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'We are leaders, others follow' - Toni Mascolo on franchising
Date Added: 2010-01-11
Aged eight, Toni Mascolo was shaving clients alongside his father. By the time he was 16, he was managing a salon. Today, he is a respected member of the creative industries the world over. With his company, Toni&Guy, winning the Franchisor of the Year award at The Sapphires, he shares his thoughts on why franchising is for everyone who has ambition and talent. Charisse Kenion reports.
"I remember when I first went to see my bank manager at NatWest about franchising "I was terrified," says Toni. "I told him I didn't want anything, I just wanted to talk about franchising. He said "what the hell are you talking about?"
It's hard to believe that someone of Toni Mascolo's standing, not only in the world of hair, but in the world of business too, could be met with such a green response to franchising.
But this was back in the 80s, when franchising was something only 'finance types' discussed. "When we first started there was no such thing as franchising in Europe. In America there were Wimpy and Macdonalds, but not much else, and certainly not salon franchising."
The Toni&Guy brand had been making headway since the early 60s, way before franchising came into the equation, leading the way when it came to education, seminars and step-by-steps in hair magazines: "We were doing step-by-step videos before people even had video machines to play them on," says Toni.
But before the brand could make it to where it stands today, Toni set about developing products. "We needed products that were strong and powerful, rather than the middle of the road brands that already existed. Succeeding in business in the 60s and 70s meant that you needed luck."
Those were decades when a social revolution was happening regarding women. "In the 60s, a woman would be married by 16; you'd pick her up, take her dancing," he says with a glint in his eye. "But by the 70s, women had careers, drove cars, had their own flats." And along with that, fashionable hair became radically different.
"With that came the need for them to have the right products to make life easier, and still give them the look they wanted. You can't plan for an opportunity like that," says Toni, who promptly took advantage of the situation by creating the right product line. And he didn't stop there. Once the product range was ready, he set about travelling all over, from Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong to America, to learn about the franchising model.
"That's where I learned about the value of having a five-year plan to become a millionaire," he laughs. "Remember this was in the early 80s, he continues. ?So many people were moving to Dallas because of the oil. The States is where they came up with the initial idea of franchising although the nature of it has changed since then and I thought it could really help me, so I set about finding out everything about it."
While Toni's business was doing well in the UK (he had 23 stylists in one shop), soon people started to leave, merely because lack of space meant being unable to accommodate the team. Toni thought that by franchising his business, he could retain the staff he trusted, build the business, and also give something back to his team.
"With so many stylists many of them would move on. I thought, instead of them leaving, why don't they stay with us, take our education and products and start their own thing? I'd wanted a chain of salons ever since we opened our first one in 1963 in Clapham, so franchising really answered that need."
1964 saw Toni opening a second salon in Streatham, 'the first unisex salon in the world,' which again, answered the growing need of women who wanted to bring along husbands, fathers and sons for great hair too.
Returning to his US experiences of the 80s, Toni explains the American model of franchising back then was more along the lines of someone (not necessarily a hairdresser) owning a large shop, and hiring out the chairs and taking 30 percent of the takings.
With the takings, they would buy products, which they would then also sell to the people hiring the chairs. He says his brother Bruno made franchising more about a partnership, thus making the relationship more productive for both sides.
Although Toni found the right balance when it came to getting franchising right, he admits you have to be good at business to run a good salon, saying that initially, Toni&Guy would only sell franchises to people who actually cut hair.
"I would not allow any non-hairdressers, they were all Toni&Guy people. It was about giving back. You work for me, you run my salon, so if you can do it for me, you can do it for yourself. Of course, some of them would fail, but that's because they didn't have business acumen."
When asked if he has an inspirational business champion, as well as mentioning British mogul Richard Branson, he cites Julius Caesar as someone he has always admired, both as a leader and a champion of military precision.
Says Toni: "He was a man who believed in strategy and discipline, and made it against the odds." And it's easy to see how Toni has embraced the Roman leader's philosophy; nothing that has happened within Toni&Guy has come about on a mere whim; he believes that business only succeeds if it answers a need.
And for those who want to make a start in business, Toni says franchising is the number one solution.
"If someone is ambitious, franchising is for them. Anyone who has a franchise gets support with working out finances, IT, shop-fittings, HR - everything. Things are so much more complicated now; you need the right location, the right size premises, the right side of the street, the right rent - we help with everything and will often get a better offer on a lease than someone who is new to the business. But the franchise salon owner must not lose their artistic flair for hairdressing," he says matter-of-factly.
And if Toni ever needs help with something? "I just say to myself 'what would Julius Caesar do?'"
