Regina Lillie is a hair-salon owner who has never snipped a tress herself.


Shes been a businesswoman in Spokane for 20 years, but only has lived here since 1993.


Shes a volume dealer in an industry thats full of sole proprietors.


Lillie and her business partners, who are family members, own and operate 19 Supercuts and Cost Cutters salons in the region under a corporate umbrella called Sisbro LP. She works full time in the business.


Her salons employ 165 people and serve 27,000 clients a month. Even among Supercuts franchisees, Sisbro stands out; nationally, the average number of salons owned by franchisees in that system is four, Lillie says.


Although she can walk into one of her Spokane salons and greet every employee by name, she cultivates a hands-off approach to management.


Im so unimportant to the company, she says, adding that she believes her role is to provide people with good jobswhich offer health and retirement benefits and an employee-stock-purchase planthen let them succeed.


Absentee owner


Lillies approach to management mirrors Supercuts former approach to franchising.


Initially, the businesses were marketed as ideal investments for absentee owners, which was just fine with Lillie, who at the time she became a franchisee was a reservations agent for United Air Lines in San Francisco.


Supercuts was founded in the mid-1970s by a beauty-school instructor as a place where men, women, and children all could get a good haircut for a low price in a convenient location, Lillie says.


Her brother had invested in some Supercuts franchises in Austin, Texas, which proved very successful, she says, and suggested that Lillie get involved, too.


As they say, the rest is history, she says.


Lillie matched up the cities where Supercuts franchises were available with United Air Lines flight routes from San Francisco, and chose Spokane because it would be very easy for us to travel back and forth and check up on the stores, she says.


In 1982, with a $150,000 investment, she and her partners opened their first Supercuts location here, on North Division at Empire Avenue.


Things went smoothly for the first two years, Lillie says, then in 1984, Supercuts parent company at the time mandated that franchisees raise the price of haircuts to $8 from $6, she says.


Those higher prices gave competitors an opening to undercut the salon chain, and all of a sudden, we really had to manage these stores, Lillie says.


Although Sisbro has opened a new location here roughly every other year, Lillie didnt move to Spokane until 1993 when she decided to ramp up and blanket the market with our concept.


Aside from Spokane, the largely rural Inland Northwest market might not seem ideal for a business that depends on high volume and low prices to make money.


Sisbro, however, had great success with its first small-market salon, which opened in Coeur dAlene in 1986, and Lillie claims that the outlet became a model for such stores within Minneapolis-based Regis Corp., the parent company of Supercuts since 1996.


Its been her experience that what smaller markets lack in size, they make up for in loyalty, she says. To this day, the Coeur dAlene Supercuts is Sisbros most profitable location, Lillie says.


Currently, in addition to Spokane and Coeur dAlene, Sisbro owns Supercuts franchises in Yakima, Wenatchee, Ellensburg, Kennewick, and Pullman, Wash., and in Lewiston, Idaho.


Two years ago, the company was asked by Regis to take over several outlets of another franchised salon chain it owns, Lillie says. Called Cost Cutters, salons in that chain offer chemical services such as hair coloring and permanents, which Supercuts outlets do not.


We had to regroup and relearn, but we felt the challenge would be fun, she says.


Sisbro now operates Cost Cutters salons in Wal-Mart stores in Post Falls and Sandpoint, and independently in Hayden, Idaho, and Clarkston, Wash., she says.


Lillies salons typically have about 1,500 square feet of floor space and are located in strip malls. Each location has eight to 10 stylists chairs and about 10 stylists, she says.


Lillie says Sisbro likely will take a break from expansion for awhile. Although the company would have the first right of refusal to open a new Cost Cutters franchise in any new Wal-Mart stores that come to the area, she doesnt plan to expand that brand here, she says.


She believes the market for hair salons in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area is saturated, and that adding more Cost Cutters would confuse things.


Plus, 20 locations right now is a very workable number, she says.


Orientation to action


Lillie has been active on several business and philanthropic boards over the yearsincluding serving as one of two Eastern Washington delegates to a White House conference on small business in 1995but says shes very selective about those commitments.


In middle age, shes well past the point of worrying about how her affiliations look on a resume, she says.


She accepted the invitation earlier this year, however, to join the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerces board of trustees for a three-year term because she wants to make other business leaders more aware of her industry and of the contributions of female business owners, Lillie says.


Rich Hadley, president of the chamber, says Lillie was tapped for the position because of she could bring to the boardwhich includes representatives of some of Spokanes largest companiesseveral perspectives, including those of a small-business owner and a franchisee.


We knew that she would bring a good background (to the job) and that she has an orientation to action. Those are a couple of key things we saw, he says.


Lillie says that in her view, Cosmetology as a career is not at the forefront of peoples minds and it should be. Salon managers can make more than $40,000 a year, yet, they dont get the respect they deserve, she says.


Whats more, Spokane has a conservative element that may not be giving female business owners the respect they deserve, she says.


During her time on the chamber boardindeed, during her career, she saysI want to make sure my contributions change that notion in whatever way I can.