Franchise Today

Tracy Stapp Herold is the special projects editor at Entrepreneur magazine. The Annual Franchise 500 is her MOST ANTICIPATED publications each year.  It is Franchising’s equivalent of the Oscars, the Emmy’s, the Grammys, albeit minus the red carpet, but it is the Big Deal of the Year, when it comes to ratings.  So, what goes into that pot of stew.  How many data points are included and how are they massaged, measured and weighted.  How much if any, has the changing nature of franchising influenced the curation of the data that drives the 500.  Not that long ago, our industry was more Mom and Pop, operator centric with what were typically founder-led brands.  Today, it’s not unusual to see franchisee enterprises that eclipse many franchisor organizations in size and infrastructure.  Massive MUMBO’S multi-unit multi branded operations with dozens sometimes hundreds of locations.  And, on the Zor side, we see tons of roll-ups... Portfolios of brands, dominating specific verticals and service areas, led by divisi