Great Clips Franchise Cost (2026): Investment, Fees & ROI

Great Clips sits among the more accessible franchises on this site: $188,000 to $420,000 all-in, with a $20,000 franchise fee. That accessibility comes from the business itself, a hair salon needs a modest retail footprint and salon chairs, not a commercial kitchen, a drive-thru lane, or a gym floor’s worth of equipment.

The Item 7 breakdown

Great Clips publishes its investment range as line items rather than a single lump sum, which is worth reading closely because the leasehold-improvements line does most of the work. Per the company’s own franchising page, a single-unit build-out breaks down to:

• Franchise fee: $20,000 ($35,000 for the optional Three Star Program)
• Leasehold improvements and site fees: $119,800-$289,400
• Working capital (3-6 months): $20,000-$60,000
• Grand opening advertising: $20,000-$25,000
• Training and travel: $1,500-$2,500
• Insurance: $1,500-$3,000
• Initial ad fund contribution: $5,000

That leasehold-improvements line, which covers labor, fixtures, opening inventory, and rent and security deposits, accounts for roughly two-thirds of the total range on its own. It’s also the line with the widest swing, driven almost entirely by whether you’re building into raw retail space or taking over a mostly-finished salon suite.

The optional $35,000 Three Star Program, versus the standard $20,000 fee, buys a structured mentorship and training track aimed at franchisees who haven’t run a salon business before. Worth asking your franchise development contact whether it applies to you before defaulting to the standard fee; for someone with no salon-industry background, the extra $15,000 upfront can be cheaper than learning the operational mistakes it’s designed to prevent.

The financial bar to qualify

Great Clips sets its net worth requirement at $500,000 ($1,000,000 in higher-cost markets) and its liquid capital requirement at $100,000 ($250,000 in higher-cost markets), plus a stated minimum credit score of 675. That’s a meaningfully lower bar than most QSR or fitness brands on this site, which routinely ask for $1 million-plus net worth, and it’s part of why Great Clips shows up often in “first franchise” conversations rather than only among multi-unit restaurant groups. The company also points prospective franchisees toward third-party lenders, noting that thousands of North American locations have been financed over its 35-plus years in the franchise business, so the liquid-capital figure isn’t necessarily what you need sitting in cash on day one.

The ongoing fee is heavier than the low entry cost suggests

6% royalty plus 5% into advertising totals 11% combined, on the higher side for the services category. That’s a meaningful bite out of a business with naturally lower per-location revenue than a restaurant or fitness club, worth factoring into any margin expectations.

What the numbers actually look like

Great Clips discloses an average unit volume around $373,000, a real, useful benchmark, though it’s naturally smaller than revenue figures from restaurant or gym-format franchises, since a salon serves a different transaction size and volume. Nearly 4,439 U.S. locations gives this figure a large, credible sample behind it.

Run the 11% combined fee against that AUV and you get roughly $41,000 a year going to Great Clips corporate before rent, stylist payroll, or supply costs are even in the picture. What the FDD doesn’t disclose is a profit figure. Great Clips’ Item 19 stops at average unit volume; it doesn’t publish a franchisee earnings or margin claim the way some brands do, so translating that $373,000 AUV into actual owner take-home requires either talking to an existing multi-unit operator or building your own labor and rent model for the specific market you’re considering.

At over 4,400 locations, Great Clips is also one of the most saturated franchise systems on this site by sheer count. That cuts two ways. A system this large has decades of operating data behind its training and supply chain, but it also means open, unclaimed territory in a dense metro is harder to find than it would be for a younger brand like UFC Gym or Wingstop. Ask the franchise development team directly about territory availability in your specific ZIP codes before assuming a slot is open.

Is a Great Clips franchise worth it?

Great Clips offers one of the lower capital barriers on this list alongside a large, mature franchise system (over 4,400 U.S. locations) and a real disclosed revenue figure. The 11% combined ongoing fee is a real cost to model against that revenue base before assuming the lower entry price translates to easier profitability, and it’s on the high side compared with a services-category peer like The UPS Store, which charges 8.5% combined against a higher $692,000 disclosed AUV.

The $500,000 net worth and $100,000 liquid capital bar is genuinely reachable for a first-time individual buyer, which is rare among the recognizable names on this site. Most Great Clips growth actually comes from existing multi-unit operators adding locations rather than first-timers, so if you’re going in as a single-unit owner-operator, budget for the reality that scale is where the margin tends to show up in this system.