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.

The number of home based franchises continues to grow and in some franchise segments the home based feature exists in the majority of the franchise companies. Looking back into franchise history the typical franchise was a bricks and mortar franchise whether it was a KFC, Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds.

As the founder of the Franchise Research Institute, I am sometimes asked why mega-franchises like McDonalds and Subway don't seem to rely on franchisee satisfaction surveys to market their franchise opportunities, when it proves to be such a valuable tool for other franchisors, not only for marketing purposes but also for key internal decisions.

What’s wrong with franchising in 2012? Perhaps I would invoke the words of Charles Dickens and assert that franchising is experiencing “the best of times and the worst of times."