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Buy a Business

That’s Trending!

We list the TOP 10 TRENDS in franchising (like desserts!)— and hundreds of related businesses you could buy.

CONTENTS

STARTERS

7 Start Here!

You can be a sales machine. We’ll show you how.

8 Tell Your Brand Story

How to communicate your value in just a few words.

14 The Top 10 Trends in Small Business Sales

Try these strategies now!

We

18 The Rule of One

A simple, effective approach to simplifying your sales.

22 AI Made His Marketing. Then He Made $70K.

Learn how to build a powerful promotional machine.

30 How to Get Onto Retail Shelves

A former Target buyer explains how it works—and what most founders get wrong.

FRANCHISE

70 A $3 Million Pool-Cleaning Business

How this franchisee went deep.

72 Be a Doer, Not a Dreamer

What it truly takes to build a great franchise.

Branding legend Donald Miller believes you only need a few words to communicate the value of any brand.

74 A Very Profitable Work Ethic

This former cop is now a top-earning franchisee. Here’s how he does it.

76 Read This Before Meeting a Franchisor

Thinking about buying a franchise? Here’s how to prep.

88 The Simplest Growth Tool

It’s simple: Reply to everyone.

Delivering E-commerce Packaging with Purpose

with

How Go North Group is reducing waste and delighting customers with Amazon’s Ships in Product Packaging Program

Go an aggregator, businesses on Amazon with the of 33 brands spanning home, animal, is on a mission to deliver

Go North Group was founded in 2021, as an aggregator, bringing together small businesses on Amazon with the intention of improving and expanding them. Now, with a portfolio of 33 brands spanning home, animal, and lifestyle categories, Go North is on a mission to deliver “products with purpose.”

“Our customers have, and we that customer CEO at Go North Group.“ Customers want to receive their items without the hassle of excess cardboard and

“Our products each solve a problem our customers have, and we keep that customer focus in all aspects of our business, including packaging,” says Ryan Looysen, CEO at Go North Group.“ Customers want to receive their items safely without the hassle of excess cardboard and plastic to dispose of.”

In November 2023, the which allows to customers in their improve the and save on Amazon

In November 2023, the company collaborated with Amazon’s Ships in Product Packaging program (SIPP), which allows sellers to ship items to customers in their own product packaging without any Amazon-added material. The program helps sellers reduce packaging, improve the unboxing experience for customers, and save on Amazon fulfillment fees.

For Go tremendous. “Within a year, we’ve in the program and saved approximately $280,000 in fulfillment-related expenses,” on the environment more

For Go North, the results have been tremendous. “Within a year, we’ve enrolled nearly 230 products in the program and saved approximately $280,000 in fulfillment-related expenses,” Looysen says. “This helps us reduce our impact on the environment and reinvest funds to develop better, more meaningful products.”

Here are two ways Go North is engaging with and delighting customers, thanks to purposeful packaging.

Here are two ways with and customers, thanks to

Innovating product packaging for e-commerce success

e-commerce success Go North’s little to e-commerce

Amazon overbox. Go the

Go North’s Baby Playpen required a little creative thinking to get the packaging sturdy enough to withstand e-commerce fulfillment without the need of an Amazon overbox. Go North not only redesigned the product packaging—it redesigned the product.

Instead of one long rod to hold up the side paneling of the playpen, Go North divided the rod into two shorter pieces and made the packaging more compact. “SIPP’s guidelines promote a shift in thinking about product packaging, with the goal of environmental responsibility and improved customer satisfaction,” says Alvaro Claure, Inventory Manager at Go North. “Now our playpen fits securely in a box with less risk of it bouncing and getting damaged during shipping. It also is easier for customers to store and travel with.”

Instead of one the divided the rod and made more compact. “SIPP’s the goal of environmental responsibility and improved customer Inventory Manager at Go North. “Now our with less risk of it It also is customers to store

Engaging customers through custom design

With SIPP, sellers can ship products in custom packaging that puts their brand at the forefront of the delivery experience. Go North designed their Woolly Mammoth blanket packaging with product messaging that highlights the quality, durability, and longevity of the blanket.

With in at the their Mammoth blanket product the and our customers that we are intentional in every detail,” says Lovisa Ahlm, Head of customers purchase from our brand and leaves a

“Participating in SIPP shows our customers that we are intentional in every detail,” says Lovisa Ahlm, Head of Marketing at Go North. “This helps reinforce why customers purchase from our brand and leaves a lasting positive impression.”

Ahlm says Go North’s upgraded product packaging is indeed resonating with customers. “Amazon shoppers are very vocal when they do not like something,” she says. “In terms of SIPP, out of hundreds of thousands of items shipped, we have only seen positive comments. That is a true testament to it being a good solution that benefits everyone.”

Visit amazon-packaging.com to learn how to reduce packaging and enhance the customer experience with Amazon’s Ships in Product Packaging program.

Ahlm says Go North’s is indeed customers. “Amazon shoppers are very vocal not like says. out of have only seen a solution to and enhance the Amazon’s in program.

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STTAARRTEERRS S Boost Your

Boost Your Sales

Ready to grow your revenues and earnings? This magazine is your guide.

For entrepreneurs, product is often the easy part. Sales is the hard part. Why? Because product is what you dream of! Maybe you created something new, or you bought a franchise with a proven model. Either way, you have something great to offer. You’re convinced of its value. You know it can help people, or delight them, or just make their day a little better.

But now, you have to actually sell it. And that’s when things get hard.

First, there’s often a psychological barrier. Are you comfortable selling? Do you feel timid, or embarrassed, or like you’re imposing yourself on others?

Next, there’s a strategic barrier. What are your best sales channels? Your best sales pitch? How can you grab and hold people’s attention? What happens when the cost of digital advertising goes up, or when AI disrupts everything?

And finally, there’s a tactical barrier. Who’s going to execute all this? Who writes the copy, and drives the strategy, and figures out all this crazy AI stuff?

Here’s the answer: There is no one answer.

First of all, don’t be nervous. Think of it like this: Your product or service is designed to solve their problems. You have something they need—and

it would be selfish not to tell them about it. You have a duty to make people’s lives better. Sales is your way to do that.

As for the rest? That’s what the following pages are for.

Brand storytelling expert Donald Miller will help you

refine your pitch. You’ll get a clear strategy for using AI in your marketing, and another strategy to refine your funnel into something clear and compelling. You’ll learn the top 10 trends in small business sales today, which will fill you with ideas and

opportunities. And later in the issue, we share the top 10 trends in franchising—and hundreds of businesses where the products practically sell themselves.

After reading all this, there will be only one thing left to do: Sell!

STARTERS

Your company does many things, but you must communicate it all in just a few words. Donald Miller does that better than anyone. by JASON FEIFER

Founders struggle to pitch their brand. How do you distill a complex company into a single sentence that will compel customers to buy?

In 2017, Donald Miller published an answer to that: It’s a book called Building a StoryBrand, and it’s now sold more than a million copies and has cemented him as the king of brand storytelling. In it, he explains that brands must tell stories the same way that movies do: Your story must center on a hero (your customer) who needs a guide (your company), and the guide provides a plan, a call to action, and helps them avoid highstakes failure. The story must engage emotional and philosophical elements. And it must do so simply and clearly.

Miller recently released an updated version of his book, along with an AI tool called StoryBrand AI, which can craft taglines, marketing plans, and more. In this conversation, he explains the most important part of brand storytelling— being a guide!—and how to communicate your value in a single, powerful sentence.

Your framework begins with this important idea: The customer is always the hero of the story. Why is that?

Many people come to me and say, “We’ve got such a great story.” But the place to tell your story is sort of like the third date in a relationship. What you really want to do on the first date is find out their story. Once the person senses that you’re interested in knowing them, they start to really like you. They have no idea who you are, but they know that you are for them.

So when you take the time to say, “Hey, what is our cus-

tomer’s problem? How can our product help them solve that problem?” their subconscious realizes that you are their guide. The guide is a very strong and powerful character who helps the hero out of a hole. They exist in almost every story.

So if we want to grow a business, we have to say, “We’re in this business because our customers are in a hole, and we have products that can help them out.” And customers know they’re in a hole. But if they encounter you as another hero—as a business saying, “Our brand has existed for 75 years, and we’re trying to increase our great-placeto-work metric”—they may admire you, but they don’t want to do business with you. The reason for that is they’re a hero in a hole, and you’re a hero in a hole, and you’re in separate holes.

What they need to do is subconsciously realize they’re a hero in a hole, and you’re standing at the top of the hole with a rope. And as soon as they realize that, they’re gonna be very, very interested.

So how do you help them make that realization?

Extremely clear, repeatable, and memorable sound bites. One kind is: What problem do you solve? As a business leader, you want to own a problem. Other companies may solve that problem, but I guarantee you they don’t own it. The only way you can own a problem is if you’re constantly out there saying, “If you struggle with X, you should buy Y.” And it’s gotta be exactly the same, over and over. You’ve gotta be so sick of saying it. And once you’re sick of saying it, you just gotta keep saying it.

“Good marketing and messaging is an exercise in memorization. You are causing people to memorize that idea. Repeat it over and over and over and over. Get it into the mind of your customer.”

“Good and messaging an You are causing to memorize that idea. it over over over over. it into your customer.”

What’s an example of a sound bite that shows how powerful they can be?

There’s a brand called Spectrum Brands. It’s run by a guy named David Maura. David is really good at finding distressed companies that he can buy for cheap, then fixing them and scaling them. So he bought a company that was dominating the fish food, fish aquarium, fish filters market at PetSmart, Petco. They’d been doing about $100 million in things like that. So I went to Florida to meet with their executives. They’d flown in from all over the world, and they told me, “Look, we’ve got the hobbyists. We want families, and we’re not getting families.”

So I remembered my wife and daughter. We went to London, and in the apartment complex we stayed in, there was a fish tank in the lobby. We couldn’t pass by that fish tank without me rolling the stroller up to it for five minutes and trying to find Nemo. And I had a blast. So I said, “Have you guys tried just telling your customers that this is a good product for families?”

And they were like, “What do you mean?” And I’m like, “Well, just put ‘Kids love aquariums’ on everything. Put ‘Kids love aquariums’ on

the aquariums, on the fish food, on the plants that you put inside the aquariums, on the signage, on the fish themselves. Put ‘Kids love aquariums’ everywhere.” And these guys looked at me—there was zero interest.

Like, “We’re paying you way too much money for ‘Kids love aquariums.’”

And I’m like, “Look, I’m just telling you, if you put ‘Kids love aquariums’ on things, you’re gonna sell a lot.” And it was very obvious they weren’t gonna do it. Because they get paid a ton of money, and they want to do A/B testing and market research.

I said in front of the group, “David, will you just put it in one test market? And then will you give all these people a raise if they don’t do anything else—if they just defend ‘Kids love aquariums’?” Because it’s really hard to keep a message simple. About three months later, David tells me, “In our test market, [we saw a] 99% increase in sales.”

Wow.

If they roll that out over a national release, that is a $100 million increase in sales with three freaking words. That’s how powerful this is.

STARTERS

I’d love to see you think through this process in real time. So I’ll use an example. I work with a founder named Jana Goodbaum, whose brand, Happy Wolf, makes kids’ snack bars made from real, whole foods—so it needs to be refrigerated, instead of in the pantry. What would you do with that?

Well, just off the top of my head, “Real food can’t live in a pantry”—or, “Real food has to live in the fridge.” It’s not necessarily true, because an apple doesn’t have to live in a fridge, and a banana doesn’t. But I think people understand what it’s saying: Why buy our stuff? Because real food has to live in the fridge.

That takes a challenging aspect of the brand, and turns it into a selling point.

So you’ve got the line. What next?

“Many people come to me and say, ‘We’ve got such a great story.’ But the place to tell your story is sort of like the third date in a relationship. What you really want to do on the first date is find out theirstory.”

come to me and say, ‘We’ve got such a great But the to tell your story is sort of like the third date in a What you want to do on the first is out

3 Creative Ways Small Businesses are Using Their Logos to Build Brands

Color. Typography. Design. These are all essential elements of a company’s logo. It takes a special combination of these things to create an image that not only represents a brand or idea, but is relevant, timeless, and evokes emotion and response.

And let’s face it: Time-strapped entrepreneurs don’t often have the skills or bandwidth to create a logo using complicated design software, or the funds to hire a professional designer.

That’s where VistaPrint comes in. With an array of logo design tools and support options, VistaPrint helps businesses of all sizes create impactful logos that quickly communicate their brand and resonate with customers.

Take it from these three small businesses that worked with VistaPrint to create custom logos as well as a wide array of marketing materials that help their brands stand out.

Founder: Distinee Gayle

Company: Fully Bloomed, which creates immersive self-care experiences for individuals and corporate groups.

Creative idea: Create a new logo specifically for the company’s flagship event, Fully Bloomed Fest.

In doing so, Gayle set out to give the event its own brand and identity. The new logo was used on branded event essentials like brochures, totes, pizza boxes, affirmation napkins, and acrylic signage. “Creating a custom logo for the festival ... allowed Fully Bloomed Fest to stand on its own while still staying connected to the Fully Bloomed brand,” she says. “Attendees loved how every detail felt intentional and cohesive.”

Founder: Kelly Fowble

Company: The Thrifty Handmade, a store she founded selling various wares from fiber art to secondhand clothing.

Creative idea: Leveraging her new logo for a hybrid execution: A price tag that doubles as a business card.

Customers always take price tags home. Now, they get to take a business card home, too. Fowble used VistaPrint’s custom hang tags and chose a rounded square design with a premium matte finish. The tags also include a QR code that directs customers to The Thrifty Handmade’s Instagram account.

Founders: Bernard & Jassmire Agyakwa

Company: Bomu, a creative studio that offers branding and content creation as well as event planning, floral design, and home decor services.

Creative idea: Using branded swag to onboard and outfit new team members.

With a freshly designed logo thanks to help from VistaPrint, the Agyakwas created a new-hire welcome box. Inside, team members receive branded shirts, custom Bomu-shaped stickers, keychains and more. “These boxes allow us to fully immerse new team members in the Bomu experience, making their welcome both intentional and memorable,” Jassmire Agyakwa says.

IMAGE FEATURES BIRDCODE IN CT. THEIR CHICKEN SANDO IS AMAZING.

BIG IN

When you run a restaurant, you need tech that gives you time. That feels right, feels easy — and looks good, too. Tech that doesn’t require an IT degree and doesn’t hit you with unexpected fees. You need tech that doesn’t mind grease stains, spilled drinks, or occasional fumbles.

You need tech that can manage your front of house, back of house, scheduling, payroll, data, cash flow and loans, customer profiles, loyalty, gift cards, inventory, and whatever is next. After all, it’s your restaurant. Your business. And those should be non-negotiables.

STARTERS

Top 10 Trends in Small Business Sales

What’s the best way to drive sales today? Our experts give you the plan.

by RACHEL DAVIES

1 ▶ Direct-to-consumer will be a bigger piece of the marketing pie.

For years, brands with new products had a simple playbook: Drive sales on Amazon. That’s where customers were, after all. But now, small businesses are renewing their focus on direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategies instead of trying to win the Amazon game. “There is huge, huge competition on Amazon, and new entrepre-

neurs are finding it’s really hard to invest all this money to be in the first pages,” says Hope Khoury, a cofounder of Go Vertical ICM, which has worked with over 250 inventors on developing their products and launching their small businesses. “They are relying on [other] sources so they can boom and have brand awareness elsewhere.”

In order to incentivize more DTC sales, small business owners are getting strategic about differentiating what they offer on their own sites versus what’s offered on Amazon. For example: Tubby Todd, a small business that makes bath products primarily for babies and children, only offers bundles on Amazon—but on its own website, it also offers other options.

“Amazon is for a specific Tubby Todd customer,” says Tubby Todd cofounder Andrea Faulkner Williams. “If you want to buy the bundles with two-day shipping, you can do that. But if you want to get the products at a slightly lower price, you might have slower shipping, and you can get loyalty points and other limited-edition things that are only on TubbyTodd.com.”

Differentiators like these will draw more customers to shop directly with their favorite brands in the coming year.

2 ▶ Micro-influencers will make a bigger impact.

Influencer marketing is huge, but huge influencers aren’t always the best marketers. Their audiences are too broad, and their pitches can feel inauthentic. “That’s where micro-influencers crush it,” says Makena Finger Zannini, founder of The Boutique COO, a business advisory and social media strategy firm. “The more authentic, the better. That’s what people respond to, and you see that in analytics on social media

success in the last year or two.”

Michael Michalowicz, a speaker, consultant, and author of eight books on small business, agrees. “The micro-influencer knows the language of their community; they can speak with true experience and authenticity,” he says. “The macro-influencer doesn’t have that intimacy.”

Faulkner Williams prioritizes working with influencers with less than 100,000 followers for Tubby Todd content. “We always look for the mom and dad who have, like, 5,000 followers, who are working their heels off to create the best content,” Faulkner Williams says. “They’ll send you a Dropbox full of content, and they’re going to be so much more motivated than [a big-name influencer].”

Having trouble finding the best micro-influencers to work with?

There are now marketplaces to help you do it, like Kale (kalecard .com) and Hummingbirds (hummingbirds.com). Both make it easy for small, hyperlocal creators to find your brand and partner with you.

3 ▶ Strategic offers will replace extended discounting periods.

Remember the 2024 holiday season? Our inboxes were full of discount promotions, with every brand running earlier-than-ever Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotions. And what good did that really do?

“A discount code encourages the immediate transaction, but it dissuades loyalty,” Michalowicz says. “Groupon is probably the best expression of that. If I want to use Groupon, it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m trying to find the local plumber to be my plumber forever going forward.’ It’s because I have a plumbing project and that’s one of the

cheapest deals. That’s the mentality people are going in with [when using a discount code]: not seeking a relationship, but seeking a price.”

This year, we may see a correction. Finger Zannini predicts that, instead of relying on seasonal discounts, small businesses will start incentivizing customers with free add-ons— and they’ll do it throughout the year. That could mean offering a bonus item to DTC buyers, or a service enhancement to certain customers. “I think offering more value keeps your credibility, but still incentivizes people when you want to incentivize them,” says Finger Zannini. “I’ve seen quite a few clients looking into that and switching away from discounts.”

Tubby Todd’s Faulkner Williams agrees, and is approaching her own promotions with more focus. On Instagram, her brand posts monthly calendars showing exactly when promotions and new products will drop. For instance, in November, Tubby Todd had a four-day window for the Black Friday sale at the end of the month, plus three giveaways and one day where customers would receive a gift with their purchase.

4 ▶ Bold ideas will counter the digital noise. AI slop is everywhere: on your social feeds, in your inboxes, and in your web searches. So how can a small business break through to customers? Michalowicz has an answer: Surprise them.

“People want something that’s different,” Michalowicz says. “So a restaurant that does a goth theme is going to be far more successful than Macaroni Grill. Any brand that really leverages their own

unique style, where people can use it to express themselves, will find success.”

How can you find ideas that stand out? Michalowicz recommends finding your answers by asking: How are you unique? And how does your uniqueness align with what makes your customers special? “The new thing is to understand your own idiosyncrasies, desires, interests, and passions,” he says. “Then see how that can serve communities just like you.” For example, in-person businesses can offer spaces for people to immerse themselves in a differentiated experience. Online, businesses can offer eccentric or custom goods that allow people to show off their uniqueness.

5 ▶ Personalization will drive loyalty.

Imagine that you run a local HVAC business. You adopt an automated system which sends clients an SMS reminder about two hours before your technician arrives at their home. “A system does this, but it feels like you’re being given good service,” says Barry Moltz, an advisor who’s hosted the Small Business Radio Show for 16 years.

This may sound simple, but it’s an important way that AI and automations can help small businesses grow. “Think about how well Amazon does this,” Moltz says. “I log on, it greets me by name, it knows what I bought before. Technology allows even the smallest businesses to do that now.”

Michael Khoury, the second cofounder of Go Vertical ICM, agrees. “This year, we will witness more AI introduction into everything that we do in business,” he says. The way he sees it, this can have a leveling effect—allowing small compa-

nies to engage meaningfully with more customers, even if they have a fraction of the staff that their larger competitors do. “It’s going to help these small-business owners get their foot in the door.”

6 ▶ Communities will be monetized.

For years, businesses were told the same thing: Build your community! This meant many things, from cultivating a social following to hosting recurring events. But now, Finger Zannini says, it’s not enough to just have a community. “You have to monetize it,” she says. It can be a big, but important, mental leap to go from caring about the size of the group to prioritizing its value. “There are some people who are still vanity-metric inclined, but a lot more people come to us and say, ‘I want to understand how to convert the people that I do have [in my online community], rather than hunting for new people just for the sake of it.’”

The best way to do it, Finger Zannini says, is to connect directly with your followers, and offer unique products or services that’ll make them feel special.

This isn’t just for digital businesses or for social media. Michalowicz says it can work in retail too—by returning to some old-school tactics, like naming products after loyal customers or featuring photos of customers in the store. “If you have a deli shop, name some of the sandwiches after your customer,” Michalowicz suggests. “‘Mike’s sandwich.’ You know what sandwich I’ll get all the time, and I’ll be writing to my friends, ‘You got to go get Mike’s sandwich.’ It’s now part of my identity.”

STARTERS GROWTH

7

▶ Sustainability will become an even greater focus.

Sustainability is not exactly a new trend, but as the effects of climate change become harder to ignore, experts predict that consumers will seek out even more sustainable product options. In 2024, The Economist Intelligence Unit reported a 71% rise in online searches for sustainable goods globally over the previous five years, and PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2024 Voice of the Consumer survey found that customers were willing, on average, to pay 9.7% more for sustainable goods.

“We are seeing this request more and more,” says Hope Khoury. “Clients want to create a sustainable product and to be using sustainable materials. I believe what’s driving this is the awareness. Inventors are becoming more and more aware of the impact of products that aren’t sustainable and the value of products that are.”

Michael Khoury anticipates that more products will be made with sustainable materials, as well as more refillable products. He also expects an increase in small businesses of all stripes reporting their sustainability initiatives to customers, like Go Vertical ICM has to inform its own decision-making. “Our own Sustainability Index forces us to consider the markets that we step into,” he says.

8 ▶ Subscription models will become more important in new categories. Consumers are used to paying subscription fees, but only for certain products, like software as a service or recurring meal kits. But in response to years of inflation, many more companies have launched subscription models, drawn to the

predictable recurring revenue and the ability to build ongoing customer loyalty. As a result, consumers are now willing to pay for many more kinds of subscriptions—and the list will continue to grow.

Examples abound. Customers are subscribing to more products, coaching, memberships, and beyond. Finger Zannini points to a small salon that specializes in hair and makeup for events. “They’re killing with their subscriptions because people want that subscription,” she says. The Khourys shifted their own consulting business to a subscription model. They used to offer a project-based pricing structure, but now offer ongoing services at a recurring rate. “Now that we have this subscription model, we have some sort of financial stability, which allows us to plan growth strategies easily,” Hope Khoury says.

The key to offering a worthwhile subscription, these experts say, is making sure the value to your consumer is clear. If customers see the subscription as a deal—enabling them to lower their costs and increase their convenience for something they’d have otherwise spent more money and time acquiring—then you might have product-market fit.

9 ▶ Niche marketplaces will drive meaningful sales.

Amazon may be the e-commerce behemoth, but niche online retailers are thriving too—and becoming a legitimate source of sales for many small businesses.

For example: Faire sells goods from independent brands to retailers at wholesale prices. Sober(ish) carries nonalcoholic beverages. Poshmark offers fashion, home decor, and beauty

products. When you sell your products through these marketplaces, Michalowicz says, you might reach fewer people—but they’re more likely to be the right people, and you’re competing against less noise.

“If I market a suntan lotion on Amazon, so do 10,000 others,” Michalowicz says. “If I do it at the grocery store, now I’m talking about maybe 200 or 300 options. If I do it at the surf shop, maybe I’m talking 50,” Michalowicz says. “Ironically, the least expensive marketing is for the more unexpected links, and I do see business owners looking for those.”

10 ▶ Quality products will move to the fore.

After years of chasing low prices, customers are more willing to spend on higher quality products. Finger Zannini thinks that consumers are more swayed by quality because they’re feeling squeezed financially and being more thoughtful about spending on the whole. “I think people are so over the Shein era of cheap, fast things,” she says. “If you can tell a good story about why your product is the best, and price it in a way that reflects that value, I definitely think people are spending on those types of

items. It’s because they’re being more intentional overall about their spending.”

Just making a quality product isn’t enough, of course. This year, successful small business owners will be those who have also created compelling ways to communicate their product’s unique attributes.

Michalowicz points to a recent success story—in a company that makes wool dryer balls. “You can go on Amazon and there’s countless knockoff versions, but theirs is pure wool, and it sells for $5 a unit. It’s more than double the price, but they are making higher margins and attracting long-term, repeat customers,” he says. “We are seeing that the customer is more selective, because they’re seeing their source of income dwindling. They’re realizing, If I make this purchase now, I might not be able to afford it again three more times this year.”

Barry Moltz adds, “There’s always going to be those people who just go for the lowest price, but I think folks do pay for value and customer experience. I tell small business owners that you really should have a high-value product, because not everybody will buy it, but some of your customers will.”

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The Rule of One

When you try to do too much, you reach nobody. This strategy helps you focus and boost sales. Here’s how it helped one entrepreneur go from $0 to $4,985 in a month. by

JUSTIN WELSH

Your business will take off when you nail two parts of an important equation: You must have something valuable to offer, and you must present it in a way that attracts the right buyers.

Once you find that sweet spot, revenue should start to accelerate.

This may sound obvious. But let me emphasize the words that entrepreneurs often overlook: the right buyers. Many entrepreneurs chase any buyers, or just hope that by blasting their message out across every possible channel, the sright buyers will simply reveal themselves.

It doesn’t work like that. Instead, you must strategically simplify who you’re talking to and how you’re talking to them. I call it the “Rule of One.”

I’ve seen this work for companies large and small. I was once the director of strategic sales at Zocdoc, then the chief revenue officer at PatientPop. Now I’m an advisor and an investor, and I spend most of my time helping entrepreneurs build strong online businesses.

One such entrepreneur approached me recently. His focus was helping companies improve their e-commerce systems, and he clearly knew what he was doing. But he had zero revenue for three consecutive months. He was frustrated and questioning whether he should continue with what he was doing.

By following the Rule of One, he made $4,985 in one month.

Here’s how it works.

a

experience. I was not only able to transition from working in a corporate world to taking charge of my own future as an entrepreneur, but more importantly, it has been very fulfilling to be

WHY HUNTINGTON?

• Over 45%higheravera 45% higher average revenue thanourclosestcompe than our closest competitor

• Lowinitialinvestment Low initial investment starting at $163,521

• $5 billion industry and projected billionindustry to grow to $18 billion by 2028 (Source: Grand View Research)

• Close to 50 years as an industry leader in tutoring and test prep

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The zero-revenue reality

The entrepreneur’s name is Paul. When we first started talking, I asked how he was spending his time. Sure enough, he revealed a very common problem: Paul was trying to be everywhere, serve everyone, and sell everything.

Here’s what his typical day looked like:

▶ Scheduling Instagram posts at 7 a.m.

▶ Writing LinkedIn content at noon

▶ Recording TikTok videos in the afternoon

▶ Commenting on hundreds of other posts in between

This guy was exhausted, frustrated, and not making any money. There’s no worse combination than that.

The Rule of One solution

I encouraged Paul to break from his routine and try something different—the Rule of One.

For 90 days, I asked him to commit to one platform (LinkedIn), one specific offer (fixing email sequences for e-commerce stores), and one specific customer type (Shopify stores doing $20K to $50K in monthly revenue).

No other platforms. No other offers. No other customer types.

Most people would look at this strategy and say, “I’m limiting my opportunities!” And that was Paul’s hesitation too. But after some convincing, he agreed to give my strategy a try.

The 90-day transformation

For the first month, Paul zeroed in on one thing: sharing email marketing problems that Shopify store owners face every day. No generic marketing tips. No broad e-commerce advice. Just specific, painful email sequence issues that keep Shopify store owners up at night.

And at the end of each social media post, we agreed that he’d make an offer: “I’ll audit your email sequences for free.”

The idea was simple: Get some free clients, prove you can solve the problem, and then use those results to attract paying customers.

And it worked. Three store owners took Paul up on his offer, giving him the opportunity he needed to demonstrate his expertise. And even more importantly, it gave him real results he learned from and can now share with future prospects.

From free to paid clients

The next month, that’s exactly what Paul did: He started sharing real results that put concrete numbers behind his work, including:

▶ A pet store boosted repeat purchases by 22%

▶ A small fashion brand doubled its welcome series conversion

▶ A craft soup company increased cart recovery by 34%

And after nine weeks, something interesting started to happen. Store owners began reaching out to him. And not for

brain-picking calls, either. Or free audits. They were asking for help with their email sequences.

So Paul opened his calendar for short discovery calls—but only for stores in the specific target range we agreed on: $20K to $50K per month in revenue.

Over time, Paul streamlined these calls to make sure they followed the same path: review the current email setup, identify gaps, and, if they were a good fit, offer his $997 program.

The results

After 90 days, Paul had five clients at $997 each, a waitlist of three more, and a small reputation as “the Shopify email person.”

This approach created more opportunities, not fewer. Because when you’re known for solving one specific problem really well, people remember you, and refer you to other people with the same problem.

Just think about it. Imagine you’re a Shopify store owner. Who would you hire to fix your store’s email sequences?

Someone who “does digital marketing” or someone who specializes in “fixing email sequences for Shopify stores just like yours”?

The answer is obvious, and it’s exactly why I often harp on the importance of being the “it” person in a small niche.

The hidden benefits

The Rule of One doesn’t limit opportunities. It creates them. And there are several other benefits that come from niching down:

▶ Paul’s content got better because he focused on

one specific topic

▶ His expertise deepened because he solved the same problem repeatedly

▶ His positioning became clearer because he wasn’t trying to be everything to everyone

How to implement this for yourself

Ready to try the Rule of One? Remember, the concept is simple:

1 ▶ Choose one platform where your ideal customers actually hang out.

2 ▶ Choose one offer that solves a specific, expensive problem.

3 ▶ Choose one customer type to target— defined so narrowly that most people are automatically disqualified.

Then commit to this focus for 90 days. No platform-hopping. No offer-tweaking. No audience-shifting.

The hardest part will be resisting your urge to expand. But even when you start seeing success, stick with your “one” until you’ve mastered it and gained some good traction.

Believe it or not, this is fun work. Because by simplifying your message, you get to focus on improving your message—instead of frantically blasting it in every direction. By shrinking, you finally get to grow.

Justin Welsh shares tips like this every week in his newsletter, The Saturday Solopreneur Subscribe at justinwelsh.me.

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AI Made His Marketing. He Made $70K on the Promotion.

Learn how to build a powerful promotional campaign using free and low-cost tools like ChatGPT.

by DAN S. KENNEDY and PARTHIV SHAH

Ever wish your business could go for bigger marketing opportunities, but you simply don’t have the employee bandwidth or extra budget to hire an outside agency?

You may be right about the resources. But you’re wrong about pursuing those opportunities.

These days, with a few handy tools like ChatGPT or Claude AI, which are free or around $20 a month depending on your usage needs, you can quickly create a highly effective, standout promotional campaign targeted expressly to the audience you want to reach—no need for a marketing team. Once you’re familiar with generative AI’s potential, there’s no end to how imaginative and profitable you can get. To see how this can play out, consider the following case study.

Jeff J. Hunter is an entrepreneur who helps companies use AI and build virtual teams to enhance productivity; he has also hosted a podcast called Savage Marketer. But even with all this expertise, when one of his former students, Samuel Young, asked, “Got any plans for Black Friday?” Hunter said no. Between running his business and managing high-ticket consulting contracts generating over $300K annually, he

felt too busy to orchestrate a sales campaign himself.

Young, now a fellow marketer, pushed. “I have a plan for how we can use AI to fully automate and optimize an entire Black Friday promo,” he said. “And I think if we work fast, we can hit $50,000 in sales— in one day.”

Hunter was naturally intrigued. He agreed to move forward, and he brought Young onto the project. By then it was November 4—less than a month before Black Friday. To do something ambitious would be a furious race against the clock. And it was. But ultimately, they would surpass Young’s expectations.

As you read how they did it, keep in mind that, while Hunter’s product was a course about using artificial intelligence, it could have been anything. A fancy backpack for hikers. Software for architects. A new collection of handbags or jewelry or dog raincoats. And although Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed, the tactics Hunter and Young used can be applied to building all kinds of campaigns, from Mother’s Day to a 10th anniversary sale to Pride Month. Check out their game plan and test-drive your own version for similar innovations and results.

Begin with lead generation.

Hunter and Young tackled this question first: How could they generate highquality leads? They knew that would be the key to their campaign’s success. The best way to go, they decided, was to create a super compelling lead magnet, such as a free asset or special deal offered to customers in exchange for their contact details.

What could it be? To brainstorm a concept, they turned to Claude AI (similar to ChatGPT, but better for training on large datasets and copywriting). They gave it information about the AI-related course they were selling, which is called the “AI Persona Method.” Then they asked: “Provide me with five lead-magnet ideas.” Among the several options Claude suggested, the one that most resonated was “100 AI-Powered marketing prompts,” which aligned perfectly with their pro-

motion’s focus. But instead of just running with Claude’s initial phrasing for the prompts, Hunter and Young refined them extensively by hand to ensure top quality. This hybrid approach enabled them to tap into AI for ideation while still delivering a polished, humancrafted marketing asset. Once finalized, the prompts were placed behind an opt-in form as a free downloadable resource.

Now Hunter and Young needed to drive traffic to this lead-capture landing page. Once again, they called Claude AI to the task. They fed it their new asset and wrote this prompt: ÒCreate an opt-in page for my lead magnet below. Lead magnet: ‘100 Marketing Prompts.’ Do not use the word ‘Lead Magnet’ in the copy; it should be referred to as prompts. Follow the StoryBrand Framework [a seven-part process using narrative principles to clarify a brand’s message] to

When you speed toward an event, it seems far more exciting. Your customers feel it too. Going that fast is tough, but it’s a lot

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TECH

create the copy.”

Next, Hunter and Young focused on stirring up excitement by enticing their contacts, including those they gathered from the lead magnet, to join a waiting list for their upcoming promotion. They used ChatGPT to generate email copy and social posts for this list-building outreach effort.

Within days, hundreds of people subscribed to their waiting list, clearly signaling high anticipation for their Black Friday launch, whatever it might be. Hunter and Young had yet to nail it down.

Get a crystal-clear view of your audience.

Rather than just guessing what their audience might want from a Black Friday deal, Hunter and Young decided to go directly to the source and survey customers about their needs.

They used ChatGPT to generate the questions and chose these seven:

1 ▶What are the top three most time-consuming tasks in your business?

2 ▶What are the top three biggest expenses in your business?

3 ▶What are one to three things that would help you grow your company that you do NOT have time for right now?

4 ▶What are your top three questions about AI?

5 ▶What are the top three things you want to learn about AI?

6 ▶What challenges have you had with AI in the past, if any?

AI Tools Used in the Campaign

Here’s a quick glance at the AI products Jeff J. Hunter and Samuel Young deployed to create their successful Black Friday promotion.

CLAUDE AI ▶ An advanced natural language model capable of generating longform, humanlike content—with minimal editing needed—from raw outlines. Claude is better than ChatGPT for training on large datasets and copywriting.

CHATGPT ▶ A popular conversational AI that can dynamically understand and respond to multifaceted prompts. Leveraged for ideation and creation across assets and analyses, ChatGPT is great for a fast workflow and handling multiple tasks.

DESCRIPT ▶ An audio/video editing application with integrated AI speech to text allowing seamless voice overdubbing and manipulations to footage by editing the transcript.

CAPTIONS ▶ A cost-effective video service that uses AI to auto-generate text captions and enables footage augmentation like eye and head movements.

ENVATO ELEMENTS ▶ A stock media marketplace providing ready-made digital assets to incorporate in video and other projects. You can use the AI search tool to find exactly what you need for your video project.

FACEBOOK ADS MANAGER ▶ Facebook’s advertising platform features advanced targeting capabilities powered partly by AI, enabling fine-tuned and optimized ad delivery.

7 ▶What is your total budget for the next 12 months for AI training if it helped you save a lot of time and money?

The questions were openended, allowing respondents to explain their own contexts and interests in detail.

Over 140 people completed the survey, drawn in by the lead-magnet incentive. While open-ended questions provided richness, analyzing all

that qualitative data would be time-consuming for a human. Instead, Hunter and Young had AI take on the job by creating a dedicated ChatGPT data analysis persona. An AI persona is basically a simulated virtual employee with specialized skills. (This, of course, is exactly the thing that Hunter teaches in his business.) To create one, just as you would train a new human team member, you feed a tool

like ChatGPT information specifically related to the task you want completed. For example, you could provide frameworks, datasets, and other contextual and experiential materials. To create their AI data analyst, Hunter and Young shared survey results so that the AI tool could quickly analyze and recognize customer patterns and extract insights. They would train several AI personas for their cam-

Scan the QR code to schedule a free demo.

3 Ways High-Growth SMBs Will be Using AI in 2025

We’re entering a ‘new chapter of human productivity potential that’s multiple orders of magnitude beyond the past.’

As small- and medium-size (SMBs) been

75% of SMBs say are are in AI than their .

Artificial intelligence isn’t a tool for only enterprises anymore. As generative AI tools have become increasingly accessible, small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) have been integrating AI into their everyday operations. As it turns out, 75% of SMBs say they are investing in AI, and growing SMBs are nearly two times more likely to invest in AI than their declining peers1. That’s huge.

These businesses and data provide speed, reliability, and a clear of their customers. As the wave of AI way to a AI to act constant human are

These businesses recognize the importance of embracing AI and prioritizing data strategies that provide speed, reliability, and a clear understanding of their customers. As the wave of generative AI gives way to a new era of agentic AI—allowing AI systems to act autonomously, making decisions and taking actions without constant human oversight—SMBs are realizing even greater opportunities.

“We’re the and this will have effects on all businesses,

President and of Salesforce AI. Evans oversees a trusted, on Salesforce’s unified it enables to and app for customer success, he says.

“We’re embarking on a new chapter of human productivity potential that’s multiple orders of magnitude beyond the past, and this will have effects on all businesses, especially for SMBs,” says Adam Evans, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Salesforce AI. Evans oversees Agentforce, a digital labor platform for bringing trusted, autonomous AI agents into the flow of work. Built on Salesforce’s unified platform, it enables companies to “agentify” every workflow and app for customer success, he says.

Prior to his current Evans co-founded a of AI businesses both of which someone who built businesses from and and more than have the time or resources for,” Evans small unlimited

Prior to his current role, Evans co-founded a pair of AI businesses—both of which were acquired by Salesforce.“As someone who built businesses from the ground up, startups and small businesses are always going to be scrappy and doing more than they have the time or resources for,” Evans says.“With Agentforce, small teams will be able to scale faster with a 24/7 digital workforce across sales, service, marketing, and e-commerce. It can unlock unlimited capacity for your business.”

Here, Evans discusses three ways high-growth SMBs will be utilizing AI this year to achieve their ambitious goals.

1. Reaching more customers with marketing campaign automation

Oftentimes, SMBs have small marketing teams or even marketing teams of one. Building and managing successful campaigns is difficult with limited resources. Thankfully, that’s where automation comes in.

create content, or even build a customer a prompt.“And because never sleeps, it will KPIs and over the course of the Evans says.

2. Personalizing content generation

With smart AI tools like Agentforce, marketers can build better campaigns faster, using AI-powered agents to generate campaign briefs, identify target audience segments, create content, or even build a customer journey—with a single prompt.“And because Agentforce never sleeps, it will continually analyze performance against KPIs and proactively recommend improvements over the course of the campaign,” Evans says.

In sales, for businesses can use outreach to leads.

With agentic AI, SMBs can create higher-quality content. In sales, for example, businesses can use agentic AI to personalize outreach to leads.

interaction that’s been CRM as well as data

Tools like Agentforce receive data from the most recent interaction that’s been stored in a company’s CRM as well as third-party data about their company profile.“The agent also draws on documents you upload that share your selling best practices, such as sales enablement materials,” Evans explains.“Then it uses sophisticated reasoning to personalize emails to individual prospects, according to their profiles and interests.”

3. Improving sales with customer recommendations

Imagine if you could offer e-commerce customers a completely AI-powered personal shopper that helps steer them to the perfect product without extra lifting from sales or customer service. It’s possible thanks to agentic AI.

conversations with agents directly on a website or using a app like access to secure

Here, Evans discusses three ways high-growth SMBs will be Oftentimes, SMBs have small marketing teams or even successful is difficult with limited resources. Thankfully, that’s better faster, audience

as sales enablement materials,” Evans explains.“Then it uses sophisticated reasoning to personalize emails to individual prospects, to their profiles if you could offer e-commerce customers a them to the perfect product without extra from sales or customer service. It’s AI.

With Agentforce, customers can have personalized conversations with agents directly on a website or using a messaging app like WhatsApp. Because Agentforce has access to secure customer data, AI-powered agents are able to help customers find products and make purchases based on their unique preferences.

based on their

“Two of the new Evans says.

miss a

“Two of the top challenges for SMBs is acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones1,” Evans says. “With 24/7 digital labor, SMBs can make sure they never miss a sale and create positive experiences to keep loyal customers.”

To learn more about agentic AI and how Agentforce can help scale your SMB, visit Salesforce.com/Agentforce

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paign, convinced that by doing so, they’d enable superior performance for each workflow need versus taking a blankslate generic AI approach.

Once they were satisfied with their AI data analysis persona, they prompted it: “Analyze this new research survey with data from my audience. Summarize the resulting data and create a list of the top three most common answers in each category.” ChatGPT came back with a wealth of information, capturing metrics like:

▶ The most frequently cited time-consuming tasks

▶ Top business expenses

▶ Budget ranges and willingness-to-pay levels

Typically, Hunter sold his training for between $29 to $297 in special promotions, but the data told a different story about what potential customers would be willing to pay. Respondents shared that they longed for more robust, higher-priced solutions aligned to real pain points versus shallow insights at a discount.

Convinced, Young proposed disregarding conventional wisdom and creating a premium, AI-powered bundle packed with value and bonuses that could command top dollar. Seeing the figures himself, Hunter agreed to bet against his Black Friday pricing assumptions and aim higher, designing a high-end offer anchored at $997.

Craft an irresistible deal.

Now that they had quantitative data on their audience’s needs and constraints, Hunter and Young

were ready to formulate the offer. But rather than just relying on their own ideas, they wanted to tap into time-tested direct-response principles.

Once again, they turned AI into the expert they needed, taking the novel approach of actually training ChatGPT on the fundamentals of high-converting offers. They gave it the “$100M Offers” training by Acquisition.com cofounder Alex Hormozi; to do this, they uploaded transcripts that covered multiple hours of Hormozi’s video content. This enabled ChatGPT to internalize Hormozi’s frameworks on risk reversals, fast action bonuses, and stacking value. With ChatGPT now trained on structuring offers, Hunter and Young could incorporate their survey data and intended core program to script the perfect promotion.

Once they had a draft offer, they ran it through one more AI-based analysis. To see how it stood up in the real world, they uploaded lead offers from their competitors onto ChatGPT and had it compare them to their proposed deal. ChatGPT provided additional suggestions for improvement, which they used to further refine specifics around the deliverables and bonuses they were including.

Ultimately, they settled on bundling Hunter’s foundational AI Persona Method training with over a dozen hours of supplementary trainings in areas like marketing, copywriting, and social media growth. These modules directly addressed the time-intensive activities and expensive optimizations their survey data indicated customers needed the most help with. With the core offer in place,

They’d bolted out of the gate, getting AI to handle time-consuming processes like copywriting, design, and video production, but didn’t stop there.

bolted out of the gate, getting AI to handle processes and video but didn’t stop there.

Hunter and Young added limited-time “fast action” bonuses for those who were first in line, like one-on-one strategy consultations with an AI consultant and a live lead-generation workshop. They capped these extras to the first 10 and 25 customers, to further crank up the excitement and evoke FOMO among people still on the fence. This strategy played a key role in accelerating sales velocity out of the gate.

The final step was to construct two upsells to increase the average cart value. They decided on Hunter’s AI consulting program for $1,497 and high-ticket consulting for $9,000, both of which would dramatically increase profits during the sale.

Here’s how they presented it.

Create a video sales letter.

The next step focused on converting visitors to buyers. Hunter and Young knew that having an exceptionally compelling video sales letter (VSL) would be critical. But writing an effective 10-minute script and filming high-quality footage would normally demand extensive resources, not to mention time, which they were running out of.

Luckily, AI could automate the heavy lifting as long as they provided enough rele-

vant training data. They used ChatGPT to create a dedicated VSL creator persona. To do this, they trained it on a framework by Kevin Anson, an expert on video ads, along with other sources to internalize high-level sales psychology and storytelling. They also uploaded Hunter’s own materials to help ChatGPT capture his distinct personality, voice, and positioning. After sufficient priming, ChatGPT was ready to script an initial VSL outline. After a few rounds of revisions, Hunter and Young arrived at the final story arc they felt flowed logically while embedding their core offer details.

With the script locked in, they were ready to tape it—but that would normally take ages. So rather than memorize lines or use cue cards, Hunter simply read the words off his computer to get the VSL recorded before the end of the day. The only catch? This meant that he was staring at his screen, and not into the camera lens. Two additional AI tools came to the rescue here: They used Descript, an audio/video editing app that transcribes speech to text, and Captions, which, among other magic, can correct eye contact in post-production. (Descript has this feature too, but they preferred Captions’ version of it.) Using footage of Hunter looking

directly at the camera for a few seconds, these apps overlaid his glance into the clips so his gaze held viewers’ focus. Simple lighting adjustments reduced any uncanny valley effect, which is that creepy feeling that something’s almost human, but not quite.

Young also used Descript to effortlessly insert pickups and overdub lines, and tweak verbiage after the fact instead of refilming parts of the video. Envato—which provides stock media and other ready-made digital assets—helped spice things up with slick graphics and editing effects in between cuts of Hunter speaking. By blending AI and human creativity into an impactful final cut, the 10-minute VSL went live just days before the Black Friday launch.

Generate traffic.

With their sales page and VSL complete, Hunter and Young now turned to driving traffic across media assets. They repurposed sections of their VSL transcript into email sequences and social media content. Rather than just using what they had, they asked AI to tweak the content for each marketing channel. Once again, they created a special AI persona that could specially tailor emails. For this one, they supplied ChatGPT with training data on successful copywriting approaches and summarizing key patterns from their market research. This allowed them to communicate their offer’s applicability toward resolving recipients’ precise pain points and challenges with further personalization. These emails aimed to progressively warm up the audience, showcasing solutions, highlighting benefits, and finally ushering visitors to

the sales page once it was live. Here’s an example:

Hey [first name],

I know what you’re thinking . . .

“AI sounds complicated.”

“I don’t have time to learn it.”

“It doesn’t work for my business.”

“AI-generated content sucks and makes me sound like the Terminator.”

Believe me, I’ve heard all the objections before. But here’s the truth: My method makes AI simple and practical for any business. As a business owner myself, I know you don’t have time for overly complex technology. My method breaks AI down into easy-to-implement steps tailored specifically to your business needs.

It’s been tested now by a couple hundred business owners. You’ll be able to start small by automating repetitive tasks like content creation. Then build up your AI capabilities as you become more confident.

I can’t give you all the details of what I’m working on just yet... But I can tell you that spots will be extremely limited! If this sounds like something you don’t want to miss then here’s the deal: Reply “AI” back to this email to join the waiting list today and be one of the first to learn about my crazy Black Friday offer. When you join right now, I will send you my 100+ Proven AI Marketing Prompts so you can start leveraging AI right away. Reply “AI” back to this email to join the waiting list today!

Jeff J. Hunter Founder of the AI Persona Method

Along with the emails, Hunter and Young got extra exposure through Facebook and Instagram retargeting ads, which automatically show customers the most relevant promotion asset or product based on their previous interaction with your business. This cross-channel effort enabled them to reach their audience at multiple touch points when visibility and conversion inclination were highest.

As new customers purchased the product, Hunter and Young kept fine-tuning aspects of the funnel as well as audience targeting across media channels for maximum response. For instance, they expanded their retargeting beyond just past site visitors to incorporate lookalike audiences that mirrored their existing customer profile. New visitors from these expanded pools proved highly qualified.

All this paid off. Hunter and Young saw over $50,000 in sales—and that was before Black Friday even arrived. By the time the deal ended, over 50 additional customers were acquired, generating over $70,000 in total sales.

Looking back, in only 25 days, they’d carried out an ambitious promotion with just the two of them. They’d bolted out of the gate, getting AI to handle time-consuming processes like copywriting, design, and video production to hit their deadline, but didn’t stop there. They also used the technology to come up with creative assets and drive exposure. Then they combined all that with carefully crafted scarcity and urgency elements, again sharpened by AI to knock

it out of the park. There’s something about a sprint like Hunter and Young did that creates a dynamic effect. When you speed toward an impending event, it seems far more exciting than if it were happening over a long period of time, and your customers feel it too. Going that fast in business is tough, but it is a lot easier now—if you intelligently use AI to build a hyperefficient marketing machine. And the more you train the tools, the faster and better they get for the next promotion.

This essay was adapted from the book No B.S. Guide to Successful Marketing Automation, by Dan S. Kennedy and Parthiv Shah, published by Entrepreneur Press. Find it at entrepreneur.com/ bookstore.

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Confessions of a Former Retail Buyer

I used

to place brands on

Target shelves. Here’s what founders always got wrong about retail—and how you can set yourself up for success.

by MATT ADELMANN

Ifeel bad saying this, but I have accidentally bankrupted many companies.

I didn’t mean to! I was a senior buyer at Target, which meant that I was one of the people responsible for identifying new brands, getting them onto shelves, and (hopefully) setting them up for success. I tried only working with brands that were truly ready for retail, but sometimes I got it wrong. Founders might have said they were ready and showed me evidence that they were ready, but they were not actually ready. I’d put them on Target’s shelves, and the impact would destroy them.

This is the stuff that founders never see. It’s what I want you to know before you make the same mistake.

I’ve spent decades working in retail, and I see the same problem repeatedly: Many founders think about retail all wrong. They view making it into a big store as an accomplishment—as if getting onto 100 or 10,000 shelves means victory. But it does not. Getting onto shelves is the easy part. The hard part is everything that comes next.

I’m not at Target anymore. These days, I get to see retail from two perspectives: I’m the vice president of food and beverage at The Genesis Company, where we help brands navigate the digital and retail landscape. I’m also the cofounder of a green smoothie mix brand called Switchback Foods, which aspires to be on retail shelves nationwide—but only when we’re ready.

As a founder, I approach retail very, very carefully. You should too. Here are the three biggest problems to look out for.

Illustration Federico Gastaldi

▶ PROBLEM #1

Cash flow realities

Retail costs money. A lot of money. Like, truly, much more money than you think.

Here’s a cautionary tale to explain it: When I was at Target, I looked at a ready-made meal brand. They seemed great for our shelves, and they insisted that they were prepared for retail. They handled their own manufacturing, and I went down to visit. Things looked good.

We gave them a test, putting them in 30 stores. They were excited. We sent them the purchase order (PO). They delivered the product. And two months later, they went bankrupt.

So what happened? Simple: They didn’t have the cash. When a retailer sends you a PO, you need to produce and deliver a lot of product— probably more product than you’ve ever delivered before. That’s expensive, and it happens on your dime. Many companies stretch themselves thin or take out a loan, thinking that they only need to cover the PO. But that’s not true. Once the product is delivered, a brand needs to slam the gas on marketing (which is also expensive!) to make sure the product actually sells. A retailer will not do this work for you.

This is how brands end up in death spirals. A retail order stretches them thin. Then they don’t have the money to drive purchases. Then the retailer is disappointed and reduces the amount on the next PO. Now the company has its cash all tied up in inventory it can’t sell. And then it collapses.

Do not fall victim to this.

Manage your cash wisely, and make sure you have enough to cover all the expenses of retail—which are a lot more than you think.

▶ PROBLEM #2

More and more stores!

Retail can feel intoxicating. If you get into 100 stores, you immediately want to get into 100 more. But I urge you: Resist that feeling!

We talk about this a lot at Switchback, my smoothie mix brand. We recently landed in 400 Sprouts stores, and my cofounder—who doesn’t have retail experience—excitedly asked me, “How do we get the next 400?!” I told him to slow down, because right now, we shouldn’t want another 400. Instead of increasing our store count, we need to increase our store velocity. That means focusing on the stores we have, increasing our marketing and activations in those markets, and driving sales, sales, sales. That’s what will make Sprouts happy, and that’s what will enable us to expand without falling into a cash death spiral.

Here’s a related mistake: Founders often start by pitching Target. They want to swing big and go national immediately. Please don’t do that! You’re probably not ready—and if you blow it with a retailer like Target early, you may never get a second chance.

Instead, start in your own backyard. Approach local retailers. Succeed there, then go regional. Build up experience and evidence. Develop the infrastructure you need. You should do this for five or 10 years before attempting to go national.

▶ PROBLEM #3

Pitching the wrong way

Most founders don’t know how to pitch retail buyers. So here’s what to know: Buyers don’t care about your product or story. They want numbers I saw this problem all the time at Target. Founders would tell me how delicious or ingenious their product is, and they’d rely heavily upon their brand story. I get it— that’s what you tell consumers! But it can’t be what you tell buyers, because buyers measure success differently.

As a buyer, I want one thing: I want product that sells. That means I care what customers think, and I want to see evidence of it—like data about where your brand sells, and what demographic it reaches. I want to know that your customer is also my store’s customer.

Here’s an example: The typical Target shopper is a middle-income family. Sometimes, a founder would approach me and say something like: “Our brand is primarily consumed by families that have a household income of $70,000, and we’re selling especially well in the Sun Belt, and here’s my consumer research and e-commerce sales data to back that up.” Then they’d show me their consumer surveys, and Shopify or Amazon data with geographic trends. That stuff is very convincing. When you make the buyer’s job easy, you’re way more likely to get in. Simple as that.

Here’s the bottom line:

For all its complexities, retail is really about simplicity. You need to know what

you’re selling, who you’re selling it to, and how you’ll get it to perform. You will be constantly tempted to go bigger, and that’s when you’ll fail.

This even applies to the SKUs: When I was at Target, founders would pitch me 20 different SKUs at once—or they’d get on shelves, and then furiously pump out new varieties. Don’t do that! Stay focused. Every time you expand something, you introduce operational inefficiencies and distract from building a strong brand presence with a core product lineup.

I’m living this advice every day. In theory, my brand Switchback has a tremendous advantage—because I know retail buyers everywhere! I could easily get us a meeting at places like Whole Foods, Costco, Kroger, and Publix. But I won’t call these people. I won’t ask for meetings. I don’t want to be on their shelves…yet.

Instead, I’m running a playbook that works: My cofounder and I are building our brand steadily, focusing on a few hero SKUs. We’ve invested in e-commerce, where we’ve refined our marketing and positioning, and we’ve identified the markets our products perform in the best. We pitched one major retailer (Sprouts), landed those 400 stores (now 450), and will now focus on making those a success—driving more sales there until Sprouts is excited to give us more, and we know that we can handle it. Then, perhaps years later, I’ll make the call to those other retailers I know.

This kind of patience isn’t easy. But I know what the end result is, because I’ve seen it for thousands of brands: When you play things right, you’ll fly off the shelves.

How Odyssey and Amazon Business Make Educational Resources Accessible to Students Across the U.S.

Through seamless API integration and a familiar shopping experience, they’re making it easier for students and their parents to get what they need, when they need it.

As education needs evolve, access to quality, personalized learning is more important than ever. Many states offer government-funded programs to help families afford school tuition, homeschooling resources, and supplemental learning tools. However, various compliance and logistical challenges can complicate accessing these funds.

Enter Odyssey, a New York City-based company that helps families and students access high-quality, personalized education opportunities, thanks to a fintech platform that transforms how families manage education savings accounts (ESAs). By handling applications, eligibility verification, digital wallets, and payments, Odyssey removes the complexities of government-funded programs — allowing families to focus on their children’s education.

Connecting families with funding and the supplies they need most

Because ESA funds must be used strictly for approved expenses, Odyssey helps drive compliance by directing payments only to authorized educational products and services. Through its collaboration with Amazon Business, Odyssey further streamlines purchasing, giving families easy access to essential educational supplies while helping maintain compliance with the government’s buying policies.

“The big problem that we tackle with these sorts of programs is that while parents might be eligible and have access to government funds, they can’t actually touch the dollars themselves,” explains Lauren Bender, Head of Strategy and Growth at Odyssey. Odyssey serves as the intermediary, processing payments from the state to vendors. For example, if a parent selects a laptop for their child, Odyssey ensures the funds flow from the state to its Amazon Business account, where the purchase is fulfilled.

With more than 100,000 children supported and $800 million in state funding allocated, Odyssey relies on a robust vendor network. Amazon Business plays a pivotal role by providing an expansive selection of educational products and integrating directly with Odyssey’s platform. “The API integration allows Odyssey to build a catalog of SKUs that align with state-approved purchases,” says Salim Fadel, Senior Account Executive at Amazon Business. “Our product search API gives them control and helps drive procurement compliance, while a direct order API allows tens of thousands of transactions to route seamlessly through their ecommerce marketplace.”

This real-time integration helps ensure parents only see approved items with accurate pricing and availability. Additionally, Amazon Business’s fulfillment network provides free two-day shipping on eligible products for Business Prime members, so students receive their educational tools within two business days.

Helping families make purchases with ease

Because education funding comes with specific spending guidelines, Odyssey and Amazon Business have implemented safeguards to help families navigate approved purchases. “For example, a laptop might be eligible, but only one technology resource per year is allowed,” Bender notes. “Through our API integration with Amazon Business, we can set category limits, ensuring parents select items that align with program guidelines.”

Additionally, inventory safeguards help prevent purchasing roadblocks. “We made sure to put limits in place so that products with fewer than two inventory units aren’t surfaced,” Fadel explains. “This prevents parents from adding an item to their cart only to find it unavailable at checkout.”

A familiar user experience makes the difference

A key advantage of working with Amazon Business is the ability to provide a familiar and intuitive shopping experience. “Parents across the country are already familiar with Amazon’s user interface,” Bender says. “So even though there’s a digital wallet, shopping on Odyssey’s marketplace feels just like shopping on Amazon.”

While purchasing guidelines shape what families can buy, the experience remains simple and intuitive. Parents can browse, select, and receive their orders just as they would with a standard Amazon purchase.

As more states roll out education funding programs, more families will rely on Odyssey to access educational resources. Amazon Business will play a key role in scaling those operations to meet growing demand.

To learn more about how Amazon Business can help your business save money and operate more efficiently through smart business buying tools, visit business.amazon.com

The smart way

LISSTTIINNGGS S

The 10 Hottest Trends in Franchising

Want to buy a business in a booming space?

Here’s where to start your search—and more than 400 brands to consider.

by TRACY STAPP HEROLD

Each year, we at Entrepreneur ask: What will be the hottest franchising trends in the year ahead? To answer that, we consider what’s trending in the world at large, what types of businesses we’re seeing launch new franchise programs, which types of existing franchises are experiencing growth, and more. All those factors, along with our 40-plus years of experience covering the franchise industry, help us come up with our annual list of the 10 categories we think have the most potential to thrive this year.

BEVERAGES pg. 36

CHICKEN pg. 38

CHILDCARE pg. 42

CHILDREN’S FITNESS pg. 44

DESSERTS pg. 50

HOME IMPROVEMENT pg. 58

MENTAL HEALTH & AUTISM SERVICES pg. 63

PETS pg. 64

RESTORATION pg. 65

SENIOR CARE pg. 67

For 2025, we see some food categories booming—as we always do. But this year, we’re seeing major momentum in three budget-friendly categories: Beverages, Chicken, and Desserts. These appeal to both franchisees and customers who want to keep costs down, but still enjoy themselves. We’re also seeing a lot of energy in “care” categories—from Childcare to Senior Care, along with Mental Health and Autism Services. Pets also makes an appearance; it’s one of the longest-running categories on our trends list, consistently fueled by people’s love of (and willingness to spend on) furry friends. Rounding out this year’s list are Children’s Fitness, Home Improvement, and another frequently included category thanks to its resilient nature, Restoration.

The following pages contain information on more than 400 franchises within these trending categories, from established brands to brand-new ones. Inclusion on the list is not intended as a recommendation of any particular franchise, though. It’s always vital to do your own careful research before investing in an opportunity. Read the company’s legal documents, consult with an attorney and an accountant, and talk to existing and former franchisees to find out whether the brand is right for you.

LISTINGS

BEVERAGES

Restaurants serving up coffees, teas, juices, smoothies, and other beverages continue to be some of the fastestgrowing in the franchise industry, thanks to menus filled with items that generally require less equipment, are easier to prepare, and can often be more profitable than more food-focused franchises.

A&W Restaurants

Root beer, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, sides, ice cream

STARTUP COST

$287.4K-$1.6M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 863/2

Aroma Joe’s

Coffee, espresso, tea, energy drinks, baked goods

STARTUP COST

$586.6K-$1.9M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 122/0

Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii Hawaiian coffees, coffee blends, teas, blended drinks, food

STARTUP COST

$514.2K-$980.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 31/1

Bambu

Asian dessert drinks, Vietnamese coffee drinks, boba tea, fruit tea, smoothies

STARTUP COST

$159K-$328K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 60/0

Bar Louie Restaurants and bars

STARTUP COST

$1.1M-$3.9M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 19/45

Beans & Brews

Coffee, tea, specialty drinks, food

STARTUP COST

$455.5K-$766.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 51/28

Beyond Juicery + Eatery Smoothies, juices, smoothie bowls, wraps, salads, soups

STARTUP COST

$416.2K-$532.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 44/3

Biggby Coffee

Specialty coffee, tea, smoothies, energy drinks, baked goods, sandwiches

STARTUP COST

$328K-$792.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 405/0

Boba Nation

Bubble tea and other beverages STARTUP COST

$350K-$495.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/3

Brass Tap Craft-beer bars

STARTUP COST

$786.95K-$1.2M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 48/1

Caffe Aronne

Mobile coffee bars and kiosks

STARTUP COST

$98.4K-$267.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/5

Chatime Tea and coffee

STARTUP COST

$208.6K-$493.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,309/28

City Brew Tours/Flavor Walks Educational craft brewery tours

STARTUP COST

$72.7K-$95K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 11/10

Clean Juice

Organic juices, smoothies, acai bowls, wraps, sandwiches, salads, toasts

STARTUP COST

$286K-$542.7K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 78/0

AROMA JOE’S

Dunkin’ Coffee, doughnuts, baked goods

STARTUP COST

$435.5K-$1.8M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 13,758/32

Dunn Brothers Coffee

Coffee, baked goods, sandwiches, wraps, desserts

STARTUP COST

$539.6K-$808.96K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 49/3

Ellianos Coffee

Specialty coffee and smoothies STARTUP COST

$671.5K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 65/0

Fiiz Drinks

Mixed sodas and snacks

STARTUP COST

$232K-$497K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 62/3

Fit Factory Grill & Smoothies

Protein smoothies, sandwiches, wraps, and meal plans

STARTUP COST

$153.7K-$327.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

The Fresh Monkee Protein shakes STARTUP COST

$155.2K-$317.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 6/4

Gong cha Bubble tea

STARTUP COST

$174.5K-$619.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2,027/90

The Good Pour Retail wine and spirits STARTUP COST

$350K-$2.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/3

Hoppin’

Self-pour beer, wine, and cocktail taprooms

STARTUP COST

$1.1M-$1.97M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/2

HTeaO

Iced tea and coffee STARTUP COST

$259.9K-$1.97M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 120/7

The Human Bean Specialty coffee STARTUP COST

$562.1K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 160/12

Jamba Smoothies, juices, bowls

STARTUP COST

$242.95K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 789/1

Juice It Up!

Smoothies, raw juices, acai bowls

STARTUP COST

$247.1K-$660.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 89/1

Junbi

Matcha and tea STARTUP COST

$268.8K-$576.3K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 5/2

Kale Me Crazy Smoothies, juices, salads, wraps, toasts, bowls

STARTUP COST

$324.8K-$642.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 20/3

Kava Luv Social Lounge Non-alcoholic drinks

STARTUP COST

$229.9K-$340.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

Kung Fu Tea Bubble tea

STARTUP COST

$169K-$378K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 405/2

Kwench Juice Cafe Raw juices, smoothies, acai bowls

STARTUP COST

$89K-$202K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 24/0

The Living Root Cafe Vegan cafes and juiceries STARTUP COST

$210K-$382.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Lucky Goat Coffee Company Coffee

STARTUP COST

$195.5K-$496.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/5

Maha Juice Bar Juices, smoothies, acai bowls, avocado toast

STARTUP COST

$296K-$451K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Mariam Coffee Coffee

STARTUP COST

$149K-$283.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/1

Movita Juice Bar Juices, smoothies, acai bowls, functional beverages STARTUP COST

$275K-$500K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 15/3

Mr Brews Taphouse Craft brew pubs STARTUP COST

$431.5K-$892K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 9/5

Nekter Juice Bar Juices, smoothies, acai bowls, nondairy ice cream STARTUP COST

$246.6K-$640.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 182/31

PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans Coffee, tea, pastries, sandwiches STARTUP COST

$459K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 193/0

Planet Smoothie Smoothies and snacks

STARTUP COST

$195.7K-$461.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 163/0

Pure Green Smoothies, cold-pressed juices, acai and pitaya bowls STARTUP COST

$177.5K-$446.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 46/9

Robeks Fresh Juices & Smoothies Juices, smoothies, bowls STARTUP COST

$325.4K-$505.7K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 100/3

Scooter’s Coffee Coffee, espresso, smoothies, pastries, breakfast items STARTUP COST

$894.5K-$1.4M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 776/24

Sip Fresh Juices, smoothies, fruit bowls, teas

STARTUP COST

$233.7K-$420.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/3

LISTINGS

Smoothie Factory + Kitchen

Smoothies, juices, nutritional supplements, sandwiches, salads, wraps, toasts

STARTUP COST

$364.5K-$548K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 52/1

Smoothie King

Smoothies and smoothie bowls

STARTUP COST

$346.4K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,212/65

Social Play Haus Beer gardens and event spaces STARTUP COST

$650.1K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

The Spice & Tea Exchange Spices, teas, salts, sweeteners, olive oils, honeys, soy candles

STARTUP COST

$233.7K-$487.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 91/1

Tapioca Express

Tea and snow-bubble beverages, snacks

STARTUP COST

$147K-$556.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 21/1

Tapster

Self-pour beer bars

STARTUP COST

$229.2K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/4

Tapville Social Self-service beer taproom restaurants/kiosks/mobile units

STARTUP COST

$147.8K-$2.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 29/2

TeaCupFuls

Boba tea

STARTUP COST

$180K-$380K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/2

ThirsTea

Bubble and milk tea, smoothies, milkshakes

STARTUP COST

$182.6K-$261.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/2

Travelin’ Tom’s Coffee Coffee and beverages

STARTUP COST

$201.6K-$259.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 139/3

Tropical Smoothie Cafe Smoothies, salads, wraps, sandwiches, flatbreads

STARTUP COST

$300K-$720.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,550/1

Vara Juice

Juices, smoothies, fruit bowls STARTUP COST

$251.9K-$647.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 10/0

Voodoo Brewing Co. Craft brew pubs

STARTUP COST

$481.5K-$1.5M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 22/5

Waters Edge Wineries Micro-wineries

STARTUP COST

$519.1K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 12/0

WineStyles Tasting Station

Wine bars, wine and craft beer retail sales, food, events, wine club memberships

STARTUP COST

$298K-$609.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 10/1

Ziggi’s Coffee Coffee, specialty drinks, energy drinks, breakfast and lunch items

STARTUP COST

$526.5K-$2M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 87/7

BOJANGLES

CHICKEN

Chicken is a facet of the food franchise world that continues to shine year after year. It helps that everyone’s favorite white meat is often cheaper than many other proteins, is perceived as healthier by customers, and can be prepared in many different (and tasty) ways, as the companies on our list demonstrate.

Angry Chickz Nashville hot chicken STARTUP COST

$418K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/26

Big Chicken Chicken sandwiches and tenders, salads, sides, desserts STARTUP COST

$681.5K-$1.5M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 25/2

Bojangles Chicken and biscuits

STARTUP COST

$720.2K-$3.8M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 528/285

Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken Korean fried chicken STARTUP COST

$190.9K-$1.2M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 443/5

Buffalo’s Cafe Chicken wings and tenders, steaks, burgers, salads STARTUP COST

$992.3K-$3.1M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 12/0

Buffalo Wild Wings Wings, bar food, alcohol STARTUP COST

$2.9M-$4.8M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 598/652

Chester’s Fried chicken STARTUP COST

$27.5K-$296.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,062/0

To get your business where you want it to go, you ride the line between numbers and people. You balance what’s right for the business and what’s best for everyone who depends on it, solving for today’s challenges and creating future opportunities. Wherever your there is, CLA brings balance to get you there. Start at CLAconnect.com/balance.

LISTINGS

Chicken Salad Chick

Chicken salads, soups, sides

STARTUP COST

$747K-$994.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 190/78

Chick N Max Chicken wings, tenders, and sandwiches

STARTUP COST

$631.5K-$1.98M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 4/3

Chunky Boss

Taiwanese fried chicken

STARTUP COST

$318K-$741.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Church’s Texas Chicken Chicken

STARTUP COST

$648.9K-$1.9M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,372/160

Daddy’s Chicken Shack Chicken sandwiches and fingers, breakfast, sides

STARTUP COST

$725.8K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 5/1

Dave’s Hot Chicken Nashville-style hot chicken

STARTUP COST

$619.8K-$1.96M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 205/6

Detroit Wing Company Chicken wings STARTUP COST

$483.5K-$649.96K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 19/3

East Coast Wings + Grill

Chicken wings, burgers, craft beer

STARTUP COST

$408.4K-$1.2M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 29/5

El Pollo Loco

Grilled chicken and Mexican food STARTUP COST

$779.8K-$2.7M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 334/171

Golden Chick Chicken

STARTUP COST

$810.3K-$1.9M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 198/33

Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken & Wings

Hot chicken sandwiches and wings

STARTUP COST

$305.5K-$518K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 78/0

Hurricane Grill & Wings Chicken wings, tenders, sandwiches, salads

STARTUP COST

$854.2K-$2.97M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 41/0

KFC

Chicken

STARTUP COST

$1.9M-$3.8M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 30,246/434

Layne’s Chicken Fingers Chicken tenders STARTUP COST

$446.5K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 13/4

Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken Chicken, biscuits, sides STARTUP COST

$567.5K-$2M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 97/33

Native Grill & Wings Family sports bars and grills

STARTUP COST

$1M-$2.9M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 20/0

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Fried chicken, seafood, biscuits

STARTUP COST

$471K-$3.9M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 4,756/40

Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken Biscuits and chicken STARTUP COST

$634.1K-$827K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 17/6

Rooster & Rice Thai chicken rice STARTUP COST

$335.6K-$530.3K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/7

Roots Chicken Shak Duck-fat-fried chicken wings, tenders, and sandwiches

STARTUP COST

$393.2K-$748.6K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

Slim Chickens Chicken tenders, chicken wings, salads, sandwiches, wraps

STARTUP COST

$1.5M-$4.4M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 240/11

DAVE’S HOT CHICKEN

LISTINGS

Starbird

Chicken tenders, salads, sandwiches, tacos, wings

STARTUP COST

$1.1M-$1.5M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/15

VooDoo Wing Company

Chicken wings, salads, sandwiches, sides, desserts

STARTUP COST

$207.8K-$475.95K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 4/5

Wing It On!

Chicken wings, sandwiches, and tenders

STARTUP COST

$215.5K-$445K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 9/2

Wings and Rings

Sports restaurants and bars

STARTUP COST

$1.4M-$1.9M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 79/6

Wings Etc. Restaurants and pubs

STARTUP COST

$368.2K-$2.6M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 54/26

Wing Snob

Chicken wings

STARTUP COST

$330.2K-$599.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 43/1

Wingstop

Chicken wings, tenders, and sandwiches, fries, sides

STARTUP COST

$259.4K-$912.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2,300/52

Zaxby’s

Chicken wings, fingers, sandwiches, and salads

STARTUP COST

$1.4M-$3.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 815/145

CHILDCARE

Despite having higher average startup costs than many other franchises in the children’s space, childcare continues to have some of the most robust growth in the sector. More and more families require childcare, and being part of a trusted brand name in the industry gives franchise owners a leg up.

A Place to Grow Childcare

STARTUP COST

$56.96K-$315.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/1

Building Kidz School

Preschool/educational childcare

STARTUP COST

$266K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 42/7

Camp Mirage Summer camps for kids

STARTUP COST

$79.3K-$117.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

Celebree School

Early childhood education and childcare

STARTUP COST

$837.6K-$3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 26/26

Children’s Lighthouse Childcare STARTUP COST

$1.1M-$8.9M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 72/0

Creative World School

Early childhood education and childcare for ages 6 weeks to 12 years STARTUP COST

$4.8M-$9.2M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 24/5

Ducklings Early Learning Center

Early education and childcare STARTUP COST

$894.4K-$2.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 11/3

The Goddard School Preschool/educational childcare STARTUP COST

$902.5K-$8.5M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 649/0

Ivybrook Academy Preschool STARTUP COST

$461.4K-$798K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 37/1

Ivy Kids Early Learning Center Childcare and early learning STARTUP COST

$687.5K-$9.4M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 15/4

Kiddie Academy

Educational childcare STARTUP COST

$405K-$7.3M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 336/1

KidsPark Drop-in childcare, preschool, party/ play space STARTUP COST

$293.3K-$516.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 21/1

KLA Schools Preschool/childcare STARTUP COST

$1.1M-$5.9M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 18/7

Kula Children’s Center Childcare STARTUP COST

$205.1K-$489.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/0

The Learning Experience Academy of Early Education Preschool/educational childcare STARTUP COST

$685.8K-$5.6M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 387/35

THE GODDARD SCHOOL

The Hottest Franchise of the Summer

urSwim |Top 10 FranchiseTrend for 2025

urSwim’s mobile-first, multi-revenue model includesat-home and indoorswim lessons, lifeguard staffing, and pool management. Wi th built-in demand for year-round swim education, we’re flipping the traditionalswim school model on its head and making it awhole lot more profitable to run.

We’re not just teaching swim lessons—we’re making summer easier, safer, andway more fun.

LISTINGS

Let Mommy Sleep In-home newborn and postpartum care

STARTUP COST

$38.7K-$57.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 13/0

Lightbridge Academy

Early childhood education and childcare

STARTUP COST

$1.1M-$4.9M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 59/19

Little Tree Huggers

Environmental early childhood education

STARTUP COST

$23.5K-$160.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/2

Marigold Academy Childcare

STARTUP COST

$745.8K-$939.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

LIGHTBRIDGE ACADEMY

MindChamps International Preschool Preschool/educational childcare

STARTUP COST

$663.6K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 70/3

Montessori Kids Universe

Educational childcare

STARTUP COST

$562.2K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 19/0

Primrose Schools

Educational childcare

STARTUP COST

$742.9K-$8.6M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 513/0

Tierra Encantada

Spanish immersion early education STARTUP COST

$1.5M-$3.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/10

HOTTEST FRANCHISE TRENDS 2025

CHILDREN’S FITNESS

Parents want their kids to stay active, healthy, and involved—and to meet that demand, you’ll find a multitude of franchise brands offering both mobile programs and brick-and-mortar facilities to keep kids fit and entertained with dance instruction, swimming lessons, trampoline courts, and almost every sport imaginable.

Altitude Trampoline Park

Family entertainment centers

STARTUP COST

$2.2M-$3.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 73/10

Amazing Athletes

Educational sports programs

STARTUP COST

$75K-$108.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 150/7

Apex Leadership Co. Elementary-school fundraising and fitness programs

STARTUP COST

$81K-$117.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 116/10

Aqua-Tots Swim Schools

Swimming lessons

STARTUP COST

$1.6M-$2.6M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 160/1

British Swim School

Swimming lessons for ages 3 months and older

STARTUP COST

$108.9K-$145.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 181/0

Cheeky Monkeys

Play areas and birthday celebration venues for children

STARTUP COST

$693.6K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 4/5

Dart Wars

Indoor Nerf battle arenas

STARTUP COST

$202.8K-$4M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

D-BAT Academies

Indoor baseball and softball training, batting cages, merchandise

STARTUP COST

$536.5K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 163/0

Destination Athlete

Equipment, apparel, fundraising, and performance solutions for youth, high school, and college athletic teams

STARTUP COST

$28.3K-$93.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 259/0

Ferox Ninja Park

Athletic and entertainment activities STARTUP COST

$2.1M-$3.4M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Freckled Frog Dance Studio

Children’s dance lessons

STARTUP COST

$49.6K-$115.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/3

FunBox

Outdoor and indoor inflatable amusement parks

STARTUP COST

$647K-$1.5M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 39/3

Goldfish Swim School Infant and child swimming lessons STARTUP COST

$2.6M-$6M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 182/6

Supply the Pavement Maintenance Industry

Own Your Future: Turnkey SealMaster in Booming West Virginia

SealMaster West Virginia is a turnkey territory with 30+ years of history—and one of only 10 U.S. territories available.

With 75 percent of protected U.S SealMaster franchise territories sold out, just 10 are available nationwide. SealMaster franchisees are leading suppliers in the pavement maintenance industry, offering a full line of pavement maintenance and sport surfacing products and equipment. Customers include asphalt contractors, government road and parks departments, the property management industry, public and private institutions, and others responsible for maintaining paved assets

and sport surfaces.

“Sales-minded entrepreneurs should definitely have their eyes on SealMaster,” says Franchise Development Director Jason Hedlesky. “Asphalt is every-

where. The market is huge.”

Furthermore, SealMaster is recession resistant, as evidenced by consistent, yearover-year growth for more than 30 years, according to Hedlesky. “As essential businesses, our franchisees didn’t shut down for a single day during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Beyond that, large, protected territories—some are entire states—afford single-unit franchisees tremendous earning power, according to Hedlesky. Buyers can purchase manufacturing or distribution-only territories. “Owners can open as many storefronts as their territories can profitably bear.”

For instance, SealMaster’s Nashville-based Tennessee franchise has a sealer manufacturing plant and eight

storefronts throughout the state.

Available territories include a turn-key operation based in Charleston with all of West Virginia except the panhandle SealMaster products are distributed worldwide, has licensed manufacturers in China and Mexico “Most people don’t think of supplying a big industry when considering franchise opportunities, but it’s a great one for the right type of owner,” says Hedlesky.

“Given the investment, I can’t imagine any other franchise with the income potential SealMaster offers. Our

“Operating

MIKE BASHIR SealMaster Franchise Owner

SealMaster fields the No. 12 and No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3s in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship series.

LISTINGS

The Gravity Vault

Indoor rock-climbing gyms

STARTUP COST

$1.2M-$3.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 8/4

Hudson Valley Swim

Swimming and water safety lessons for all ages

STARTUP COST

$98.3K-$131.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 10/7

i9 Sports

Youth sports leagues, camps, and clinics

STARTUP COST

$59.9K-$69.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED)

250/0

Kidokinetics

Mobile youth sports and fitness programs

STARTUP COST

$110.5K-$144.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED)

151/6

KidStrong

Physical fitness, leadership, and confidence-building training for children

STARTUP COST

$342.7K-$691.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 118/8

Kinderdance

Children’s dance, gymnastics, movement, fitness, and yoga programs

STARTUP COST

$24.6K-$59K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 221/4

Launch Entertainment Family entertainment centers

STARTUP COST

$4.6M-$6.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 22/3

LiggettVille Indoor ropes courses, zip rails, and climbing walls

STARTUP COST

$2M-$3.9M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/4

The Little Gym Child-development/fitness programs STARTUP COST

$506.2K-$673.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 341/1

Little Kickers Soccer classes for children 18 months to 7 years old

STARTUP COST

$38.1K-$53.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 354/0

Little Yogis Academy Movement and mindfulness enrichment for children

STARTUP COST

$29.7K-$42.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 8/4

Monster Mini Golf Indoor mini golf and family entertainment centers

STARTUP COST

$793.5K-$956K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 28/2

National Academy of Athletics

Youth sports camps

STARTUP COST

$44.3K-$63.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 5/13

NinjaTrix

Children’s obstacle courses

STARTUP COST

$224.6K-$381.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

N Zone Sports Sports leagues and preschool programs for ages 3 to 16

STARTUP COST

$52.3K-$71.95K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 56/0

Overtime Athletics Youth sports programs

STARTUP COST

$46.4K-$58.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 50/0

SafeSplash Swim School Child and adult swimming lessons, parties, summer camps

STARTUP COST

$57.5K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 91/29

Scary Strokes

Family entertainment centers

STARTUP COST

$439.2K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Shoot 360 Basketball training facilities

STARTUP COST

$637K-$2.2M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 42/2

MONSTER MINI GOLF

LISTINGS

Silver Bear Swim School Swim lessons

STARTUP COST

$165K-$4.5M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/2

Singers Company

Noncompetitive music and dance performing groups for girls

STARTUP COST

$4.7K-$31.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 58/3

Skyhawks & SuperTots Sports Academy

Children’s fitness programs

STARTUP COST

$57.8K-$89.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 84/42

Sky Zone

Trampoline parks/entertainment centers

STARTUP COST

$2.3M-$5.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 130/114

Slick City Action Park

Family entertainment centers

STARTUP COST

$1.5M-$4.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/5

Soccer Shots

Soccer programs for ages 2 to 8

STARTUP COST

$42.95K-$54.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 303/23

Soccer Stars

Youth soccer programs

STARTUP COST

$73.3K-$106.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 127/9

Special Strong

Adaptive fitness for individuals with physical, mental, and cognitive challenges

STARTUP COST

$79K-$96.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 8/1

Sportball

Sports enrichment programs for ages 16 months to 12 years

STARTUP COST

$62K-$81K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 31/2

The Starz Program

Dance/fitness enrichment classes

STARTUP COST

$27.2K-$95.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/2

Stretch-n-Grow

On-site children’s fitness programs

STARTUP COST

$57.5K-$77.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 110/3

TGA Premier Sports Golf, tennis, pickleball, and athletic enrichment programs

STARTUP COST

$77.6K-$116K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 54/1

Tiger-Rock Martial Arts Martial-arts and fitness programs

STARTUP COST

$204.6K-$373.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 96/0

Tippi Toes Children’s dance classes

STARTUP COST

$67.1K-$83.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 69/2

Tutu School Children’s ballet schools

STARTUP COST

$115K-$216K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 101/4

Twinkle Star Dance Academy Dance studios for ages 2 to teens STARTUP COST

$111.6K-$174.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/4

Urban Air Adventure Park Adventure parks STARTUP COST

$3.6M-$8.3M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 189/4

urSwim

Swim instruction, pool safety education, lifeguard staffing, and pool management services

STARTUP COST

$76.3K-$106.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/2

USA Ninja Challenge Youth fitness programs

STARTUP COST

$342.7K-$567.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 31/0

SOCCER STARS

LISTINGS

DESSERTS

Dessert franchises are hot for two big reasons. First, just like beveragefocused brands, their limited menus generally make them relatively easy to operate. Also, when consumers cut back on spending, they often don’t dine out for full meals—but they still want the indulgence of a sweet treat now and then.

Acai Express Superfood Bowls

Acai bowls, smoothies, juices, toast STARTUP COST

$158.4K-$431K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 54/10

Angelina Italian Bakery

Baked goods, pizza, coffee, desserts

STARTUP COST

$439.8K-$1.7M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/3

Auntie Anne’s Soft pretzels

STARTUP COST

$149.6K-$624.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2,006/11

Bahia Bowls Acai Cafe

Baskin-Robbins

Ice cream, frozen beverages STARTUP COST

$307.4K-$657.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 7,755/0

Baya Bar

Acai, pitaya, and coconut bowls; smoothies, juices, avocado toast, coffee

STARTUP COST

$160.99K-$340.5K

TOTAL UNITS

Acai and other fruit bowls, smoothies, salads, wraps, toast STARTUP COST

$293.5K-$485.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 15/3

Bang Cookies Cookies STARTUP COST

$235.1K-$390.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/4

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 27/2

Ben & Jerry’s

Ice cream, frozen yogurt, nondairy frozen desserts, sorbet

STARTUP COST

$153.2K-$549.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 194/2

Bowled Healthy Food Company

Acai bowls and smoothies STARTUP COST

$116.5K-$273K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 8/1

Breadsmith European-style breads STARTUP COST

$330.2K-$506.3K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 27/4

Bruster’s Real Ice Cream Ice cream, frozen yogurt, ices, sherbets

STARTUP COST

$320.5K-$2.6M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 210/1

Carvel

Ice cream, ice cream cakes STARTUP COST

$379K-$590.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 362/0

Chill-N Nitrogen Ice Cream Ice cream

STARTUP COST

$471.99K-$630.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 9/6

Churro On Top Churros and milkshakes

STARTUP COST

$201K-$450K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls, baked goods, coffee STARTUP COST

$254.8K-$674.4K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,956/28

Cold Stone Creamery Ice cream, sorbet, ice cream cakes, shakes

STARTUP COST

$322.7K-$627.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,373/1

Cookie Plug Cookies and desserts

STARTUP COST

$200.8K-$577.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 31/3

CARVEL

LISTINGS

Crispy Cones European-style ice cream and fruit cones

STARTUP COST

$284.8K-$543K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 5/3

Culver’s Frozen custard, specialty burgers

STARTUP COST

$2.8M-$6.9M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 971/7

Dairy Queen Soft-serve ice cream, burgers, chicken strips

STARTUP COST

$1.5M-$2.5M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 7,633/2

Dirty Dough Filling-stuffed cookies

STARTUP COST

$153.6K-$510K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 46/14

DonutNV

Mini doughnuts, juices, hot and iced coffee

STARTUP COST

$189.6K-$337.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 156/1

Doughnuttery Mini doughnuts

STARTUP COST

$172.9K-$320.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/4

Duck Donuts Doughnuts and coffee

STARTUP COST

$444.4K-$653.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 156/1

Eiffel Waffle Ice cream and desserts

STARTUP COST

$264.9K-$387.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/6

Everbowl Health food bowls STARTUP COST

$213.5K-$475.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 72/19

Fluffy Fluffy Souffle pancakes and desserts STARTUP COST

$188.2K-$496.6K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 28/1

Fosters Freeze Soft-serve ice cream, burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, fries

STARTUP COST

$178K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 61/0

Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Frozen custard, steakburgers, hot dogs

STARTUP COST

$897.8K-$2.8M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 497/34

The French Workshop Bakery cafes STARTUP COST

$1.5M-$2.2M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/4

Frios Gourmet Pops

Frozen pops

STARTUP COST

$66.5K-$95.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 113/1

Frutta Bowls

Acai, pitaya, and kale bowls; smoothies, toast, coffee STARTUP COST

$388.8K-$506.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 35/2

Goodness Bowls

Fruit bowls, smoothies, toast, salads, wraps STARTUP COST

$281K-$450.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

Grain & Berry

Acai, pitaya, and spirulina bowls; smoothies, juices, yogurt, toast, plant-based flatbreads and quesadillas

STARTUP COST

$258K-$673.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 18/2

Great American Cookies

Cookies, cookie cakes, brownies STARTUP COST

$308.5K-$484.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 412/0

Great Harvest Bakery cafes

STARTUP COST

$168.3K-$984.2K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 159/0

Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream Ice cream

STARTUP COST

$311K-$936K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 136/6

Ice Cream Hut Ice cream

STARTUP COST

$89.5K-$206K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/3

Jars by Fabio Viviani Desserts in a jar, coffee STARTUP COST

$208.95K-$644.95K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 6/1

Jeremiah’s Italian Ice Italian ice, gelati, soft ice cream STARTUP COST

$350.6K-$721K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 140/19

Kilwins Chocolates, fudge, ice cream STARTUP COST

$239.3K-$870.1K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 163/4

King of Pops Ice pop carts

STARTUP COST

$20.2K-$68.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 54/2

Kolache Factory Kolaches, pastries, coffee STARTUP COST

$641.9K-$937.4K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 30/30

DONUTNV

LISTINGS

Kona Ice

Shaved-ice trucks

STARTUP COST

$173.4K-$222.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,810/4

la Madeleine French bakeries and cafes

STARTUP COST

$430.1K-$2.2M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 58/28

Le Macaron French Pastries Macarons, pastries, gelato, chocolates, candies, specialty coffee and tea

STARTUP COST

$154.2K-$454K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 59/5

Marble Slab Creamery Ice cream

STARTUP COST

$303.5K-$476.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 392/0

MidnighTreats

Plant-based cookies and milk STARTUP COST

$132.9K-$296K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/1

MilkShake Factory

Milkshakes, chocolates, caramels

STARTUP COST

$476.7K-$739.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/11

Morelia Gourmet Paletas Gelato and sorbet bars

STARTUP COST

$98.1K-$360K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 13/3

Mrs. Fields Cookies and baked goods

STARTUP COST

$311.5K-$495.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 198/0

Nautical Bowls Acai bowls

STARTUP COST

$222.3K-$409.4K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 71/0

Negranti Creamery Sheep’s milk ice cream STARTUP COST

$248.3K-$475.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/5

Nothing Bundt Cakes Bundt cakes and gifts

STARTUP COST

$585K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 595/17

OddFellows Ice Cream Co. Ice cream

STARTUP COST

$234.3K-$591K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/5

Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt Frozen yogurt, shakes, smoothies, cakes

STARTUP COST

$387.5K-$640K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 62/0

The Original Rainbow Cone Ice cream, ice cream cakes, doughnuts STARTUP COST

$386.1K-$3.3M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/20

Paciugo Gelato Caffe Gelato, coffee, pastries, smoothies, iced beverages, paninis, flatbreads

STARTUP COST

$109.7K-$612.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 22/0

Paris Baguette Bakery cafes

STARTUP COST

$718.1K-$1.8M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3,883/19

Pecan Jacks

Ice cream and candy

STARTUP COST

$387.4K-$597.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/3

Pelican’s SnoBalls Shaved ice STARTUP COST

$81.8K-$230.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 202/0

Peterbrooke Chocolatier

Chocolates, candy, gelato, frozen yogurt, baked goods

STARTUP COST

$288.2K-$414.4K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 20/6

Playa Bowls

Acai, pitaya, coconut, chia-pudding, and oatmeal bowls; smoothies, juices

STARTUP COST

$188.7K-$636.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 239/24

Press Waffle Co.

Belgian waffles, coffee, ice cream

STARTUP COST

$188.4K-$497.3K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 6/2

Pretzelmaker

Pretzels, lemonade STARTUP COST

$302.5K-$583K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 199/0

Puffles

Hong Kong egg waffles and bubble tea

STARTUP COST

$111.5K-$296K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/3

Rainbow Snow

Shaved-ice trailers

STARTUP COST

$99.5K-$122.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Randy’s Donuts

Doughnuts, breakfast sandwiches, croissants, coffee, tea, lemonades, milkshakes, boba drinks

STARTUP COST

$297K-$1.2M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 31/9

Red Mango Cafe & Juice Bar

Frozen yogurt, smoothies, juices, wraps, salads, flatbreads, toast STARTUP COST

$378.5K-$620.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 57/0

PLAYA BOWLS

LISTINGS

Repicci’s Real Italian Italian ice, gelato, sorbetto, hot chocolate, Italian coffees and teas, hoagies, pizza

STARTUP COST

$77.9K-$166.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 28/0

Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard

Italian ice and frozen custard

STARTUP COST

$293.2K-$782.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 561/5

River Street Sweets

Candy and confections

STARTUP COST

$450K-$978K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 7/7

The Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shops

Candy, soda, and gift stores

STARTUP COST

$95.9K-$271K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 98/0

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

Chocolates, confections

STARTUP COST

$267.1K-$824.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 146/2

Sambazon Acai Bowls

Acai bowls, smoothies, and superfoods

STARTUP COST

$380K-$630K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/6

Schmackary’s Cookies and baked goods

STARTUP COST

$266.7K-$656.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Shipley Do-Nuts

Doughnuts, kolaches, pastries, coffee

STARTUP COST

$496.4K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 345/11

16 Handles

Self-serve frozen yogurt and ice cream

STARTUP COST

$242.5K-$645K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 30/0

Sleek Creperie & Cafe

Sweet and savory crepes and desserts

STARTUP COST

$361.5K-$611.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

SoBol

Acai bowls and smoothies

STARTUP COST

$195.6K-$453.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 65/2

Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream

Ice cream, Italian ice, frozen yogurt, custard

STARTUP COST

$47.2K-$284K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 24/2

HOTTEST

Sweet Paris Creperie & Cafe Crepes, waffles, salads, panini, milkshakes, coffee, alcohol

STARTUP COST

$928.1K-$1.5M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 10/7

The Sweet Spot Ice cream, milkshakes, churros, funnel cakes, waffles, smoothies, coffee STARTUP COST

$332.1K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

Swensen’s Ice cream parlors and restaurants STARTUP COST

$222.99K-$993.1K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 457/0

TCBY

Frozen yogurt STARTUP COST

$493.6K-$699.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 169/0

3Natives Acai & Juicery Acai bowls, smoothies, cold-pressed juices, wraps, salads STARTUP COST

$306K-$519K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 43/7

Top This Chocolate Made-to-order chocolate bars STARTUP COST

$337.3K-$533.7K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Totally Nutz

Cinnamon-glazed almonds, pecans, and cashews

STARTUP COST

$66.4K-$229K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 59/18

Tous les Jours Bakery cafes STARTUP COST

$718.2K-$948.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,630/163

Vicky Bakery Baked goods, breads, pastries, sandwiches, coffee STARTUP COST

$626.7K-$1.2M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 20/5

Vitality Bowls

Acai bowls, smoothies, juices, wraps, salads, grain bowls, panini STARTUP COST

$208.8K-$683.1K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 63/6

Wetzel’s Pretzels Soft pretzels, lemonade, hot dogs STARTUP COST

$178.5K-$689.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 388/38

Yogen Fruz Frozen yogurt, soft-serve ice cream STARTUP COST

$285.1K-$754.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 516/1

LISTINGS

HOME IMPROVEMENT

Spending on home improvement projects has increased greatly over the last 10 years, and franchises in the industry are primed to continue to benefit. There are franchise brands offering everything from window treatments and painting to home organization products and services to indoor and outdoor remodeling.

America’s Color Consultants

Paint color consulting

STARTUP COST

$14.6K-$44.6K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/3

Archadeck Outdoor Living

Outdoor living space design and construction

STARTUP COST

$120.4K-$139.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 93/0

Attic Pros

Attic and crawlspace services

STARTUP COST

$114K-$303K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Bath Tune-Up

Bathroom remodeling

STARTUP COST

$104.9K-$159.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 52/0

Blingle!

Holiday, landscape, patio, permanent, and event lighting

STARTUP COST

$177.4K-$243.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 31/0

HOTTEST FRANCHISE TRENDS 2025

Bloomin’ Blinds

Window covering sales, installation, and repairs

STARTUP COST

$105.7K-$182.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 149/4

Brush Masters Painting Contractors

Interior and exterior painting

STARTUP COST

$53.9K-$81.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 6/0

Budget Blinds

Window coverings, window film, rugs, accessories

STARTUP COST

$100.5K-$211.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,498/0

Bumble Bee Blinds

Installation and repair of blinds, shades, and shutters

STARTUP COST

$163.6K-$196K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 45/0

Bumble Roofing Roofing

STARTUP COST

$163.5K-$260.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 25/4

Cabinet IQ

Residential cabinet and countertop design and installation

STARTUP COST

$298.4K-$454.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 29/2

CertaPro Painters

Painting, home services, and decorating services

STARTUP COST

$171K-$336.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 369/3

Closet & Storage Concepts/More Space Place

Residential/commercial closet and storage systems; Murphy beds STARTUP COST

$112.6K-$621.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 35/5

Closet Factory

Custom closet and storage systems

STARTUP COST

$344.5K-$611.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 80/6

Closets By Design

Custom closet and home/office organization systems

STARTUP COST

$154K-$511K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 85/6

Concrete Craft Decorative concrete coatings

STARTUP COST

$156.3K-$233.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 74/0

CR3 American Exteriors Roofing and exterior remodeling

STARTUP COST

$73K-$188.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 14/4

Daisy Smart home technology installation and maintenance

STARTUP COST

$36.5K-$308.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 5/5

Decorating Den Interiors Interior design and decorating services and products

STARTUP COST

$43.8K-$70.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 235/0

The Decor Group/Christmas Decor Holiday, event, landscape, and permanent architectural lighting STARTUP COST

$31.8K-$236.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 262/0

The Designery Kitchen, bath, and closet design services

STARTUP COST

$156.1K-$387.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 46/0

DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen Kitchen, bath, and interior remodeling

STARTUP COST

$220.4K-$464.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 42/0

Five Star Bath Solutions Bathroom remodeling

STARTUP COST

$125.5K-$266K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 203/6

LISTINGS

Five Star Painting

Residential and commercial painting STARTUP COST

$77.5K-$184.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 260/0

Floor Coverings International Flooring

STARTUP COST

$180.4K-$243.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 273/0

Footprints Floors

Flooring installation and restoration STARTUP COST

$79.96K-$114.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 84/1

Fresh Coat Painters

Residential and commercial painting STARTUP COST

$81.2K-$120.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 181/0

GarageExperts

Epoxy and polyaspartic floor coatings, garage cabinets, organization products

STARTUP COST

$102.9K-$198.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 103/0

The Garage Floor Company

Garage floor coatings and storage STARTUP COST

$144K-$279.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/3

Garage Kings

Garage floor coatings, cabinets, and storage solutions

STARTUP COST

$189.5K-$238.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 28/5

Garage Living

Garage renovation products and services

STARTUP COST

$233.3K-$316.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 50/1

Gatsby Glass

Frameless glass showers, shower doors, glass railings, doors, mirrors, commercial glass partitions and walls

STARTUP COST

$198.2K-$251.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 28/0

Get A Grip Resurfacing Countertop, cabinet, tub, tile, and shower resurfacing; fiberglass repair

STARTUP COST

$48.6K-$97.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 23/1

Gotcha Covered Window treatments STARTUP COST

$103.2K-$136.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 159/0

Granite and Trend Transformations

Home remodeling STARTUP COST

$196.4K-$325.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 58/3

Granite Garage Floors

Garage floor coatings

STARTUP COST

$199.3K-$400.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 50/0

Groovy Hues

Painting, power washing, soft washing, gutter and shutter replacement, carpentry

STARTUP COST

$167K-$206.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 16/0

Home Improvement Express Handyman services; kitchen and bathroom remodeling

STARTUP COST

$112K-$145K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/3

HOTTEST FRANCHISE TRENDS 2025

Honest Abe Roofing Roofing consultations, installations, and repairs

STARTUP COST

$185K-$466.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 17/5

Ideal Siding Home siding renovation STARTUP COST

$90.5K-$132.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 77/0

iFoam Insulation services

STARTUP COST

$267.5K-$353.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 35/1

Kitchen Solvers Kitchen and bath remodeling, design, and installation

STARTUP COST

$98.8K-$134.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 54/0

Kitchen Tune-Up Kitchen and cabinetry remodeling STARTUP COST

$129.9K-$188.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 283/0

Kitchen Wise & Closet Wise Home organization solutions

STARTUP COST

$108.1K-$147K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 6/0

Koala Insulation Insulation services STARTUP COST

$183.8K-$219.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 447/0

Level Up Automation

Design and installation of commercial and residential technology modifications and integrations

STARTUP COST

$51.8K-$68.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 8/2

LIME Painting

Residential and commercial painting, coatings, and surface restoration

STARTUP COST

$126.7K-$227.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 84/2

Linden Creek Home staging and interior design

STARTUP COST

$199K-$299K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/1

Made in the Shade Window coverings

STARTUP COST

$74.5K-$101.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 138/0

Mighty Dog Roofing

Residential and commercial roofing services, siding, windows, gutters, and solar

STARTUP COST

$183.9K-$235.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 111/0

Miracle Method Surface Refinishing Kitchen and bathroom surface refinishing STARTUP COST

$95.7K-$190.1K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 194/0

MrCool HVAC equipment and service STARTUP COST

$776.1K-$2.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/1

N-Hance Wood Refinishing Cabinet and floor refinishing and color changes, cabinet door replacement, organizational solutions

STARTUP COST

$70.7K-$194.99K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 338/0

Outdoor Lighting Perspectives Residential landscape, architectural, holiday, and hospitality lighting STARTUP COST

$99.7K-$214.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 137/0

TRENDS CHANGE, BUT HOME SERVICES ARE HERE TO STAY

Start a franchise with the tools to help you succeed in a fast-growing, recession-resistant industry that demands attention year-round.

Start

LISTINGS

Paint Corps

Commercial and residential painting STARTUP COST

$68.1K-$154K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 10/1

Painter Bros

Residential and commercial painting STARTUP COST

$187.4K-$386.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 29/4

Painter1

Residential and commercial painting STARTUP COST

$71.3K-$153.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 45/0

Paint EZ

Residential and commercial painting, drywall repairs, carpentry repairs, concrete coatings, pressure washing, shingle sealing

STARTUP COST

$80.2K-$140.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 39/1

Performance Painting

Residential and commercial painting STARTUP COST

$117.8K-$205.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

PremierGarage

Garage organizing units, storage, and flooring

STARTUP COST

$185.2K-$298.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 168/0

Premier Pools & Spas

Residential pool construction

STARTUP COST

$58.95K-$119K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 128/1

Preserve Services

Multiservice construction management

STARTUP COST

$68.4K-$95.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 8/1

ProSource Wholesale Wholesale kitchen, bath, and flooring products

STARTUP COST

$955.5K-$971.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 145/3

Re-Bath

Bathroom remodeling

STARTUP COST

$276.3K-$609.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 131/0

Renovation Sells

Residential presale renovations

STARTUP COST

$79K-$171.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 38/1

Richard’s Painting Painting STARTUP COST

$60.2K-$109.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 25/1

Rock N Block Turf N Hardscapes Artificial turf, pavers, and landscape services

STARTUP COST

$102.4K-$217K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/3

Roof It Forward Commercial and residential roofing services

STARTUP COST

$63.3K-$125K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/7

The Roof Resource Roof replacement STARTUP COST

$89.1K-$115.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 11/1

SaaviHome Smart home and home automation services

STARTUP COST

$169.1K-$274.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/1

Sam the Concrete Man Residential and commercial concrete services

STARTUP COST

$92.1K-$145.99K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 96/2

ShelfGenie

Custom pull-out shelving for cabinets and pantries

STARTUP COST

$45.3K-$137.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 296/17

Shoppers Drapes & Blinds Window treatments

STARTUP COST

$108.8K-$208K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Simply Cabinetry Cabinetry design and sales STARTUP COST

$294.7K-$378.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/3

Softroc

Rubber safety surfacing STARTUP COST

$85.1K-$170.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 30/0

Spray Foam Genie Spray foam insulation services

STARTUP COST

$323.5K-$545.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 38/0

Spray-Net

Exterior and interior home renovation STARTUP COST

$175.8K-$236.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 87/2

Stand Strong Fencing Fencing, railing, staining, and sealing

STARTUP COST

$160.6K-$226.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 24/0

Superior Fence & Rail Fence sales and installation

STARTUP COST

$130.5K-$206.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 295/2

Surface Experts

Interior hard surface repairs

STARTUP COST

$140.8K-$227.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 80/0

Surface Specialists

Bathtub repair and refinishing, tub liners, bath remodeling

STARTUP COST

$43.2K-$56K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 48/0

The Tailored Closet Home organization and storage solutions

STARTUP COST

$155.2K-$268.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 165/0

That 1 Painter

Residential and commercial painting and cosmetic repairs

STARTUP COST

$113K-$189K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 105/6

360 Painting Interior and exterior painting STARTUP COST

$101.4K-$145K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 141/0

Tile Liquidators Floor & Design Flooring stores

STARTUP COST

$79.7K-$167.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 16/0

Top Rail Fence Residential and commercial fencing STARTUP COST

$112.9K-$213.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 166/0

UBuildIt

Construction consulting STARTUP COST

$78.4K-$220.2K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 58/15

Up Closets

Custom closets and home organization services

STARTUP COST

$67.3K-$169.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 43/1

USA Insulation

Home insulation and energy-efficient products

STARTUP COST

$265.5K-$410K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 126/1

Window Mart Depot

Window and door sales and installation

STARTUP COST

$141.2K-$269.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Window World

Residential windows, doors, siding, roofing, and other exterior remodeling products

STARTUP COST

$123.4K-$331.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 213/0

Wise Coatings Floor coatings

STARTUP COST

$102.96K-$122K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 33/1

Wonderly Lights

Holiday and exterior lighting services

STARTUP COST

$90.1K-$123.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 24/1

MENTAL HEALTH & AUTISM SERVICES

This is an emerging franchise category that didn’t exist just a few years ago, and is still small—but it’s already seeing greath growth. Franchises offering general mental health services have paved the way, and those with a focus on helping customers on the autism spectrum are now beginning to follow their lead.

HOTTEST

Cereset

Neurotechnology to help the brain relax and reset

STARTUP COST

$104.4K-$226.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 61/1

Changing the Spectrum ABA therapy

STARTUP COST

$112.5K-$206.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

Ellie Mental Health Outpatient mental health services

STARTUP COST

$290.3K-$508.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 252/24

Essential Speech and ABA Therapy ABA, speech, and occupational therapy for children 18 months to 6 years diagnosed with autism STARTUP COST

$267.5K-$698.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 12/3

Lifeologie Counseling Mental-health therapy services

STARTUP COST

$125.5K-$329.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 16/4

RCG Behavioral Health Therapy services for children on the autism spectrum

STARTUP COST

$284.1K-$588.1K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/3

Success on the Spectrum Autism treatment services for children and young adults

STARTUP COST

$315K-$842.7K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 41/1

ELLIE MENTAL HEALTH

LISTINGS

PETS

Spending on our furry friends rises every year, and is projected to reach $157 billion in 2025, according to the American Pet Products Association. Many people consider pets a part of the family now, so franchises offering pet care, training, grooming, supplies, and more have become indispensable.

All American Pet Resorts

Pet boarding, daycare, and grooming

STARTUP COST

$668K-$1.5M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 10/0

Aussie Pet Mobile Mobile pet grooming STARTUP COST

$178.8K-$203.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 93/0

Bombs Away! Pet waste management STARTUP COST

$51.7K-$113K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/1

Camp Bow Wow Dog daycare, boarding, training, grooming STARTUP COST

$1.1M-$1.7M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 219/1

Camp Run-A-Mutt

Dog daycare and boarding STARTUP COST

$588K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 12/0

Central Bark

Dog daycare, boarding, grooming, training, and retail

STARTUP COST

$522.5K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 40/0

The Dog Stop

Dog care services and products

STARTUP COST

$543K-$1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 25/6

Dogtopia

Dog daycare, boarding, and spa services

STARTUP COST

$607.8K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 270/6

Dog Training Elite

Dog training STARTUP COST

$173.6K-$203.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 395/0

DoodyCalls

Pet waste management

STARTUP COST

$64K-$83.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 97/2

EarthWise Pet

Pet food and supplies, grooming, self-wash, and veterinary services

STARTUP COST

$288K-$828K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 138/60

FairyTail Pet Care

Pet care at weddings and special events

STARTUP COST

$23.3K-$43.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 5/2

Fetch! Pet Care

Pet-sitting, dog-walking STARTUP COST

$88.6K-$103.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 143/18

Furry Land Mobile Grooming Mobile pet grooming

STARTUP COST

$136.5K-$309.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 73/0

GoDog

Pet boarding, daycare, bathing, grooming, wellness services, training, and dog parks

STARTUP COST

$1.99M-$3.7M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/4

Happy Cat Hotel & Spa Luxury cat boarding, grooming, and retail STARTUP COST

$470.1K-$725.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 4/2

Hounds Town USA Dog daycare, pet boarding, pet grooming

STARTUP COST

$542.1K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 65/1

K9 Resorts Luxury Pet Hotel Luxury dog daycare and boarding STARTUP COST

$1.5M-$2.4M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 39/5

Onyva Dog grooming

STARTUP COST

$384.9K-$784.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Orlando Cat Cafe Cafes offering cat adoptions STARTUP COST

$411.6K-$648.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

petbar

Pet grooming, bathing, and selfwash services

STARTUP COST

$396.7K-$740.3K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 29/4

Pet Evolution

Healthy pet food, pet products, grooming, self-wash stations

STARTUP COST

$800.6K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 21/2

Petland Pets, pet supplies, boarding, daycare, grooming

STARTUP COST

$313K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 297/22

Pet Passages

Pet funeral and cremation services and products

STARTUP COST

$71.2K-$448.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 14/3

DOGTOPIA

Pet Supplies Plus Pet food and supplies, bathing/ grooming services

STARTUP COST

$498.3K-$1.98M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 500/232

Pet Wants

Natural pet-food stores/delivery

STARTUP COST

$137.9K-$219K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 134/0

PetWellClinic Walk-in pet clinics

STARTUP COST

$274.2K-$655.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 20/8

PottyPro Dog waste management STARTUP COST

$8.3K-$81.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/1

Puparazzi Mobile Pet Spaw Mobile grooming services

STARTUP COST

$70K-$96.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/1

Salty Dawg Pet Salon + Bakery Dog grooming, food, treats, and accessories

STARTUP COST

$185.3K-$460.95K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 3/0

Salty Paws Ice Cream Truck Dog ice cream trucks

STARTUP COST

$81.8K-$201.95K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 8/0

Scenthound Routine hygiene and wellness care for dogs

STARTUP COST

$328.1K-$549.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 129/5

Scoop Soldiers

Pet waste removal

STARTUP COST

$68.6K-$118.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 95/11

Sit Means Sit Dog Training

Dog training

STARTUP COST

$31.8K-$128.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 160/0

Tip Top K9

Dog training

STARTUP COST

$53.2K-$104.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 24/1

Vanity Fur

Mobile pet grooming services STARTUP COST

$78.2K-$96.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/1

Wagbar

Off-leash dog parks and bars

STARTUP COST

$472.5K-$1.1M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Wag N’ Wash

Self-service pet bathing, grooming, pet supplies

STARTUP COST

$513.3K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 19/6

What’s In The Bowl Pet Shop

Pet food and supplies

STARTUP COST

$180.7K-$408.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/2

Wild Birds Unlimited Bird-feeding supplies and nature gift items

STARTUP COST

$224.3K-$379.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 361/1

HOTTEST

Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming Pet stores and pet grooming STARTUP COST

$179.2K-$419.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 212/0

Woofie’s Pet-sitting, dog-walking, mobile pet grooming

STARTUP COST

$160.1K-$274.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 47/0

Zoomin Groomin Mobile pet grooming

STARTUP COST

$95.9K-$188.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 134/0

Zoom Room

Indoor dog training and socialization, pet products

STARTUP COST

$317.6K-$489.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 64/5

RESTORATION

Unfortunately, natural disasters have become an increasingly common fact of life. That creates a lot of need for franchises that respond to those disasters. These brands help get customers’ homes and businesses back to normal as quickly as possible—which makes them more important (and more recession-proof) than ever.

AdvantaClean Mold removal and remediation and water damage restoration

STARTUP COST

$116.9K-$197.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 92/0

All Dry Services Water and mold remediation and restoration

STARTUP COST

$105.9K-$311.95K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 109/1

Best Option Restoration

Disaster restoration

STARTUP COST

$185.9K-$230.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 72/0

Blue Kangaroo Packoutz Contents restoration

STARTUP COST

$241.2K-$518.6K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 129/1

Content Recovery Specialists

Personal property restoration

STARTUP COST

$135.5K-$294K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 22/1

DRYmedic Restoration Services Disaster restoration

STARTUP COST

$187.97K-$311.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 54/22

FRSTeam

Restoration of textiles, electronics, and contents

STARTUP COST

$44.4K-$411K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 38/11

Lightspeed Restoration Residential and commercial water and fire restoration

STARTUP COST

$154.2K-$252.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 24/0

Mold Medics Mold mitigation and indoor environmental health STARTUP COST

$148.4K-$267K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 4/0

LISTINGS

911 Restoration

Residential and commercial property restoration

STARTUP COST

$102.1K-$246.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 330/6

1-800-Packouts

Contents packing, cleaning, storage, and restoration

STARTUP COST

$239.2K-$442.5K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 45/0

1-800-Textiles

Textile restoration

STARTUP COST

$57.7K-$939K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 47/0

1-800 Water Damage

Property restoration STARTUP COST

$210.9K-$316.4K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 185/0

Paul Davis Restoration Insurance restoration

STARTUP COST

$285.8K-$737.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 316/0

Prism Specialties

Restoration of electronics, art, textiles, and documents

STARTUP COST

$149.99K-$322.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 165/0

Pure Maintenance Mold remediation STARTUP COST

$86.2K-$127.4K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

PuroClean

Property damage restoration and remediation

STARTUP COST

$95.5K-$245.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 471/0

Rainbow Restoration Restoration and remediation

STARTUP COST

$169.3K-$325.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 380/0

Restoration 1

Residential and commercial water, fire, smoke, and mold restoration

STARTUP COST

$103.7K-$271.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 310/0

Rytech Restoration Water, mold, fire, and smoke restoration; COVID sanitation

STARTUP COST

$166.5K-$258.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 94/2

ServiceMaster Restore Commercial/residential disaster restoration

STARTUP COST

$255.1K-$365.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2,284/0

Servpro Fire, water, and other damage cleanup, restoration, and reconstruction

STARTUP COST

$241.3K-$301.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2,284/0

Steamatic Insurance/disaster restoration, cleaning, mold remediation, air quality control

STARTUP COST

$216.5K-$444.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 130/3

True North Restoration Restoration services

STARTUP COST

$115K-$233.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 18/0

United Water Restoration Group Water, fire, and mold restoration STARTUP COST

$214.3K-$627.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 38/11

Voda Cleaning & Restoration Restoration and floor cleaning STARTUP COST

$176.2K-$257.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 41/1

HOTTEST FRANCHISE TRENDS 2025

Always Best Care Senior Services

SENIOR CARE

S NIO

The National Council on Aging reports that nearly 58 million Americans are 65 or older. With that number expected to climb to 88 million by 2060, the demand for assisted living facilities, placement services, and in-home care for those wishing to maintain independence has nowhere to go but up.

Acti-Kare Nonmedical home care

STARTUP COST

$32.5K-$57.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 145/0

In-home care, assisted-living referral services, home health care

STARTUP COST

$89.7K-$145.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 260/0

Amada Senior Care Home care, medical staffing, assisted-living placement

STARTUP COST

$116.8K-$278K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 197/6

AmeriCare Nonmedical home care

STARTUP COST

$167.3K-$206.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 33/0

LISTINGS

A Place At Home

Nonmedical home care, care coordination, senior-living placement, staffing solutions

STARTUP COST

$89.99K-$168.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 45/1

Assisted Living Locators

Senior-living placement and referral services

STARTUP COST

$74.6K-$94.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 152/4

Assisting Hands Home Care Home care

STARTUP COST

$94.5K-$176.4K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 197/5

At Home Eldercare

In-home nonmedical senior care

STARTUP COST

$66.9K-$115.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 8/0

Boost Home Healthcare Home healthcare

STARTUP COST

$155.1K-$310.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 7/0

BrightStar Care

Medical/nonmedical home care, medical staffing

STARTUP COST

$112.5K-$231.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 365/35

CareBuilders at Home Home care

STARTUP COST

$110.7K-$165.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 21/0

CarePatrol

Senior living placement, referral, and consulting

STARTUP COST

$60.1K-$130.97K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 193/0

Care with Love

In-home senior care

STARTUP COST

$132K-$207.3K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 2/2

Caring Senior Service

Nonmedical home care

STARTUP COST

$97.9K-$131.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 45/5

Chefs For Seniors

In-home meal preparation service for seniors

STARTUP COST

$17.4K-$36.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 91/1

ComForCare

Nonmedical home care

STARTUP COST

$72.98K-$163.9K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 250/0

Comfort Keepers In-home senior care

STARTUP COST

$116.95K-$188.2K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 660/64

Executive Home Care

Home healthcare

STARTUP COST

$101.95K-$144.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 22/0

FirstLight Home Care

Nonmedical home care

STARTUP COST

$125.7K-$199.7K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 231/0

Griswold Home Care

Nonmedical home care

STARTUP COST

$99.1K-$177.1K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 183/16

HomeCare Advocacy Network

Nonmedical home care

STARTUP COST

$144.7K-$186.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 9/1

Home Helpers Home Care

Nonmedical/skilled home care; monitoring products and services

STARTUP COST

$113.4K-$161.6K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 332/0

Home Instead

Nonmedical senior care

STARTUP COST

$112.5K-$156.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1,263/10

Homewatch CareGivers Home care services

STARTUP COST

$92.3K-$154K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 248/0

HomeWell Care Services Home care

STARTUP COST

$54.4K-$234.9K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 170/0

Innovative Senior Solutions Senior adult day care

STARTUP COST

$413.6K-$687.8K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/5

Interim HealthCare

Medical and nonmedical home care, medical staffing

STARTUP COST

$127.5K-$201.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 600/4

Katrix Home Care

Senior home health services

STARTUP COST

$89.3K-$148.4K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 0/1

Keep Safe Care In-home care services

STARTUP COST

$20.9K-$41.1K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 1/0

Legato Living

Residential assisted living and memory care

STARTUP COST

$255.4K-$1.3M

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 5/0

Nurse Next Door Home Care Services

Medical/nonmedical home care

STARTUP COST

$119.1K-$215.6K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 209/1

Oasis Senior Advisors Senior-living placement

STARTUP COST

$67.2K-$111.99K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 120/20

1Heart Caregiver Services Nonmedical senior care

STARTUP COST

$91.8K-$138.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 24/2

One You Love Homecare Nonmedical personal care and companion care

STARTUP COST

$95.4K-$170.8K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 23/1

Qualicare

Medical/nonmedical home care, concierge services, and patient advocacy

STARTUP COST

$92.6K-$204.5K

TOTAL UNITS

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 81/3

Right at Home Home care, medical staffing

STARTUP COST

$92.1K-$165.3K

TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 748/12

$83.1K-$138.8K

/ CO.-OWNED) 1/1 Senior Care Authority Senior-care consulting and placement

$60.4K-$105.6K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 102/2

$127.8K-$171.8K

$51.9K-$201.1K

(FRANCHISED / CO.-OWNED) 519/0

$80.8K-$210.5K

8/2

$63.9K-$93.1K

FRANCHISE

Million

Pool-Cleaning Business

You don’t need to be an expert to be a successful franchisee. Just look at Tiffiny Consoli, a pool rookie who is now Pool Scouts’ top franchisee. by CARL STOFFERS

Tiffiny Consoli is thriving in the pool industry. She was the first-ever Pool Scouts franchisee, and now operates a $3 million business with 24 vehicles and 19 routes in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area.

Given her success, people are sometimes surprised to learn: At the start, she knew nothing about pools. Instead, Consoli came from a career in retail management. She loved customer service, but wanted to run her own

business. She started looking for a franchise to buy, and in 2016, she took the leap and joined Pool Scouts. As she’d discover, a lot of her old skills proved valuable in her new business—often in ways she didn’t necessarily expect. Here, she explains how she learned the ropes, and why she believes the home services sector is an excellent fit for women entrepreneurs.

You were Pool Scouts’ first franchisee. What gave you the confidence to dive into a field that you had no experience in?

I first looked at a Mosquito Joe franchise, which at the time was owned by [parent company] Buzz Franchise Brands. The timing and what they had available in my area didn’t work for me, but when I went in to talk to them, I gained a lot of confidence. They had great people working for them. About a year later, they said they were starting Pool Scouts, and I called them immediately. I was the first one in the door.

Did your background in retail management help you as a new franchisee?

As a store manager, I had a budget to adhere to throughout the year, and was reporting to a director that held me accountable to those numbers—but I also had customers coming in the door every day that I wanted to satisfy. I learned a lot in terms of working with people, understanding the importance of relationship building, and managing financials.

What were some of the hardest lessons you learned in the early years of running

your franchise?

First, you’ve got to get customers. But you also have to have employees to support those customers. Now you’ve got to hire, but you have to train those employees and maintain them year after year. And if you are in a seasonal business, it’s hard. In the beginning, I didn’t realize those things would be so challenging.

What advice do you have for aspiring franchisees when evaluating opportunities?

I think it’s important for people to connect really well with their franchisor and believe in the brand itself. There has to be synergy there. I think some franchisees miss the fact that you’re responsible for the success of your business. The franchisor is not responsible for that. They will give you the template to be successful, but at the end of the day, it falls on you to do everything they have set out for you to do.

If someone was considering the pool service industry, what would you tell them?

The industry has a lot of growth potential. There are lower startup costs with service businesses, and it gives you the flexibility to be where you need to be every day. So I think that makes it more accessible for women and those that are balancing a career and family.

What’s your biggest piece of advice to potential franchisees?

Don’t do it just because you think you’re going to make a lot of money. It requires so much determination and tenacity that it better be something you really enjoy doing.

FRANCHISE

Be a Doer, Not a Dreamer

How do you build a great brand? The same way you build a great body. This former championship bodybuilder (and Hotworx founder) explains. by CARL STOFFERS

Some people dream of being an entrepreneur. Others become one. So what separates the two?

“The level of self-discipline and commitment,” says Stephen Smith, a former champion bodybuilder and serial entrepreneur. “That’s what it takes.” Smith has needed both. His first franchise was a tanning salon called Planet Beach, but it was undercut by changing economics. (More on that below!) But instead of quitting, he channeled those lessons into a new franchise: It’s called Hotworx, a fast-growing fitness brand with more than 760 locations in the U.S., Ireland, and the Middle East.

Hotworx combines sauna and fitness classes. Users choose their preferred workout, which happens in specially designed infrared saunas. The idea is to promote detoxification and rapid calorie burn, while building muscle and flexibility.

Here, Smith shares how to make the most of a big idea.

What happened with your first franchise?

Planet Beach grew to nearly 400 locations around 2007, at its peak. Then the financial crisis happened in 2008 and started the decline of the industry and the business. In 2010, a federal excise tax was passed by

Congress on tanning. So that put the nail in the coffin.

How did you move forward?

That sent me into the Dark Ages of my career. Then in 2014, I started doing Bikram yoga. An exercise physiologist friend suggested doing yoga in a sauna. It was the proverbial light-bulb moment for me.

How quickly did you start working on Hotworx?

I went right back to New Orleans and started working on a design. We spent about 10 months getting a prototype to market and have not changed the dimensions or basic design

since. When you recognize an opportunity as an entrepreneur, you do what it takes to get spectacular results.

What is the biggest challenge in scaling Hotworx?

Finding the right location managers. The last two or three years have been tough to recruit talent. They don’t have to be an all-star gymnast or former NFL player, but they need the athletic mentality—an attitude of being hungry to succeed. One of my favorite questions to ask candidates is to rate their work ethic on a scale of 1 to 10. If they don’t say, “I’m a 10,” it’s a no.

How do you introduce a totally new concept to a market?

new concept to a market?

You’re not going to have everything perfect, but don’t launch unless you feel like your product is stellar. Think hard in the beginning, because it all starts with the product. You don’t have anything if you don’t have a good product.

What do you need to be successful in franchising?

Having passion is not enough. You need the self-discipline to go out and execute. You learn from athletics what it takes to win; a lot of it boils down to that discipline. You might have a great group as a team, but if you can’t be coached to have the discipline, you’re not going to succeed.

What’s the biggest challenge to the fitness industry in 2025?

Overzealous expansion, premature IPOs, and the continued lack of attention paid by franchisors to profitability. There’s smart, scaled growth—as opposed to just going all out and suddenly getting 100 more franchisees, but 50 shouldn’t even be franchisees.

EARNINGS

A Very Profitable Work Ethic

How do you run a brand’s highest-grossing franchise location? This former cop has an answer: Get your hands dirty. by CARL

STOFFERS

Larkin Combs was always a hard worker. During his childhood

day, from when I was seven until my teenage years,” he says. He eventually spent 25 years as a police officer in Union County, New Jersey. That’s how he met Jason and Steven Parker, founders of K9 Resorts—a dog boarding and daycare franchise that was founded in 2005, now has 44 units and 146 in the works, and often runs community initiatives like donating Kevlar vests to local police departments. When Combs retired in 2019 and prepared to move to Apex, North Carolina, to be near his elderly mother, the Parkers asked if he wanted to open a franchise there. Combs said yes, and he turned his business into the brand’s highest-grossing franchise location—with nearly $3 million in revenue in 2024, and at least one more location on the way.

SO HOW DID A FORMER COP END UP AS THE TOP FRANCHISEE OF A PET CARE FRANCHISE?

HE FOLLOWED THESE THREE STRATEGIES:

1 ▶ The buck stops with you.

The buck you.

Do whatever it takes to succeed, because the responsibility is on you. “For four years straight, I didn’t miss a day,” Combs says. “And during COVID, I was answering the phone; I was running around with a sponge, cleaning. It was rough.”

2 ▶ Go a step above.

As the old saying goes: Treat people the way you want to be treated. “But there’s a step above that—treat them how theywant to be treated,” Combs says. “Not every customer wants to be treated the same. Recognizing that gives you a higher level of service.”

3 ▶ Invest in employees.

Invest in

Having patience and empathy can go a long way, and can reduce turnover. For example, one of Combs’ employees made some mistakes, but Combs understood it was because of a mental health challenge. “I’ve worked with them for three years, and they’re now a supervisor. They can grow.”

▶ SUCCESS TIP FROM THE FRANCHISOR

WHAT’S THE SECRET TO LARKIN COMBS’ SUCCESS? According to K9 Resorts co-CEO Jason Parker, franchising requires “all-in” long-term dedication more than industry background. “Larkin reminds me a lot of myself and my brother when we were starting out: For a good five or six years, we worked seven days a week,” Parker says. “No customers could walk into our location and not see us at the front desk. And that’s the same thing with Larkin. He’s committed, the customers know and like him, and they know he’s there.”

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BUYING

Read This Before Meeting a Franchisor

Thinking about buying a franchise? You should meet the franchisor—and you should know exactly how to approach that meeting—to ensure you’re making the right decision. by MARK SIEBERT, founder and CEO, iFranchise Group

ThisessayisexcerptedfromSiebert’sbook,The Franchisee Handbook

Franchisees and franchisors should be collaborators. A relationship should benefit you both financially, and you should think of yourself on equal footing.

Unfortunately, however, it doesn’t always end up that way. There are a few minefields that potential franchisees may encounter during the sales process. By interacting smartly with the franchisor, you’ll be better able to understand the opportunity, assess the business you’re getting into, and determine whether it’s the right fit for you.

This is what I do for a living: As the CEO of iFranchise Group, my team of consultants helps emerging and established franchisors grow. We see the insides of these businesses, and we know what makes the best ones work—and the worst ones fail.

In this article, I’ll walk you, the potential franchise buyer, through the entire process of interacting with a franchisor. Let’s assume you’ve already done some basic due diligence: You’ve read the brand’s Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), interacted with its sales or business development team, and talked to other franchisees. Now it’s time to get in deeper—and we’ll start by evaluating how the franchise has been selling to you. grow. We see the insides of these businesses, and we know what

The ‘award’ of a franchise

The best franchisors “award” franchises. They are serious about their commitment to quality, and only the best franchise candidates will qualify. Unfortunately, the worst franchisors hide behind the word and use it as a sales tool.

Once you start your fran-

chise search, you will almost certainly hear that a franchisor will “award” a limited number of franchises in your territory. That word connotes a highly selective process in which a franchise territory is granted to the winners of a long line of prospective candidates. In fact, the best franchisors do take selecting franchisees very

seriously. They recognize that the success of their organization is founded on the bedrock of franchisee success. They realize that the single most important factor in the success of any franchise system is the strength of the franchisees that are brought into the system. Successful franchisees generate more income, and there-

fore pay more royalties. They require less support and often invest in additional franchise locations. They do not litigate. And they validate well with new candidates interested in the franchise system.

While the best franchisors are truly selective, somewhere along the line, less selective franchisors hijacked the jargon, using words like “award” to create a sense of urgency in their buyers. Instead of using it as a formula for success, they just use it to help close the sale. The end result can be that you are so tied up trying to win the approval of the franchise selection committee that you may rush unwisely into an investment. Thus, one of the most important rules of the franchise sales process is: “Always remember—they’re salespeople.”

Today, a typical franchise development officer (aka franchise salesperson) with a seven-to-10-year track record of success makes a base salary of $85,000 to $100,000, plus a commission of perhaps $5,000 per sale. Good franchise salespeople can easily double their base salary every year on commissions. This can motivate overzealous sales tactics.

Of course, there are some

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companies that really do believe in the concept of awarding a franchise. One major mall-based food retailer, which launched its franchise program in 1989 and awarded about 650 franchises in its first decade of franchising, reportedly decided that in order to discourage overeager salespeople, it would compensate its development

staff on straight salary and not pay commissions. Other companies have incorporated the franchisee’s long-term performance into the salesperson’s compensation. But most companies, and most salespeople, are still largely commission-oriented.

Franchise salespeople are paid to present a franchise opportunity in the best light,

so you need to be careful that you are not the victim of a particularly skillful salesperson. Choose the franchise you want—not the franchise someone else wants you to buy.

Trust, but verify

The vast majority of franchise development officers, despite their financial motivations to sell, are honest and reputa-

ble. They do not want to sell you a franchise that will fail, since that’s also bad for the franchisor they work for. And, truth be told, when it comes to those few disreputable franchise salespeople, the majority of well-intentioned franchise salespeople are among their loudest critics. After all, the salespeople who play fast and loose with the rules hurt everyone’s reputations—and they can take sales away from franchises where the prospect might really be a good fit.

As a franchise buyer, it’s sometimes difficult to discern the salesdriven organizations from those that are truly selective. While most are honest, it is imperative that you protect yourself from those who care only for their commissions—not your success.

Please do not take this as a license to be adversarial in the sales process. One of the things a good franchisor is trying to ascertain is how well you get along with their team—and people in general. If you treat your franchise salesperson like a used-car dealer, you will likely be shown the door.

That said, caution is vital to a successful negotiation, so be on the lookout for anything that seems strange in the sales process. Specifically, here are some red flags that should make you very concerned:

▶ Telling you something that is inconsistent with the franchisor’s FDD. The more inconsistent it is, the more likely it is that the alteration was deliberate.

▶ Implying you will do better financially than the numbers in the FDD. There may, of course, be legitimate reasons they might expect you to generate better numbers (a newly designed prototype operation or a market in

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which the franchisor already has a strong presence, for example), but if they cannot explain why you will do better (or even better, show you a subset of numbers demonstrating why), you should exercise a great deal of caution.

▶ Implying that you will or should achieve the median numbers (or any numbers, for that matter) in the franchisor’s Financial Performance Representation (FPR) in Item 19, which is almost always strictly historical and is not supposed to be a projection.

▶ Steering you to talk to particular franchisees as you go through your validation process. If there is a good reason to speak to those franchisees (they are all in your chosen market, they are operating a new prototype, they all started in the past two years), that might be reasonable. Otherwise, exercise caution against speaking solely with cherry- picked franchisees.

▶ Any high-pressure tactics designed to get you to close should be viewed with a healthy degree of skepticism. Implying that a fee structure may be changing soon or that a territory may soon be sold to someone else (even if true) is designed to rush your decision.

▶ An overabundance of “puffery.” Puffery in the sales process often involves the use of unprovable superlatives and opinions rather than objective facts. If your franchisor claims to provide “the best support” or have “the happiest franchisees,” those claims can be hard to refute.

▶ How evasive is the franchisor salesperson when answering your questions? Judge this carefully. While your first reaction might be to perceive evasiveness as deceptive, it may just be that the franchisor is constrained by laws and/or best practices as to how they can answer the ques-

tion you are asking. If a franchisor is avoiding your question, ask yourself if there might be a legitimate reason for the indirect answer you are receiving.

If you find yourself confronted by these tactics, an alarm should go off in your head—but don’t stop your investigation. This might just be a new salesperson who has not been properly trained, or the franchisor may not know how the franchise is being represented. But the more prevalent these tactics are within the organization, the more likely this is an institutional characteristic.

Remember: As a franchisee, you are only as good as the franchise system you belong to. If you join a system that employs high-pressure salespeople, it is likely they have recruited a number of franchisees who are not well-qualified. Underqualified candidates are more likely to fail. A lack of capital may cause them to take shortcuts relative to brand standards, causing quality at the consumer level to suffer. Failed franchisees are more likely to sue, which can cause the franchisor to go under—or at a minimum, force the franchisor to spend money to defend against this litigation, depleting resources that they could otherwise use for franchisee support. Poor validation from these franchisees will make it more difficult for the franchisor to grow in the future.

So if you feel you are dealing with a high-pressure franchise salesperson who has stepped over the line of “truth-stretching” into pure fabrication, run for the hills. Also be wary of franchi-

The best franchisors want to be sure you are a good fit for the organization. They also want you to feel as if you are interviewing for a position you may not get.

sors who try a bit too hard to impress you. Maybe they send a limousine to pick you up at the airport or take you to dinner at an expensive restaurant. They may pay for your airfare to attend Discovery Day (that’s when franchisees do a detailed run-through with the brand). They wear $1,200 suits and flash their Rolex watches as they pull out their Montblanc pens to sign the contract. While there is nothing wrong with this per se, check that they don’t have their other hand in your pocket.

Don’t let these surface details keep you from looking beyond the show to the substance of the franchise opportunity and the long-term relationship you will have with the franchisor. But until you know for sure, keep your hand on your wallet.

Meeting the team

While some franchisors may wait until Discovery Day to introduce you to the team that will be providing you support, many offer you a chance to meet and interview them while you go through preliminary due diligence. The sooner you can speak to some of these people, the better, so you should avail yourself of this opportunity as soon as possible.

First, though, be sure you understand their roles and responsibilities (ask your development officer) and who they report to in the organization. That should tell you something about organizational alignment and priorities while giving you an opportunity to prepare specific questions for these meetings. Of course, you will want to know how each of these people will provide support— either directly or indirectly— to you as a franchisee. But beyond that, you will want to understand how you will fit in with the franchisor’s mission and culture. Unlike your franchise development officer, whom you may see little of after you sign the contract, you may be entering into a relationship with some of these people that will last for decades—so be sure you like them, or at least can communicate well with them.

Remember, too, that with better franchise systems, these interviews are also about qualifying you as a franchisee. Often, these people will be asked for their opinion about your candidacy and your fit within the organization. So while you want to get your questions answered, you also want to be sure that you interview well.

Discovery Day

The ultimate goal of everything the franchisor has done so far—the marketing brochures, the ads, the trade shows, the follow-up calls—is to get you to a face-to-face meeting, Discovery Day. This meeting, which almost always takes place at the franchisor’s headquarters, is designed to sell you on why you should become a franchisee, and, at least with good franchisors, is also designed to be sure you are a good fit for the franchisor in terms of knowledge, experience, attitude, and culture.

So how does it usually work?

You are typically invited to fly or drive in for this meeting. Most of the time, you are responsible for your own travel expenses. Usually, you are asked to bring your spouse, life partner, or potential business partners with you. You should absolutely do so, regardless of whether they receive an explicit invitation, as you will need their support not only to make the final decision, but as you move forward with your business.

While there are many variations as to how Discovery Days are conducted and the order in which things happen, they generally have the following elements:

▶ Often, the franchise development officer meets you at the airport or at your hotel the night before. You may go out to dinner with the development officer and other members of the management team, so they (and you) can get a feel for how well you will mesh with the organization.

▶ The following morning (or when you arrive), you are often given a tour of the franchisor’s headquarters and introduced to various people who will provide

support to you as a franchisee. If you have not yet spoken to some of these people on the phone, you will probably interview with them at some point during your visit.

▶ As part of this process, you may have detailed meetings with the department heads who will be supporting you. These individuals may also demonstrate some of this support (the IT person showing how information is captured and key performance indicators are measured, the real estate person detailing how sites are analyzed, etc.).

▶ If the franchise has physical locations, you typically visit one or more nearby operating locations. During those visits, you may have the opportunity to learn in greater detail how the business runs and what your role might look like.

▶ The franchisor likely makes a presentation about the company (often with PowerPoint slides) that will provide you with more background and an opportunity to ask questions.

▶ If you have not yet reviewed the FDD with your development officer, you go through it item by item, and you’re asked if you have any questions about the contents. The franchisor uses this opportunity to sell you on making an investment in the franchise and to explain any warts you may have found.

▶ You may have additional discussions about how you intend to finance and run your business.

▶ You may be asked to take a personality profiling test if you have not done this previously.

▶ You should have an opportunity to get answers to any final questions you may have.

At the end of the process, you are told that the award committee will review your information and make a final

decision on your candidacy soon. Often, you are told that the franchisor will be considering your application, and you’ll be given a timeline for the next steps. You may be asked for a tentative commitment, assuming the franchisor is willing to move forward with your candidacy.

To prepare for Discovery Day, the franchisor should provide you with a detailed agenda of the visit in advance. Once you receive that, you should develop a list of goals and questions you’d like to address during the visit. The more prepared you are walking into Discovery Day, the more you will get out of it.

Many of the most revealing questions you should ask your franchisor will be based on a thorough reading of the FDD. If the franchisor is involved in litigation, ask about it. If the franchisor has a significant number of franchise failures, ask about them. If the franchisor has been involved in a bankruptcy—ask.

Beyond that, other questions may occur to you based on your knowledge of the franchisor, the market, and the competition. You will need to come up with more specific questions, depending on your personal and financial situation, as well as the particular

franchisor you’re interested in. Here are some good ones to start with:

1 ▶ Tell me about your competitors, especially those operating in my local market. How will we address them based on your market analysis?

2 ▶ What kinds of changes are on the horizon for this concept? Marketing? Operations?

3 ▶ How are you planning to respond to the competitive threat posed by current competitors? Potential competitors?

4 ▶ What is the biggest competitive threat in the marketplace? What is the biggest opportunity? (Note: Pay close attention here. If you don’t get a substantive answer, either you are being sold or you are dealing with someone who simply does not know the answer. In either case, be wary.)

5 ▶ Who is your customer at the end-user level? What is happening to this market?

6 ▶ What are you really selling? (For example, on one level, McDonald’s is selling hamburgers. But on another, it is selling quality, service, and value—delivered fast with a clean restroom.)

7 ▶ What has happened to the market over the past five years? To your market share? To your strategy? What new competitors have surfaced, and why?

The sooner you can speak to some of the people from the franchise support team, the better, so you should avail yourself of this opportunity as soon as possible.

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8 ▶ Who are your major vendors? Do they give terms on initial inventory? What terms? What terms do they provide on ongoing purchases?

9 ▶ What are you doing to secure the best prices on products? Are you also negotiating with service and equipment vendors (e.g., insurance, office equipment, etc.)?

10 ▶ How much do you spend on research and development? How much is that as a percentage of revenue?

11 ▶ What are you trying to accomplish with your advertising? Who is your agency? Why did you choose them?

12

▶ Are there any plans to sell the business in the next five years?

13 ▶ Where do you see the company five years from now? Are you planning any major strategic changes in the concept? Do the owners plan on eventually selling the company or passing it on to their heirs?

14 ▶ What major changes has the CEO implemented since he took over (or in the past three years)? Is this part of an overall strategy?

15 ▶ How are you attempting to differentiate yourself in the franchise marketplace?

16 ▶ Are any major changes to management planned?

17 ▶ What support do you provide to franchisees that helps them build revenues during their first six to 12 months of operation?

18 ▶ In what ways do you collect information on best practices and share them with franchisees in your system?

19 ▶ What key performance indicators (KPIs) do you share with franchisees? How is the information shared?

20 ▶ Why are you not using an FPR (assuming they aren’t)?

21 ▶ I talked to a franchisee of yours, who told me [whatever concerning or intriguing thing you heard]. How do you respond to that?

22▶ What is your biggest franchise disaster? Why did it occur? What has been done to prevent a reoccurrence? What is the name of the franchisee involved?

23 ▶ What is the best thing you can say about each of your competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Discovery Day vs. Decision Day

While it is not common practice, some franchisors have replaced Discovery Day with the term “Decision Day,” and they will try to use the site visit to close the sale. They will provide the agreements at least seven days before your visit so you can sign. They may even preface the meeting with something like, “If we are able to answer all your questions to your satisfaction, will you be ready to sign at the end of our time together?”

Franchisors figure (correctly) that by getting you to commit to a visit to their home office, you have deepened your psychological investment in the franchise and are thus more likely to buy (much like automotive dealers do when they get you to take a test drive). In fact, I heard one franchisor speak about this at an industry event some years ago; his advice was to be sure to have franchise prospects “bring their checkbook, so you can sell them while they are still in the ether.”

A Discovery Day positioned as a Decision Day is another red flag. You should be able to walk away from Discovery Day and process the information

Franchisors figure (correctly) that by getting you to commit to a visit to their home office, you have deepened your psychological investment in the franchise.

you’ve received. You should feel free to follow up with the franchisor’s team on any additional questions that may have arisen during the visit. You should never feel pressured to make a life-changing decision on the spot.

These meetings can be very exciting. And with the pressure of the salespeople and an expectation of signing, it is all too easy to get caught up in the moment. Don’t let that happen.

Choreographed site visits

If the franchise involves a physical location, the franchisor will probably suggest that you visit a nearby location to show you what their current prototype looks like, provide you more detail on how it operates, and help you better understand the role you will play on a day-to-day basis. Look at this as a first date: For a date, you would dress up and look your best, and for this visit the franchisor will show you its best unit operating at its busiest time. If it’s a restaurant franchisor, for instance, expect that you will go around the lunch or dinner hour. The unit will be swarmed with people, all of whom will be happily buying the product you may one

day sell. It will be hectic. As often as not, the unit manager will be so swamped she won’t be able to talk. And you may think (as the franchisor wants you to), What a gold mine!

While there’s nothing wrong with dressing up for a date, maintain your healthy skepticism. I was once asked to be an expert witness in a case (I declined) in which the franchisor would pass out coupons for free food redeemable on Discovery Days. Needless to say, the franchisees subjected to this trickery were not happy when the long lines they saw at units never materialized at their own locations.

So when you visit operating units, keep an open mind. If the location(s) you visit are owned and operated by the franchisor, pay particular attention to the standards they are maintaining. Take note of the following:

▶ Is the location clean and well-maintained?

▶ Does the quality of the staff seem high?

▶ How well do they engage with customers?

▶ How well do they engage with you if they are introduced during the visit?

If the franchisor doesn’t do

a great job in all these areas in the locations they operate near their home office, that is cause for concern.

The office tour

If you are visiting a larger franchise company on Discovery Day, chances are they will give you an opportunity to walk through their offices and meet their people where they work. If your franchisor has a manufacturing facility, prepare to don a hard hat as well. While you may not think so at first, the facility tour is of vital interest to you in making your franchise decision. Do not take it lightly.

As a franchisee, what you are buying is, in effect, the expertise of the people you are meeting and the culture you are observing. So ask questions. Ask to see samples of what they will be doing for you. If they are in advertising, ask to see samples of recent promotional campaigns. If they are in real estate, ask to see site packages.

Also get to know the people a little better. Ask them how long they have been with the company. If it has not been long, ask them what they were doing before. Observe what they have in their offices and how organized they seem to be. Even how they dress and how they interact with you will offer clues about their values.

It is important that you develop a personal rapport with the franchisor. After all, you will be working closely with this company—perhaps for the next 20 years or more. From that standpoint, it is not important to establish a good working relationship with the franchise salesperson—as they will, in all likelihood, be long gone before you have finished your first decade with the

franchisor (or, if they are still around, will have minimal interaction with you unless you invest in another franchise). You should, however, feel the franchisor exercised good judgment in hiring and training the salesperson.

Another approach you might take is to interview some of the franchisor’s staff who were not at Discovery Day. One key person who may not be at the Discovery Day meeting is the field business consultant (or similar title), who would be your main dayto-day contact in your market once you open. If the franchisor hasn’t already suggested you speak with him or her, you should request an interview by phone or in person (assuming they live close to you). Since you would likely interact with them more closely than with anyone else on the franchisor’s team, it’s important that you feel comfortable with them and feel they have the experience and skill level to be a valuable support resource. The field business consultant likely supports between 20 and 30 franchisees in your region. When you talk to existing franchisees in the system, I highly recommend you ask them how well the field business consultant performs, and how much value he brings to helping franchisees build successful businesses.

You might also ask to talk to people on the franchisor’s marketing, training, or operations teams. Ask them what they like about the brand and what they like or don’t like about working for the franchisor.

The bottom line is that you need to feel comfortable with your franchisor, their culture, and the team they have assem-

bled. You’ve got a long road to travel together.

Be sure you know what’s being tested.

At some point during Discovery Day, you may be asked to take a personality profiling test. For years, I have been skeptical about these tests. I have seen successful franchisees come from all different walks of life, and the most successful appeared to have little in common. Most were hard workers and were willing to follow the system, but I didn’t need an elaborate profiling test to tell me that. Recently, though, I have started to feel more comfortable with these tests—though I do not always encourage their use, as it is fairly easy for people to game the system.

I learned this almost by accident when I spoke to a franchise salesperson who swore by psychological testing—but not for the reason you might think. He told me the tests didn’t mean much to him as far as potential success was concerned, but they did tell him everything he needed to know about how to sell the franchise!

In essence, he was using these tests to have his prospective franchisees identify their own hot buttons. Prospects were telling the franchisor how they

wanted to be sold!

Over the years, however, I’ve spoken with a number of franchisors who use profiling tools successfully as part of their franchise recruitment process. When used properly, they help a franchisor better understand the potential strengths and weaknesses of their candidates as business owners and members of a franchise system. Profiling tools are most relevant for franchise systems where the franchisee will be actively involved in dayto-day operations. They can help the franchisor (and the candidate, if the information is shared with them) identify the franchisee’s tendency toward attention to detail, leadership skills, work ethic, and other factors that could be a predictor of business success.

If you’re asked to take a profiling test, I recommend you agree to it as long as the franchisor is willing to share the results with you.

My personal ambivalence aside, I know a number of companies that swear by them. One such company, a sports-focused franchisor that I am familiar with, has on occasion eliminated candidates from contention based on test results alone, which they feel strongly has made them a better franchisor. Some

Be careful that you are not the victim of a particularly skillful salesperson. Choose the franchise you want—not the franchise someone else wants you to buy.

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of the best franchise management recruiters have used them effectively as well. Plus, there is global research that has been done and processes that have been established to aid in the profiling of franchisee candidates. Many of the consultants at the iFranchise Group swear by these tests.

So if you are asked to take a test, take it and answer it fairly. But know that while most franchisors are probably using them for legitimate purposes, at least some franchisors and franchise salespeople are using them for an edge in the sales process.

Be careful of the meeting at a hotel.

Occasionally, you will run into a franchisor that wants to get together for Discovery Day in your hometown—maybe at a hotel or an airport lounge. While this tends to be the exception in franchising, if your franchisor offers, by all means, take them up on it. This gives you an opportunity to get to know the franchisor without investing additional time or money in travel.

Just don’t substitute this meeting for the trip to the franchisor’s home office. You absolutely must visit the franchisor’s office and meet their team before you make the final decision. Do not let the convenience of a local visit or any high-pressure sales tactic dissuade you. And if the franchisor hasn’t already encouraged this visit, that should be a concern.

There can be reasons a prospective franchisor might not want you to visit them on their turf. Perhaps business isn’t great, and they have just gone through a major layoff. Perhaps they have very little in

the way of a support team to show at the moment.

Again, this is not an indictment of smaller or newer franchisors. Newer franchisors bring some significant advantages to the table. With a new franchise, you will likely have the opportunity to work with the founder of the company instead of someone with significantly less experience. The franchisor, if they are smart, will place extra emphasis on your success, as the success of early franchisees will dictate the long-term success of the franchisor. You will be able to pick the best territories—and add territories before others join the system. And as the company grows, early franchisees will often have the best seat at the table when it comes to providing input to the franchisor and the founder.

The point is not that you should only pick organizations with big teams. It’s simply that you need to know what you are buying. So be sure you kick the tires—in person—before committing to anything.

The group interview

At some point during Discovery Day, you will likely have a group meeting with people from the franchisor’s leadership team. These staff members will represent most of the departments you’ll interact with as you develop and operate your franchise.

If you received a detailed agenda before Discovery Day, it hopefully included a list of the people you’d be meeting with. With that in hand, I recommend you develop a list of questions to address with the people who are responsible for specific areas such as site location, facility design, construction, training, marketing, finance, and gen-

You absolutely must visit the franchisor’s office and meet their team before you make the final decision. Do not let any high-pressure sales tactic dissuade you.

eral franchise operations. If you bring that list into the meeting with you, you’ll be prepared to pose the right questions to the right people.

The group meeting may begin with the franchisor’s team going through a structured presentation of the franchise opportunity and the support you’d receive as a franchisee. It often covers things like:

▶ the market

▶ the concept

▶ competitive positioning

▶ the franchise organization

▶ support provided to you as a franchisee

▶ the process of moving forward with the franchise, should you choose to do so.

This is a fairly common approach. If you’ve not seen that presentation before, ask for a copy before you leave, so you can review it later or share it with your advisers.

Following the presentation, you’ll likely have a chance to probe deeper with the staff members in attendance. This is where your preparation will benefit you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. This is your best opportunity to speak with the

people within the franchisor’s organization who would ultimately support you as a franchise owner.

Remember that this interview is a two-way street, as both parties are sizing each other up for success. Either at this meeting or throughout the day, expect them to ask you questions to further qualify you for the franchise. Since they probably already know a lot about you professionally from speaking with you on the phone, the questions will likely be geared toward getting to know you better personally. And if you brought your spouse or significant other, they will want to involve them in the conversation as well. They may ask you where you see yourself in five years’ time. Do you plan to open additional locations? What gives you the greatest satisfaction? What is your greatest accomplishment? How would you respond in [X situation]?

The goal here is twofold. The best franchisors want to be sure you are a good fit for the organization. But they also want you to feel as if you are interviewing for a position you may not get. In some circles, it’s called the “negative sell”—making you sell the franchisor on yourself, rather than the other way around.

Psychologically speaking, if they can make you feel as if you are competing for something, you are much more likely to want it.

At some point, you will probably be asked where you are in the decision-making process. They will want to cover what steps you have taken in areas like investigating your market and obtaining financing. And they may want to walk you through the FDD one more time to answer any remaining questions and uncover any lingering objections you may have.

Use the list of questions on page 81. You don’t have to ask all of your questions at Discovery Day. Some may be appropriate during the site visit. Others perhaps would be better when the salesperson is going through the FDD. And still others may be best during a follow-up phone call. But ask them. All of them. And ask any others you can think of.

Toward the end of the interview process, the franchise salesperson will want to get a preliminary commitment from you. That will often come in the form of a question, such as, “If you are approved by the committee, when do you think you’ll be ready to move forward?” You may be told that the franchisor’s application committee will be considering your application over the next several days and will provide some preliminary feedback on your candidacy. Keep in mind this preliminary commitment is just that—preliminary. You are not signing on the dotted line just yet. And, as opposed to the hard-sell Decision Day tactics you read about earlier, this is meant to gauge your level of commitment—not to make you commit on the spot.

The franchisor won’t be done with you once your in-person visit is over. With most well-functioning franchise organizations, there will be a debriefing after Discovery Day, where the people who met you will provide their input on how well you would do as a franchisee. In some organizations, a single “no” vote may be enough to jeopardize your candidacy, but in most, the business owner weighs their input and ultimately makes the decision.

Some old-school franchise salespeople may, at this point, use the application committee as an opportunity to play good cop, bad cop. By claiming to feel positive about you and your application, the salesperson (the good cop) can urge you to move fast before the bad cop (the committee) gives away your territory to another franchisee. The committee is faceless, so it gives you no one specific to dislike. It also represents a higher authority whose demands you supposedly must strive to meet. Rest assured, however, that whenever pressure is applied, it will come from the committee.

These tactics, for the most part, went out of favor about the same time as the horse and buggy, but if you encounter them, do not let them push you into a hasty or unwise decision.

Evaluate information-sharing within the franchise system.

An important issue to address during Discovery Day is how well best practices are gathered and disseminated throughout the franchise system. Owning any business is a challenge, but a franchise

system can lessen that challenge—if the franchisor has established good systems for collecting and sharing best practices among franchisees. The strength of the system is defined by the collective knowledge of the franchisee community. If you as a franchise owner lack access to that knowledge, the franchisor’s value proposition diminishes substantially.

In a high-functioning franchise system, the franchisor gathers franchisees’ financial data and shares the results through a web-based benchmarking platform. A franchisee should be able to log into that platform and see how his or her business compares to other franchisees by geography, age in the system, revenue volume, etc. There should also be a technology hub where franchisees can access best practices in marketing, sales, employee retention, and other key factors that help each franchise location succeed.

In your group meeting with the franchisor’s team, ask them what systems they’ve put in place to gather and share this information. Also ask whether they share their company-owned data with franchisees. If they operate corporate locations, they should share that information as well.

Cool off.

After a long, grueling Discovery Day, you’re finally on your way home. But you can’t relax yet. You now have the information you need to decide—or at least most of it. And you still have work to do. Your first order of business should be to document your meeting. Since you will likely be meeting with multiple franchisors, you will need to keep track of all these details. While it does not need to be lengthy, you should probably note:

▶ who was present

▶ when and where the meeting took place

▶ what levels of support were discussed

▶ what promises or commitments were made by either party

▶ any information that will help you develop your financial model

In the process of documenting these conversations, you will likely come up with additional questions you will want to jot down for your next call with your development officer.

Finally, let the glow wear off. Look at some other opportunities or just take

By interacting smartly with the franchisor, you’ll be better able to understand the opportunity, assess the business, and determine whether it’s the right fit for you.

FRANCHISE

a weekend off from your search.

A cooling-off period isn’t just a good idea in the abstract; it can protect you as well. When the Federal Trade Commission originally announced the “Franchise Rule” requiring franchisors to provide prospective franchisees with key data, the regulators built in a coolingoff period to prevent fasttalking salespeople from closing unsophisticated prospects before they had finished their search. Twenty years ago, it was not uncommon to present the FDD (which was then called the Uniform Franchise Offering Circular, or UFOC) at Discovery Day, sending prospects home with detailed written information after this initial meeting. Today, with the advent of electronic disclosure, you will almost always have received the FDD prior to your visit. And if there are no changes to the franchise agreement, the mandatory 14-day waiting period may have already expired by the time you arrive.

Don’t just kick the tires; take it for a spin.

Finally, try putting yourself in the role of a franchisee for a week or so and see how well the “job” suits you. In fact, some franchisors (McDonald’s and Domino’s among them) require you to work in a franchise or corporate location before being awarded a franchise. Sort of like Navy SEAL training for franchisees, this trial run is as much about giving their franchisees a chance to ring the bell as it is about the

franchisor wanting to see whether they can hack it.

Of course, most franchisors do not have this built into their sales process. But that doesn’t mean you can’t put yourself through your own version of SEAL training. Perhaps you can get a job working for a franchisee. Maybe you can’t take the time to do this, or maybe there are no units close to where you live. But if you want to get a good feel for what you are getting into, you might want to ask your franchisor if they will let you try before you buy.

If you feel you have a particularly strong rapport with a franchisee in your area, perhaps (with the franchisor’s permission) you could offer to work for a week or two for free. The franchisee gets free labor, and you get some insight as to whether you are cut out for the role.

Some franchisors may frown on this practice, perhaps fearing you are trying to obtain their intellectual property in order to compete with them. If this is the case, you might instead find ways to simulate their work environment. For example, you might spend some time at competing sites: Get there when they open and stay as long as you can every morning. In your calls with franchisees, spend time talking about what a typical day in their life is like. And talk to independents and competitors as well. Paint yourself into the picture.

Be sure you know what you are getting yourself into. A janitorial service franchise might sound like

If you feel you are dealing with a high-pressure franchise salesperson who has stepped over the line of “truth-stretching” into pure fabrication, run for the hills.

a great, low-cost business opportunity. But it may also mean you will be working late nights and sleeping during your children’s baseball games. A bar and grill might sound like great fun, until you realize you will be open every day of the year and away from your family on most holidays.

After all that, you decide!

At this point, your research should have given you a great deal of background on the franchises you are considering. Hopefully, you also have enough insight to determine whether the business is a good fit for you.

You have ideally found one (or perhaps more than one) business that is wellsuited to your talents and that you believe you would enjoy. Likewise, you have assessed the risk associated with the venture and are comfortable that you can manage it. And finally, if you have gotten this far with one or more franchisors, you believe the team they have assembled and the system they have created will work.

But before signing on the dotted line, there is still more work to do.

The acid test for your

final decision must include an examination of your projected financial performance and an analysis of whether the return you anticipate from your hard work and your investment will be worth the risk you will incur. If you’ve dug deep with the franchisor, and are happy with what you’ve learned, then this number-crunching is worth the time investment—and will hopefully yield a lucrative decision for all.

This article is excerpted from Mark Siebert’s book, The Franchisee Handbook, which is a detailed guide to vetting and buying a franchise. Get it at entrepreneur. com/bookstore

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The Simplest Growth Tool

If you want to create long-term value, start replying to everyone you hear from.

by JASON FEIFER

How responsive are you—to friends, colleagues, and even strangers?

Now, be honest: Have you ever really thought about that? You should.

“I find responsiveness to be one of the qualities I value most in people, and some of the best leaders and people I know are responsive,” the pop artist Artie Sandstone recently wrote me. “On the flip

side, so many people I love and respect seem to place responsiveness on a lower level of importance. Why? It requires little talent and adds so much value.”

Great question. Responsiveness might be the easiest, simplest, and yet most overlooked thing you can do to make people happy, show them respect, and create new opportunities. I reply to almost everyone who emails or DMs me, and

have benefited enormously. I get it—responding to people is time-consuming! So let’s make it easier for you. To start, I suspect there are three reasons that people don’t do it.

Organizational breakdown

Everyone has their own system for staying on top of things— and as we get busier, those systems become strained. Then we must make a choice: Do we stick with a system that limits us, or do we build a new one? Mark Cuban is a good example: He famously publicizes his email address and replies to many people. (I emailed him once. I heard back within an hour!) He said he gets 750 to 1,000 pitches from found. How does he manage it? With a system: He delegates follow-ups (which, OK, not everyone can do) and uses Gmail filters (which anyone can do!).

2 ▶ Prioritizing big things

Yes, small tasks can distract from big tasks. But don’t forget: Small tasks (like replying to people) can also add up to big value. People talk! Reputations are built! I’ve been hired for speaking gigs because I replied to inquiries faster. People tell me they’ve followed my work for years (and bought my stuff!) because I once replied to them. It matters.

3 ▶ It takes too much time

“I just don’t have the bandwidth,” people say. I sympathize. So here’s how I manage it myself. Like I said earlier, I reply to almost everyone who emails or DMs me, but with some caveats: This can stress me out, so I take breaks. I also optimize for long-term

value and relationships, which means I delete most promotional messages (like from publicists or salespeople), because they’re purely transactional. This is not about absolutes. Instead, it’s about creating a stronger habit and ethos of responsiveness. It’s within your reach, because here’s the biggest thing I’ve learned: Responding is much easier than you think.

When I became editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine, for example, my inbox exploded with requests. I felt a weight of obligation. But over time, I realized something: People don’t expect me—or you, or anyone—to give them everything they want. They just appreciate being heard.

Simply replying “thank you” can make someone’s day. When I say no to someone’s request, they say they’re grateful to hear back. And if you want to wow someone, just set aside a moment for extra thoughtfulness. This goes beyond email or strangers. It’s about friends. Colleagues. Customers. I once texted a question to a professional acquaintance, who replied with a 15-minute voice memo and an offer to fly to New York for a meeting. Now we’re building things together. Responsiveness

When I was dating, I replied quickly to text messages—because why make someone wait? One girlfriend told me she really appreciated that, because it showed I cared and eased her anxiety. Now we’re married. Responsiveness.

I’m not saying you must be perfect. But I am saying: More than anything else, people want to feel heard. When you give them that, you convert strangers into fans, and friends into partners. So just respond.