At a Glance
AI is disrupting professional tech careers, and many IT professionals are rethinking their options while they still have them.
The skills that define a tech career—systems thinking, data fluency, team leadership—transfer directly to franchise ownership.
Deepak Shroff sold his IT company in 2017 and has since grown from 9 Great Clips salons to 31 across two states.
For nearly 15 years, Deepak Shroff ran two businesses at the same time—a technology company providing software and support to medical practices, and a growing Great Clips franchise business. Then he made a choice. He sold the tech company and went all in on Great Clips. Today he owns 31 salons across two states.
If you're in tech and wondering what AI means for your career, Deepak's decision is one a lot of people in your position are starting to consider.
A recent interactive report from The Washington Post, based on research from GovAI and the Brookings Institution, found something that surprised a lot of people: The jobs most exposed to AI disruption aren't primarily low-skill roles. They include professional careers in technology, finance, marketing, and business operations.
These careers aren't disappearing, but the work is changing. In IT especially, AI is taking over work that follows predictable patterns: creating project plans, monitoring systems, flagging issues, generating reports. Companies still need people who can lead, decide, and solve complex problems. But the manual effort that once defined many tech roles is shrinking.
For professionals who've spent years building real skills, savings, and experience, that raises a fair question: If those skills still matter—and they do—where else could they create opportunity?
For Deepak, the answer was franchise ownership.
When Deepak first looked at Great Clips, he wasn't trying to leave tech. He was looking for an investment that could grow alongside his existing business.
"My work was very active," he said. "I was technical in nature. I did sales, I was meeting with customers, I was helping with tech stuff. I wanted to look for something where I could invest and be a little less involved in the day-to-day operations."
What attracted him to franchising was the structure. As the franchisor behind more than 4,400 walk-in hair salons, Great Clips came with a proven operating model and established systems—something his technology company, built largely from scratch, never had. The difference became clearer the longer he ran both.
"The more I thought about it, the more I realized the strength of the Great Clips brand and the ability to scale it," he said. "I sold my IT business in 2017, and since then we've gone from nine salons to 31 salons."
One of the biggest surprises for Deepak was how much data and reporting capability already existed inside the Great Clips system.
"The amount of reporting and technology we use is impressive," he said. "You can really manage with the data, and that allows you to scale and grow faster than you would if you were trying to manage everything manually."
That's not a coincidence—it's one of the reasons franchising tends to appeal to people with tech backgrounds. It's a structured business model with established systems, processes, training, and support. If your career has been built around understanding systems, improving operations, and solving problems methodically, the environment feels more familiar than you'd expect.
The skills cross over in very real ways:
Solving technology problems → finding what isn't working and improving operations
Managing technology projects → keeping teams, schedules, and daily priorities on track
Working with large systems → building consistent processes that support growth
Using data every day → tracking performance and making smart adjustments
Leading IT teams → developing people, communicating clearly, creating accountability
The underlying idea is simple: Take the skills you've already built, apply them to a proven business system, and own something.
Franchise ownership is not the right fit for everyone. But as technology continues to reshape careers, this can be a good time to think about how your skills could apply in new ways, especially while you have the flexibility to explore different options thoughtfully. For a closer look at what the decision involves, see what makes a great franchisee and what’s involved in our 8-step process of mutual evaluation.
To learn more, contact [email protected] or 800-947-1143.
You don't. Great Clips is a manager-led model, and the training and support infrastructure is built for people coming in without industry experience. What matters is whether you can follow a proven system, lead a team, and stay engaged—especially in those first months.
It varies by market. The important thing is having enough not just for the initial investment, but for working capital through the early phase of the business. Reach out directly and we can walk through what the numbers look like in the markets you're considering.
Some franchisees do. Deepak ran both businesses simultaneously for years before going all in on Great Clips. The right answer depends on your financial situation, your bandwidth, and how hands-on you plan to be early on.
It's structured, and it moves. A typical discovery process wraps up within a couple of months—regular conversations with our team, direct access to existing franchisees, a clear look at territory and financials. The goal is to give you what you need to make a good decision, not to push you toward one.
If you're in tech and you've been quietly thinking about what comes next, I'm happy to have that conversation.
[email protected] | 800-947-1143
Beth Nilssen, Director of Franchise Development, Great Clips, Inc.
We'd love to learn more about your goals and answer your questions about becoming a Great Clips franchisee. Please fill out our contact form, and someone will get back to you as soon as possible. Chatting with us is completely confidential.