WHERE THE BOOM IS REALLY BOOMING...

Why is business so great for home improvement, chicken, health-and-wellness, and pet brands? The answer tells you a lot about where franchising is going next.

- KIM KAVIN

It's been a wild time for franachising. Some categories reinvented themselves in the earlier days of the pandemic, like tutoring, when it moved from in-home to virtual. Others experienced a massive boom once vaccines rolled out and people began resuming a version of normal life. So what comes next? How can we predict which ones will do well going forward?

Here's a theory: Major clues to franchising's future can be found inside the home improvement, chicken, health-and-wellness, and pet categories.

Why those? Let's back up. Every December, Entrepreneur publishes a list of 10 thriving areas in franchising where, based on an analysis of industry trends and year-over-year growth, we expect to see continued success. These categories have all gone strong for two years or more, and seem well-positioned to continue thriving.

By understanding why these sectors are doing so well, we wondered: Can we get a better sense of where the industry is going? That's what we set out to explore and in doing so, a pattern emerged. All these categories are responding to the shifting lifestyles of consumers.

On the following pages, you'll find an examination of each, an interview with a franchisee who recently joined it, and, we hope, insights that can help you prepare for your own success ahead.

WHY HOME IMPROVEMENT IS BOOMING...

When people spend far more time at home than usual, they start thinking about all the things they'd like to change about their homes. That's why, since the start of the pandemic, Americans have been doing everything from putting up window treatments to installing new kitchens to ordering pools. And because travel restrictions prevented many people from spending money on annual vacations, there was more cash than usual to put into home projects.