Franchise Brief
Franchise news, insights, and stories shaping the franchise industry.
Featured Stories
There is no shortage of national days on the calendar. Some celebrate foods. Others recognize professions, causes, hobbies, or moments in history. While discounts, giveaways and special events often become the most visible part of those occasions, the real value of a national day may be much simpler. It creates a reason to notice something. For a day, an idea that does not always command attention gets moved to the foreground. People talk about it, businesses recognize it, and communities have an opportunity to consider why it matters. That is the idea behind National Walk-On’s Day on September 17th, an…
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Growth & Strategy
The ideas, emerging concepts, investments, marketing, and strategic moves shaping franchise growth.
Pumpkin is back, apple is having a moment, and franchise restaurant brands are once again using the arrival of fall to refresh their menus and give customers something timely to talk about. Caribou Coffee, Smoothie King and Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii have each introduced or revived fall menu offerings…
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Operations & Technology
The systems, tools, technology, and operating ideas helping franchise brands and operators perform better.
Ask most franchise owners how they feel about a pricing change handed down from corporate, and the honest answer usually involves some combination of suspicion, resistance, and a slow walk toward compliance. Multi-unit systems have tried committees, mandates, and system-wide averages to force alignment, and franchisees have pushed back on…
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Leadership & People
The executives, operators, talent moves, and leadership ideas shaping franchise organizations.
WellBiz Brands has appointed John Thuringer as Vice President of Franchise Growth, adding an experienced franchise development executive to support expansion across its beauty, health and wellness portfolio. Thuringer brings 17 years of experience from Purpose Brands, where he helped drive franchise development for Anytime Fitness and Waxing the City.…
Experience the heart of franchising with stories of Giving, Volunteering, and Caring
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Buying a Franchise
Practical guidance for evaluating, buying, and preparing to own a franchise.
For decades, the familiar picture of brick-and-mortar franchise ownership was relatively straightforward: find a retail site, build or lease a standalone location, put the brand’s sign over the door, and begin attracting customers. That picture is changing. Increasingly, franchise brands are looking beyond traditional storefronts and exploring places where customers…
What Franchise Buyers Are Reading
Walk past a claw arcade on your way to a department store, and something happens. The lights catch your eye. The sounds pull at some corner of your childhood. Before you know it, you have tokens in your hand and thirty minutes have quietly disappeared. That magnetic quality is not…
When you talk to Daniel McCarty, you don’t get the feeling you’re speaking to a man tinkering at the edges of an old idea. You get the feeling you’re talking to someone tearing the whole thing down, just to rebuild it better. From his home base in San Antonio, McCarty…
Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux closed the holiday season with a nationwide giveback that was deliberately simple and intensely hands-on; cooks cooked; teammates delivered; neighbors received. Across the system, restaurants prepared and distributed more than 7,500 meals through local non-profits chosen by each location. Partners ranged from the Delaware Township Food Pantry…
Moving is rarely just a moving truck and a new address. For many families, the hardest part is not logistics. It’s the moment when a parent’s life changes, and the home that once felt stable becomes complicated, unsafe, or simply too much to manage. Smooth Transitions exists for that moment.…
“As we enter 2026, the economics of franchise growth have reached an inflection point where time saved has become the single most critical factor in predicting long-term success,” said Sam Phelps. In a late-January launch from Fort Worth, his team at Franchise Now introduced DreamStart; an AI-guided funding and onboarding…
Finding the right location for a restaurant franchise has never been simple, but it has rarely been as consequential as it is today. Rents are elevated. Construction costs have climbed. Permitting timelines stretch in ways that eat into a franchisee’s runway before a single bowl is served. In that environment,…