Service-Industry Franchises Grow 30% In Two Years

Miami Herald:

Jim Sargent paid good money for his hot and dirty job.

As the owner of a Filtafry franchise, he spends most days scraping out the red-hot innards of deep-fat fryers, while a contraption the size of a small photocopier sucks up and cleans murky cooking oil, giving it a few extra days of life.

Filtafry is a small part of a sizzling category of franchising: the service sector.

While restaurants and fast-food chains are still the dominant features of the franchise landscape, representing 19 percent of all such businesses, the service industry is seeing the fastest growth.

From 2003 to 2005 the service-industry franchise sector grew more than 30 percent, while franchise food establishments saw just 5 percent growth, according to a study by FRANdata.

Sargent admits his job isn’t pretty, but that’s part of what makes it profitable.

”Sometimes you have to find the thing nobody else wants to do because it’s dirty or not glamorous,” said Sargent, who charges about $55 per fryer. “But the hope is you can sell it and might make a run of it.”

Too often people go into the franchise process with a one-track mind, said Michael Bush, president of Franchise Advisors, a company that matches entrepreneurs with franchise opportunities. ”Most clients I deal with start off talking about fast-food chains they like to eat at,” he said.

But the real opportunities can often be found behind the scenes. They’re the franchises that serve franchises — as well as other business customers.

A company called Sparkling Image, for example, sends teams out to provide ceiling-to-floor scrubbing of restrooms at restaurants. A franchise called 1-800-GOT-JUNK hauls commercial garbage on short notice.

Most franchisees have to be led to these hidden opportunities, but Sargent, who was director of food services at Broward County Community College, recognized the potential of Filtafry the first time he saw it.