Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2023 i Entrepreneur Magazine

WE ARE OBSESSED with the wrong question. We ask this question whenever we experience something new. Or create something new. Or see something new. We ask this question of new innovations. We ask it of new relationships and partnerships. Maybe we even ask it of ourselves. Here’s the question: Is this perfect? This is a very easy question to answer: No! Nothing is perfect. Which makes this a terrible question. If you are evaluating something’s worth based on whether it’s perfect, then all you will find is imperfections. You will discard absolutely everything. That is not practical. Instead, we must ask a much smarter question: Is our new problem better than our old problem? With that question, we’re making room for the reality of imperfection—because there will be problems! It’s…

When Pat Flynn disagreed with people, he knew what to do: Agree to disagree, and move on. Isn’t that how civilized people act? he thought. Value productivity over endless fighting? But back then, Flynn was a solopreneur running his company Smart Passive Income. Eventually it grew beyond his abilities, so he talked with frequent collaborator Matt Gartland about forming a new company. Gartland came with a lot more partnership experience—he’d been a founder six other times, so he had seen what worked and what didn’t. That’s why, when Flynn and Gartland eventually disagreed on something, Gartland wouldn’t let Flynn simply move on. They cannot agree to disagree, he said. They must instead disagree and commit. “That creates a healthy relationship,” Gartland says. “It was revolutionary to me,” Flynn says. The…

1/Start off on the right foot. If your home office is chilly, it’s tempting to spend the day in slippers. But that can keep your brain on sleep mode. Teva ReEmber Terrains [$90; teva.com] are slip-ons that give you the cozy factor in an actual shoe. They’re plenty comfortable with a quilted upper and foam footbed, and have a woollike lining for warmth. A water-resistant coating and a grippy, 50% recycled rubber sole keep your feet dry for running out to warm the car up on snowy mornings, while they’re stylish enough for dog walks, grabbing a coffee, or errands. 2/Keep the frozen phone fingers warm. Using your phone outside in winter is a pain, even with touch-sensitive fingertip gloves. Chubby Buttons 2 [$74.99; chubbybuttons.io] is a wearable remote designed…

I don’t love crisis. Nobody does. But I’ve experienced a lot of it in my life, and have learned to greet it like an old friend. That’s because of something I’ve discovered along the way: We are at our best when we’re out of options. At that point, we are forced to make it work. We must summon all of our strength and willpower, because the alternative is to lose much more than we already have. I’ve experienced this a lot. I grew up in Queens, New York, in poverty, and dropped out of high school at age 16 so I could support my ailing mom. Ten years later, I became the youngest-ever press secretary for the New York City mayor’s office—the first shred of real security I’d ever had.…

STARTED FRANCHISING/ 1980 TOTAL UNITS/ 5,464 COST TO OPEN/ $122.2K-$508.5K To understand what’s driving The UPS Store’s growth, just look at Greenville, South Carolina. That’s where, in 2021, Rami Michael, M.D., opened a new location. Michael, an Egyptian immigrant, left medicine to become a franchisee—and it was all made possible by a program The UPS Store started a few years ago. In August 2020, the company started what it calls its Diversity Ownership Program by offering an approximate 50% franchise fee discount to eligible first-time buyers who are minority applicants. Since then, the program has rapidly scaled. In 2021, 22% of new units came through the program. Last year, that number was over 40%. “What has continued to drive consistent growth has really been about the power and passion…

STARTED FRANCHISING/1976 TOTAL UNITS/ 5,674 COST TO OPEN/ $292K-$2.1M At the beginning of 2022, Ace Hardware president and CEO John Venhuizen was determined. His brand saw massive growth during the pandemic, as people stayed home and revamped their living and backyard spaces. But as they finally returned to the office and embarked on long-awaited vacations and leisure activities, he knew there was a question of whether that streak would end. Instead, the opposite happened: Ace saw double-digit growth in the third quarter of 2022, and added about 170 new stores. “As we reach the other side of the pandemic, I’m not sure what the new normal will look like,” says Venhuizen, “but if people work from home just one more day a week than they did in 2019, that means…

STARTED FRANCHISING/ 1998 TOTAL UNITS/ 1,873 COST TO OPEN/ $315.3K-$948.1K Wingstop continues to spread its wings with an aggressive expansion of its marketing and its marketplace. The result is nearly 20 consecutive years of same-store sales growth, along with the brand’s 22nd appearance in the Franchise 500. (This year also marks its second appearance in the Top 10.) But that’s just the start of the brand’s eagle-sized ambitions. “Our long-term strategy is to build a top global restaurant brand,” says president and CEO Michael Skipworth. Getting there will require complex thinking, while maintaining what Skipworth calls “a simple operating model.” Its restaurants are designed to operate with as few as four team members, which both keeps costs low and helps franchisees avoid the labor challenges that many competitors face. Wingstop…

I’m so distracted at work,” Jesse lamented one day. He was slumped on my couch, looking utterly defeated. “I can’t focus on anything.” “Why?” I asked. “We’re in a recession! Have you heard about all the layoffs at startups and tech companies lately?” “You’re worried that will happen to your company?” I asked. “In the last recession I had to lay off 25% of my workforce, and the business never recovered profitability. This is absolutely happening to me all over again.” As a psychologist, I often watch my clients grapple with fear. In cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), we teach that thinking errors happen in the gaps between a fear-driven thought about a situation and the reality of the situation itself. These thoughts project a negative, inaccurate account that the person believes…

I used to follow other people’s advice. I’m so glad I stopped. It began with my mom. “Be a teacher,” she had said, because she was a teacher herself. So I did it. Six years later, I leveled up into a quasi-administrative role and started craving more growth. But I was working at a top school district, where advancement was slow. I thought about leaving for a lesser district, where I could move up faster. That’s when everyone I trusted told me: Don’t leave. Just wait. I almost listened. But as I contemplated what to do, I stared at a sign that hung in my office. The mother of one of my students had given it to me as a gift years earlier. It said: “We must take adventures in…

STARTED FRANCHISING/ 1976 TOTAL UNITS/ 3,851 COST TO OPEN/ $383.5K-$3.5M Last year was Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen’s 50th anniversary, but it was more than just a milestone. It was also an opportunity to amplify its message and continue its momentum. In 2021, for example, Popeyes opened more than 200 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, and it remained on track to break records again in 2022. Although it often touts its Louisiana roots, it is very much a national brand, and continues to grow in numerous markets across the U.S. This is Popeyes’ third consecutive year ranking in the Franchise 500 and third consecutive year in the Top 10, moving up one spot each year since 2021. So, how did it maximize its big 5-0? Popeyes hosted its franchisees at a…

STARTED FRANCHISING/1955 TOTAL UNITS/ 12,957 COST TO OPEN/ $437.5K-$1.8M Dunkin' executives were nervous when the pandemic halted the morning commute, but the company’s drive-thru capabilities saved the day. Now, almost three years on, Dunkin’ is setting records. U.S. sales topped $10 billion in 2021 and Dunkin’ was on track to open 300 new restaurants in 2022, all styled in the brand’s new “Next Gen” image. The remodeled restaurants focus on mobile ordering, which has already generated $1 billion in sales. After falling to No. 11 last year, these innovations propelled Dunkin’ back into the Top 10—for the 15th time in 20 years. But that’s not its most impressive streak: It is one of only three franchises that has ranked in every single Franchise 500 in the list’s 44-year existence. Food…

STARTED FRANCHISING/ 1988 TOTAL UNITS/ 871 COST TO OPEN/ $2.3M-$5.8M By one measure, Culver’s had a low-key year: The Wisconsin-based burger joint opened only approximately 55 locations in 2022, and it’s the smallest brand in the Top 10 in terms of total units. But by a uniquely telling measure, Culver’s excelled: It had zero terminations or closures between 2019 and 2022. That’s especially impressive given the challenging head-winds that fast-casual restaurants faced during those years—the pandemic, labor shortages, supply chain issues, inflation. For comparison, the average number of closures in 2021 for our list’s QSR category was eight. “Our focus has always been on opening one successful restaurant at a time rather than striving to reach an arbitrary number of openings,” says Rick Silva, president and CEO, who took over…

A big year can make a big difference. Just ask some of the brands on our list that made giant leaps from their place on last year’s ranking. In fact, some brands that didn’t even make last year’s Top 500 are now in the middle of the pack! How to explain the big jumps? There’s a quantifiable answer to this: Companies move up or down on our list based on many factors, including growth rate, franchisor infrastructure, and audited financial statements. (See the list itself for a more thorough explanation.) But of course, numbers only tell part of a story. That’s why we got in touch with some of this year’s biggest movers, to ask exactly what they have done recently to drive significant growth. Their answers tell you a lot…

1 An interactive, immersive museum! In 2015, as the travel industry in Croatia began to expand, Roko Živković and Tomislav Pamuković wanted to create a tourism experience that was unique and unconventional. So they opened what they called Museum of Illusions—where visitors can experience art, rather than just witness it, with everything from 3D holograms to “brain puzzling” exhibits. Thousands of visitors flooded the grand opening, and franchising interest soon followed. “The unforgettable memories and experiences [we] offer fuels continued growth and innovation,” the founders say. Now, they have 38 locations across 25 countries, and are opening their largest museum yet (15,274 square feet!) in Las Vegas in 2023. 2 An insanely massive inflatable funhouse! What happens when a big-thinking dad wants to create something totally unique for kids? Antonio Nieves…

1/Autonomy, above all. “I believe in giving as much autonomy as possible—so much so that we, the founders, need to be retrained periodically on how our systems work. For example, we recently spent a full day at our warehouse learning how to pick and pack orders, print shipping labels, and ship to our customers. You could see how proud the warehouse team was of what they’d built, and we were thrilled that barely anything required our input.” —DAN DEMSKY, founder and CEO, Unbound Merino 2/Ask leading questions. “When I do have to intervene, I follow the Socratic method: I challenge my team with the right questions so they can reach the answer themselves. Ahead of a product launch, the key angles of communication didn’t feel right to me. So I…

Have you ever messed up, and then obsessed over how you could have done better? I should have said this. I should have done that. Psychologists have a name for that. It’s called “counterfactual thinking”—in essence, thinking about things that could have been. Entrepreneurs are especially susceptible to it. “There does seem to be a sense of control, and feeling like you’re in charge of your own destiny, that relates to counterfactual thinking,” says Amy Summerville, Ph.D., a social psychologist who researches regret. “If you have that worldview, which I think is almost necessary to be an entrepreneur, it would lead you to say, ‘Oh, I should have controlled this thing or acted differently to change this.’” Scientists debate why we do this, but many believe it’s a byproduct of…

What separates the brands in the Franchise 500 from all the rest? The numbers tell an interesting story. Here’s the thing: Although this issue is mostly devoted to the brands that make our ranking, there are a lot of franchise brands that don’t. A total of 1,321 brands applied this year—that’s 144 more than last year!—and we then painstakingly reviewed, confirmed, and crunched all their data, to identify the 500 strongest. Here’s what we found as a result: The 1,321 brands that applied represent a world-wide total of 646,484 units open and operating as of July 31, 2022 (which is the marker of when we measure data). But if you only look at companies that made the Franchise 500 ranking, you’ll see that they represented 590,971 of those units. In…

STARTED FRANCHISING/1987 TOTAL UNITS/ 2,253 COST TO OPEN/ $194K-$954.6K Peter Cancro, the founder and CEO of Jersey Mike’s Subs, thought that his company might open 230 new franchise units in 2021. But by the end, they had opened 252—the most stores ever. Now Jersey Mike’s is planning to open 350 stores in 2023, and a majority are being opened by existing franchise owners. This sustained growth has landed Jersey Mike’s in the Top 10 for five consecutive years, steadily moving upwards from No. 9 in 2019 to No. 3 this year. It’s also the brand’s 12th consecutive year in the Franchise 500 and 18th year overall. Jersey Mike’s was already in a good position when the pandemic came. “We were tailor-made for delivery, third-party pickup,” says Cancro. “And from the…

STARTED FRANCHISING/1958 TOTAL UNITS/ 26,527 COST TO OPEN/ $67.4K-$145.6K Kumon’s enrollment numbers shrank at the heart of the pandemic, but bounced back big. For the first time in three years, Kumon North America had 400,000 enrollments in 2022. And in October, it recorded the highest new enrollment in 40 years. This resurgence has landed Kumon in the Top 10 for the third consecutive year. The company has ranked in the Franchise 500 for 26 consecutive years and has been No. 1 in the tutoring category for 22 years running. In 2022, Kumon decided to try something different: It hired a marketing agency that specializes specifically in franchises. That ended up being effective for the company as it worked to rebrand and stand out among its competitors. The number of franchise…

STARTED FRANCHISING/ 1984 TOTAL UNITS/ 2,824 COST TO OPEN/ $12.3M-$22.8M Guests may not notice some of Hampton by Hilton’s big changes of 2022—but that’s the point. “We continually balance the profitability for our owners with the comfort and happiness of our guests,” says Shruti Gandhi Buckley, Hampton by Hilton’s senior vice president and brand leader. For example, it rolled out a new top-of-bed program to improve the speed of linen changes and laundering efficiency. Guests experience the same level of service, but franchisees can now appreciate reduced costs. These kinds of detail-oriented upgrades, along with continued expansion that included opening its 2,800th location, helped the brand score its eighth appearance in our Top 10 (along with its 22nd consecutive appearance on our Franchise 500 list). It tops the Hotels &…

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? Where is the stock market’s bottom? 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 rethink what they expect from work; they began…

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…

Welcome to the 44th annual Franchise 500. With this year’s record-breaking number of applicants, the list offers a comprehensive overview of the state of the franchise world, as it emerges from the most challenging days of the pandemic into uncertain economic conditions—and keeps going strong. There’s something here for every prospective franchisee, whether you’re interested in finding an opportunity within a brand that has been around for decades or in getting in on the ground floor of the next emerging trend. So how do we evaluate all these opportunities—new and old, large and small—to bring you the world’s first, best, and most comprehensive franchise ranking? Read on: THE FIRST STEP in our ranking process is gathering the data. Starting in June 2022, we asked franchisors to fill out our extensive…

Year began/Franchising since This shows how long a company has been in business and how long it has been franchising. Both are good to know when you’re trying to decide whether you should go with an established system or a newer concept. Available U.S. regions and “Seeking intl.?” Check out these columns if you want to know whether a franchise system is expanding in your area and whether a company requires franchisees to buy master licenses or multiple units. Number of franchises/Company-owned See a franchise company’s size and how quickly it’s growing. Here we list the numbers of franchises and company-owned units open and operating world-wide as of July 31 in the years 2020, 2021, and 2022. Startup costs/Franchise fee Look here for the total initial investment to open a…