After attending the Franchise Expo South in Miami last month, a couple of trends seemed to be prevalent.  If the Expo was an accurate forecasting tool, it would be safe to say that the future of franchising lies in frozen yogurt (with your choice of toppings), pizza, and early childhood education.  All run by veterans.

What is NOT new is the apparent (continued) prospects' dependence on determining the quality of a franchise opportunity by the taste of the product or the pitch of the sales team.  What is also not new is my impassioned (also continued) insistence on the need for accurate, transparent measurements of franchisee satisfaction.  I maintain that this is a critical component of a prospect's due diligence.  There were a small number of exhibitors which had undergone  this internal scrutiny, underscoring their franchisee-focused approach.  I applaud them, and raise my cup of frozen yogurt in their honor.