Well, put your assumptions aside, because here are successful franchise opportunities that, with a ton of hard work, can ring up millions in sales every year and make owners rich. This is a diverse group of sectors — such as travel agent, kids' soccer coach, home inspector, wildlife trapper — that require daily, hands-on effort from the owner. Prior experience is helpful but not mandatory, and all franchisors provide proven training, marketing and management tools.

Top earners suggest that if you just follow those blueprints, you'll be successful. Still, there are intangibles to consider when shopping for a franchise, Stites said. The franchisor's support culture is key.

Look for ones that host regular, interactive get-togethers. Travel agent sounds like a bygone job, what with the boatload of do-it-yourself booking websites.

Despite the name, beyond cruises, franchisees in this network of more than 1, franchises book air and land travel and hotels and provide related options, all in affiliation with American Express Travel Services. So I put on my big-girl pants and from that day forward knocked it out of the ballpark. She runs the business by herself and admits never leaving her home office — except to embark upon numerous "familiarization" trips Cruise Planners offers agents, many with all expenses paid minus airfare.

The upfront may be low, but the profile of owners of Proforma's U. Brandon Kennedy had worked for a similar franchisor before joining Proforma in , experience that helped him turn a profit after two months.

Alex Woods was living the dream. He'd turned a passion for playing soccer, including four years at Trinity University in San Antonio, into a pro career, eventually with the Charlotte Eagles. To make extra money, he coached little kids for a local Soccer Shots franchise. That reality hit in when Woods hung up his cleats and invested in a Soccer Shots franchise in Houston, his hometown. At first he figured he could run it alone, but as more preschools, daycare centers and public parks signed up tykes ages 2 to 8 for sessions, "I started hiring coaches and office staff," he recalled.

Today he manages a team of 30 people, and the franchise is growing nearly 40 percent a year. Woods is what Matt Kurowski, vice president of marketing for Middletown, Pennsylvannia-based Soccer Shots, calls one of their bootstrappers: Woods' greatest challenge, he said, is "finding coaches who share your passion for soccer and kids. His other secret to success? Those stats help explain why Fit Body Boot Camp , in Chino, California, opened 15 new franchise locations a month last year, bringing its total to , said founder and president Bedros Keuilian.

Opening a big-box gym filled with the latest workout equipment can cost hundreds of thousands. Scale is the exponential difference, Keuilian said. It's a payroll monster.

Marcia Inoue and her husband Egan ran several martial arts gyms in Honolulu but were struggling to pay the bills. Inoue's coaches lead groups through so-called "afterburn" workouts and provide nutrition counseling all geared to fat loss, she explained.

Top Franchises from Entrepreneur's Franchise List

She credited FBBC's training and marketing support for their success and warns potential franchisees, "Don't reinvent the wheel. Bob McDonough was making a good living as a building maintenance coordinator for about Target stores in the Southeast "but realized I wasn't cut out to be a corporate guy," he said.

Top Franchises of

McDonough focused on the huge number of foreclosures sold in his Atlanta marketplace and cultivated relationships with banks, mortgage brokers and real estate agents as referral sources. Today, as the market's revival continues, he's profiting from that pivot.

McDonough is one of U.

In April, Kathy Winslow staged a huge pop-up consignment sale at the Oklahoma City fairgrounds, offering used kids' clothing, toys and paraphernalia for up to 50 percent off retail prices.

Winslow used to live in Tulsa, where a neighbor, Shannon Wilburn, and a partner founded the JBF concept in on a small scale, holding sales in her living room. Winslow moved to Norman and set up similar events. Wilburn's business grew, and when she started selling JBF franchises in , Winslow grabbed one, eventually adding two more.

Many JBF owners — 97 percent are women — have other part-time jobs in between planning and marketing at least two events per year, usually in spring and fall, when they can undercut retailers' seasonal sales. That's when the workload requires full-time attention, Wilburn said. JBF is a faith-based company, she added, a culture reflected in disclosure information for prospective franchisees. It helps many people, so I want our franchisees to have a heart for others. Joe Felegi owns three Critter Control franchises and co-owns another in southeast Florida, where his 47 employees capture more than just raccoons, squirrels, bats and other common animals that shouldn't be inside homes and other buildings.

During 27 years in business, his profit margin has ranged from 12 percent to 20 percent. The year-old company, based in Traverse City, Michigan, was acquired in by Rollins, which owns fellow pest-controller Orkin. The publicly owned parent is converting Critter Control's largest territories into corporately owned units, Carruth explained, but is still selling franchises in many markets.

Owners run the gamut, he said, "from guys like myself who came out of college with no experience and bought a franchise to career guys who want a change of pace. Since then, the company has expanded its home services to include animal- and pest-damage repair, attic restoration and insulation, and exterior cleaning.

California businessman Don Taylor launched Help-U-Sell Real Estate in as an alternative to the traditional system of paying percentage-based commissions to brokers and their agents. Instead, Help U-Sell offers home sellers a fee-for-service model designed to save them money. Taylor began franchising the concept two years later, and today there are about Help-U-Sell units across the country. That describes Richard Cricchio, a broker who purchased his franchise in Honolulu in after many years with Century 21 and Prudential.

Similarly, his 12 full-time agents "are required to have worked with a traditional brokerage so that they know the difference. Over the years, after expenses including a 6 percent royalty payment, "my profit margins have been close to and exceeded 20 percent," he reported. American homeowners have an obsession with green lawns — and with farming out maintenance of them, spending billions annually on verdancy.

Interestingly, a Canadian, Des Rice, picked up on that, and in he launched Weed Man , began franchising in the provinces in '76 and spread to the United States in Today, franchisees, in the United States, provide fertilizing, weed control and insect control to tens of thousands of customers. Historically, mostly professional landscapers signed up with Weed Man to broaden their mowing, planting, raking and trimming services.

Jim McClure had his own landscaping business in Roswell, Georgia, when he bought his Weed Man franchise in He's since paid more to expand his territory to virtually all of north Atlanta. A big reason he went with Weed Man, he added, was the company's automatic customer renewal model, which means he doesn't have to resign them every year.

Lemcke reported that franchisees enjoy an average 75 percent customer retention rate. While the company's meticulous systems have contributed to his success, he also credits its culture. COM Home Entrepreneurs Leadership Careers Money Specials. Home Entrepreneurs Leadership Careers Money Specials. All Shows Adventure Capitalists American Greed American Vice A Billionaire's Bet: Chicago The Filthy Rich Guide The Partner The Profit The Profit in Cuba Secret Lives of the Super Rich Shark Tank Undercover Boss West Texas Investors Club.

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