This year, we surveyed over 19,495 franchisees from many of today’s leading franchise brands to determine the best service franchises, based 100 percent on franchisee satisfaction. Each survey participant was asked 33 benchmark questions about their franchisor that focused on areas such as leadership, training, and core values as well 16 more personal questions concerning their business lifestyle and overall enjoyment of running their franchise. This year 88 brands made the FBR’s top-rated list! You can learn more about each top-rated food and beverage opportunity in the list below.
The List - The Service Franchises
To learn more about each brand simply click on the view link. Once you are on a franchise brand’s page, you can opt to receive additional details directly from the franchise by entering your email into the contact form.
FBR’s Survey and Research Methodology
Every year, Franchise Business Review surveys thousands of franchisees from hundreds of leading franchise brands to gauge franchisee satisfaction and performance — and to compile our lists of the top-rated franchise brands. Our independent franchisee satisfaction reviews measure the health of franchise systems that participate in our research based exclusively on the feedback of franchise owners... the real franchise experts!
Not all brands willingly open their doors to an independent research firm like Franchise Business Review, but those who do can offer investors, like you, a wealth of information on the system’s leadership, culture, training and support, financial outlook and franchisee community.
As a prospective franchisee in the service segment, you can choose to run anything from mobile, to real estate, to advertising and sales, and everything in between. Below are the top five service segments by average income:
Real Estate: $138,678
Business Services: $97,317
General Services: $96,633
Home Services: $91,277
Advertising and Sales: $71,392
Investment Ranges and Capital Requirements for Service Franchises
The services sector offers a wide range of investment options for prospective franchisees. Some concepts require less than $50,000 to get started, while others can cost well over $500,000.
It’s critical that you go into a new business being properly capitalized. That being said, it’s important to emphasize that the figures listed above are the total initial investment, but with financing and lease options, the typical upfront cash requirements tend to be much lower.
Using the example of buying a home, the total value of a house might be $300,000, but you’re only required to put down $30,000 cash, or even less. Investing in a franchise business is similar.
For example, a College Hunks Hauling Junk & Moving franchise costs $89,300 - $208,000 “all in,” but the liquid capital requirements (the cash you need to invest) is $65,000, with the balance being financed through business loans.
Profitability and Income
There are a lot of varying service franchises, so you will have more brands and sectors to choose from. While Real Estate and Business Services are at the top tier of the service segment, profitability in most sectors of the service industry are quite comfortable.
As of date, our research shows that seventy-one percent of service franchise owners earn less than $100,000 per year, and just twenty-nine percent – the “top performers” – earn more than $100,000 per year. The average annual income reported by all service operators that we surveyed is $91,461 for businesses open at least two years.
Facts about the franchisees surveyed for this report:
Sixty-one percent of service franchisees surveyed were male, while thirty-two percent were female. Six percent are male/female partnerships.
The majority of franchisees are between ages 45 and 64.
Forty-two percent of franchisees surveyed have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Thirty-six percent of franchisees live in Southern U.S., with the Northeast, Midwest and West all representing about twenty-percent.
