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From real estate selection to ongoing franchisee and staff training, the emerging skincare brand provides franchisees with support through a stacked leadership team that is supercharging its growth.
Buying a franchise is simple enough, but creating a successful one? That takes the right support system and processes. And in the crowded, competitive franchise market, finding a strong corporate team is no easy feat.
Yet Heyday, a fast-growing skincare company with a singular focus on facials, seems to have found the right people to lead the brand toward long-term success. The emerging franchise brand boasts some of the biggest players in the industry who are helping to shake up the $7 billion skincare service industry.
Sean Bock, a veteran of Drybar — a nationally-recognized franchise brand with a single treatment focus — joined Heyday as president of franchising, spearheading the brand’s national growth. Additionally, Level 5 Capital Partners (L5) has signed on as an investment partner, committing to opening 60 franchise locations over the next few years. L5 has an enviable track record in the experiential wellness and lifestyle franchise sector, with brands like Big Blue Swim School, Orangetheory Fitness, Restore Hyper Wellness and CorePower Yoga as part of its portfolio.
Currently, Heyday has 11 locations in New York City, Los Angeles, Bethesda and Philadelphia, with franchise agreements to develop locations in Chicago, Austin and Cleveland. The emerging brand is targeting expansion in 54 major metropolitan areas including San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and Boston. Backed by a knowledgeable and experienced corporate team, the brand plans to grow to include more than 300 locations in the next five years.
The Power of Focus
Bock believes his experience at Drybar, a franchise that provides one service: blowout hairstyles, taught him early on that Heyday’s focus on the single treatment area of facials would be an immediate differentiator for the brand and its key to success among both consumers and franchisees.
“We intend to do for estheticians what Drybar did for stylists,” he said. “Drybar created a place for stylists who really loved to do blowouts. No cuts, no colors, no perms, just a singular focus on one particular skill,” he said. “But until Drybar, there was no place for them. We created a place they loved to work.”
And that love transferred to its customers, who developed strong relationships with the brand and helped it to become a booming national brand.
Today, estheticians are commonly confined to day spas, working among nail technicians, massage therapists and an assortment of other services. “Prior to Heyday, there was no one place that invited estheticians to focus solely on skincare while continuing to educate themselves and hone their expertise,” says Bock. “We created a home for the esthetician who loves skincare.”
Taking an Education-First Approach To Support
Bock said that Heyday training is at the heart of the company’s mission, and that includes franchisee support. “I believe we're an education company,” said Bock. “If you have education as your mindset, you’re making a commitment to build an organization that’s focused on empowering clients, franchisees and the whole system to meet everyone’s needs.”
“We are proud to provide multiple channels of support to our franchisees: our support office, a peer-to-peer network and the back-end technology that supports ongoing operations,” said Bock. “We have a dedicated learning management system to create opportunities for ongoing education and training because we strongly believe that training is something that should never stop.”
For a client, that means getting individualized skincare consultations and treatments from highly skilled estheticians. But for franchisees, it means providing continuous support, training and the IT resources they need in order to succeed as an owner-operator.
A White-Glove Approach From the Very Beginning
From the Field Day visitation, which is commonly known as Discovery Day in the franchising world, which allows potential franchisees to experience Heyday both as a customer and an operator through construction and store launch, Bock says the company is helping to set its franchisees up for long-term success.
One ace up Heyday’s sleeve: Its partnership with L5 Acceleration Services, which helps the franchise navigate the often unruly waters of the site selection process. “This is basically a white-glove real-estate service that L5 offers,” said Bock. “It manages one-time operational details like site selection, buildout negotiations, lease negotiations and managing the leasing process and construction process.”
By handling the real estate matters, franchisees are freed up to invest their time into other aspects of the business like building their team, increasing local awareness and selling memberships.
Emerging Brands Offer Big Opportunities
As a veteran of Drybar, Bock had a front-row seat to witness how early emerging franchise brand adopters are best positioned for the greatest gains.
“Early franchisees are usually going to have the best valuations when they go to sell their business,” he said. “That’s because they’re going to have access to the best trade areas, and if they’re aggressive, they can take a multi-unit approach to ownership.”
But there’s another reason: Early franchisees have the ability to participate in the brand’s growth story and set the direction, Bock said. “The best franchisors are the ones that continually seek feedback from the field and their franchisees. So, early franchisees in emerging brands have the ability to influence the direction of the organization and help to determine where and how it should grow.”
Heyday’s startup costs range between $574,000 to $755,500, depending on which market the store is located. Other factors like design, configuration and labor costs will also impact the total investment. Click here to see the full cost breakdown.
