The Franchising Queen

 

 

If you could go back in time, imagine a servant for 25 years who aimed for the stars once her masters released her from bondage.

Her name was Martha Mathilda Harper. In 1888, when she was freed from slavery in Rochester, New York, Harper embarked on entrepreneurship at a time when women had no vote and were discouraged from engaging in any kind of business. She put up a hair salon, and by 1928 she had 500 outlets in the United States and Europe, counting the rich and famous as a client including the legendary Kennedy clan. What exactly did she do? Well, she invented the Harper Franchise System that lasted until 1972-a total of 84 years. It was only in 2000 that people recognized her contribution to the franchising world.

The Prototype

Harper started with a prototype. As a result of her background, getting the first site for her saloon was the first obstacle she had to overcome, but her persistence paid off when a landlord gave her a spot that she leased on a month-to-month basis. It wasn’t long before her first shop attracted the cream of society as a result of her proprietary hair and skin products and excellent service. Having been a servant for years, Harper understood and lived her business creed: “Build Everything on Service.”

But setting up her own business was only a part of Harper’s BHAG OR big, Hairy and Audacious Goal, according to her book Built to Last. It changed the social scene by establishing a business network built on truth and principles. She worked hard to become a principled entrepreneur who believed in a win-win, team-oriented, and replicable business framework, and this eventually led her to become the first person to use business format franchising to expand her business.

Harper’s Franchise System

Harper envisioned an ethics-based business model that allowed control of a network and still benefited everyone. It validated the practice that franchising would only be successful if it rewarded all parties. She created an innovative way of mobilizing her working-class sisters for their self-improvement in a creative and principled fashion. Her concept was simple: Duplicate her shop, methods, and products to customers know what to expect anytime and anywhere they go in the Harper Hair Salon System.

Harper recruited her working-class sisters, made sure they believed in her Service Creed, and subjected them to thorough training. She remained the “caring teacher.” She fostered loyalty to the system that her franchisees were later called “Harperites.” Strict adherence to the system meant rewards and higher benefits.

Harper personally opened all new branches and made sure their operations succeeded. Her franchisees depended on headquarters for initial and updating training, and headquarters provided them with the Harper Textbook on her operating procedures, philosophy, and Service Creed – the forerunner of the Operations Manual that we have today.

Harper build and furnished the shops for the franchisees while they trained. She provided constant research and development on products and services, and in the process invented the reclining shampoo chair. She brought franchisees together for yearly reunions to develop camaraderie and inspire one another. She encouraged Regional Harper Franchise Associations to do more exchanges and set up support systems. She visited the shops regularly to see if they complied with the Harper Method.

Before long, Harper published Harper Progress, an in-house newsletter that provided motivational stories, and business and product tips. She also provided Group insurance for the Harperites.

Strict quality control

Later, Harper built a corresponding franchise organization that helped her manage the franchise system. She demanded strict compliance with the system but allowed franchisees to fail in safe situations. She never allowed shortcuts to operate procedures, reminding franchisees who had strayed of the benefits and life improvements they have had using the Harper system. She encouraged a support mechanism and peer pressure system for compliance. When the earthquake in San Francisco leveled a Harper shop, the Harper System and other franchisees all helped to enable the shop owner to re-open. When a franchisee in Canada broke her wrist, a representative was on her way to help within three hours.

Ahead of her time

Harper’s decision to open a shop in a new location was always determined by the number of signatures supporting it. (Franchise applicants mobilized women and got their promise to support the Harper Shop in their area.) While the cosmetics industry had many players including Revlon, Rubinstein, and others, Harper retained her distinctive competence and commitment to good health through proper hair and skin care. She was not swayed to introduce beauty products that had no valid health benefits. “Watching your competitors is never so profitable financially and normally as watching your own shop to see that it gives the highest service possible to every patron and checking every detail,” she once told franchisees. “These will give you profits, so there is no need to worry about competitors.”

 

 

Ahead of her time, Harper pushed direct mail to possible customers. She insisted on a play area where children – her future customers – could play so mothers would be encouraged to patronize her shops. She made sure shops got endorsements from loyal clients. She adjusted her shop hours to accommodate professionals who could only visit at night. She refused to reduce prices during the Great Depression, insisting the “Harper Service Costs More – Is Worth More.” (History testifies that not a single Harper Shop closed during this difficult period.) When it was time to put Harper products into department stores, she encouraged her franchisees to accompany her traveling representative to meet with department store owners.

The distinctive competence of the Harper Method lasted because of the strength of its training program, which became a full-blown training school. “From the start, [Harper’s] franchise model suggested a new way of approaching business, intending to share opportunity and profits with needed women rather than maximize her own gain,” according to the book Martha Harper and the American Dream. “She believed in a win-win model where her business literally depended on the mutual success of her franchise owners and her parent business. Her style, based on her strong religious convictions, emphasized trust, kindness, cooperation, teamwork, and mutual support, fulfilling her need to be needed and creating a predictable environment that she could control, and from which she and others could make money. She used her business to cause social change and provide economic power within her enterprise. While her own wealth grew, it was in direct proportion to the success of her Harper franchisees.”

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You may contact Armando “Butz” Bartolome for questions and more information.

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