Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2022 i Entrepreneur's Startups

Two years after launching my consulting business, I had doubled growth T and built multiple high-exposure brand partnerships. This was a bittersweet moment for me. Professionally, I had achieved many of my goals—but it was to the detriment of my physical, mental, and, at times, emotional well-being. Hardly anyone noticed. No one sent flowers. And that’s OK. Entrepreneurs often struggle to keep going without the support of family and friends, but I always tell them this: Friends and family don’t pay your bills, and people who don’t share your career ambition or background simply may not understand what you’re doing. I once obsessed over who did (or didn’t) read my book, or who supported me on social media, and then realized I was just spending mental capacity on something that…

When a franchise brand tries attracting new franchisees, they often run into the W same problem: Potential franchisees think they’re not the right fit when in fact, they might be perfect. Why? Because oftentimes, people assume they need a certain kind of background to run a niche franchise brand. They think they need an education background to run a school, for example, or they need a blue-collar background to run a cleaning business. This often isn’t the case, though: Brands want franchisees who understand the business opportunity first, and who are willing and able to learn everything else. So how can a brand get that message across? “You have to make sure your brand is attractive and constantly letting them know why you should be a part of this,” says…

If you look at how burger franchises developed, there were two big waves. First was the McDonald’s and Burger King wave, with a business model that helped parents get burgers with their kids at an affordable price. Then came the gourmet burger wave, with brands such as Five Guys and Burger 21 adding toppings like garlic aioli and cilantro cream. Experts say that same business pattern is now repeating with chicken. Whereas brands such as KFC, Popeyes, and Church’s Chicken are longestablished and beloved, a new wave of franchises like Pollo Campero, El Pollo Loco, and the Shaquille O’Neal–backed Big Chicken are offering sandwiches with smashed avocado and low-calorie, fire-grilled chicken breast dinners. “We call it the better chicken category,” says Sam Rothschild, chief operating officer at Slim Chickens, a…

When franchisees buy into a system, they can generally rely on the parent brand’s name recognition and business processes. But here’s something a franchisee should not rely solely upon: the parent brand’s social media marketing. Why? Because doing so misses out on the real opportunity of social media. It isn’t just to build a brand—it’s to actively drive business and engage with customers. That must happen on a local level, with local social media accounts operated by local people. I’m the vice president of communications at Rallio, a social media management company, and we see this mistake happen all the time. Franchisors typically create social profiles on behalf of their franchisees and syndicate corporate content to these pages. Franchisees then believe that their parent company’s social media content covers all their…

Water is the basis of life: It grows plants, it constitutes up to 60% of the W adult human body, and we can’t go longer than about three days without drinking it. So Liquid Death is probably the last thing you’d think to name a water brand. That’s exactly why former marketing creative director Mike Cessario founded the canned-water company Liquid Death in 2017. He abides by a habit of asking, “What’s the dumbest idea you can think of right now?” That practice sparked an idea for packaging water differently than anyone else: in a can with a skull on it, emblazoned with the punk slogan “Murder your thirst.” Cessario’s contrarian branding has earned flustered press, a deep degree of street cred, and a lot of social followers—more than half…

There are about 70 million baby boomers, and they’ll all be at least 65 by 2030. They have supported health-and-wellness franchises for years. But the pandemic’s stressors added new demand from all age groups. That rush, in turn, led franchisees to take another look at the sector, says Sean Hart, vice president of franchise sales and development for American Family Care. “Everybody assumed you had to be a physician,” Hart says. “The truth is that not only do you not have to be a physician, but there are benefits to not being a physician. A well-run restaurant, a well-run hotel, a well-run gas station—they all have something in common: customer service. It’s the same for us.” Between 2019 and the end of 2021, he says, American Family Care grew from…

Buying a franchise doesn’t have to break the bank. If you have a desire to start your own business, there are numerous franchise opportunities available to fit just about every budget, starting at just a couple thousand dollars. Limiting your search to low-cost franchises doesn’t limit your options much at all, in fact. You’ll find that cleaning companies, home improvement services, children’s enrichment programs, real estate agencies, fitness businesses, and more can be started for less than $150,000, less than $100,000, or even less than $50,000—as you’ll see on the following pages. Here we’ve gathered the top 100 franchises from each of those three cost tiers. These companies are ranked based on the scores they received in Entrepreneur’s 2022 Franchise 500 ranking, our comprehensive analysis that looked at more than…

Cardi B fans everywhere know these lyrics: Got a bag and fixed my teeth, C hope you hoes know it ain’t cheap. They’re from “Bodak Yellow,” the rapper’s breakout song. But they’re also validation for Cardi’s dentist, Catrise Austin, whose entrepreneurial ingenuity led her to fix those teeth. Years ago, as a way to differentiate herself, Austin had the potentially absurd idea of becoming a “dentist to the stars.” Then she did it, with a client list that also includes DJ Khaled, Busta Rhymes, Common, Toni Braxton, and A$AP Rocky. But… how? Not every entrepreneur wants to (or should) chase celebrities. But every entrepreneur does need to land desirable customers. That’s why Austin’s story is instructive—because, at the heart of it, she says, her tactics were driven by a relentless…

When people spend far more time at home than usual, they start thinking about all the things they’d like to change about their homes. That’s why, since the start of the pandemic, Americans have been doing everything from putting up window treatments to installing new kitchens to ordering pools. And because travel restrictions prevented many people from spending money on annual vacations, there was more cash than usual to put into home projects.“You name it, people were doing it,” says Matt Haller, president and CEO of the International Franchise Association. “That’s not an area people think of as franchising, but a lot of that type of work is out there, and these concepts have done tremendously well. Especially the outdoor ones with no COVID issues, like housepainting.” Jonathan Thiessen, chief…

It’s estimated that 70% of American households own a pet, so the segment has always been strong. But when much of America got sent home in early 2020, tails really started wagging. In short, families added even more pets. All those dogs need food and supplies. They need veterinary care. They need groomers. And as they’re hitting adolescence now, they also need trainers and caretakers. “We’ve had 30 years of year-over-year growth, and the pet industry has had 30 years of year-over-year growth,” says Chris Rowland, CEO of Pet Supplies Plus. “The past two years have been significantly better. We’ve seen stores that have been open 25 years that were flat to slightly positive in revenue jump up significantly, with double-digit comps.” Dogs have driven the category the most—there’s a…

1 → Jan-Pro Cleaning and Disinfecting Commercial cleaning STARTUP COST $4.2K-$56K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 10,476/0 2 → Stratus Building Solutions Environmentally friendly commercial cleaning and disinfecting STARTUP COST $4.5K-$79.8K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 2,418/0 3 → Anago Cleaning Systems Commercial cleaning STARTUP COST $11.3K-$68.3K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 1,719/0 4 → Goosehead Insurance Property and casualty insurance STARTUP COST $41.5K-$116.5K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 1,072/0 5 → Realty One Group Real estate STARTUP COST $44.3K-$224.5K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 272/12 6 → Rooter-Man Plumbing, drain, and sewer cleaning STARTUP COST $46.8K-$137.6K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 743/25 7 → Dream Vacations Travel agencies STARTUP COST $1.8K-$21K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 1,489/0 8 → NextHome Real estate STARTUP COST $15.3K-$214.1K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 500/0 9 → Chester’s Chicken STARTUP COST $12.4K-$278.5K TOTAL UNITS (FRANCHISED/CO.-OWNED) 1,272/0 10 → Cruise…