HOLLIS – You might say Pete Noury has a knack for timing.

After graduating from Alvirne High School in 1987, Noury worked in construction, sold real estate, and within a couple of years, started Empire Homes, a construction and development company that he continues to run.

“The economy was rebounding from the last crash in ’92, ’93, and getting better,” Noury said. “The timing was really good to get started.”

The 42-year-old entrepreneur took a similar leap of faith two years ago when he opened a Great Clips hair salon franchise, a business that uses the McDonald’s model to sell haircuts and hair products.

“We were sitting at the table, my son, Jake, who was 12, and my wife, and the conversation came up about businesses that are resistant to the economy,” Noury said, recalling a dinnertime discussion that sparked his imagination.

“My son said, ‘What about haircuts?’”

Noury said he remembered seeing a Great Clips salon in a strip mall near the family’s second home in Florida and decided to do some research.

He contacted the Great Clips corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, talked with franchise owners across the country, and learned that the company’s Boston area market, including southern New Hampshire, was just opening up.

According to the company Web site, there are more than 3,000 Great Clips salons in the United States and Canada.

“For me, it was an entirely different industry,” Noury said, explaining why he was seeking a business that provided plenty of resources, and support.

He said he liked what he found: an appealing product and a company that provided ongoing training and was quick to respond to his questions.

Like its fast-food counterparts, Great Clips offers a basic menu of services: haircuts for children and adults, completed in 13 to 17 minutes on a walk-in basis, and hair care products.

Customers rarely, if ever, wait longer than 15 minutes, and salons, located in suburban strip malls, are open seven days a week.

Noury said 70 percent of his customers are middle-aged men like himself who don’t have time to make an appointment, or wait.

The remainder of his business is mostly women and children.

“I’m going at 100 miles an hour, and if I pull in to a place and have to wait, I leave,” Noury said.

Great Clips salons are typically in small retail spaces, between 1,000 and 1,200 square feet, with a counter, several product displays, and stylists’ booths, separated by partitions that resemble striped sails.

There isn’t much of a waiting area.

The “sails” evoke the company’s marketing strategy: “Comfort, Freedom, and Connection.”

Noury plunged into the hair salon industry with the same philosophy that has guided his construction business: “Stay focused on the customer,” he said.

He purchased his first Great Clips franchise in June 2009, a salon on South Willow Street in Manchester, the second franchise in New Hampshire and the third in the Greater Boston market.

“They were just opening the Boston market and there were some great locations,” he said. “And with the construction background, I could do the general contracting for new franchises.”

He opened his second salon five months later in Hudson, his third in Derry in March 2010, his fourth in Nashua on Amherst Street in July 2010, and his fifth at the Prudential Center in Boston this past July. (Haircuts cost $14 for adults, $12 for children and seniors, and $1 more at the Prudential Center.)

On Saturday , Noury will be opening his sixth salon, a Great Clips in Chelmsford, Mass.

The new business venture is also keeping his construction firm busy: Noury’s company has built 13 of the 18 salons recently opened in the local market.

“It’s worked out well,” he said. “It’s kept my crews busy with small jobs.”

It hasn’t been difficult for the businessman to run two businesses at the same time, he said, because of the way the Great Clips company is structured, with trained stylists, salon managers, and a general manager to oversee the operation.

And Noury’s wife, Lisa, does the bookkeeping for the businesses.

On average, Noury continued, stylists give between 400 and 600 haircuts weekly.

Most customers just walk in. But they also can book appointments with cell phone apps or by going online.

Meanwhile, Noury is dipping his toes into another entrepreneurial pool: In February, he plans to open a self-storage facility on Route 102 in Hudson.

He said his son, Jake, now a sophomore at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, and his daughter, Tiffany, a freshman at Bentley University, haven’t expressed interest in their father’s businesses, at least not yet.

But Noury’s mission, a recession-proof business, has been accomplished.

“It turned out, it was a great idea,” he said of the Great Clips franchises. “The timing was spot on. It made sense.”

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.