dealing with them? We’ve been happy with many of the changes with the current administration. Of course, we’re thrilled with no tax on tips. That’s a huge win for our team members. The extension to the beauty industry of the 45B FICA tax tip credit was a big win for us as well. It is interesting to see the differences when you have a multi-state operation. Fortunately, most of our stores are in Arizona, which is a business-friendly, low-bureaucracy state.

How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? Every year, we have a big awards banquet where we give away great raffle prizes, including a seven-night cruise. We also recognize our top-performing team members in all our key metrics, and we recognize the Most Improved, Heart of a Champion, and Stylist of the Year. Additionally, we celebrate our team milestones with dinners and outings. One of the most important things we do is always promote from within. Our top performers have the opportunity to become assistant managers, store managers, area coaches, and area managers.

What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? My business partner and I are both thinking about working a bit less. We enjoy the business, so we’re not in a hurry to fully exit. My two sons are working in the business. They are doing a great job of managing different parts of our organization and learning how to lead it. One of my sons has been with us for more than six years and is leading our Utah and Northwest markets. Another son has been with us for a year and a half, and he’s handling all the back-office responsibilities. My plan is to make sure both are well rounded and can lead the organization into the future.