Oil changes, mufflers, brakes, tires and accessorizing.  Retail location.  Generally high fixed and variable costs.  Automotive is ideal for growing areas where these existing services don’t exist yet. 

Lashes are big right now.  Hair always is, although it was much bigger in the 80s:)  Spas and anti-aging salons are big business, and with growing disposable income and a desire to treat ourselves, these categories are poised for high growth.  As with any retail location, you’ll have higher fixed costs and you’ll likely be open on nights and weekends.  But unlike food, your variable costs are usually very low.  Labor is your primary variable cost but you can simply add more workers as demand grows. 

Veterans are familiar with fitness.  It’s part of military life.  There are two types of fitness franchises:  gyms and in-home personal training.  

Gyms involve a retail location, which means a higher fixed cost than home-based businesses.  On the high end, you’ll need to buy a bunch of cardio or weight-bearing machines to fill the gym.  On the lower end, you’ll have mats and mirrors for yoga, pilates or stretching.  Gyms benefit from recurring membership revenues but also struggle with renewals and are subject to constantly changing fitness trends.  

In-home personal training, on the other hand, has a near zero fixed cost and enables the gig economy by enabling personal trainers to work when they want.  In-home personal training franchises leverage the growing disposable income, health awareness, in-home fitness and desire for individuals to have someone hold them accountable to their fitness goals.

Americans are spending more money on their kids than ever.  Kid related franchises include tutoring, sports involvement, STEM immersion and even kids birthday party themes.  Since kids franchises tend to be very hands-on, they’re ideal for people who love kids, teaching and coaching.

Selling is the primary duty of a distributorship.  Product manufacturers use distributor franchises to sell products to end-users.  Typically this involves a unique service that is provided in addition to the product: in-home flooring sales (we come to you) and window installers are successful examples.  You’ll typically work pretty normal hours and your focus will be on business development and selling at appointments.  These franchises typically have low fixed costs, carry little to no inventory and have higher margins.

B2B means business to business, as opposed to business to consumer (B2C).  B2B means you are a business selling to other businesses.  Examples of franchises in the B2B category range from blue collar pursuits like parking lot striping, restaurant exhaust duct cleaning, office space cleaning to white collar services like employee drug testing, leadership training, IT and cost reduction.  As franchise owner, you’ll do a lot of networking with small and mid-sized businesses in your area to bring in business.

Americans are living longer, have more disposable income and want to stay in their homes.  Senior care franchises deliver in-home health care, in-home companion care and referrals to nursing facilities.  There are also senior care franchises for running estate sales after seniors leave their homes and others for outfitting senior homes with stairlifts, walk-in baths and other mobility devices.  Senior care franchises tend to be home-based so lower fixed and variable costs.  Those which deliver medical care are mostly insurance pay.  Those which deliver companion care are mostly private pay.  There are pros and cons to each.

Seems like everyone got a dog or cat during the pandemic. Pet ownership is at historic highs and pet owners have the disposable income to pay someone to train, walk, board and groom their dog.  There are even franchises for cleaning up the dog poop in your yard!  Pet franchises enjoy multple revenue streams and strong recurring revenues.  Many are home-based, which have lower entry and fixed costs.  But doggy day care facilities are a huge business if you have the capital to get into them.

We saved the biggest and one of the most attractive categories for last!  

A generation ago, people spent their weekends doing cleaning, household maintenance, landscaping or tending to honey-do lists.  Nowadays, we spend our weekends in leisure activities or carting kids around to 91 different sports activities.  We work hard all week and don’t want to work all weekend.  And we have the disposable income to hire someone else to do all that other stuff we used to ourselves!  

Home services franchises exist to do the work that consumers either don’t want to do, don’t have the time to do or can’t do.  And.  It’s.  Booming!  

Your typical home services franchise involves wrapping a van or truck, fill it with a technician and some tools and go into peoples’ homes.  The fixed and variable costs are much lower than a retail location and you can control them by only adding as demand grows.  

In most home services franchises, you’ll work normal hours and will often benefit from recurring revenues and referrals from satisfied customers.  Home services tends to be recession-proof because people will cut many other expenses in their lives before they go back to doing things they don’t like to do!

Since workers and technicians in home services are more skilled, and hence paid more, you won’t struggle with labor access as much as lower paid, unskilled labor.  Worried about training your employees to do the work?  In most cases, the franchisor will help with that.

If you want to scale and grow, home services allows two ways to do that.  The first is growing horizontally by providing the same services across a larger geographical territory.  The second is by stacking multiple services on the same geographical territory.  Those same households that need cleaning services also need repair, maintenance and trades!

Home services franchises include four main areas:  Cleaning, Maintenance, Repair and Trades. 

There are franchises for residential home cleaning, pool cleaning, powerwashing, auto detailing and even cleaning your dryer vent.  Cleaning also includes junk removal and restoration services, which is clean-up after water or fire damage.

Maintenance include painting, pest control, lawn care and handyman services.

There are franchises to repair cracked driveways, windshields and granite countertops.  There are franchises that refurbish front doors and repair tears in leather furniture.

Skilled trades include the usual suspects like plumbing, electrical and HVAC.  And before you ask, the answer is no.  No, you don’t have to have experience in the trades to open a skilled trade franchise.  In fact, there are plenty of stories about plumbers who open plumbing businesses and find out they prefer to clear drains or install bathrooms.  When they do that as an owner, nobody’s leading employees, meeting customer expectations and managing the business.  Keep in mind that your job as a business owner is not to deliver the service!

Ah yes.  You remember Monopoly don’t you?  Community Chest.  The wildcard.  There are franchises for crime scene clean-up, art studios, vending, laundromats and more.