Meet Val Hill | Franchise Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Val Hill and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Val, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My good friend and I always had a dream of owning a business ever since we met in Business School back in the 90’s. In 2005, after working a while in corporate America, we started getting serious about our dream and we investigated many different business opportunities from Real Estate to Food businesses to other franchises. I stumbled upon Sport Clips and after looking into it, it really resonated with us. Sport Clips was focused on guys and providing a little bit of pampering which was very unique 20 years ago. The values of the company, the growth potential and the people all made Sport Clips the right decision for us. So, we bought three licenses and shortly thereafter, we bought an existing store in Gilbert. For the first several years, we continued our day jobs while working on our business at night and weekends. Looking back, it was a lot of work but it’s definitely a dream come true as we now have 67 stores in 4 states including the 2 Surprise locations.

What should our readers know about your business?
One of my biggest lessons is that success doesn’t happen overnight. For 5 years, every penny we made went into our business. We were able to do that because we had other jobs that supported our families. During that time, we grew our business by building and purchasing other locations. By 2010, we had six locations. By 2014, when we left our corporate jobs, we had 13 locations. Today, we’re the largest Sport Clips franchisee in the country with 67 locations in 4 states. The biggest key to our success is that we’ve been blessed to have great people working for us. Our stylists and managers are the best of the best and they are the reason for our success. The #1 thing I’m proud of is the careers that our employees, especially our management team have built. Seeing them grow with us from stylist to assistant manager to Store Manager and even Area Manager has been very rewarding. The #2 thing that we’re most proud of is the great accomplishments of our team. Over the years, we’ve received many national awards including Sport Clips Store of the Year 3 times. Jared and I have been Sport Clips Team Leader (franchisee) of the Year twice. We’ve also been blessed to receive industry awards. In 2023, we were an International Franchise Association Franchisee of the Year.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, I love the outdoors and I love the Grand Canyon so that would be one of the top places we’d visit. I’ve been fortunate enough to raft the canyon as well as hike Rim to Rim several times. Every time is awe-inspiring. I also love to golf so we’d mix in some golf at Boulders or Troon North or Quintero. Then, we’d probably top that off with a little boating trip to Lake Pleasant!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My friend and business partner of over 30 years, Jared Lee. We built the business together from the ground up. My wife Stacey has always been a huge supporter of our business efforts. And the biggest reason for our success is our incredible team of stylists and managers.

Website: https://sportclips.com

Instagram: sportclipsleehill