Table of contents for Spring 2023 in Entrepreneur's Startups

Beware the zombie franchise. It’s the one that has stalled out, but still markets its opportunities as if nothing is wrong. Its brand relevance is typically shrinking; the number of open units is wilting. Previously loyal customers are being siphoned off by more innovative concepts. Underlying demographics may have shifted. Market trends could be working against the brand, yet management hasn’t created a new path—and that managerial inertia or denial may be compounding the brand’s problems. Unit-level economics are weakening, and an undercurrent of franchisee discontent is scaring away new franchise buyers and lowering franchise resale interest. Many existing franchisees would like to get out, if only they could—and expansion-minded franchisees look beyond the brand for better options. From the outside, the zombie franchise may seem alive, but it’s really…

A professional dancer by trade, Kika Wise has always been a believer in the importance of releasing tension while not asking your body to “do anything.” But in the fitness industry, that made her an outlier. “Everyone’s putting their bodies through so much, trying to get toned, but not thinking, How can I reset my body so that I can continue being active for the rest of my life?” So in 2008, with $500 in capital, she started her own practice in Bloomfield, New Jersey. She took a dancer’s approach to stretching, with a twist, and dubbed it the “Kika Method.” “We teach you how to lie limp, how to let go,” she says. “When we notice you tensing up, we tell you to start over.” Starting up was tough;…

We all have big questions about the economy. Are we heading into a recession? Are we already in one? How high can interest rates go? Will inflation cool anytime soon? How long will “help wanted” signs linger? But in the franchise world, people are often asking this: Is now still a good time to buy a franchise? Industry experts say yes—but your approach should be different than in boom times. First, let’s consider the emotional reality: “We have more people interested in owning and operating franchises, because they just don’t have the same belief system in the old-fashioned, stable job,” says franchise executive coach Rick Grossmann, coauthor of Franchise Bible. The pandemic caused many people to see long-term jobs as precarious, single streams of income. As a result, many went…

HELEN MARTIN was a competitive golfer in her youth who met Stretch Zone founder Jorden Gold at a professional golf event where she was a spectator. She became a licensee in 2014, and then converted to a franchisee in 2016. As of October 2022, she had 22 locations in Florida, Texas, and North Carolina. What makes Stretch Zone different? Their table is patented with a stabilization system. It’s like having another set of hands. Are the services for athletes? This is for everybody. I had always been an athlete, so I understood stretching. You tweak a muscle, and the coach is on the sideline stretching it. Jorden said, “Athletes have all these specialists and equipment. Think about all the people in the stands. That’s your target market.” How will you…

In 2022, an International Franchise Association report found that 90% of franchised businesses felt a moderate-to-significant impact from inflation, including labor costs. “Nobody can find labor,” says Matt Haller, the IFA’s president and CEO. “Small businesses aren’t going to have in-house recruiters or HR departments, so they need help.” And where are they going to get that help? Many turn to staffng and recruiting franchises, which have been addressing shortages for years—and are now seeing very good business. “We’re breaking year-over-year records,” says Vinny Provenzano, vice president of franchising at Express Employment Professionals, which put more than 586,000 people to work in 2021 across 860 locations. For this reason, more prospective franchisees are becoming interested in the space, too. At ATC Healthcare Services, for example, CEO David Savitsky says his…

Many first-time franchisees start to investigate the franchise business model by looking at concepts they can run themselves: single units with an owner-operator. But that approach can be self-limiting, creating blind spots when it comes to evaluating franchise opportunities. Instead, do your due diligence and initial business planning with a multi-unit owner mentality. Even if you ultimately buy only a single location, this mindset will help you avoid weaker concepts, reveal the best options for wealth creation, and may even cause you to consider new and more interesting franchise opportunities. Here’s how to think bigger. Don’t just think big. Plan big. Owner-operators tend to initially put themselves in a daily management role, and then struggle to lift themselves out of it. In the beginning, they may enjoy the pace and…

Mark Van Wye is in the dog-training business. But to thrive, he needed to do a better job training his own business. “We made a lot of the classic mistakes that many new franchises do,” he admits now. His business, Zoom Room, offers dog-training classes, as well as “a fun, sporty place” where owners can play with their pups. It was inspired by a sport called dog agility, where dogs run through obstacle courses. “We wanted to demystify dog training completely,” Van Wye says, and dog owners jumped at the opportunity. His company started franchising in 2009 and grew to 20 units in five years, but then those early franchisees started failing. By 2019, Zoom Room was down to six franchised units—and Van Wye had put a two-year moratorium on…

Can a single franchise location be transformed into a non-profit? That’s what Jamie Trujillo wondered only two months after becoming a Challenge Island franchisee. The question came from her deep sense of mission. Trujillo had always been what she calls a “stereotypical teacher’s pet,” and spent 14 years working with an adult education nonprofit. Then she discovered Challenge Island, an afterschool STEM program for kids with 145 locations in the U.S., and became a franchisee in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2019. “It was an expansion of my calling,” Trujillo says. But she soon found an age-old problem: Her programs were too expensive for the kids who needed it the most. Trujillo could think of only one solution—to turn her business into a nonprofit. Challenge Island agreed to help her, and…

Considering that United Franchise Group (UFG) started with a business that creates signs, it makes sense that the walls of its sprawling West Palm Beach headquarters are covered with—you guessed it—a whole lot of signs. Among the most prominent, front and center in the lobby, there’s one sign that announces the company’s core value: “Like a family.” But UFG, whose affliated brands include more than 1,600 franchises in more than 60 countries, isn’t just like a family. It’s a multigeneration, family-run business, with several family members on the payroll. That includes Ray Titus—who founded Signarama with his father in 1986—and Titus’ three sons, plus assorted nephews. In nearly 37 years of running the company, they’ve learned a lot about what it takes to keep the wheels of a family-run franchise…

TROY HART spent 25 years owning hotel franchises, but pivoted during the pandemic. He and his partners bought 40 Scooter’s Coffee territories in Wisconsin, and opened their first in October 2021. By late 2023, they expect at least 20 to be open. Why did you choose a breakfast franchise? We looked at home health care, all kinds of things. Completely coincidentally, my daughter was a barista at Scooter’s, and she would tell me about her day. I could see that the 16-to-35 demographic loved being in the coffee business. Coming from the hotel space, often people don’t want to clean rooms or work in hotels. The enthusiasm of people wanting to work in the business was exciting to me. How are your locations doing so far? They’re performing just as…

Many franchisors are good at consumer marketing. But they typically struggle to reach a different, equally important audience—potential franchisees. I’ve spent 15 years in franchise development marketing, and I see this problem repeatedly. Digital marketing strategies are often underbudgeted, or spear-headed by internal point people with limited experience. As a result, franchisors are slower to find the right franchisees for their brand. How can you do better? Here are four major mistakes my team and I often see—and how to fix them. Mistake 1 Thinking SEO is only for consumers. Franchisors often understand the importance of content marketing, but they tend to aim it exclusively at consumers. As a result, a brand’s article or blog might come up when someone searches “coffee shop near me” but not when someone searches…

So you’ve decided to buy a franchise. You’ve done your research, and have narrowed it down to a short list of companies that excite you personally, are profitable, and have management teams you are willing to bank on. Still, you haven’t answered the most important question: What can I earn? Obviously, the main reason most people buy franchises is to earn money, but no good franchisor would ever answer that question directly. They would have far too much liability if they did. A franchisor should instead provide you with some guidance to help you make that estimate for yourself. The key to making that calculation starts with something called the financial “performance representation,” or FPR. Where would you find the FPR? In many Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs), which a franchise…

Ordering eggs, working on your biceps, visiting theme parks, and finding a new job. What do these areas of life have in common? Here’s the answer: They’re all features of thriving franchise categories, and they’re growing for the same reason. Business is excellent in the breakfast, fitness, recreation, and staffng/recruiting businesses. Each provides a form of stability—for consumers and franchisees alike!—during turbulent and unpredictable times. Consider this: When someone grabs coffee on the way to work, improves their physical condition, plays with their kids, and seeks better employment, they are in the process of creating a happier, healthier overall existence. But this isn’t just anecdotal. Entrepreneur knows these categories are thriving and has the data to prove it. Every December, we publish a list of 10 areas in franchising…

ABBY HUSSEY and her husband, Scott, owned a preschool franchise for a decade before they sold it and opened an Urban Air in 2019. In late 2020, they opened a second Colorado location, and in early 2021, they bought an existing Urban Air nearby. They also have a fourth territory near Denver. Why did you double down on Urban Air during the pandemic? When COVID hit and we were restricted even more, our kids had their physical play and ability to connect with friends restricted even more. Because they couldn’t celebrate their birthdays and special events, it became even more of a burning desire among families to do what our tagline is: Let’em fly. And now with family budgets stretched, what is your local strategy? Our parks are in areas…

1 The UPS Store Shipping, packing, mailboxes, printing, faxing, shredding, notary services STARTUP COST $122.2K-$508.5K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 5,463/1 2 7-Eleven Convenience stores STARTUP COST $125.3K-$1.3M TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 75,992/5,895 3 Budget Blinds Window coverings, window film, rugs, accessories STARTUP COST $140.5K-$211.8K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 1,378/0 4 Express Employment Professionals Staffng, HR solutions STARTUP COST $140K-$400K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 857/1 5 Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls, baked goods, coffee STARTUP COST $112K-$546.8K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 1,805/2 6 Interim HealthCare Medical and nonmedical home care, medical staffng STARTUP COST $125.5K-$199.5K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 627/4 7 Spherion Staffng & Recruiting Flexible staffng, recruiting, workforce management solutions STARTUP COST $143.1K-$352.5K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 215/0 8 Cornwell Quality Tools Automotive tools and equipment STARTUP COST $59.5K-$277.8K* TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 789/0 *The low end of Cornwell Quality Tools’ initial investment range applies only to the…