Sandwiched between the Texas Resolution Trust Corporation collapse of the 1980s and the Great Recession of the 2000s, Brian Robinson managed to carve out a name for himself in business—a name which still flourishes today as the founder of RDI Construction LLC and owner of a successful franchise of three Spectra Salon Suites.
After graduating from Texas A&M in 1990 with a degree in engineering management, there were not a lot of jobs available for those fresh out of college, but soon Robinson would be putting both the engineering and management sides of his degree to work at Hines, “No, not the ketchup company,” he pokes, but the Houston-based construction company.
He credits his entrepreneurial spirit—which spurred him on to found his construction company and franchise locations—to his role at Hines. “I worked for Hines for 12 years. They moved me to Denver in 1998, where I worked for another three years, and then left to start my own construction business,” says Robinson, who, in 2004, returned to Hines for one last year to help work on a special project.
From college graduation to graduating from his career at Hines, Robinson was ready to brave the world of commercial construction on his own. When he founded his own company in 2001, it focused on development and construction of custom homes and commercial buildings. “I did that up until 2014 when I got a call from a contractor friend in California,” says Robinson. That call was actually about doing work for a national competitor—building salon suites. “I ended up taking that project on in Denver, and by 2017 I had built 11 other locations from Denver to Seattle.”
LUCK BE A CONTRACTOR
To an outsider, it might seem like Robinson is lucky in business with his construction and franchise business, but if you ask him, he wasn’t born with it—he worked for it: “I will say that my time with Hines honed the entrepreneurial spirit, and the reason is because we were tasked with doing many, many things. We used to call ourselves jacks of all trades, masters of none. That really honed my skills for real estate, construction, development, all of that.”
Then, while building salon suites for that national competitor, Robinson honed another skillset—problem solving.
So what goes into building a salon suite franchise as a construction company owner? Engineering, management, challenges and gratitude, to name a few things. Robinson already had the engineering and management expertise and experience. Next came the challenges: HVAC issues and tenant complaints.
“Because each individual suite has its own room,” says Robinson, “and they were trying to heat and cool these salon suites with basically a zoned system—meaning three thermostats per 30 rooms—you can’t have a temperature in each suite that’s going to satisfy each tenant. So, one of the things that I looked at is how we can improve that. It was by far the biggest complaint.”
After his college degree, his career at Hines and his initial stint as a salon suite franchise contractor, when Robinson decided to stake out on his own, he was well equipped with an arsenal of entrepreneurial education.
When his current business partner and he started designing Spectra Salon Suites in 2019, he says, “We went in with the intent that we were going to make the HVAC very customizable for each suite, and we were going to address the aesthetics so that you had more lobby space and wider hall corridors.”
GROW AS YOU GO
Taking the best of what he knew from the engineering and management world, the construction and development world, and the franchise world, Robinson was able to find a happy medium within his own franchise. “There’s a give and take,” he says, “between having a location that addresses the mechanical issues, the aesthetics, the furnishings with the rentable square footage. That’s what we targeted and so far, it’s been a huge success.”
Today, each of Robinson’s three Spectra Salon Suites locations—Denver, Plano and Southlake—is outfitted with 57, 47 and 63 rooms—respectively—available for rent from stylists. Each individual suite is equipped with a styling chair, shampoo bowl and chair, a hair dryer, wall cabinet and styling station. With approximately a year between each build, each finished product gets brighter and shiner—much like the hairdos the stylists are serving—than the last. But Robinson keeps in mind: “There are always improvements that can be made.”
He offers this and other advice for other contractors curious about franchising—whatever their business may be.
WORDS OF WISDOM
From the architect and design phase to the permitting and outfitting, Robinson emphasizes three things: communication, support and creativity.
“During the design process,” says Robinson, “I work with the architects and the engineers specific to those locations to make sure that what they’re designing and engineering works for that location. I’m kind of their eyes and ears, so to speak. And then once it’s designed, then we’re into the permitting process,” which involves everything from demolition to plumbing and electrical to occupancy to inspection to lease agreements—and so on. Transparency and good communication between all parties is imperative during this phase of the process.
Transparency and good communication are equally as important during the next phase of the process—when tenants sign leases and move in. That is actually one thing Robinson loves about this line of work: “I have the added advantage of being able to assist the stylists when they come in. They’ll need cabinets put up, they’ll need shelves put up, they’ll need all this other stuff put up. I bring that to the table, which is very, very appreciated by them. I mean, very appreciated. That gives me a level of intention that perhaps other mainstream franchisors do not have.”
Just as Robinson acts as a support system for his tenants, he wouldn’t be where he is today without a few support systems of his own.
“My experience with Hines probably helped me the most along the way,” he says. “Working with the professionals there has probably given me more direction than anything else.”
He delves even further back to recall one mentor from his collegiate days: “I will say—man, this is going way back—when I was in college, I did work for a bookstore and the owner, John Raney, great guy, probably had the greatest impact on my business compass in terms of how to deal with people.”
What about that creativity?
Business acumen and a can-do attitude are typical traits brought to mind regarding the entrepreneur, but Robinson also encourages space to create: “There’s very creative people out there and these franchisees are just another creative mind and giving them the ability to have that creativity, they may come back with something that’s even better than what we had.”
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