There are many models of business for an aspiring and ambitions entrepreneur to explore when starting their professional journey. From retail chains selling varied product lines, to service-oriented independent companies dedicated to solving a set list of problems, to a development company that innovates with boundary-pushing new technologies, there are many routes someone can take with a business. One of those routes is franchising, where the business owner is able to leverage the branding and business model of an existing service or company in exchange for a licensing fee.
For Riley McMurdo, franchising was the perfect way to build a business and take care of his family. A long time sports enthusiast and a burgeoning businessman, McMurdo and his father looked to enter the world of franchising with a company that had long since earned their customer loyalty: SportClips, a go-to location for boys’ and mens’ athletic haircuts. In 2009, the two men took a leap of faith and opened their first franchise in Glendale, Colorado—the first of many to come. Today, McMurdo’s business, TMAC Investments Inc., operates 19 SportClips locations across Colorado and Wyoming, where Riley McMurdo serves as President of Operations.
The secret to this consistent, multi-state business success is, in Riley McMurdo’s opinion, simple: focus on people. From his family, who support the company as part of the team, to the community their franchises serve, focusing on people over profits has been the consistent throughline of both the franchises’ success, and the company’s overall growth. Balancing community needs, the company’s goals, and the consistent growth and learning the modern business world requires hasn’t been easy, but Riley McMurdo has found it to be intensely rewarding.
Sporting Inspiration
Sports have always been a large part of Riley McMurdo’s life, from his school years to the current day. From basketball, football, track, and soccer in middle school, to baseball in high school and beyond, sports were always a place of camaraderie and community for McMurdo. His initial plan for college and beyond was to become a teacher and, hopefully, a baseball coach himself. However, despite his love, he wasn’t ready to lock himself into a narrow band of options—the professional world had much yet to teach and show him.
After jumping around a few different jobs, including a short time as a teacher and coach, McMurdo decided that education wasn’t the career path for him. Around that time, Riley McMurdo heard Magic Johnson speak of his own success with franchising, and saw his father looking to step into a new business world as well. As longtime customers of SportClips, the two saw no more worthy option, and took the leap into franchising in 2009, with Riley McMurdo running the operation after getting it built.
The moment that convinced the family that their business was not only stable, but scalable, was the acquisition of their second store. They’d built one location prior—their only one—and were nervous about purchasing an existing one. It was a new community, and one used to a different owner and thus perhaps a different style of service. They needn’t have worried; the new store took off and grew so rapidly that it wasn’t long before the family business was ready to expand once more.
“If you’re entering a franchise. trust the process,” he explains. “Understand that you bought into this brand for a reason, accept you don’t know everything, and trust the model you bought into. Marketing and location are important but nothing is more important than good operations with good people.”
Keeping Up and Handling Business
The day to day operations of the company are fairly regular, with each week starting with administrative work before transitioning smoothly into meetings and location visits. The more intense work is focused on keeping up with industry trends, changes in the economy, and managing the needs of people both in the company and in the community each location serves. To this end, Riley McMurdo attends multiple conferences every year to stay up to date on best practices and new developments. Additionally, he’s a member of the Team Leader Advisory Council for the SportClips franchise as a whole, which gives him the privilege and responsibility of sharing his perspective, and the perspective of other team leaders in his region.
His leadership roles, both as part of his own company and as part of the franchise council, are indicative of his effective, people-first business leadership. Every project begins with setting clear organizational standards and goals, with open brainstorming that takes all ideas into consideration. McMurdo recognizes that the greatest indicator of success is the people he surrounds himself with and works alongside, and thus works to empower them in and out of the workplace.
“In business I really put my employees’ well-being at the top of the list. We want to be far and away the employer of choice in our industry and region,” he says. “We believe that happy employees are the key to a successful business.”
Successful People Make Successful Companies
In the face of his company’s growth and success, it’d be easy for Riley McMurdo to point to any number of factors as his “winning formula,” but he’s always been clear: success isn’t judged by financial metrics, it’s judged by the people around him. Strongly driven by his faith and his love for his family, Riley McMurdo knows that his job—that any job—is a temporary thing meant to serve a purpose. For McMurdo, that purpose is serving his family and his community.
“It’s okay to love your job, but your job will never love you the way your family does,” McMurdo says. “Put your trust in God. Trust the process when it comes to growing a business.”
Whether it’s making sure his employees are taken care of, or making sure his family is getting what it needs, McMurdo is people-focused as a professional. This perspective goes beyond his employees and family to the communities in which his franchises exist; every year his company raises thousands of dollars for the Help a Hero Scholarship Fund in a partnership with SportClips. Additionally, McMurdo and his team have run charity golf tournaments every year for the past seven years, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. To Riley McMurdo and his company, this is what it means to be professionally successful.
“Success to me is being able to spend time with the people you love and care about it,” McMurdo says. “Yes, providing for my family is part of it, but so is earning the love and respect of those you care about.”
