Key takeaways: Non-food franchising covers hundreds of business models, from home services to B2B consulting to wellness, and about 90% of Ostenson’s clients end up in an industry they never originally considered. Total investment ranges widely: roughly $300,000-$700,000 for a brick-and-mortar location, versus $100,000-$200,000 for a service-based business with no physical storefront. Most buyers finance part of the purchase through SBA loans or a ROBS retirement rollover rather than paying entirely in cash. Ownership isn’t all-or-nothing: buyers can run the business themselves or take a semi-involved role by hiring a strong operator to handle daily operations. Number of locations matters less than financial strength, real competitive advantages, and an experienced leadership team when vetting a franchise brand. “Unsexy” and recurring-revenue industries (property services, senior care, pet waste removal) are attracting serious buyer interest because demand for them rarely disappears. Franchising works best for people willing to follow an established system; overextending financially or resisting the playbook are the two biggest red flags Ostenson watches for.

When most people hear the word “franchise,” their mind jumps straight to fast food. Subway. McDonald’s. A cash register and a drive-thru window. But according to Jon Ostenson, founder of FranBridge Consulting and author of Non-Food Franchising, that assumption is costing people a shot at some of the most profitable, low-drama business opportunities available today.

Ostenson has spent the last seven years helping hundreds of people step into business ownership, almost entirely outside the restaurant world. His firm operates like a real estate broker for franchises: free to the client, paid by the brand on the back end. In a recent conversation on the Dwanderful podcast with host Dwan Bent-Twyford, he broke down exactly where the smart money is going, and why the least glamorous businesses are often the best ones.

What non-food franchising actually means

Ostenson’s path into franchising started in the corporate world, where he eventually became president of a national franchise system focused on pull-out kitchen and pantry shelving. Running the home office team that supported roughly a hundred franchisees was the moment everything clicked for him. He watched people from completely different backgrounds step into ownership under one shared system of support, and he was hooked.

That experience led him to invest in franchises himself, then eventually launch FranBridge Consulting to help others do the same. The core idea behind non-food franchising is simple: franchising isn’t one industry, it’s hundreds of different business models, and most of them have nothing to do with food service.

Why people overlook these opportunities

Ostenson says the word “franchise” carries so much baggage that people shut down before they ever see what’s actually out there. Roughly 90% of his clients end up in an industry they never would have considered on their own. Once they get past the food association, a much wider world opens up.

Some of the categories seeing the most interest right now include:

• Home and property services — flooring, insulation, cabinets, restoration, dumpsters
• B2B services — insurance adjusting, freight brokerage, cost consulting, industrial supplies
• Senior care and services — tapping into a massive and growing demographic
• Health and wellness — recovery modalities, longevity centers, salon and beauty concepts
• Niche recurring-revenue businesses — pool cleaning, pet waste removal, and similar unglamorous but steady services

Ostenson’s own take: the “non-sexy is the new sexy” when it comes to business ownership. Buyers increasingly want dependable, cash-flowing businesses that aren’t at the mercy of consumer trends or easily disrupted by AI.

How Much Money Do You Actually Need?

This is usually the first question people ask, and the answer depends heavily on the type of business.

For a retail-style, brick-and-mortar location, the full investment (franchise fee, startup costs, and working capital) typically lands somewhere between $300,000 and $700,000. Service-based businesses without a physical location, which make up about two-thirds of Ostenson’s clients, are far more accessible: usually in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

Most buyers don’t pay in cash. Common funding paths include:

• SBA loans, which banks tend to approve readily for franchise purchases
• ROBS (Rollover for Business Startups), which allows buyers to fund a purchase using retirement account funds

So someone with $50,000 saved isn’t necessarily priced out. In many cases, that amount can be paired with financing to get into a business well above that number.

Owner-Operator vs. Semi-involved Ownership

One of the biggest misconceptions is that buying a franchise means quitting your life to run it every day. Ostenson splits his clients roughly in half:

• Owner-operators, who run the day-to-day business themselves, often with a long-term plan to eventually step back
• Semi-involved owners (sometimes called semi-passive or executive-model owners), who hire a strong operator to manage daily operations while they focus on oversight and growth

Ostenson is careful not to oversell this second path. Nothing in franchising is truly passive, and the model only works if you have the right person running things day to day. Get that hire wrong, and the owner ends up leaning back in until a better operator is found.

How to Vet a Franchise Brand

The number of locations isn’t the deciding factor. Ostenson works with brands ranging from just a couple of units to hundreds, and every franchise system had to start somewhere. What actually matters when evaluating a brand:

• Financial strength of the model, especially critical for newer brands with a smaller track record
• True competitive advantages, not just a good pitch deck
• Leadership team experience, particularly people who have supported franchisees successfully before, not just people with industry experience

He also warns against trusting “top franchise” lists at face value; many of those rankings are pay-to-play placements rather than objective vetting. That’s part of why working with someone who goes deep on the industry relationships matters.

Emerging brands and the case for getting in early

A growing share of Ostenson’s clients are drawn to newer, emerging franchise brands rather than established household names. The appeal: better territory selection, a seat at the table before the concept scales, and the sense of being an early mover.

As an example, Ostenson mentioned a business built around mobile diesel fueling for commercial vehicle fleets, which he predicts will sell out its available U.S. territories quickly. He described this kind of rapid territory sell-through as a “runner,” a brand that moves through inventory in as little as 12 months.

The Trend Ostenson is Watching most closely: Health, Wellness, and Longevity

Wellness and longevity businesses are having a moment. Ostenson pointed to a new concept combining recovery modalities (sauna, cold plunge, red light therapy) with peptide injections and hormone replacement under one roof, backed by high-profile names in the wellness space. He expects it to sell out across most U.S. markets quickly.

This ties into a broader shift he’s seeing: more buyers want businesses tied to categories with staying power, including health and wellness, senior care, kids’ services, and pets, rather than trend-driven concepts that can disappear as fast as they arrived.

Who should NOT buy a franchise

Not everyone is a good fit, and Ostenson doesn’t shy away from saying so directly when needed. Two disqualifiers come up often:

1. Financial overextension — if buying the business would stretch someone too thin, it’s not the right move regardless of how good the concept is.
2. Lack of humility — franchising rewards owners willing to follow an established playbook. The strongest performers are typically the ones who stick closest to the system rather than trying to reinvent it.

Where real estate investors fit in

For an audience of real estate investors, Ostenson drew a direct line between the two worlds. Many of his clients also invest in real estate, and he sees strong overlap not just in strategy but in mindset. Both paths involve alternative, tax-advantaged investments that the government actively incentivizes, and the same buyers who like building wealth through property tend to like building it through business ownership too.

Three steps to get started

For anyone ready to explore non-food franchising, Ostenson laid out a simple path:

1. Request the free resource. Visit FranBridgeConsulting.com and download his book, Non-Food Franchising, a 90-page primer that’s already reached thousands of readers.
2. Start narrowing the search. Think through what business ownership should realistically look like: industries of interest, funding approach, and whether you want to run the business yourself or bring in an operator.
3. Book a call. The consultation is free, and it’s designed to expose you to the strongest opportunities open in your specific market so you can compare real options side by side.

The bottom line

The biggest opportunity in franchising right now might not be a shiny new concept. It might be the businesses nobody is excited to talk about at a dinner party: dumpsters, pet waste removal, industrial hoses, parking lot striping. As Ostenson put it, people who are willing to build a business around the tasks others don’t want to do tend to do very well, because that demand never really goes away.

His parting word of advice, and the one word he left the audience with, was momentum: the idea that activity breeds activity, and that taking the first step toward option A or option B is often what causes option C to appear.

Building Your Own Momentum with Dwanderful

Whether the path forward looks like a non-food franchise, a rental portfolio, or some combination of the two, the underlying lesson from this conversation holds up: the people who get ahead are usually the ones who took a first step instead of waiting for a perfect plan. That’s the same philosophy behind Dwanderful, the real estate investing platform and podcast hosted by Dwan Bent-Twyford, where this episode originally aired.

Dwanderful exists to help investors build that momentum for themselves, whether they’re chasing their first property or their fortieth. The site offers a free copy of Dwan’s book, Real Estate Lingo, a helpful starting point for anyone who wants to walk into a deal speaking the language of the industry with confidence. For investors ready to go deeper, her paid book, Five Pillars of Real Estate Investing, breaks down the framework she’s used to guide students through decades of deals.

For anyone unsure where to even begin, Dwanderful also offers a quick quiz that shows how you could realistically generate six figures in the next six months, whether you’re buying your first property or lining up your next one. It takes less than a minute to complete and is designed to point you toward the strategy that actually fits your situation.

As Dwan wrapped up her conversation with Jon, she brought that same energy back to the audience, thanking him for joining the show and reminding listeners why they tune in every week. Contact us now!