From A to Franchisee: The Podcast for Smarter Franchise Buying

Announcing the Top 200 Franchise Brands of 2026

• Franchise Business Review • Season 1 • Episode 21

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Host: Michelle Rowan, President of Franchise Business Review

Guest: Allison Dudas, B2C Senior Marketing Manager at Franchise Business Review

Episode Summary

In this episode of "From A to Franchisee," Michelle Rowan, President of Franchise Business Review, unveils the much-anticipated "FBR's Top 200 Franchises of 2026." This exclusive list is unique in the franchising world as it is based entirely on the satisfaction of real franchise owners. The episode delves into the methodology behind the rankings, highlighting the importance of franchisee feedback and the rigorous criteria used to evaluate brands. With insights from Allison Dudas, FBR's B2C Marketing Manager, the discussion covers the diverse range of franchises that made the list, from legacy brands to emerging players. It emphasizes the significance of franchisee satisfaction and unit profitability as key indicators of success. The episode also explores the evolving landscape of franchising, with a focus on the growing trend of multi-unit ownership. Allison and Michelle also dispense advice on how to pick the right franchise investment for you. 

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Michelle Rowan (00:51)
Hello everyone and welcome back to the podcast from A to Franchisee. I'm Michelle Rowan, President of Franchise Business Review and today is the big day. We're officially releasing our 2026 Top 200 Franchises list. The only ranking in franchising based entirely on how satisfied real franchise owners are. Every year we survey tens of thousands of franchisees.

across hundreds of brands to uncover what's really happening inside franchise systems. Which brands have the happiest owners? Which industries are seeing the biggest jumps in satisfaction? How much are franchisees earning? And what should you be looking for if you're thinking about buying a franchise this year? To help unpack all that, I'm joined today by someone who spends most of her time.

Talking directly with franchisees, Allison Dudas, our B2C Marketing Manager here at Franchise Business Review. Allison hears firsthand what franchisees love about their business, what challenges they face, and what advice they'd give to new franchise buyers entering franchising for their very first time. And today she's here to break down what stood out in this year's research, who made our top 200, and the data trends every future franchise owner should pay attention to.

What surprised us this year? What should you take away from franchisee satisfaction scores? And how can our list guide your research and help you avoid some common pitfalls? Also to, Allison's behind the scenes on this podcast. She produces all the episodes. So now she's on the front side of things. So let's jump right in. All right. I'm so excited to be here. It's exciting. Yeah. It's a good day. It is. Top 200. Top 200.

All right, so 2026, we have our list. And just to kind of talk about how consumers use the list. So one of the best things that we do is release these lists throughout the year.

because sometimes when you're thinking about buying a franchise, you have no idea where to start. some people have misconceptions about franchises, whether they're a pyramid scheme or sometimes people selling franchises can be really aggressive. So it's so impossible to know how to start. How do you know what's a good franchise? How do you know that you'll be able to make money? How do you know that you'll be valued and happy? How do you know that it's scalable? And so that's why we have these lists, really, to help people. Yeah.

before they find franchise business review, they're frustrated. But we try to mitigate that with our data. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about our methodology and how our rankings work. So we work with any franchise brand that has at least 10 franchisees open and operating. So I'm going to stop there because the reason we set that threshold is it's very common when franchise brands get started that they're typically started as a business.

The founder decides, I want a franchise. And those first franchisees are usually friends, family, some wheeling and dealing perhaps to get them running because they want to make sure that their business model works in multiple markets of different sizes. That's kind of the basis of franchising is this is a model that works regardless of where you're located. So 10 is what we set as our threshold. A lot of franchise brands start each year. We're looking at those that have made it to that mark.

the founder might not be as ⁓ involved in the day-to-day with their franchisees. They're starting to kind of build their team out. And that was the marker that we set to just kind of keep that level playing field that you have to have at least 10 franchisees to participate. So that's number one. Number two is we invite any system to participate. We have a free version that they can take part where we ask their franchisees the questions.

They don't get the data back, but we want to make this list that we're sharing with you truly based on franchisee feedback. So that's the second part. The next thing that we look at is most important, how the franchisees are answering these questions that we give them. And we're asking the same questions of everybody. So whether it's a brick and mortar based franchise, it's a service, it's a truck, it's run out of their home. We're asking core questions that every potential franchise owner wants answered. We're looking at

the training and support they deliver, the financial opportunity, which is really important, the culture from their leadership, work-life balance and running that business. So we're giving everyone the same playing field of how we measure the answers that we receive. All the work is confidential. So if franchisors don't score well, our hope is they're using this data to improve support and opportunity for their franchise owners to grow their businesses and that they'll come back and hopefully make our awards list the next year.

So I think that's kind of the key thing. This year we had 330 brands that participated and asked all the standard questions and we had responses from over 26,000 franchisees. So this is a good large data set, the largest in franchising and that's how we build out our awards list. Also, we're looking at their FDD. So you can go to our previous episode, we can link it. We talk about this franchise disclosure document.

that has a lot of information available for franchise buyers. We're looking at that too. So what we're looking at is ⁓ the continuity of the brand. How long have they been around? We're looking at, they have litigation? Do they have high turnover? Those are really the key things that we're looking at to say, should that weigh into their score? And there's some magic that happens with our data people and they put it in this formula and boom, we get our list of top 200.

Yeah, think the thing that I love about Franchise Business Review is at our heart, we are data nerds, right? We are peddling data like it's our job. It is our job. And I think what is so cool is that no brand can pay to be on this list. That's right. I want to say that again. No brand can pay to be on this list. These brands are on here, honestly, because of their data, because their franchisees have ranked them so.

And it's my favorite thing about Franchise Business Review because we can feel good about the brands that we recommend because nobody's paying us to say good things, right? That doesn't really work. That doesn't really work when it comes to unbiased data. Yeah, it's true. And I think that it's important to talk about you can't pay to be on our list because we have some great clients that are tuned in, they're getting feedback from their franchisees and they just don't have the scores to be on it. And as much as we love them and we want to help promote them,

have work to do before we can do that. it limits us in our growth. Yeah. Right. Right. Like if we could just get paid by every single brand to be like, yes, buy this, buy that. Like that would be awesome for the financial bottom line. But where would that leave the data? It would be bad, bad data. Yeah. All right. What are we getting into first? we can talk a little bit about ⁓

What brands are new this year? So maybe we could just mention a couple brands that are new to the top 200 in 2026 there are a handful that have been on our list before and then now are back on to come back and there are some brands that are brand new to our top 200 so I really like the variety. Yeah, yeah, right. Like franchises are not just food and it's something I remember Tony Harris Taylor being on the podcast and she was like, do you want to know what franchises are doing so

well right now, pet waste. And she was just talking about like people cleaning up dog poop or making millions of dollars a year. And you know, when we think about franchising, our brain goes to the McDonald's, our brain goes to Wendy's. But that is such a small portion of franchising. So what are some brands, Michelle, that you're excited about this year? Well, first I'm going to point out because we only have one new food brand on the awards list this year. So that's Apple Spice. And that is a great brand because they

actually they they did more catering ⁓ to businesses that was kind of their model and now they're more of a cafe model so I think that they're just one that's different than McDonald's so again if you're looking for food there's so many different types of brands out there that aren't these big box kind of known brands right and they're scoring really well yeah yeah yeah so and then when I look at the list I like that there are some kind of I would say

Old school brands on here Liberty tax service. They've been around forever. We have ⁓ Gold's gym Midas Big O tires like some real legacy brands on here. And then the flip we have some like fresh new brands. Woofies one of our ⁓ it's in the pet services. It's not way specific, but they are an interesting brand to look at because they do a lot of using the employees at their locations to help promote the brand, which is so smart because

These are younger people, they're on social, they make it fun, they talk about their day, it's called the life at Woofies.

So I love that they made the list because they're really focused on that younger generation and having that experience of it's not about the franchise owner in the business. It's about the people running the business, talking to customers. So I think that's cool. They popped up on the list this year. That is really cool. Handles ice cream, Ever Bowl. Let's see. I love, Ohdeer Like, let's talk about, let's talk about the, the, services that people don't think about that are so niche. Mosquito control. Yes. Yes. I know. And people really need, I mean, smash my trash.

Lightspeed, Restoration, Sunnys, Barbecue, Dryer Events, Superheroes. We also have people in the senior care space. That's always very popular for franchise owners. I think there's a real connection to their communities in that they are taking care of elderly in their communities. So their service is so needed and mission driven. And they're making good money. They definitely are. So we have a few in that space that I see just really quickly. Comfort Keepers.

We have there's another one I saw in here next day access So any of these that are kind of taking care of that? ⁓ Aging population are great that we see popping up on here. Yeah. Yeah, that's exciting. Well, let's talk about the

Franchisee income. think that that's I mean we did a whole episode you did a whole episode with Eric Stites on how much money you can make People obviously want to know that's such a big thing ⁓ So let's share a little bit of the data about the salary well that these franchisees so it's

It's kind of salary driven. I'm going to explain this. So we ask franchisees to self-report their annual pre-tax income. So we are asking everybody the same question. How they come up with this number and how they report it is going to be, I'm not going to say how creative, but just how they.

how they look at their business, who's doing their accounting. So are they taking a salary? Are they not? So I do always want to kind of have that little asterisk in this conversation. But the average annual pre-tax income, so that's the average of every franchisee that took the survey and reported, is $142,276. So when we talk about how much money can I make, that's the short answer. That's it. So that's what they're looking at as their income.

I think it's important for, well, we did take out.

any franchisees under two years of operating. Which is critical because so many franchisees that I talk to, when you think about the break even point, it often takes franchisees a year. I would say that that's probably the most common answer that I hear, a year to break even on their investment. So I love that our data with regards to salary is just for franchisees that have been operating their business for at least two years. And breaking even in a year is pretty aggressive, I will say. So that's more common with like a service based, no real estate

Yeah, okay. Yeah, you're not paying a lease. Yeah. Yeah, so I think that it's just important to think about how you get to those numbers, but we want to give people an idea of what these franchise owners are reporting. I think that's a good way to do it.

And I also think it's good to note how many franchisees are multi-unit owners. So many franchisees get into the business and they start with one franchise location and then they expand. And obviously that increases their earning potential. So 45 % of franchisees of the ones that were surveyed, of the 26,000 franchisees we surveyed, are multi-unit owners. That is crazy. And I would say that that's really a shift. I wish that I had looked at the number from

10 years ago because I think that's really a shift. Franchising used to be a very mom and pop driven ⁓ industry or I will say sector of business. I know some people don't like using that. ⁓ But that's really changed. seeing these business owners that have

better business acumen that understand financial statements and have a goal to own more than one location. Because when you scale, that's where you really start seeing the savings and how you're running a business. So that 45 % is pretty impressive. And we also have the stat that over half, 56 % of the franchisees we surveyed are considering buying additional units or locations. Yeah. Which is bananas. mean, wow. But I guess if you, this is one of the reasons why you would buy into a franchise system, you know the system

works so that you're just following your franchisor's instructions, you're getting the franchisor's support, et cetera, with training, with marketing, et cetera. And so maybe opening a second location isn't the big lift that it would be if you were just starting your own business and then you decided to open another location of that own business. That's right. And I think that let's just talk about the other demographics that we have since we're talking about the people side.

are male, 32 % are female, and 6 % did not report. So I think that we are seeing progress on the number of female franchise owners in our data. That's creeping up each year, but let's get to 50-50. I know, I know. And right now we're seeing more...

We're seeing stronger female presence in travel. We're seeing stronger female presence. I just looked at this data the other This is great. That's why I'm pulling it out. We're seeing stronger female presence in ⁓ child enrichment. So there's a few industries where that is higher. So certainly if you're a female and also to note, not to toot our own horns, but we also do release a list of top franchises for women come February.

keep posted for that. if you're a female listening and you're kind of like, well I'm thinking about it. There are some franchise brands where females in the brand are reporting a lot of success. But yeah, let's get it to 50-50 overall. Yeah, why not? I mean come on. Yeah, let's do it. The median age range for franchise owners 44 to 54. So I don't know how that's changed but I think that that's really interesting and

⁓ I think we're seeing a shift of people that just don't want to be on the corporate wheel. We'll say that. my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

They're leaving the corporate world and becoming franchise owners. So I think that's great. Right, because they want that work-life balance. they want to, they're entrepreneurs, but they also see the value in getting the extra support that a franchise system offers. yeah. And then the median ownership tenure that we're seeing in our surveys, the people that are taking our surveys, is seven years. So typical franchise agreement is usually 10-year agreements. So just thinking about that in terms of who's going to renew the next time around.

But I think that's good. That's just good to know that that's what we're seeing as the median for franchise owners. And then after those seven years, you're saying like they they're making an exit. There's no that usually at that 10 year mark. That's when they're deciding, am I going to resign and renew or am I going to sell my business? So we have some franchise systems that have a legacy of franchise owners that that just keep renewing. So I remember at our summit, we had visiting angels on stage and their tenure is like 20 years. Wow. So you're seeing these people that

are bought into the system and so especially if they're growing those those agreement lengths are staggered because you're signing these units at different times traditionally that's what we see happen so they're in it this is a this is a long-term relationship with your franchise or it's why you want to get it right yeah it's like marriage right yeah yeah I wonder what the average or the median is for marriage length gosh good question

Another episode. Yeah, that's another episode One other thing, too, though, because we did talk about the pre-tax income, I think, is to talk about what they're reporting in revenue. So gross sales. Nearly half of franchisees, so 46 % of franchisees, report their gross sales over a million dollars.

26 % have businesses reported with over $2 million in revenue. And I think that is really something too. I was listening to a podcast and they said, it's like 4 % of businesses make, so these are, it was reported on full-time business. So not people that have a side hustle. We would consider kind of part-time focus on it. But it's only 4 % of full-time businesses.

make over a million dollars in sales. Oh my gosh. I was shocked by that. Yeah, that is shocking. Yeah. because you're so in the data. So you know that franchises, as a rule, perform so much higher. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, 4%. Very interesting. Yeah. It's good. Yeah, that is good.

Okay, so let's talk about the different things that we are asking franchisees about, because I think that is a notable thing. So when we are surveying, and you mentioned this in the beginning, when we are surveying franchisees, we're asking them how they feel about their franchisor in terms of leadership, how they feel about their franchisor in terms of training and support that's offered their peer communities. So these brands that are making this top 200 list are being scored,

highly in these areas. And obviously like there's variation and especially with the many franchise brands that share their reports on our site you can actually get into the details and you can download Kona Ice's report and see how many franchisees are talking about their support, their franchisee community or what cruise planners feels about the technology of the brand or how senior

care authorities onboarding process is. So all of these brands who are actually sharing their reports, you can download them on our site and read through. You'll even get to see actual franchisee comments. ⁓ So it's really, really cool when brands do share their reports on our site because you can get a great inside look as to where they're strongest and maybe even sometimes like where they're weakest.

Yeah, well, and I think even if they don't share the report on our site, you can ask the franchisor if they'll share it with you privately, because a lot of them just do it that way that they don't really want to put it out there. Usually it's because they're limited in territory or but it's still part of their process that they're using to educate you. So if they're on our list, ask them to see the data or talk about the highs and the lows. And so what we really push is to be transparent with this data, because a franchisee franchise or relationship is not on this trajectory, this one line. It's always improving.

It's a very, very complex relationship. There's a lot of change management that happens between a system understanding how they need to innovate, how they need to grow, and a franchisee or people in general tend to be more resistant to change. So how are they working through those? Like we need to make a change to our business model. We need to make a change to our technology system, which usually drives a lot of your business. It's tough. It's a tough thing to do.

So we say share the good, share the bad and talk about what you're doing to improve the scores that are in a low area. We are not trying to just make it all shine and have you marketed or sold into a brand. We are trying to help franchisors to create very realistic expectations of what it's like to run this business. And every franchisor should be telling you that it's hard work. And a franchisee should have ⁓ realistic expectations of what do I need to do to be successful? I'm not just throwing my money at this.

to buy myself a job, how do I grow a successful business? So knowing that upfront, I think is really important. What I think stands out, that great peer community that we talk about, you have access to franchisees in your network, which means they are running the same business as you. There's so much you can learn from someone that's already made the mistakes, and they're usually very open. They all benefit from you doing well, because what you're all doing collectively is building the valuation of your business when you go to hand it off or sell it.

Like that's the whole franchise model is how can we get you a good return when you exit. So franchisees want you to be successful and they will share all these kind of behind the scenes tips of like, here's what I wish I'd done differently. Here's what's really working in my business. So tap into those networks. I hate when I read through the detailed things and they say, I just don't engage with my community. I don't go to convention. why would you? would you not reach out to all these people that

have these insider tips for you. But I think it speaks to what kind of personality I think about Paul Pickett's episode with you towards the beginning of the podcast and what makes a good franchisee. you need to...

have faith and confidence in your own ability to run a business and also you need to recognize that there are other people who might do certain areas better than you. So there is that sense of like, yes, you're an entrepreneur. Yes, it's your own business.

But a good franchisee is collaborative and a good franchisee asks for help because you have it available to you in spades. And also like you need to make sure that the franchise system you're looking into has a good franchisee community. I think about the I've had some recent conversations with franchisees from magnesium and they talk about the franchisee community and how much support that they get from one another and how it directly benefits their business. So like it turns into dollars.

And I think it's such a missed opportunity if you don't take advantage of that if you are a franchisee. But if you are a franchisee candidate, if you're considering buying a franchisee, it's a missed opportunity if you are not asking the question, is this a good franchisee community? And that's one of the things, obviously, that we're asking in our survey reports. Yeah. I mean, I think all of our podcast episodes, we reinforce the importance of talking to existing franchise owners. And it's an easy question. Like, how connected are you? You know, don't take it from just one franchisee.

but talk to several and figure out what the collective vibe is of how supportive this culture is. So yeah, but it usually scores very well. The other thing is, I did talk about not being sold on a dream, is that you want transparent leadership. You want them talking about here's what we didn't do well, or here's a thing that we blew and how we would have done it differently, or how we're making it right. Don't be scared when a franchisor or the corporate team is telling you things like this. You don't want it to be,

We've got it on lock. We've got it all figured out. You want it to be collaborative and them telling you the hard parts too. And then I wanted to call out another section. So not all systems have a field coach. So that's a role of a support person that's directly supporting your business, either regionally, in person, virtually, however that looks. But it's called a franchise business coach in different ways. It's called different terms.

That section, so not every system has that role, but if a franchisor has that role, we ask the questions and it scores very, very high. Having that person that really gets to know your business goals, your personal goals, it's accountability. It's helping you set that goal and understanding the steps that you need to meet it. So it's a really valuable role. So get into that as well if you're looking at a brand and find out do they have that role and how effective is that in supporting the franchise owners. Yeah.

Yeah, well, okay. So just like a practical tip, like obviously look through reports if they're on our site.

Ask for the report if it's not on our site, but if the brand ranks on our site. Yeah. And you know, don't don't be terrified if there's something negative. Agreed. Because a franchisor I mean, any corporate entity is made up of human beings and human beings make mistakes. It's a great question to ask. How did you make this mistake Right. If if they're being transparent with you about something that isn't ideal, how are you listening to your franchisees to make that better? Per Michelle's point from a

Yeah, and I think, you know, our site makes it really easy. you've honed in on a particular ⁓ type of franchising, we talked about senior care, pets, ⁓ you can sort it or you can look into those. We kind of let you drill in on our site to that investment level. We also have a great partner with Benetrend. So if you don't even know where to start, how much can I afford? Getting that kind of clarified before you start setting.

setting down this research path of looking at things in a certain investment level, find out how much money you can borrow or you have access to. Benetrends will talk to you for free to do that. So that's a good tip for people. also to let's talk about some of the I want I want anyone listening to this to go and listen to our other podcast episodes because I think we go into more detail in certain areas, but just high level. Let's talk about some green flags of what they should be looking for in their research process. Yeah, I mean, the FDD.

is

just this giant document that has so much information and obviously you want to be looking at item 19 in particular. And then you're going to get a list of franchisees and that is the number one thing. The list of franchisees, call the franchisees and see what they say. many as you can. As many as you can. What would you say is like the most important question or questions you should ask a franchisee? I think it's important to ask. They might not share their sales with you, but you can ask that break-even question that we kind of started with.

How long did it take you to break even? Or did it align with what you kind of thought when you went through this discovery process? So there's, on the corporate team side, they're limited in what they can share with you. If they're not sharing information in that FDD, that franchise disclosure document, ⁓ they can't share it with you. So it's called a financial representation. It's the item 19 in the FDD.

And so they're limited. can't share with you any financial questions that you ask if it's not listed there. So how do you get that information? You should be building out a business plan. But asking the franchisees, how long did it take you to get break even? how did that compare to what you kind of thought it would take when you went through this process? I think that's a good question to ask. ⁓ The other thing too, I just think that don't rush. mean, take your time. Talk to as many franchisees as you can.

But just don't feel pressured. This is such a, it's such a great industry of ⁓ wanting to share experience. And so I think you can learn a lot just from connecting with people on what their journey has been like. What's it like to really run that business? And what I love, Allison, is like all the franchisees we talk to, all the interviews we do, we ask them that kind of one thing, that one piece of advice, and the majority of them say they wish they'd done it sooner. Yeah. I love that. I know. It makes me happy too, because

I think something about owning a franchise in particular, you feel that autonomy and you feel that entrepreneurial spirit, but you're not out there on your own. I think the... It's like guardrails. have guardrails. Yeah. the potential is really high. The earning potential is really high. The work-life balance potential is really high.

Certainly not right out of the gate. You're gonna be working. You're not gonna be working 20 hours a week You're gonna be putting in a lot of hours when you first open a franchise That's just the reality and of any business of any business Yes, yeah, but the franchisees that I talked to that are five years in they are starting to they are starting to step back They are hiring people to manage the day to day instead of working in their business. They're working on their business

So I do understand why somebody who's kind of maybe like 45 years old was like, oh man, I do wish I did it when I was 40 instead of 45. Because, you know, I know for me, I'm 43, I always forget how old I am. And it's a crazy time in my life with kids and how busy and everything is. And I'm like, oh my gosh, if I had made a...

really amazing financial and business choice when I, before I had kids, before my life was so bananas, I would be sitting pretty right now. You know? And so when I talked to, I talked to some franchisees, a husband and wife couple, actually from Mathnasium, and they ⁓ purchased a franchise location about eight years ago. And they were working really hard at first, and now they have this amazing work life.

balance. that only took a few years. I it's not forever. And they have little kids, and they're getting to drive their kids to school in the morning and pick their kids up from school. Yeah, the flexibility is great. The flexibility really can be great. And obviously, it does vary from sector to sector and how long you've been a business owner. ⁓

I think that that's one of the coolest things you can get from speaking to a franchisee. also you can get a sense too, like ideally you're talking to a franchisee if you're exploring a brand that's maybe not very happy. And it can be so telling because you might find out that they're not very happy because maybe the franchise system is whack, right? Or maybe like their support is not great.

or they were set up for failure. But like you also might find out that they are not taking advantage of all of the things that their franchisor is offering them. And so it might give you that like, well, yeah, of course you're not succeeding. Of course you're not happy. ⁓ That's why you talk to lots. That's why you talk to lots. And I think it's just as important to talk to the ones that are kind of pissed off. Yeah, absolutely. And that's why, I mean, that's why we share our data is

to help people get a general sense of what the community is saying, but you can't replace those individual calls. you definitely cannot. Yeah. So it's always exciting to release our list every year. What I love is the franchisors that we work with are committed to getting feedback from their franchise owners. It's an important part of their process and how they measure the success of their brand. We're really proud of all the brands that we've partnered over the last 20 years. I think we have about 100 brands now in our Hall of Fame.

which are brands that have been doing this and receiving an award for over 10 years. So that's really, really significant. When you look at, think Fran Data states there's over 3,000 franchise systems. those are businesses that have registered that they're actively franchising. And we've worked with the 1,300 overall in 20 years. So that's one third of franchise systems that are getting feedback from their franchise owners that we know of. ⁓ They could be doing it other ways, but why would you when we're here?

to it so easy. So it's really exciting for us to get to celebrate the top 200. It is a differentiator. I know that there's other rankings out there and they really focus on number one versus number 200. But we strongly believe all 200 on our list are great opportunities for you to see if they're the right fit for what your goals are. And we just love helping them celebrate the work that their team is doing, the relationships that they have with their franchisees.

and we want to help get them in front of other people that are curious about franchising because it's a great place to start your research. So that's what we want to do here.

So I want to get into just like how, where you should start. So you come to our website, you see this top 200. It totally feels overwhelming because 200 brands is a lot of brands. And I want to kind of just recap some of the things that you mentioned before. So one, you can start with financing. You can figure out how much you can actually afford. You can start there. Or you might want to start with sector industry. You might say, well, I obviously want to go into an industry where I can...

Work with kids. Okay, well child enrichment, Or maybe you know that you want to break into the senior care franchise or maybe it's food. So you start with the industry and then go from there. Or maybe for you, it's more about, I don't want to brick and mortar. I want a truck. I know I want a truck. I want a truck or I want to work from home. so I just feel like there's like so many starting points and you might already have something niggling in the back of your mind that's driving you. ⁓

Honestly, maybe it's money. Maybe you go to our most profitable list. Yes, we have a most profitable list. ⁓ And that's the thing that gets you started right away. So you just have to, you have to figure out your priorities and then you use our research in that order, right? Financing, sector, ⁓ how much money, ⁓ brick and mortar or mobile, whatever it is. And then you go from there. So take time and almost like get out a sheet of paper and figure out what's the top thing.

I don't know, people have different reasons to get into it. So you should figure out what yours is. Yeah. Well, we have that resource that Eric talks about in his podcast around, it's called Life, I think. Yes, my franchise Life. Yeah. So it helps you kind of go through this process of what you're looking for this business to do for you. And you think 200 brands is overwhelming. Imagine starting with just knowing there's 3,000 out there. we've already done a lot of the work for you. Right. Yeah, we have. We have. We have. And also, like, there's just so many things you've never even thought of, like,

there is a dance academy for kids called Tutu School. They have baby ballerina. Baby ballerinas. You know, there's, of course there's smoothie places. There are, there's just so much. There's childcare. There's ⁓ so much travel, so many travel opportunities. There's mobile food trucks. There's ⁓ swim.

How about dryer vent superheroes? Very specific service that everybody needs. Everybody needs, yes, there's home maintenance. And doing like all sorts of stuff, whether it's window cleaning or plumbing. So it's just really crazy how many opportunities there are. And I don't know, Michelle, do you think that like, let's say you get into, do you think you have to be passionate about the specific sector?

that you're in? Like, do you think you really have to enjoy plumbing? I think that you have to be passionate about the business. ⁓ I don't think you need to know how to do the skill. Okay. So like being passionate about the plumbing business is recognizing that trades are hard and always needed. So people will always need a plumber. So you don't have to be passionate about the service itself.

But you have to be passionate that you know you have a service that everyone needs, regardless of the economy. And it's a skill set. Homeowners can't plumb. You can unclog a toilet. ask my husband. Yeah, it's about it. So you need a plumber. So thinking about it from that standpoint, if I am passionate about being an electrician, it's not the being an electrician part. It's having a service that people need and that I can solve and seeing that business opportunity.

So I think that's what it is. You're serving your community with what that service is or what that product is. So I think you have to be passionate about that piece of it, not the doing of That's a good point. Yeah. That's a good point. And I think you need to also expand your mind. Maybe in your brain, you're not like, yes, I want to own a franchise that works on cars. But yeah, ask the deeper questions. What does it really mean to help people fix their existing car?

Christian Brothers Automotive, one of our Hall of Fame award winners, but they do car service with integrity. They are taking care of their customers and have built up trust with their customers. So they are passionate about that service they're delivering to their customers. what a recession resistant model. cars are not going anywhere. No, and more and more people are going to be fixing up their existing cars and buying new ones. Love it. Given the state of the economy.

All right, so that's kind of where you start. Come to our site, figure out your priorities, and go from there and then have a good time. Yeah, listen to all of our podcast episodes, poke around for the resources we have on our site, ⁓ and reach out to us too. We want to hear if you do buy a franchise. Yeah, yeah, we love that. Yeah, we love that. All right. Do we want to do the myth busting lightning round? Sure.

I don't have it. You don't have it? Yeah, it's right here. ⁓ okay. I have seven and eight here. ⁓ Okay. All right. It's funny because it says Michelle throws these questions to Allison, but I think Allison should be throwing them to Michelle. Okay. So how about if we restart the intro to the Mythbusting Lightning Round? Sounds good. Okay. All right. Do you feel good about these questions? I don't know.

Yeah. You do? Yeah, yeah. OK, great. All right. Let's get into a myth busting lightning round. I feel like we should have like lightning or thunder clap in the background to hype up this segment. Can you make that sound with your like a sound effect post production? I don't know. I don't know if I'm that good, but we'll see. No, I probably can't. I'm not going to promise anything to the listeners. We'll just be disappointed. All right. So.

I'm going to ask Michelle a few questions because Michelle has been doing this for 20 years. you were kind enough to share with everyone your age. I'm not going to do that today.

Michelle is 29. I am old as dirt. the right age of nine years old. All right. OK, Michelle, do only big brands make the top 200? No. And I think we touched about this a little bit on the beginning is that we talked about the 10 franchisee marker.

So I think that that's important that we recognize in our award formula, we do recognize it is easier to get a high participation rate from a smaller system than a big system. It's also easier to get a higher score, less people to manage. So we do take that into account too, but we actually look at our lists and provide it in a small, medium, large kind of model. Right. We do indicate the size. You can see how many units.

Yeah, because sometimes people want to be part of a smaller system because they feel like they have more access to the leadership team. They have more influence over building out what those changes might happen over the years. And then some want that, I want that brand that's big and it's really proven. Established. Yeah, we give you a good range on there. Right, and there's really pros and cons to either one. mean, I think about, so the brands that are maybe smaller haven't been around as long. Sometimes we call those emerging brands.

And I think of New Again Houses, which is on our list and doing so well. Its franchisees are really, really happy. There's some really great ones. Foxy Box, Wax and Laser. Yeah, there's a few great ones to check out. All right. Are food franchises always riskier? They are not. And so what I was looking at is, I mean, we have, I'm just kind of going through quickly, I think 30 brands on here. are food? Yeah, that are food. So.

What I love is that we have this big variety of sit down, big restaurants, and then we have Kona Ice, Travel and Tom's, which are truck based. But I wanted to just call out there's ⁓ Chicken Salad Chick. thinking about Chicken Salad Chick, it is a physical space, but it's really this kind of one product that's got a high takeout rate. And so just thinking about what makes a food business risky is your investment level.

So look at- It tends to be a higher infection level, especially for the brick and mortar. Exactly. So what makes it riskier is kind of a big footprint. So just take into account those things. then, I mean, I think you can find small truck run food models, but you can also find big sit down. We have Sunny's barbecue. We have ⁓ Church's Texas chicken. Pizza factory. Pizza factory. like they're of

course, there's risk in any franchise system you look at, but I don't think food is more risky. Okay. Thank you. Is multi-unit ownership only for experts? I do not believe so, but what I do really strongly believe in is I don't love when ⁓ corporate teams set you up with this semi-absentee mindset from day one. Lies. Yeah. I don't love also too where they want you to sign...

and commit to a six unit deal. don't do it. Sometimes it's all they'll do because they're such an established brand. And so I understand that they can ask that. But I think looking at that schedule of how they want you to open those, I think you need to be a really good operator. And how you know you're a really good operator is you start with one. Yeah, start with one and then work up to it. I mean, why not? I people do disagree with me on this, but I am here to ⁓ rile people up. I don't want to say make enemies because I really do.

want to stay friends with everyone, but I'm okay with differing opinions. just think going in, I think it's great to go in with a goal that I want to be a multi-unit owner, but I don't think starting out and investing in 10 units is something I would advise or do. Yeah. Thank you for that. I think that it means a lot coming from you because you have been in this world of franchising for a while. listen to Michelle, everybody. Yeah. ⁓

Do franchisees really make six figures? And we kind of talked about this, but Michelle? We have the data to back it up. So I think that's, and also too, have strong vendors that are working on your business. Make sure that you have a good accounting resource that you're using so that you are capitalizing on the benefits of being a business owner. There's so many tax ⁓ things to think through of

Being a business owner can get you some tax deduction. So have somebody good working on that, because all that work you do to save on taxes goes directly into your pocket. Yeah. So it's important. It is. It is. You've got to have an accountant. my gosh. Don't do it on TurboTax. No. Get some help. No, you definitely need. And ideally, too, like somebody who knows about franchises. Yeah.

All right, well thanks. All right, so let's do just some closing takeaways. I know we've covered a lot. I mean, when you talk about the top 200, 200 brands, like we have so much to talk about here. We can seriously be here for another hour. But your perfect franchise might not be what you expect. It might not be. And you should use our data to figure out what's the perfect franchise for you.

It might not even be the sector that you were considering. It might not be the size you were considering. But just take a look at some different franchise brands that are on our list. And I really do feel like it might blow your mind. Yeah, there's a good variety on there. And so I think my one thing I want to lead people with is I really, truly believe that franchisee ⁓ satisfaction and unit profitability

are the two most important things you can look at to have an idea of how successful you can be in the system. So I think that it's just important to do your research and get at how do these brands make their people feel? How do they make their franchisees feel? How do they make their corporate team members feel? How do they make their customers feel? That all really is very, very important, especially going into 2026. All consumers, want a good experience. They want to feel special or

⁓ individualized. They want to know that you are talking to me because you know what I need, you know what my challenges are. So I think ⁓ brands that put people first are always at the top of my list. And then you want to make sure it's a good business model because why would you invest in something if you could make more money just sitting in your savings account? Right? Yeah, that's it. Right. That's it. I make it seem so simple. That's it, you guys. That's it. That's it. That's all. That's all there is.

What we want to do is we want to make sure that you do obviously visit the top 200 list. ⁓ On our site, you'll also see an option to download the list that will provide you with the actual ranking order so you can see who the top brands are. Well, we didn't even tell everybody who number one is. I mean, way to bury a lead. ⁓ my gosh. Do I even work in marketing? Guys, I was just a personality hire.

Yeah, Next Home Real Estate. have, they dethroned Kona Ice a few years ago and they have held on tight to that top spot. So there are 199 other opportunities as well to look at, but we'd have to give props to our number one award winner. know, we definitely do. Congratulations Next Home. That's a lot. It's a lot to be proud of, honestly. Oh man, so definitely visit the website.

Download the ordered list if you want to see that, but really just poke around, read the reports, and subscribe to this podcast. Yeah. And tell us if you buy something. We love the details. Tell us if you learned something new from our podcast. We want to hear from you guys. Yeah. Yes. Yes, we do. Well, Michelle,

This was very, very fun. I am going to encourage you to get on the front side of the podcast more often. Sounds like fun. I'll do it. And it's actually an order, not a request. Yes, ma'am.

Thank you all so much. Happy New Year.