Every year, as we scour the data from the Franchise 500 rankings, we notice some brands that are making big moves. Sometimes they come out of nowhere, having never ranked before. Sometimes they ranked lower last year, and jumped over a hundred spots — proving they’re doing something worth paying attention to. So we chose five of the biggest movers, and explored the strategies behind their success.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Zoomin Groomin
Jumped 221 Spots: Zoomin Groomin is joining the Franchise 500 for the first time.
It’s debuting at No. 280.
John Hewitt is amazed by how much money people will spend on their dogs.
That’s saying something, given that Hewitt has some experience with high-net-worth enterprises. Hewitt cofounded Jackson Hewitt, the tax preparation services empire, and sold it for $483 million. Today, his company Loyalty Brands has seven franchise brands with an eighth in the works, offering everything from construction and tax and accounting services to, yes, pet services — which he says is the “fastestgrowing false by far.”
“I love my tax-preparation industry, but it only grew by 1% a year,” he says. “The amount spent on pets has doubled, and it’s expected to double again in the next five years.”
His mobile pet-grooming brand is Zoomin Groomin, which he acquired in 2021. Back then, the business was about 18 years old, struggling, and had just two franchises and four vans. Now it has 134 units — and is joining the Franchise 500 for the first time, debuting at an impressive No. 280.
“We’re bringing in about six to eight new franchises a month, and adding 12 to 14 new vans a month,” Hewitt says. “The demand is so great; after you’re in business about six months, you’re booked three weeks in advance. You need another van, so your business is expanding.”
He says that by 2029, he expects Zoomin Groomin to have 3,000 vans in operation — and he plans to build on customer demand across multiple brands. He recently acquired Salty Dawg storefront pet salon and bakery, and is launching a pet waste removal franchise.
The Loyalty Brands franchises share information about customers, he says, giving pet-business franchisees a boost to their sales base.
“Our largest office does 5,000 tax returns. Well, those tax returns — an estimated 3,500 of them have pets,” he says. “So we cross-market to our other companies. Very few organizations do a good job of that cross-marketing. I expect that we’ll have 1,000 franchisees by 2029.”
He’s also planning to test ideas for further monetization: “This is already successful. The average van does about $200,000 and nets $50,000. We’re going to add things in like dog walking and insurance. We’re not just sitting on our laurels. We’re committed to improving the system to help our franchisees monetize their databases.”
Image Credit: Courtesy of The Now Massage
Jumped 195 Spots: The Now Massage is joining the Franchise 500 for the first time.
It’s debuting at No. 306.
When Jason and Gara Post opened their first Now Massage boutique in 2015 in West Hollywood, California, the couple envisioned a membership-based concept with customizable services, so that massages could become a convenient part of guests’ and members’ monthly routines.
The Now Massage began franchising in 2019, and this is the company’s first year in the Franchise 500 — debuting strongly at No. 306. The Now has 60 boutiques across the United States, with more than 170 locations in development. Average gross revenue of franchises open more than a year is $1.2 million.
One initiative that helped drive that growth in the past year is better digital marketing, says Jeff Platt, president of The Now.
“We developed an in-house agency team that optimizes ad spend across our franchise network,” Platt says. “This approach enables us to shift strategies in real time on platforms like Meta, driving more bookings and ensuring each marketing dollar delivers results across our boutiques.”
The company also built a new website with AI integration, which will launch in early 2025 to give customers a smoother digital experience.
Of course, offerings also continue to evolve inside the boutiques, says cofounder and chief creative officer Gara Post.
“We are constantly researching and expanding our menu of massages and enhancements, launching gliding cupping [using silicone cups to glide over the skin and relieve muscle tension] at locations nationwide in 2023, in addition to service integration partnerships with best-in-class brands like Ouai, Summer Fridays, Rare Beauty, and more,” Post says. “These partnerships have become essential to our marketing strategy and service innovation.”
For 2025, The Now is also launching a loyalty program, and investing in resources to empower franchisees as they build their teams at every level. The company is seeking to sign franchise agreements for locations including Washington D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Charlotte, St. Louis, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. The ideal franchise owner is a multi-unit operator.
“Service innovation will remain a key focus as we aim to have 100 locations operating by the end of 2025,” Platt says. “We will diversify our offerings by testing and launching innovative new enhancements and services designed to attract first-time guests while inspiring excitement among our team members, existing guests, and members.”
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Rolling Suds
Jumped 190 Spots: Rolling Suds is joining the Franchise 500 for the first time.
It’s debuting at No. 311.
The Rolling Suds power-washing brand began more than three decades ago in Pennsylvania. It started franchising in 2022 and had 47 franchise locations open as of July 2024, landing it on the Franchise 500 for the first time — at No. 311.
“This year, we evolved a lot,” says CEO Aaron Harper. “Our systems were built at the beginning of the year, but we quickly realized we needed to build an executive team of seasoned franchise professionals to support our franchisees. Going from 90 territories sold at the end of 2023 to nearly 250 territories sold by the end of 2024 required us to grow as a team.”
The company focuses more on commercial businesses than residential, with trucks that can soft-wash four stories from the ground and clean homes in less than 30 minutes.
“We learned that cold outreach is one of the most effective methods of acquiring customers,” Harper says. “People have dirty buildings and homes that need to be cleaned. The industry is so fragmented that there aren’t a ton of power-washers getting in front of these customers. In a lot of ways, it’s a blue ocean.”
For 2025, the plan includes tackling national accounts, with a good portion of franchise owners having operated for at least a year. Harper says he expects to have more than 420 locations nationwide by the end of 2025.
“California is a big target for us,” he says. “We are getting a ton of traction there, selling 15 units in the last 12 months. Other states where we would like to get more franchise owners would be Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, California, Florida, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, and Oregon, just to name a few.”
He says the ideal franchise owner wants to build a sizable business, has a higher risk tolerance with a more entrepreneurial mind than average franchisees, is well-capitalized, and does not need to take a salary from the business in year one.
“A few of our operators are multi-brand, multi-unit franchisees who are well-poised for rollup opportunities within the network as opportunities arise,” he says. “None of our franchise owners are coming in expecting to be part-time out the gate. However, we do not want them out power-washing buildings. They will have two employees hired before training for that. We have a very specific ideal operator: They must be comfortable going out into their community every day to develop relationships to win work.”
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Amada Senior Care
Jumped 179 Spots: Amada Senior Care began franchising in 2012, and has made the Franchise 500 before. It missed the ranking last year, however — and is now back at a strong No. 322.
What caused the sudden acceleration? In short: The brand took two of its offerings and built them into much bigger opportunities.
Amada Senior Care has an unusual origin story. It begins with NFL player Tafa Jefferson, who signed with the Chicago Bears in 1997 but suffered career-ending injuries a year later. He began talking with his college football teammate Chad Fotheringham, and the two went into business together — deciding to create Amada because Jefferson’s mom used to work in senior care, and he saw opportunity there.
At the start, Amada Senior Care provided basic in-home care for seniors. “We ran our own agency in Orange County for six or seven years,” Fotheringham says. “We had a friend who wanted to get into the business. He saw that we were doing well, and he said he wanted to be our first franchise.”
By 2023, the brand had 156 franchisees. Then it began emphasizing two of its offerings more than it had before — leading to strong growth and 41 more franchise locations, with average unit volume growing 16.4% between October 2023 and October 2024. It had 249 locations sold by the end of 2024, and 500 more mapped out for purchase.
So what were those offerings? One of them was placements. Although Amada helps seniors in their homes, some eventually require alternate living arrangements. Amada helps them find the best assisted-and memory-care facilities, and then collects placement fees.
The other offering involves helping aging military veterans. Many veterans are eligible for a government benefit that covers in-home care, but most veterans don’t know about it or can’t figure out how to get it. The Amada team untangles the bureaucratic maze for them.
Focusing on serving severely underserved populations — particularly in rural areas — helped Amada serve about four times more veterans in 2024 than in 2023.
“We have certified educational units at the healthcare facilities, so their people can understand better how these programs work, send these [veterans] over to us, and then we advocate for them within the bureaucratic system,” he says.
For frustrated caregivers who had been trying to help veterans receive in-home care, the option was a godsend. “The amount of business we could create from that vertical was incredible,” Jefferson says.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Playa Bowls
Jumped 157 Spots: Playa Bowls was No. 461 on our list last year.
Now it’s No. 304.
In 2014, a pair of surfers set up a card table in Belmar, New Jersey, and started selling acai bowls. They came up with the idea after traveling the world and learning about acai and pitaya. These became among the first branded Playa Bowls.
Within a year, they opened their first official location in Belmar. Then they started expanding. The first franchise opened in 2016, and they ended 2024 with nearly 300 total units. This is only its second time on the Franchise 500; last year, it was at No. 461. Now it’s No. 304.
What caused the big jump? New leadership — and a new approach to franchisee growth.
As franchises grow, they often reach a pivotal moment: The founders have overseen growth the best they can, and are ready to bring in a seasoned executive. That’s what happened in April 2023, when former Smoothie King COO Dan Harmon became Playa Bowls’ new CEO.
Harmon has over three decades of franchising experience from Papa Murphy’s, Potbelly Sandwich Works, Blockbuster, and McDonald’s. He quickly saw two opportunities: help existing franchisees grow, and recruit new ones from underappreciated markets.
“Many of our existing franchisees wanted to grow,” says Jayson Tipp, the brand’s chief development officer. So the brand “got more aggressive about opening new markets,” Tipp says. As a result, in 2023, 60% of the brand’s new franchise commitments were with existing franchisees.
Playa Bowls also outsourced recruiting for new franchise candidates, he says. “We hadn’t been very attentive to opportunities in Texas, for instance. We looked at Houston and Dallas, so we’ll have those shops opening in 2025. Our first shop in Chicago opened this past October. And we started doing multi-unit agreements, which we hadn’t done before.”
The minimum multi-unit agreement is three locations, and the maximum is 10, with a maximum term of five years. Last year, Playa Bowls mostly sold three-unit agreements to new franchisees, with a lot of five- and 10-unit agreements going to existing franchisees.
“It’s a vote of confidence,” Tipp says. “Franchise owners follow profitability. If they’re making money, they’re happy to open another shop.”
Next on the list is continuing to streamline the store buildout process to lower costs. “We moved from owners hiring their own architects to having a centralized brand architect who handles all the new shop openings,” Tipp says. The franchise also now has a preferred equipment distributor that gives franchise owners an extra level of support. “We partnered with them really closely, so our franchise owners don’t have to go shop around.”
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