Data:'09 Franchise Times Top 200; chart by BMM

The autumn franchise-buying season is now upon us. To begin the season, Black Enterprise magazine provides 40 franchises that it considers a best fit for African Americans.

Methodology: The International Franchise Association, a trade group funded largely by franchisors (sellers of franchises), provided BE the sectors that it says are trending up and a list of five hundred paying franchisor members in these sectors for BE to contact. The magazine writers had these franchisors fill out a survey on their diversity practices, and then vetted out the top candidates based on such factors as affordability, revenue, diversity and advertising support. No charts were in the original article, but since revenue was an important consideration, Blue MauMau has added two charts from information that we could obtain of 2009's sales per store (systemwide sales divided by number of franchised and company-owned units).

So here are a few names from BE's list of 40. (Readers will have to obtain the ink and paper version of the magazine to see the full list.) The links and charts of sales per store in 2009 are by me. These include other brands that are not on the BE list to help readers compare.

• Car services
  • Maaco
  • Meineke (Its CEO, Ken Walker, is chair of the IFA)
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  Data:'09 Franchise Times Top 200; chart by BMM
  Restaurant
  • Church's Chicken
  • Popeye's Louisiana
• Health
  • Comfort Keepers
  • Home Instead
• Janitorial
  • Coverall
  • JanPro
  • Service Master (Service Master's CEO, Michael Isakson, is a former IFA chairman)