Hi everyone!

Today is a big day!

I announced that The Wolf of Franchises has officially partnered with Workweek! Below I’ll explain:

• What that means

• What our plans are

• How this impacts you

First, a quick background on me..

When I started my newsletter & twitter in June 2021, I was working at a tiny PE firm. We focused solely on investing in emerging franchises. This gave me unique exposure to:

• Franchisors, who we were helping grow

• Franchisees, who we tried to onboard to any of our brands

After years in the trenches, I noticed 3 things that inspired me to start The Wolf of Franchises:

First

There's franchise owners who earn 7-8 figures annually & only work ~20 hours a week. It's a path to wealth that doesn't require you to found a tech startup or compete against FAANG. Given all the entrepreneur talk on twitter, I wanted to be a voice for this alternate path.

Secondly

There is minimal transparency around the financial performance of franchises. Prospective buyers have to jump through hoops to obtain basic performance info on franchises. It shouldn't be this way, which is why I share the info directly either on twitter/the newsletter.

Third

The franchise industry is ripe for innovation. Franchise companies haven't updated their websites in 20 years, and have zero social media presence. To me this signaled an opportunity, and this is where Workweek comes in..

Enter, Workweek

Co-founders Adam Ryan and Becca Sherman have incredible experience in media, most recently being key team members of The Hustle, which was acquired by Hubspot for a reported $27 million.

With their expertise in media, and my knowledge of the franchise world, we’re a powerhouse team that is going to change the way franchise research and buying is done. Today in the US alone there are:

• 4,000+ franchise brands

• 240,000+ franchise owners

• 100,000+ prospective buyers annually

But it's REALLY hard to find the info you need to break in. Most Google searches get you franchising websites that are full of BS (and look like they were built in 1995).

Together with Workweek, we are on a mission to empower a new wave of entrepreneurs through franchises. And this newsletter is just the beginning.

We have big plans in the works that are going to make this information accessible for the everyday person, including building a modern way to buy & sell franchises. We'll provide FAR more support for potential buyers than is currently offered.

What this means for you?

It’s all good things!

With workweek, we’ll be able to expand our team and create higher quality content at a higher quantity! We will also be starting a podcast, as well as a few other products that are in the works and will be announced as we’re ready to launch.

For now, head over to my landing page on the Workweek site.

Whether you are new to The Wolf Report, or have been here since Day 1, I appreciate the support you’ve given me along the way.

Today is Day 1!

~The Wolf

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Good morning,

It was a big weekend in sports - Tom Brady might (?) have retired, team USA lost to Canada in a big world cup qualifier, and the Bengals and Rams advanced to the super bowl.

For today’s rundown in franchising, we’re talking Jay-Z’s hot new fitness investment, and breaking down a low-cost staffing franchise that averages $1.9M in revenue. Let’s dive in!

P.S.

If you follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn, stay tuned for a HUGE announcement tomorrow 👀.

Franchise Headlines

Jay-Z Backed LIT Method Launches Franchising

The Scoop

Marcy Venture Partners, the VC firm co-founded by Jay-Z, invested an undisclosed amount in LIT Method alongside former LA Dodgers All-Star Adrian Gonzalez.

Based out of LA, the founders of LIT started by developing their own low impact strength machine that combines a rower and pilates reformer in one.

LIT has brought in the former COO of Xponential Fitness to spearhead the brands expansion, with a development goal of 100 signed units in the next 12 months.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟

If a franchise wants to truly blow it out of the water, they typically need to raise money. This might sound obvious, but before a franchise is a franchise, they’re just a small mom & pop business with a very small balance sheet relative to national brands. Capital helps them compete and enables rapid growth.

LIT is going to be fun to watch because their model offers multiple revenue streams beyond just fitness classes. Franchisees are going to drive revenue through fitness classes on-site, virtual training, and DTC products such as the machine.

While I have yet to see any financials beyond a general investment range of $200k-$500k, this is brand that I have my eye on!

More Headlines

Pizza Hut Launches a Robotic Restaurant 🍕
The ‘restaurant-in-a-box’ can make everything aside from the dough itself

7-Eleven Introduces Subscription Delivery Service 🚚
The 7Now Gold Pass for $5.95/month enables 30 min delivery of 3k items!

Steve Young’s PE Firm Just Bought 13 Planet Fitness Locations 💪
Grand Fitness Partners now owns a total of 56 clubs across 5-6 states

Franchise of the Week

Dairy Queen

• Founded: 1940

• Units Open: 7,087

• Investment Range: $1.2M - $1.9M

• Average Revenue per Location: $1.3M

Did you know?

DQ was acquired by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway in 1998. Does this make the oracle of Omaha the Dairy King?!

Is there a brand you’re curious to know the financials of? Reply to this email with the name and I may include it in a future newsletter!

Breakdown: NEXTAFF

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 1998; franchising since 2004

• Based in Kansas, 63 outlets as of 2021 (40 company owned & 23 franchised)

• A staffing franchise that offers multiple verticals including IT, healthcare, and commercial sectors

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 5-8% of gross sales (the higher your sales, the lower the %)

• Brand Fund: 0.75%% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $40,000

• Initial Investment: $118,900 - $156,000

Financial Performance

• The gross sales and gross profit* information below is from 11 traditional franchisee-owned offices that operated the full year 2020

• The chart is based on a survey of Nextaff’s traditional offices that have opened since 2017, to determine the amount of time after opening that it took to achieve “break-even” on a month-to-month basis**

  

*Gross Profit is defined as Gross Revenue minus Direct Payroll costs

* Breakeven is defined as Gross Revenue exceeding all the costs and expenses on a monthly basis

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

On a purely quantitative basis, average revenue of 12x the high-end of the investment is an eye-catching stat. Granted, gross profit comes in at a lower (but still impressive) ~3x that investment, but add in that the median breakeven point is at 7 months, and the fact that the overall investment is quite low for franchises, and Nextaff is worthy of looking into.

Staffing businesses can operate without brick & mortar, and aren’t dependent on any particular economic climate. They can also be an even bigger value add in the context of a broader portfolio of businesses. By that I mean a Nextaff can be the lower risk way to jump into entrepreneurship and generate some cash as an owner before pursuing a potentially riskier investment.

If you already have a portfolio businesses, this can be a part-time operation or have it supplement your existing ones, as a way to vertically integrate your hiring process from A-Z.

This is the first staffing franchise I’ve covered - but will look to dive deeper into this segment of franchises going forward!

Resources & Press

• Nextaff Franchise Website

• Staffing Franchise Nextaff Continues Strong Numbers During Pandemic

Twitter Watch 👀

Is The Wolf Report next?! 🚀🚀

Follow @franchisewolf

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• 37 new emoji’s are coming 🙌

• Airlines Cancel 5k Flights Due to Nor’easter ❄️

• Spotify takes down Neil Young’s music after his ultimatum 😯

• Nadal won the Australian open, now holds record for most grand slams 🎾

• The future of pizza concepts is here via the robot pizza maker that makes *chefs kiss* artisanal quality pies. Check out 800 GOº here*

• This pet food company is changing the game with its healthy food for dogs AND carbon neutral shipping options*

  *This is sponsored advertising content

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you on Thursday!

Subscribe now

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

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Wolf Pack,

Good morning!

Today’s theme is the pet industry, as it’s been one of the few “winners” from the new world we’ve been living in since March of 2020. While the pet industry was already projecting lots of growth pre-covid, pandemic puppies and the like have supercharged this trend.

Today, 70% of households own one or more pets. And the bottom line is - at the current levels of supply and demand - there are too many pet owners and not enough services to cater to them. Vets, groomers, you name it, are typically on multi-week to multi-month wait times for customers.

This inefficiency can be your opportunity!

Let’s dive in to learn more, including a pet franchise that’s benefitting from these tailwinds 👇

One Chart:

Pet Industry Tailwinds from CB Insights

Interest in everything from pet insurance to pet food has risen dramatically since covid hit. Virtual veterinary care, premium/human grade pet food, and the bundling of pet care products of services are specific sectors that have taken off.

This movement has seen startups (and franchises) pop up across the board, as well as big players like Chewy and Walmart offer services from dog walking to telemedicine.

One Podcast:

Capturing the Pet Economy from Colossus

This was a fascinating conversation breaking down the business of Petco, which was founded in 1965 and started as a mail order business (had to Google what that actually means).

The conversation is led by the current CEO of a 5 location pet care provider Riverdog, and dives into how Petco evolved into its current big box model, and what impact e-commerce has had on this industry.

One Breakdown: Zoom Room

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2007, franchising since 2009

• Based in California; 41 units open or in development 2021

• An indoor facility for private dog training sessions, as well as socialization via indoor parks, birthday parties, and doggy disco parties for rescue organizations

Fees + Investment

• Franchise Fee: $49,500

• Royalty: 8%

• Brand Fund: 1%

• Initial Investment: $168,280 - $358,780

Financial Performance

• The below information is based on 6 franchisees that were opened on or before January 1, 2020.

• These locations include Austin, Texas; Trophy Club, Texas; Huntington Beach, California, Sherman Oaks, California; Seattle, Washington; and Virginia Beach, Virginia

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

40% profit margins is just unheard of in retail franchises, but somehow Zoom Room franchisees were able to pull it off during covid. That’s a testament to the tailwinds the pet industry has, but also the potential of this concept once a location is fully ramped up.

As discussed earlier, bundling services has become important for pet businesses as they attempt to create an ecosystem of offerings. I like that Zoom Room offers a practical service like dog training, but also has an indoor dog park that can be used for socialization events.

If dog birthday parties sound ridiculous…it should 🤣 🤣

BUT - more and more pet owners, led by millennials, are much more invested in the livelihood of their pets. So when you think of Scooter as a real member of the family, taking him/her to the dog park for a birthday celebration with your other dog owner friends isn’t as crazy as it first seems.

Resources

• Zoom Room Franchise Website

• Zoom Room Achieves Record Growth

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Walmart invested in an indoor farming startup 🚜

• UBS acquires Wealthfront for a whopping $1.4B 🤑

• Amy Schneider’s legendary streak on Jeopardy has ended 📖

• Oscar Meyer came out with a bologna beauty mask (why tho) 😑

• Speaking of pet businesses, Chippin is doing its part with foods that are better for your dog AND better for our planet. Reduce the eco pawprint with Chippin’s whole, all-natural ingredients. Save 25% off Chippin today!*

*This is sponsored advertising content

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

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Good morning,

I hope you all had a stellar weekend! If you’re a football fan, that may have been the best weekend of games of all time ( Bills fans - I feel for you right now).

Let’s dive right in, starting with Taco Bell’s Business School announcement👇

Franchise Headlines

Taco Bell Launches Business School

The Scoop

Taco Bell is launching a business school of sorts, via a six-week bootcamp style education program designed to teach employees the basics of franchise ownership.

To accomplish this, Yum Brands (Taco Bell’s parent company) has partnered with the University of Louisville and the Yum Center for Global Franchise Excellence, an education program that Yum Brands launched in 2021.

Though the idea is not “fully baked”, they hope to transition employees from the program to earning into ownership of corporate owned Taco Bell locations.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟

I’m a big fan of this initiative from Taco Bell, and hope that Yum Brands expands it to include their other brands such as KFC and Pizza Hut.

The biggest barrier to entry for franchise ownership is capital, and this program provides an alternate path for those who don’t have the resources to purchase a franchise. Anything that helps trained operators earn into ownership is a W in my mind.

More Headlines

Tropical Smoothie Cafe Considers IPO
After a record year, TSC Is considering a late 2022 public offering

Shaq’s Big Chicken is Heading to Chicago
The former NBA star has found a proven operator to lift his brand in the windy city

Franchise of the Week

7-Eleven

• Founded: 1927

• Units Open: 77,346

• Investment Range: $$70K - $1.2M

• Average Revenue per Location: $1.4M

Did you know?

The slurpee was invented at a Dairy Queen! In the late 1950’s a Dairy Queen owners soda fountain broke, so he started putting his bottled soda in the freezer to get them cold. After serving bottles that were in the freezer a little too long, customers came back specifically requesting the half frozen sodas. The drink concept was eventually licensed to 7-Eleven in 1965.

Is there a brand you’re curious to know the financials of? Reply to this email with the name and I may include it in a future newsletter!

Breakdown: British Swim School

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 1981; franchising since 2011

• Based in Virginia, 113 units open

• Swimming lessons for ages 3 months and older

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 10% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 2% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $39,500

• Initial Investment: $93,700 - $125,850

Financial Performance

• The below table is from 77 territories in 2019

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

A median net operating income of $63k off of a $94k-$126k investment is a solid annual return per territory. To earn a more meaningful income you’d of course want to operate multiple territories, but as a lower cost and low overhead franchise, British Swim School could be a good entryway to business ownership.

Resources & Press

• British Swim School Franchise Website

• British Swim School Launches in Indianapolis

Twitter Watch 👀

Follow @franchisewolf

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Peloton is possibly exploring a sale 🚲

• NYC Mayor Eric Adams is receiving paychecks in crypto 📉

• Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes put on an absolute clinic 🏈

• Facebook Marketplace is the second largest marketplace (behind only Amazon)

• This browser extension automatically saves content you’ve seen and resurfaces it alongside relevant google searches. If you don’t like having hundreds of tabs open (or the stress that goes with it), all Wolf Report readers can try it for free today!*

  
  *This is sponsored advertising content

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

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Wolf Pack,

Good morning! Today we have a podcast and twitter thread that is FULL of amazing business ideas, and a franchise with a bright future after a fresh round of funding.

If you’re a side-hustler or serial entrepreneur, you’re especially going to love this newsletter edition.

Let’s get right to it 👇

One Tweet Thread:

Riches in the Niches by Girdley

This thread from @girdley was a banger as usual. My favorite of the 17: FlightAware.

It’s an app with 32,000 airplane nerds FREE users that provide info of their flights to the app, enabling everyone else to track the different flights across the country. FlightAware then monetizes heavily via advertising and selling that data!

One Podcast:

My First Million: Businesses with Zero Employees

This episode is chock full of random businesses run by solo-preneurs that generate 7-8 figures PER YEAR.

One of my favorites they discuss is NextEpisode.Net, a business that helps people track tv shows and talk about them with other users.

The guy who runs it has been doing so for 15 years, and even though the website looks ancient, the estimated monthly traffic is 3.6M per month with 80% coming from direct traffic i.e. people who type in the URL directly.

Sam and Steph estimate that the premium membership of just $2/month is easily clearing $1M in revenue per year based on the volume of traffic!

One Breakdown: HeyDay

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2014, franchising since 2021

• Based in Phoenix; 10 units as of 2021

• A franchise making expert skincare accessible to the masses

Fees + Investment

• Franchise Fee: $50,000

• Royalty: 7%

• Brand Fund: 2%

• Initial Investment: $574,000 - $755,500

Financial Performance

• The below information is based on 9 company owned shops during each shop’s first 12 months of operations

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

There’s 3 reasons I felt this brand was worth covering:

1. The AUV’s are very high on average, especially considering those are the first full 12 months a store is in operation

2. Level 5 Capital (the folks who acquired 100+ OrangeTheory’s a few weeks ago) led the Series B investment in this brand. When they invest, I pay attention 👀

3. This is least important, but - they’re a modern brand. Check out their franchise website below - it’s what you’d expect from a company in 2022, but as we know is not always the case with old franchises trying to keep up

Will be watching their growth closely to see how they execute with their $20M in funding 👀

Resources

• HeyDay Franchise Website

• Level 5 Leads Series B in HeyDay

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Microsoft buys Activision in massive bet on the metaverse 💰

• Cracker Barrel paying $9.4M after patron drinks cleaning liquid 🤢

• More metaverse news: Walmart is preparing to enter (what a world we live in) 🔮

• For Succession Fans 🤣🤣🤣:

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

Subscribe now

Good morning,

Happy Martin Luther King Day everyone!

Hopefully you’ve been enjoying a long weekend courtesy of MLK.

Today’s rundown:

• Headlines: Planet Fitness’s big move

• Franchise of the Week: Wendy’s

• Breakdown: Hello Garage - an impressive garage renovation biz

Let’s do it.

Franchise Headlines

Planet Fitness Buys Out Franchisee for $800M

The Scoop

Shane McGuinness was the very first Planet Fitness franchisee - he opened his first location in Altamonte Springs, Florida back in 2003.

Fast forward 19 years and he grew to 114 gyms across Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Last week it was announced that Planet Fitness Corporate was acquiring all of his locations for a whopping $800 million 🤑.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟

I never tire of franchisees getting a payday. If you read last week’s Thursday 3, you may remember the quote “a life without commitment is a life where you can't take advantage of compounding curves”.

Multi-unit owners embody the commitment necessary for such large scale exits. Shane worked 19 years straight building just Planet Fitness locations, and was able to create generational wealth in that time!

More Headlines

Noodles & Co Sells 15 Locations to Warner Foods 🍜
The California franchisee committed to open 40 restaurants in the coming years

D1 Training Receives PE Investment*
Princeton Equity Group invested an undisclosed amount to fund national expansion

*I covered D1 Training in Week 9

Franchise of the Week

Wendy’s 🍔

• Founded: 1969

• Units Open: 5,881

• Investment Range: $568k- $3.7M

• Average Revenue per Location: $1,750,838

Did you know?

Wendy’s founder, Dave Thomas, worked for Colonel Sanders of KFC. Thomas' business savvy helped transform KFC locations that were struggling—and the money he got from selling his stake in KFC went toward his founding of Wendy's!

Is there a brand you’re curious to know the financials of? Reply to this email with the name and I may include it in a future newsletter!

Breakdown: Hello Garage

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2019; franchising since 2020

• Based out of Nebraska, 59 locations

• A service franchise that specializes in garage renovations

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 6% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 2% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $49,500

• Initial Investment: $118,482 - $159,852

Financial Performance

• The below table represents information an affiliate owned outlet in 2020:

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

I’ve recently spoken to a couple independent owners of garage renovation businesses - both were doing well and have found success utilizing sub-contractors.

Naturally, I wanted to see if there was a franchise in the sector - and low and behold I found Hello Garage.

Despite only franchising since 2020, it already has 59 locations operating. If franchisees are performing similar to what the affiliate location above is displaying, I would expect this brand to continue to grow at breakneck speed!

Resources & Press

• Hello Garage Franchise Website

• Hello Garage Poised To Dominate Garage Renovation Market

Twitter Watch 👀

Follow @franchisewolf for more hard hitting memes 🤝

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Netflix raised it’s prices 🎥

• Baby Shark hit 10 Billion views on YouTube 🦈

• Mo Salah: the current king of world football ⚽

• Mr. Beast was the top YouTuber of 2021, earning $54 million 🤯

• Tesla is now accepting Dogecoin for its merchandise bc why not 🤷

• The restaurant industry is ripe for technological innovation, and 800 GOº is shaking things up in the pizza world. It’s literally a robot that makes artisanal quality pizza and only takes up 40 sq feet. Less labor ✅ less real estate ✅  quality pizza ✅. Check out 800º GO here with its ultra space-efficient cooking technology and robotic automation*
  
  *This is sponsored advertising content

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

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Wolf Pack,

Today we have an interesting lineup: with one tweet and article covering the idea of compounded efforts, and a breakdown on a franchise with very impressive numbers at scale.

Let’s get right to it 👇

One Article:

David Perell: Hugging the X-Axis:

“A life without commitment is a life where you can't take advantage of compounding curves”

This essay was a great reminder of the benefits of having a singular focus. It reminded me of two things:

1. The person who always switches career paths never gains expertise in a particular area

2. In franchises, the owners who stay committed to building locations are the ones that end up as success stories (example: Tom Cook of Pacific Bells).

Think long-term, and take advantage of compounding efforts!

One Tweet:

Jack Butcher: an example of compounding efforts

In 2021 Jack Butcher surpassed over $1M in personal revenue, because he stayed committed and reaped the benefits of his compounded efforts.

One Breakdown: College Hunks Hauling Junk

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2003, franchising since 2007

• Based in Tampa Bay, Florida; 156 territories operating

• Offers junk removal, moving, and labor services

Fees + Investment

• Franchise Fee: $40,000 - $60,000 (depends on market size)

• Royalty: 7%

• Brand Fund: 2%

• Initial Investment: $108,700 - $273,200

Financial Performance

• The below information is based on 90 franchised outlets in the full year 2020

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

Average EBITDA of $214k off of at most a $273k initial investment…for a sample size of 90 franchisees, that is a super impressive system-wide performance 🔥.

At 156 territories operating, there is likely still a couple hundred available markets for this franchise. My biggest questions in general would be:

1. Is this industry over-saturated?

2. How many territories do the top performing franchisees own?

The latter question is best answered by talking to existing franchisees, while the former requires a deep-dive on the junk removal industry.

Competition is of course not a bad thing, if anything it’s typically a good sign that there is a market to support a business. However there are many competitors that saw plenty of growth over the last decade i.e. Two Men & a Truck (314 territories), Junk King (136 territories), 1-800-Got-Junk? (160 territories), etc.

This doesn’t mean the market’s full though - there’s plenty of folks who passed on Five Guys just because McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, In-N-Out, Sonic, etc. already existed.

But for me it is the question worth digging into on a macro level if you want to pursue this franchise opportunity!

Resources

• College Hunks Franchise Website

• College Hunks Expands in South Florida

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• A convenience store startup just raised $100M 🤑

• Apple is in serious talks with MLB to broadcast games ⚾

• Cannabis compounds MIGHT help in preventing covid-19 🍃

• Arby’s is giving away free milkshakes with it’s new Diablo Sandwich 🌶️

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

Subscribe now

Good morning,

After just crossing 1k newsletter subscribers last week, we’re now over 2k subscribers!

Welcome to all the new wolf pack members 🤝.

Today’s rundown includes:

• Headlines: A 90 location KFC owner sells his locations

• Franchise of the Week: Taco Bell

• Breakdown: Clean Eatz - a hot QSR with multiple revenue streams

• Twitter Watch: Chick-Fil-A crushes competitors on a per location basis

Let’s dive in 👇

Franchise Headlines

Fowler Foods sells stake in 90 KFC Locations

The Scoop

After 57 years of ownership of KFC, the Fowler Family sold stakes in their 90 KFC restaurants. They also (in a separate transaction) sold a Taco Bell restaurant.

As these deals typically go, the sale price was not disclosed, but it is widely speculated that the deal terms exceed $100 million.

Fowler Foods President Chris Fowler said,

“It was the right time. There are a lot of people out there that want to grow in this business and it’s their time.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟

This deal reminds me of the recent Pacific Bells sale to private equity. Both CEOs have been in the business for multiple decades, and both decided to cash out after some difficulty during covid.

Chris Fowler’s final quote says it all:

“I’m tired. This was the right time.”

Enjoy a well-deserved retirement, Chris! 🤝

More Headlines

Floyd MayWeather’s Fitness Franchise Goes Global 🥊
The undefeated boxing legend opened locations in Moscow & St. Petersburg

PureGym Launches First US Location 💪
The 500 unit chain from the UK requires no contractual commitment with its affordable model

QC Kinetix Gaining Traction 📈
With 0 franchise locations open in 2020, the brand had 59 clinics by the end of 2021.
*I covered QC Kinetix in Week 19

Franchise of the Week

Taco Bell 🌮

• Founded: 1962

• Units Open: 7,567

• Investment Range: $576k - $3.4M

• Average Revenue per Location: $1.6M

Did you know?

Taco Bell is named after it’s founder, Glen Bell, a California entrepreneur who owned a miniature golf course and a hot dog stand before striking gold with tacos. The very first tacos were just 19 cents!

Is there a brand you’re curious to know the financials of? Reply to this email with the name and I may include it in a future newsletter!

Breakdown: Clean Eatz

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2012; franchising since 2015

• Based in North Carolina, 70 locations open & 70+ in development

• A unique QSR that focuses on healthy foods & offers additional revenue streams via meal plans, grab N' go, and marketplace products

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 6% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 2% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $49,500

• Initial Investment: $116,000 - $585,000

Financial Performance

• The below table represents information from 32 franchisees that operated for the full year 2020

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

The numbers speak for themself - median EBITDA of $210k from an investment that will cost anywhere from $116k-$585k is a fantastic return.

I especially like this brand because they prioritize health for their customers, which is something that I think will become increasingly important for restaurants over the coming years.

They also aren’t just a traditional dine-in/take out restaurant, as they offer meal plan selections and pre-packaged food options via their “grab N’ go” program. This differentiates them from competitors, and gives them the ability to reach more customers than the average QSR!

Resources & Press

• Clean Eatz Franchise Website

• Clean Eats Looks to Reach 100 Locations in 2022

Twitter Watch 👀

Yes that $5.013M is the average annual revenue of a Chick-Fil-A 🤯

Follow @franchisewolf and get involved in the conversation!

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• The NYT bought The Athletic for $550M 💵

• 2022 Crypto Predictions from an 8 figure trader 🔮

• John Legend sold his music catalog for an unknown amount 🎵

• The US government has committed $10B to small businesses 🧳

• Stay grindin’ to those with new years workout resolutions 👇

h/t Jerry News

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

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DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

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Wolf Pack,

Two big announcements:

First, we OFFICIALLY crossed 1,000 subscribers after Mondays edition! I’m grateful to you all for reading and coming along for the ride 🤝.

Secondly, an initiative for me this year is to be as active on LinkedIn as I am on twitter. If you consume content on LinkedIn, shoot me a connection request here!

As for today’s newsletter, I’ve dialed up some motivating content to set us up for a killer 2022, in addition to finding a pizza franchise with economics that rivals Dominos.

Let’s get to it!

One Twitter Thread:

Tim Urban from WaitButWhy: 21 Thoughts

When Tim Urban writes, I read it. It’s as simple as that.

I think everyone can find at least a few thoughts from his year-end twitter thread that will benefit you in 2022.

One Podcast:

Andy Frisella from The MFCEO Project: The Story of Harry

If you’ve heard Andy Frisella before, you know he’s a polarizing figure.

Regardless of his style or certain beliefs, this 20 minute podcast from 2019 never fails to motivate me. It’s an incredible story of the pursuit of ones ambitions.

Hint: Harry is a nickname for a famous person whom you all know (it’s revealed at the end of the story).

One Breakdown: Pizza Guys

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 1986, franchising since 1995

• Based in California; 70 territories operating

• A pizza franchise that sells speciality pizza with dough made on site every day

Fees + Investment

• Franchise Fee: $25,000

• Royalty: 5%

• Brand Fund: 0%

• Initial Investment: $68,300 - $262,500

Financial Performance

• The following table provides the performance of 69 Pizza Guys stores operating for all of 2020 (8 affiliate locations and 61 franchised)

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

Pizza businesses proved their worth throughout covid, as it’s a business built around delivery that has customers regardless of the economic climate.

At less than half the price of a Dominos and average revenue over $1M, this west coast pizza franchise is operating away from the national spotlight - but has top tier unit economics!

Resources

• Pizza Guys Franchise Website

• How an Iranian Immigrant Built Pizza Guys

• Pizza Guys Opens Newest San Carlos Location

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Novak Djokovic got the boot from the Aussies 🎾

• John Deere has a self-driving tractor (take that Elon!) 🚜

• KFC has added Beyond Meat plant-based nuggets to its menu 🐔

• The Washington Football Team will reveal its new name on Feb 2nd 🏈

• Tech stocks, crypto, it’s all crashing:

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

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Good morning and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today is the first working day of the year, which means if you technically didn’t stick to your resolutions over the weekend, you can start fresh today and it still counts 😉.

For today’s rundown, we have:

• Headlines: 112 OrangeTheory’s were acquired

• Franchise of the Week (new section!): McDonald’s

• Breakdown: Zagg - a retail franchise selling mobile device accessories

• Twitter Watch: Revisiting the top 10 franchises of 2021

As a reminder, the starting point for the criteria I look for in the brands I feature is always quality unit economics. “Quality” means at a minimum:

• Average revenue per location that is 3x the initial investment, OR

• Average net income/EBITDA per location that’s 1/3 of the initial investment

Outside of that, if the business happens to be in a very niche industry or an industry with massive tailwinds (i.e. pets, drive-thru coffee, home services, etc. ) then I’m even more inclined to include it.

Let’s dive in 👇

Franchise Headlines

Level 5 Capital Purchases 112 OrangeTheory’s

The Scoop 🏃

L5 Fitness, the franchisee platform of Atlanta-based private equity firm Level 5 Capital, acquired 112 OrangeTheory Fitness studios for an undisclosed amount.

Prior to the purchase, Level 5 had 22 OrangeTheory franchises in Michigan, in addition to owning locations of CorePower Yoga, Restore Hyper Wellness, and a Series B investment in HeyDay.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟

OrangeTheory might be the best franchise to have owned in the last decade. After being founded in 2010, it already has 1,300+ locations worldwide.

When a franchise gets to that kind of scale, you can expect consolidation to occur - be it from large franchisees buying up smaller ones, or PE coming in and taking over a number of locations. I'd guess many franchisees just got a nice payday.

More Headlines

F45 is Opening Studios in Golf and Country Clubs 💪
The boutique fitness giant continues it’s expansion

New Franchise Sankranti Wants to be the Chipotle of Indian Food 🌯
Indian cuisine is yet to have it’s moment in the U.S., but that could be changing

From Pakistan to Owning All of Yum! Brands 🍕🌮🍗
Shawn Sherrif moved to the US at age 18, and has risen from employee to star owner

Franchise of the Week

McDonald’s 🍟

• Founded: 1953

• Units Open: 39,396

• Investment Range: $1.3M - $2.3M

• Average Revenue per Location: $2.9M

Did you know?

McDonald’s franchisees give out a “Gold Card” to special VIP’s. Having the Gold Card means free food for life. Holders of this card include Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and actor Rob Lowe (as if they can’t afford the food 🤣).

Is there a brand you’re curious to know the financials of? Submit an idea via the button below and I may include it in a future newsletter!

Request a Franchise

Breakdown: Zagg

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2004; franchising since 2012

• Based in Utah; 97 locations open as of 2021

• A retail franchise that sells accessories for smart phones and other devices (iPads, Nintendo switches, AirPods, Apple watches, etc.)

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 5% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 1% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $15,000

• Initial Investment: $49,000 - $88,000

Financial Performance

• The below tables represent information from 97 franchisees in 2020 that were open for at least 1 full month

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

Zagg appears to be a very high margin business, and when you extrapolate the revenue on an annualized basis, it’s conceivably doing $282,900 per year in revenue off of at most an $88k investment.

This is impressive performance through covid, especially considering that many locations function as mall carts / kiosks. With 80.63% of the world’s population owning a smart phone (per Statista), Zagg operates in a recession-resistant niche with a massive customer base.

Resources

• Zagg Franchise Website

• Zagg Opens at Southlake Town Square

Twitter Watch 👀

If you missed the “Top 10 Franchises of 2021” newsletter last week, you can read it above on Twitter or click here.

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• A primer on the Gen-Z metaverse of Roblox 🔮

• Robinhood is launching a beta crypto wallet 📈

• Hedge funds got WORKED by the S&P 500 in 2021 📉

• 99 happy news stories you may have missed from last year 🙂

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

Subscribe now

Good morning and welcome to our new subscribers!

Usually on Thursday’s you receive an email where I share my 2 favorite pieces of content that I’ve discovered (podcast, articles, tweets, etc.) along with a financial breakdown of an up & coming franchise.

To finish off the year though, I wanted to use this edition to share a bit of my vision for The Wolf in 2022, and how that will benefit you.

Let’s get right to it!

Where We Started (& Where We’re Going)

When I started this journey back in July, I knew two things:

1. There are franchise owners out there making boat loads of cash and nobody is talking about it

2. No one is providing information on franchises in a transparent way

My goal with both this newsletter and twitter account has always been to change that.

If you google “top franchises” I promise you that you won’t find the level of detail that I share with you in this newsletter anywhere else. If you want to learn any earning potential of a brand, you typically have to get in contact with their sales team.

To me that is a backwards process - interested buyers should get access to the basic financials before having to submit their email and cell phone, which the sales reps will likely ruthlessly blow up in pursuit of you.

And from an entrepreneurial perspective, my previous day job exposed me to tons of multi-unit franchise owners. I’ve met folks who own anywhere from 3-100+ locations of various franchises.

These people are incredibly wealthy, but didn’t have any distinct advantage over others, and didn’t’ have to invent the next Facebook to achieve their financial dreams.

To me that’s worth celebrating, and that’s why I’m constantly beating the drum on twitter, so that other people realize franchising IS a viable path in entrepreneurship.

The newsletter and twitter are just the beginning..

Here’s what’s coming in 2022:

Podcast

Where I interview and give inside access to conversations with multi-unit franchise owners from all walks of life. If you’re interested in becoming a successful multi-unit owner (like the one below👇) this is the podcast for you.

Also - if you’re reading this and own a franchise, let me know! I’d love to chat and have you on the pod so that others can learn from your experience.

Research Platform

I spoke earlier about the lack of transparent information on franchises. To help solve this beyond my newsletter, I am building a beta version of a research platform that will make it very easy to filter franchises and get the high level information you need. The best part is, it will be a free product to start!

Community

At a certain scale, I will be launching a community for both existing and aspiring franchise owners / business owners. Communities can be incredibly valuable to learn from one another, talk strategy, as well as do some super cool things together (think: events, investments, etc.).

Just like with franchises, there is strength in numbers!

The Ultimate Vision

My goal is to ultimately change the way people view franchises - both literally and metaphorically.

While it’s not the path for everyone, many aspiring entrepreneurs should be at least considering franchises as a potential option. And through what we’re building, they’ll be able to do so in a modern and transparent way.

If this sounds overly ambitious to you - don’t worry I’ll have a lot of help, and will be announcing exactly what that means at some point later in January.

Until then though, have a Happy New Year, and I’ll see you on Monday the 3rd!

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Why you secretly hate cool bars 🥃

• The top twitter moments of 2021 🐦

• Benedict Evans’ Annual Tech Presentation 📱

• How “Madden NFL” became a dynasty, RIP John 🙏🏻 🏈

• Good luck to everyone this New Years Eve:

Subscribe now

Good morning,

Hope everyone had a great holiday and is taking some time to slow down & reflect as we head into the New Year. Also, happy Sunday #3 🤣

Below I’ve reviewed the Top 10 franchises out of the 39 that I’ve covered this year.

Before we get to it, as a reminder for Thursday I won’t be sending the normal Thursday 3, but will instead send a primer on what’s coming in 2022 for The Wolf, and more importantly how that can benefit you as an investor and/or operator (hint: big things are in motion 👀).

Now without further ado, let’s review the top 10, starting in reverse order! 👇

#10: Smash My Trash 🗑️

• Units Open: 163

• Investment Range: $322,650 - $395,500

• Net Income: $601,039 off of $1,388,532 in gross revenue*

*Based on a statement of income from the full year 2019 for a franchisee in Houston

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

Given the sheer income potential relative to the investment, I had to include this franchise! At 163 units there is certainly room for growth as well.

Full Breakdown available via the Week 12 Edition.

#9: Fitness Machine Technicians 🏃

• Units Open: 45

• Investment Range: $71,450 - $118,490

• EBITDA: $349,569 off of $970,764 of revenue*

*Based on an affiliate business for the full year 2019

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

A niche business that will always exist unless treadmills go extinct!

Full Breakdown available via the Week 19 Edition.

#8: Angry Crab Shack 🦀

• Units Open: 15+

• Investment Range: $391,440 - $670,700

• Average Net Income: $401,901*

*Based on 5 affiliate locations and 1 franchise in 2019

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

It’s early days, but these are very impressive numbers for a food franchise!

Full Breakdown available via the Week 4 Edition.

#7: Soccer Shots ⚽

• Units Open: 248

• Investment Range: $43,500 - $60,300

• Average EBITDA: $46,668.42*

*Based on the average income statement per single territory franchisee in 2019

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

A super low cost franchise that can be a great entryway to entrepreneurship!

Full Breakdown available via the Week 11 Edition.

#6: Fat Shack 🍔

• Units Open: 26

• Investment Range: $112,750 - $291,250

• Average Revenue: $1,091,986*

*Based on 10 franchisee owned units that operated for all of 2020

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

A food business that did well during covid and shows a great AUV!

Full Breakdown available via the Week 7 Edition.

#5: Costa Oil 🚗

• Units Open: 14+

• Investment Range: $128,250 - $196,900

• Average Net Income: $96,374*

*Based on 4 existing affiliate outlets open for the full year 2020

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

A great return relative to the investment, in the steady auto industry!

Full Breakdown available via the Week 13 Edition.

#4: The Coder School 🤖

• Units Open: 51

• Investment Range: $72,250 - $150,650

• Average EBITDA: $82,176 *

*Based on 21 locations open the full 12 months 2019

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

Coding is a skill that will remain in demand, and this low cost franchise capitalizes on it!

Full Breakdown available via the Week 1 Edition.

#3: Dog Training Elite 🐕

• Units Open: 59

• Investment Range: $82,800 - $104,750

• Average Profit: $337,856*

*Based on information on the franchise website

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

The pet industry is on fire and this low cost franchise is a way to play it!

Full Breakdown available via the Week 17's Thursday 3 Edition.

#2: LaundroLab 🧺

• Units Open: 1+

• Investment Range: $321,330 - $482,650

• Average EBITDA: $230,140*

*Based on 1 affiliate location for the full year in 2020

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

This franchise is automating laundromat’s and offers upside via the parent company’s delivery service, 2ULaundry.

Full Breakdown available via the Week 14 Edition.

#1: Crumbl Cookies 🍪

• Units Open: 328

• Investment Range: $227,666 - $574,833

• Average Profit: $319,958*

*Based on 53 franchised outlets in 2020

The Wolf’s Quick Take 🍟:

When I covered Crumbl in week 5, they had 251 locations open, meaning they have been averaging 4 new locations PER WEEK. If that’s not indicative of the rocket ship growth this brand is on then idk what is! 🚀🚀🚀

Full Breakdown available via the Week 5 Edition.

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• The weirdest charts of 2021 📊

• OnlyFans just promoted it’s CMO to CEO 👩‍💼

• Spiderman crossed $1B to lead the box office in 2021 🕷️

• These pics of the Northern Lights from this year are insane ✨

• Trung absolutely killed it with this meme 🤣 🤣

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

DISCLAIMER

This Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.

All Content in this email is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the email constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other Content in this email before making any decisions based on such information or other Content.

Subscribe now

Franchise wolves,

In the spirit of the holidays, I decided to do a themed newsletter today.

Before we get into it, some housekeeping items:

• Going forward, the “Thursday 3” edition of the newsletter will always have a franchise breakdown, but the other 2 sections will be flexible & will vary between podcasts, tweets, articles, YouTube videos, quotes, etc.

• Next week I’ll be sending 2 special edition newsletters, but instead of the regular Monday-Thursday schedule it will be Tuesday-Thursday (ol’ Wolf is turning another year older on Monday the 27th 🥳 ).

• Lastly, regardless of if you’re celebrating Christmas in 2 days, I hope you all have a great final few days of the year and get some time to reflect on the things that matter to you.

As for what’s next, big things are coming in 2022 and I’m pumped to have you along for the ride!

Let’s get to it👇

One Article:

The Hustle: How Tipsy Elves Built a $125M Christmas Sweater Empire

As an avid watcher of Shark Tank, Tipsy Elves is one of my favorite companies I’ve seen from the show.

From “Getting Lit” to “Santa’s Twerkshop”, their ugly-sweater success all started with some creativity, a bit of SEO savviness, and a lawyer who realized he hated his job.

One Video:

SNL: Home for the Holidays

Eddie Murphy is hilarious. The video is 3.5 minutes of light-hearted fun, guaranteed to make you laugh.

One Breakdown: Christmas Decor

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 1984, franchising since 1996

• Based in Texas; 268 territories operating

• A seasonal service franchise that hangs holiday lights for both commercial and residential clients

Fees + Investment

• Franchise Fee: $9,900

• Royalty: 5%

• Brand Fund: 1%

• Initial Investment: $19,550 - $62,250

Financial Performance

• The average sales information was taken from 192 Christmas Decor franchisees representing 215 franchises as of January 2020

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

For 90 days of work the numbers aren’t bad. If you’re someone who has some extra time and could use a seasonal side hobby for some decent cash (margins are supposedly 30-40%), then this low cost franchise could be a good gig!

If you’d rather take a stab at this without a franchise, check out this twitter thread from a holiday lighting professional!

Recent News

• 5 Seasonal Franchises From 1851

• Christmas Decor Announces The Top Trends for the 2021 Holidays

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• The NHL is taking a week off due to Omnicron 🤒

• Josh Wolfe says the ‘To the Moon’ Crash is Coming 📉

• McDonald’s is selling a digital tech startup to MasterCard 🍟

• The Grinch A Bishop told a bunch of kids that Santa isn’t real 👎

• More from The Hustle: how the poinsettia took over Christmas🪴

• Always remember:

  

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

NOTICE REGARDING FRANCHISE INFORMATION

The Wolf of Franchises does NOT guarantee the financial performance of any franchise mentioned. The decision to purchase a licensed affiliate or franchise must be based on your own independent research. The Wolf of Franchises is not liable for any representation made by an affiliate, associate, marketing material, or Franchise Disclosure Document of a franchise with respect to real estate, financial, operations, or marketing performance of the business being acquired.

This information is not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. It is for informational purposes only, and any financial data is based upon information provided by franchises in their respective Franchise Disclosure Document. The offer of a franchise can only be made through the delivery of a franchise disclosure document, from a certified seller of the brand, which The Wolf of Franchises makes no claim to be. Do not consider any information here as a guarantee of financial performance. The Wolf of Franchises has no affiliation or relationship of any kind with any of the brands covered in this newsletter, but simply provides data that is publicly available online or in Franchise Disclosure Documents.

All data from Franchise Disclosure Document’s is based on past performance, and if you were to purchase a franchise covered in the Wolf of Franchises newsletter, there is absolutely no guarantee that your business will perform similarly to existing owners of said franchise.

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Good morning,

Hope everyone is staying safe out there.

Just set up the temporary Wolf HQ workstation, where I’ll be spending the next week or so for the holidays. Mama Wolf gave me a Cinnamon Musk scented candle to burn while I grind. Needless to say the vibes are HIGH.

Today’s rundown includes:

• Headlines: A massive Taco Bell franchisee was acquired

• Breakdown: Send Me a Trainer - an at-home fitness franchise

• Twitter Watch: A fractional trading platform for franchise ownership

Let’s dive in 👇

Franchise Headlines

Pacific Bells Acquired by Private Equity

The Scoop 🌮

Orangewood Partners, an NYC based private equity firm, recently acquired Pacific Bells, a taco bell franchisee with more than 250 restaurants, for a rumored $545,000,000 💰.

Pacific Bells’ founder and CEO Tom Cook opened his first Taco Bell in 1986 in Tualatin, Oregon. He’s since expanded his franchise footprint to 9 states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

I was going to write more in this section, but this tweet from @JoeCassandra summed up my feelings perfectly:

Joe is exactly right, and this is why I love franchisee success stories.

Pacific Bell’s CEO didn’t invent a new business model, or develop some proprietary technology. He simply bought 1 Taco Bell, made it successful, and repeated that process over and over with more locations for the last 35 years.

Now he’s likely worth over 9 figures. The power of franchising 🙌

More Headlines

MOD Pizza Plans for IPO 📈
Founded in 2008, the build-your-own-pizza shop has already passed 500 locations

Bonjour Popeyes 🇫🇷
The first of hundreds of Popeyes in France & Monaco is set to open in 2022

FAT Brands Completes Native Grill & Wings Acquisition 🍗
This is the 3rd wing concept that FAT Brands has invested in

Breakdown: Send Me A Trainer

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2007; franchising since 2019

• Based in Delaware; 19 locations open as of 2021

• An in-home and online personal training business that uses proprietary technology to build a network of personal trainers & automate operations

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 6% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 2% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $34,999

• Initial Investment: $49,099 - $84,799

Financial Performance

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

To reiterate the background of this business - franchisees don’t need to deliver personal training sessions to clients - their job is sales and marketing. To automate operations, franchisees have access to a proprietary app that enables client and trainer registration, payment, booking, and payroll.

Regarding the financials - I’m not sure why the 2021 financials from Send Me a Trainer only includes data from 2017, but that’s what we have to work with. The numbers reflect their affiliate locations which, given an investment of $85k, is an incredibly healthy return on EBITDA of $219k-$238k 🤑.

The timing for this business is especially interesting to me, given that covid lockdowns have caused many people to forgo gym memberships and exercise more at home. In 2020 Send Me a Trainer only had 1 franchisee, but that number has jumped to 18 in 2021.

It wouldn’t surprise me if new owners are betting on at-home workouts to remain popular.

Recent News

• About Send Me a Trainer

• Send Me a Trainer Expands to the UK

Twitter Watch 👀

Read the above twitter thread if you want to learn about FranShares, a platform for fractional ownership of franchises!

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Lays turned its signature potato chips into…vodka 🍸

• TikTok is launching in 1,000 ghost kitchens in 2022 🥡

• Adidas teamed up with Allbirds on a sick shoe collab 👟

• The world cup for nerds Excel wiz kids is a real thing 🤓

• Reddit is filing for an IPO, will it become a meme stock?? #meta 🚀

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

NOTICE REGARDING FRANCHISE INFORMATION

The Wolf of Franchises does NOT guarantee the financial performance of any franchise mentioned. The decision to purchase a licensed affiliate or franchise must be based on your own independent research. The Wolf of Franchises is not liable for any representation made by an affiliate, associate, marketing material, or Franchise Disclosure Document of a franchise with respect to real estate, financial, operations, or marketing performance of the business being acquired.

This information is not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. It is for informational purposes only, and any financial data is based upon information provided by franchises in their respective Franchise Disclosure Document. The offer of a franchise can only be made through the delivery of a franchise disclosure document, from a certified seller of the brand, which The Wolf of Franchises makes no claim to be. Do not consider any information here as a guarantee of financial performance. The Wolf of Franchises has no affiliation or relationship of any kind with any of the brands covered in this newsletter, but simply provides data that is publicly available online or in Franchise Disclosure Documents.

All data from Franchise Disclosure Document’s is based on past performance, and if you were to purchase a franchise covered in the Wolf of Franchises newsletter, there is absolutely no guarantee that your business will perform similarly to existing owners of said franchise.

Subscribe now

Franchise wolves,

Hope everyone is staying safe out there with covid cases running rampant once again.

Today we have an interesting line up that includes learnings from college kids cleaning windows, to a hedge fund legend who made early bets on Bitcoin and Amazon.

And for our breakdown, I found an emerging brand in a category that is starting to heat up.

Let’s get to it! 👇

One Article:

Bill Miller: An Investor’s Evolution

This article discusses the journey of Bill Miller, a famous hedge fund manager who’s known for betting early and aggressively on Amazon, Dell, and Bitcoin.

There’s one quote in particular from him that resonated with me:

“Most people try to maximize the number of times they’re right. The real question is how much you make when you’re right.”

I’ve learned this mentality also applies to entrepreneurship. Many entrepreneur’s will double down triple down on opportunities once they see there’s proof of concept and develop massive conviction i.e. the franchisee who went all in on OrangeTheory.

You only have to be right once to change your life!

One Podcast:

Owned & Operated: The College Kids Running a $700,000 Business

Johnny Robinson aka @SqueegeeGod on Twitter, only just recently graduated college. But him and his best friend Sergio are the owners of a $700,000 window cleaning business that they started while they were sophomores.

Not only is window cleaning a business with crazy low startup costs that you can profit from immediately - there’s a way to build these local service businesses by leveraging subcontractors, so that you’re not tied up with labor (or cleaning the windows yourself).

I don’t think this is a business to go “all in” on, but it can be a stepping stone that provides semi-absentee cashflow while freeing up your time to explore other ventures.

One Breakdown: The DripBar

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2016, franchising since 2019

• Based in Massachusetts; 7 units open as of 2021

• Offers IV therapy services, as well as retail supplement products

Fees + Investment

• Franchise Fee: $55,000

• Royalty: 7% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 1% of gross sales

• Initial Investment: $132K - $278K

Financial Performance

• The following information is based on the performance of an affiliate location that first opened in 2015

Note: the gross revenue above only accounts for gross revenue from the sales of IV therapy services, not retail products. The location also operates in a 2,000 sq ft facility, whereas franchisees are expected to operate in 1,000 - 1,500 sq ft retail spaces.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

This is the second IV therapy franchise I’ve covered - after covering Hydrate IV Bar in Week 6.

Both franchises are new (each of them founded in 2016), and the growth of IV bars in general is still in early innings from a national standpoint. The DripBar has a lower investment than Hydrate IV, topping out at $278k compared to $381k.

While it’s a small sample size with just 1 location, the business has grown steadily even through covid, and returns above $200k after accounting for all expenses.

I’m unsure of the longevity of this business as the medical community is unclear on the value they provide, but from a consumer standpoint there seems to be major buy-in wherever these locations are present!

Recent News

• The DripBar set to open in Frisco this year

• The DripBar opens new location in Rhode Island

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Pinterest makes predictions for 2022 🔮

• The world’s biggest startups visualized in 1 picture 🦄

• A Microsoft Excel TikToker makes up to $100k per day 💰

• This poor soul accidentally sold his NFT for $3k instead of $300k 😭

• The picture of Matt Damon running through a rainy NYC with ice cream will never get old:

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

NOTICE REGARDING FRANCHISE INFORMATION

The Wolf of Franchises does NOT guarantee the financial performance of any franchise mentioned. The decision to purchase a licensed affiliate or franchise must be based on your own independent research. The Wolf of Franchises is not liable for any representation made by an affiliate, associate, marketing material, or Franchise Disclosure Document of a franchise with respect to real estate, financial, operations, or marketing performance of the business being acquired.

This information is not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. It is for informational purposes only, and any financial data is based upon information provided by franchises in their respective Franchise Disclosure Document. The offer of a franchise can only be made through the delivery of a franchise disclosure document, from a certified seller of the brand, which The Wolf of Franchises makes no claim to be. Do not consider any information here as a guarantee of financial performance. The Wolf of Franchises has no affiliation or relationship of any kind with any of the brands covered in this newsletter, but simply provides data that is publicly available online or in Franchise Disclosure Documents.

All data from Franchise Disclosure Document’s is based on past performance, and if you were to purchase a franchise covered in the Wolf of Franchises newsletter, there is absolutely no guarantee that your business will perform similarly to existing owners of said franchise.

Subscribe now

To franchise fans,

Good morning and hope you had a great weekend!

Today’s newsletter includes:

• Headlines: California Pizza Kitchen

• Breakdown: Nautical Bowls - A Booming Acai Concept

• Twitter Watch: A successful exit from an OrangeTheory owner

Let’s get right to it!

Franchise Headlines

California Pizza Kitchen Is Now Franchising

The Scoop

The casual-dining chain is starting a new growth campaign to build on their 200 unit presence in America. This move comes after some recent struggle however.

Its footprint decreased by about 13% from 2019 to 2020, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2020. They emerged from bankruptcy status in October of last year.

This will be the first time in their 35 year history that they’ve offered franchises.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

Pizza elitists will scoff at the thought of dining at CPK, but that’s because they haven’t eaten the grilled steak or chicken-bacon-ranch pizza (trust me, both are 🔥).

This is a concept that’s well-known for their unique menu offerings, and has built a household name brand over their 35 year history.

I’ll be interested to see what the buildout cost will look like on one of these, but either way, buying a brand with established mindshare in consumers is a big advantage.

Read the full story here.

More Headlines

Teriyaki Madness Headed to San Antonio with 3 Store Deal
We covered this emerging QSR in week 3!

McDonald’s Commits $250 To Improve Franchisee Diversity
The burger giant has received scrutiny from minority franchisees

FAT Brands Is Building 10 Restaurants in Libya
The parent company of Fatburger, Johnny Rockets, and 13 other restaurants will be building co-branded restaurants

Breakdown: Nautical Bowls

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2018; franchising since 2021

• Based in Minnesota; 31 locations open/in development

• Nautical Bowls is a fast-casual restaurant that combines healthy, fresh superfood bowls with an uplifting atmosphere

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 6% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: Floating, but will never exceed 2%

• Franchise Fee: $30,000

• Initial Investment: $150,000 - $249,000

Financial Performance

• The below table illustrates the performance for the previous 2 fiscal years for their first location in Minnetonka, Minnesota

*Labor Costs does NOT include an owners salary

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

Nautical Bowls caught my attention right off the bat with its low investment range and impressive performance through the pandemic.

In addition to the unit economics, the founders partnered with Peter Taunton to head up franchise development - Peter previously worked at Snap Fitness, and helped bring that brand to over 1,000 locations.

With already 31+ units in development in its first year of franchising, Nautical Bowls is off to a great start and is definitely a brand to watch!

Recent News

• Snap Fitness Founder Joins Nautical Bowls

• Nautical Bowls Now Offering Franchise Opportunities

Twitter Watch 👀

The multi-unit playbook 🙌

Follow @franchisewolf

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• Cool tech to be excited about for 2022 📱

• A couple legit got married in the metaverse 🤦‍♀️

• Michael Strahan went to outer space over the weekend 🚀

• SPAM sales hit a record high for the 7th year in a row - who actually eats this stuff? 🤢

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

NOTICE REGARDING FRANCHISE INFORMATION

The Wolf of Franchises does NOT guarantee the financial performance of any franchise mentioned. The decision to purchase a licensed affiliate or franchise must be based on your own independent research. The Wolf of Franchises is not liable for any representation made by an affiliate, associate, marketing material, or Franchise Disclosure Document of a franchise with respect to real estate, financial, operations, or marketing performance of the business being acquired.

This information is not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. It is for informational purposes only, and any financial data is based upon information provided by franchises in their respective Franchise Disclosure Document. The offer of a franchise can only be made through the delivery of a franchise disclosure document, from a certified seller of the brand, which The Wolf of Franchises makes no claim to be. Do not consider any information here as a guarantee of financial performance. The Wolf of Franchises has no affiliation or relationship of any kind with any of the brands covered in this newsletter, but simply provides data that is publicly available online or in Franchise Disclosure Documents.

All data from Franchise Disclosure Document’s is based on past performance, and if you were to purchase a franchise covered in the Wolf of Franchises newsletter, there is absolutely no guarantee that your business will perform similarly to existing owners of said franchise.

Subscribe now

Friends 👋,

Happy Thursday!

Today’s lineup for Thursday 3 covers a new framework for success, a lesson learned from YouTube giant MrBeast, and a unique franchise with some impressive numbers.

Let’s jump right in!

One Article:

Colossus: Growth Without Goals

This article provides a super interesting framework for how to think about success.

Rather than focusing on long-term goals, where you subject yourself to feeling short of that goal everyday until you reach it, a “continuous success” mindset is about achieving daily goals.

Doing so makes your day to day life much more enjoyable, and still leads to big achievements that look like long term goals from the outside.

I highly recommend reading the full post here.

One Podcast:

Colin and Samir: The Full Story of MrBeast

If you’re not familiar with Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast - he’s 23 years old, is one of the world’s top YouTubers with 84M subscribers, and makes an estimated $2-3M per month from his videos 🤯.

In the interview, he’s asked many times about his ambitions and what he plans to do with all the money he’s making. Every single time his response is the same:

“I just want to make the best YouTube videos in the world”

It demonstrates that Jimmy’s super power is his ability to focus on just 1 goal and nothing else.

Many of us (myself included) get distracted by the newest shiny object. Or maybe we have some minor success with a business or product idea, and start expanding to other categories or services before really dominating a specific vertical.

It may not be sexy or FUN to focus on literally just 1 thing year after year, but MrBeast is living proof that laser focus X consistency = $$$.

One Breakdown: QC Kinetix

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2017, franchising since 2020

• Based in Charlotte; 22 units open as of 2021

• Offers regenerative medicine and non-surgical pain management therapies

Fees + Investment

• Franchise Fee: $55,000

• Royalty: 8% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 1% of gross sales

• Initial Investment: $159K - $300K

Financial Performance

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

The numbers are impressive across the board for these affiliate locations, especially considering that this brand was only founded in 2017.

A $300k investment returning anywhere from $193k -$1M in net income per year is pretty amazing. I dug in and made sure that you do NOT have to be a physician or licensed medical professional to operate a QC Kinetix, but a good question to ask would be how does hiring a medical professional impact the economics?

Obviously if you’re pulling in $1M like the Charleston location then it shouldn’t matter much, but still something to consider. Also FWIW, NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith is an official partner of the brand, who believes their treatment methods have helped him after a grueling NFL career.

Recent News

• QC Kinetix Expands into Peoria

• QC Kinetix Takes Panama City By Storm

The Wolf Of Everything Else 🌎

• The “Home Alone” House is available on AirBnb 🎄

•  A map of fast-food penetration in Europe by chain 🍔

• Jennifer Lawrence is playing Elizabeth Holmes in a new Apple TV+ film Bad Blood 🍿

• This free background noise generator keeps me sane while working (pro tip: try Waves X birds) 😌

• This meme made me laugh:

h/t Jerry Newsletter

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

NOTICE REGARDING FRANCHISE INFORMATION

The Wolf of Franchises does NOT guarantee the financial performance of any franchise mentioned. The decision to purchase a licensed affiliate or franchise must be based on your own independent research. The Wolf of Franchises is not liable for any representation made by an affiliate, associate, marketing material, or Franchise Disclosure Document of a franchise with respect to real estate, financial, operations, or marketing performance of the business being acquired.

This information is not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. It is for informational purposes only, and any financial data is based upon information provided by franchises in their respective Franchise Disclosure Document. The offer of a franchise can only be made through the delivery of a franchise disclosure document, from a certified seller of the brand, which The Wolf of Franchises makes no claim to be. Do not consider any information here as a guarantee of financial performance. The Wolf of Franchises has no affiliation or relationship of any kind with any of the brands covered in this newsletter, but simply provides data that is publicly available online or in Franchise Disclosure Documents.

All data from Franchise Disclosure Document’s is based on past performance, and if you were to purchase a franchise covered in the Wolf of Franchises newsletter, there is absolutely no guarantee that your business will perform similarly to existing owners of said franchise.

Subscribe now

To franchise fans,

Good morning and hope you’re ready to attack the week ahead. If you celebrate Christmas, you only have 18 days left to procrastinate buying presents for your friends and family.

Historically I’ve been the person who conveniently has “errands” to run on December 24th, and those “errands” require me to spend 6 hours at the Mall scrambling to find gifts. Let’s agree to both not be that person this year 🤝 (trust me, it ain’t fun).

Today’s Rundown:

• Headlines: Another acquisition

• Breakdown: Fitness Machine Technicians

• Twitter Watch: A twitter thread about writing threads

Let’s get to it!

Franchise Headlines

Jack in the Box Acquires Del Taco for $575M

The Dirty Deetz

Jack in the Box, the fast food giant that serves everything from burgers to egg-rolls, is acquiring Del Taco in a deal that values them at about 7.6x EBITDA.

Del Taco operates roughly 600 restaurants across 16 states, including 297 corporate units and 306 franchises. The two brands combined will have more than 2,800 locations across 25 states.

This is the first time Jack will operate another brand since 2017, when it divested the 700 unit franchise Qdoba for a cool $305M.

The Wolf’s Take

Franchise M&A has been hot in 2021, especially amongst food concepts, where we’ve seen Panera, Burger King, & Fat Brands all making moves. I think we’ll see this trend continue of large brands gobbling up smaller brands.

I’ve seen it first hand when working with brands - once you start achieving scale, opportunities start popping up for the founders, whether it’s from PE firms or other big brands.

In franchising, you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself get acquired!

More Headlines

Blaze Pizza Is Heading to Miami
9 Units will be built in Miami starting in Spring 2022

Steve Young Acquires 42 Planet Fitness Locations
The former NFL quarterback made a majority investment in PF Atlantic Holdings

Breakdown: Fitness Machine Technicians

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 2002; franchising since 2012

• Based in Pennsylvania; 45 units open as of 2021

• FMT is a service based franchise that specializes in the maintenance and repair of equipment for commercial and home exercise facilities

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 6% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 1% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $45,000

• Initial Investment: $71,450 - $118,490

Financial Performance

• The below table illustrates the performance for the previous 2 fiscal years for FMT’s affiliate, Powersmith Inc.

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

I love niche businesses, so I was pretty pumped to discover FMT over the weekend. I was even more pumped when I saw the numbers for their affiliate location 🤑.

Anytime a franchise is showing an EBITDA higher than the initial investment, it’s a signal to explore further. FMT was able to do this during covid, and while revenue did take a hit in 2020, it’s good to see the business was still operational.

My main question, as with every service based franchise, is regarding territory. In FMT’s documents they state the typical territory they award contains 800,000 - 1,000,000 people. I’d be curious to know the size of the territory that their affiliate location operates in to achieve $165k -$349k in EBITDA.

Even if it’s a larger territory than 1M people, that doesn’t mean you can’t operate in one that size, it just means you’ll have to pay multiple franchise fees (after your initial fee of $45k, any subsequent territory increase comes at a $25k fee).

FMT is a classic example of people finding riches in the niches - and with only 45 franchisees + a boom in at-home fitness equipment in the last year, the timing may be right to look at this franchise!

Recent News

• FMT Announces First International Franchise

• Fitness Machine Technicians Opens First Location in Minnesota

Twitter Watch 👀

For the month of November, I tried an experiment where I posted a twitter thread everyday for 30 days straight.

Audience building on Twitter is a subject that is of genuine interest to me, as it seems every week someone new is going viral with a thread.

My primary goal of course is to just to continue sharing my learnings of the franchise world, but I wanted to give some insight to others with the above thread on what I learned during the 30 days.

Follow @franchisewolf and give it a read!

The Wolf Of Everything Else

• Toys R Us is back from the dead, LFG

• Beyoncé and Adele created Alter Ego’s to gain confidence

• Mr. Beast could make Beast Burger the next big franchise if he wanted to

• “Most people try to maximize the number of times they’re right. The real question is how much you make when you’re right” - Bill Miller

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

NOTICE REGARDING FRANCHISE INFORMATION

The Wolf of Franchises does NOT guarantee the financial performance of any franchise mentioned. The decision to purchase a licensed affiliate or franchise must be based on your own independent research. The Wolf of Franchises is not liable for any representation made by an affiliate, associate, marketing material, or Franchise Disclosure Document of a franchise with respect to real estate, financial, operations, or marketing performance of the business being acquired.

This information is not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. It is for informational purposes only, and any financial data is based upon information provided by franchises in their respective Franchise Disclosure Document. The offer of a franchise can only be made through the delivery of a franchise disclosure document, from a certified seller of the brand, which The Wolf of Franchises makes no claim to be. Do not consider any information here as a guarantee of financial performance. The Wolf of Franchises has no affiliation or relationship of any kind with any of the brands covered in this newsletter, but simply provides data that is publicly available online or in Franchise Disclosure Documents.

All data from Franchise Disclosure Document’s is based on past performance, and if you were to purchase a franchise covered in the Wolf of Franchises newsletter, there is absolutely no guarantee that your business will perform similarly to existing owners of said franchise.

Subscribe now

Good morning franchise fam,

Welcome to the second edition of the Thursday 3. Not gonna lie, I didn’t know what to expect when I hit send on last weeks edition. Imposter syndrome is REAL, and I was bracing for a wave of unsubscribe notifications that fortunately never came.

Last week’s Thursday 3 received a 61% open rate, and a 9% click rate, which is very much in line with the standard email you receive on Monday’s. Thank you all for reading (seriously), and remember you can always reply to these emails directly with any feedback, questions, or content suggestions 🤝.

Let’s get to it!

One Article:

How To Own A Piece of The $760B Franchise Pie?

This is partially a self-plug, but Codie Sanchez featured yours truly (among others) in her latest Contrarian Thinking newsletter.

The article dives into the pros & cons of buying franchises, and includes info from a few experienced franchisees that she’s friends with - one of them being a Massage Envy owner who broke even inside of 1 year, and was profitable shortly after.

Give it a read here (and take a gander at those tweets she references 👀).

One Podcast:

Invest Like The Best: Kat Cole, Former President of Focus Brands

Invest like The Best with Patrick O’Shaugnessy is one of my favorite podcasts, and this is easily one of my favorite episodes .

As the former President of Focus Brands, Kat Cole is intimately familiar with several owners of franchises like Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, Carvel and more.

The most interesting part of the podcast is hearing her frameworks for building an enduring brand. If you own any business, your brand can be such a powerful moat against your competitors, yet many owners think it’s no more than the font and colors of the sign on their store.

“The brand is the promise that consumers believe an entity has made to them…the combination of what a brand says and does, leads to a set of [consumer] beliefs about what that brand is, and therefore what that brand has permission to do in the market…”

One Breakdown: Biggby Coffee

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 1994, franchising since 1999

• Based in Michigan; 262 units open as of 2021

• A drive-thru coffee shop that also serves hot chocolate, tea, and “cream freeze” smoothies

Fees + Investment

• Franchise Fee: $20,000

• Royalty: 6% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 3% of gross sales

• Initial Investment: $202K - $419K

Financial Performance

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

Brand recognition plays a massive role for coffee consumers. As a native northeasterner, it’s always interesting to notice the regional presence Dunkin’ has here versus other markets. And then of course you have Starbucks that is competitive everywhere.

All that to say, depending on where you live, be careful about picking a more localized chain given the intense competition. Regardless, Biggby’s unit economics are quite good for a coffee concept - it’s investment range is far lower than most given that it focuses on drive-thru service only, and revenue per location at close to $800k is above average.

Even at 262 units, the ceiling is VERY high for Biggby in terms of unit growth potential. Considering Dunkin’ has 9,100+ locations in the U.S., there’s plenty of territory available if this is the right franchise for you.

Bonus:

See my twitter thread on top emerging coffee concepts if you’d like points of comparison:

Recent News

• New Biggby Coffee To Open in St. Louis

• Biggby Coffee Adds Location in Home State

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback, or leave a comment. If someone sent this your way and you haven’t subscribed yet, you can also do that below. Thanks and see you next week!

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

NOTICE REGARDING FRANCHISE INFORMATION

The Wolf of Franchises does NOT guarantee the financial performance of any franchise mentioned. The decision to purchase a licensed affiliate or franchise must be based on your own independent research. The Wolf of Franchises is not liable for any representation made by an affiliate, associate, marketing material, or Franchise Disclosure Document of a franchise with respect to real estate, financial, operations, or marketing performance of the business being acquired.

This information is not intended as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, a franchise. It is for informational purposes only, and any financial data is based upon information provided by franchises in their respective Franchise Disclosure Document. The offer of a franchise can only be made through the delivery of a franchise disclosure document, from a certified seller of the brand, which The Wolf of Franchises makes no claim to be. Do not consider any information here as a guarantee of financial performance. The Wolf of Franchises has no affiliation or relationship of any kind with any of the brands covered in this newsletter, but simply provides data that is publicly available online or in Franchise Disclosure Documents.

All data from Franchise Disclosure Document’s is based on past performance, and if you were to purchase a franchise covered in the Wolf of Franchises newsletter, there is absolutely no guarantee that your business will perform similarly to existing owners of said franchise.

Subscribe now

To franchise fans,

Good morning and hope you had a great weekend filled with turkey, friends, and family. Also, happy Hanukkah to those who started celebrating last night!

If you celebrate Christmas and are now scrambling because you haven’t bought any presents yet despite the massive supply chain issues, here is a great gift guide from the team at Morning Brew that always gives me some good ideas!

Today’s Rundown:

• Headlines: Another acquisition

• Breakdown: Toppers Pizza

• Twitter Watch: The Story of Franchise Legend Den Fujita

Let’s get to it!

Franchise Headlines

Franchise Group Acquires W.S. Badcock

The Players

Franchise Group, the owner of brands like Pet Supplies Plus, The Vitamin Shoppe, and more - just acquired home furnishing company W.S. Badcock for $580M💰💰

Founded in 1904, W.S. Badcock Corporation operates 383 stores in eight southeastern states comprised of 68 corporate locations and 315 independent dealer owned stores.

The Scoop

Another big money acquisition in the franchise world! To me (part of) the beauty of franchising is how much it increases an entrepreneur’s surface area for luck.

If you start a business, franchise it, and grow your brand via your franchisees locations - quite simply people just start noticing. That could lead to more interest from franchisees, from PE Groups looking to make investments, or in this case, massive holding companies looking to acquire brands outright.

You can read the press release here.

More Headlines

Jack in the Box Invests in Robotics to Curb Labor Issues
Robotics to replace labor will be a trend that will continue with the big players

Papa Johns to Grow in Kenya & Uganda
The pizza giant only has so many markets that they haven’t entered yet

Breakdown: Toppers Pizza

Fast Facts

Background

• Founded in 1991; franchising since 2000

• Based in Wisconsin; 67 units open

• Toppers’ menu features specialty pizzas with toppings such as oven-roasted tomatoes, mac 'n cheese and tater tots, along with the company's signature cheesy breadsticks called Topperstix

Fees + Investment

• Royalty: 5.5% of gross sales

• Brand Fund: 3.3% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $30,000

• Initial Investment: $314,075 - $530,000

Financial Performance

• The below table illustrates average gross sales for Toppers units in 2020

  

The Wolf’s Take 🍟 

Toppers was founded by Scott Gittrich, an ex-Dominos employee, who started working there while attending the University of Illinois in 1984. He worked his way up to director of operations for a group of Domino's franchises before deciding in 1991 to go on his own in the pizza biz by founding Toppers.

Aside from the cool story of the founder, I like the numbers too. They show consistency amongst their 67 locations, as well as a steady increase the longer your store remains open.

Dominos is the clear benchmark every pizza franchise should be comparing themselves to - they have an initial investment of $152k-$668k, and an estimated avg annual revenue of $1,177,696 per location.

Comparing them to Toppers, we see that the Toppers investment has a lower ceiling, and after a few years you aren’t too far off from Dominos revenue. To me this is absolutely worth exploring if you’re interested in owning a pizza restaurant!

Recent News

• Toppers Pizza Grabs Minority Investment From PE Firm

• Toppers Closes Out Q3 With 20% Growth In Year-Over-Year Sales

Twitter Watch 👀

I wrote this thread yesterday, and it is by far my favorite story I’ve ever written about in franchising. It tells the story of the man who brought McDonald’s to Japan.

Follow @franchisewolf and give it a read!

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