ROSS THE BOSS AND CO.

"I'm Ross the Boss, and I guarantee it"

That's the commercial pledge that Ross R. Badgett III, owner of the Ross the Boss and Co. hair salons, has been making for more than 20 years.

Badgett's previous career as a salesman had included supplying pre-cooked meat to pizza restaurants and traveling for the Flash 'n' Dash brand tennis shoes. But in 1978, he bought two franchise beauty shops in Knoxville.

By dubbing himself Ross the Boss and spouting memorably awful poetry in radio and TV ads, Badgett took the struggling shops and grew them into the successful chain of salons that now bear his nickname. In addition to 17 salons, Ross the Boss and Co. also runs the Reuben-Allen College of cosmetology in Knoxville.

Runners-up: America's Cuts and Salon Visage