PocketSuite recently published their 2024 Business Outlook for Personal Services Franchises, full of valuable insights for your 2024 franchise planning.

What is PocketSuite?

As a franchise system owner or operator, you have a growing network of franchisees looking to you for guidance and support on everything from opening, managing and growing their businesses. If they are juggling many different technologies to manage their operations, consider PocketSuite, an all-in-one platform.

PocketSuite makes it easy to onboard new franchisees, manage existing locations and track performance. With your franchise system operating on one platform, you will have verified income data, roll up reporting and automatic royalty collections. All this and more are available in our industry-leading mobile app and desktop platform.

Read a snippet of their Business Outlook below.

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The Stars are Aligning for the Personal Services Industry

If you are a fitness instructor, an esthetician, a dog groomer, or a home healthcare provider, 2023 was a good year and 2024 is looking to be even better. According to International Franchise Association (IFA) data, franchised establishments delivering personal services such as beauty, health & wellness, and pet services enjoyed the highest growth of any franchise business line in 2023. In fact, since the Pandemic growth in Personal Services’ establishments has far outpaced every other franchise industry sector. Employment growth has also greatly exceeded the industry, increasing 21% compared to industry growth of 16%.

Why it Only Gets Better From Here

The outlook for 2024 and beyond looks favorable for Personal Services based on an assessment of economic, demographic and consumer indicators. Consumer Confidence January 2024 consumer confidence hit a 2-year high, according to the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index. Increased consumer confidence translates to higher consumer discretionary spending for services such as Beauty and Health and Wellness.

Aging of the Population

The US population is older today than it has ever been based on research by the Population Research Bureau (PRB). PRB forecasts that Americans aged 65 or older will increase almost 50% over the next 25 years compared to 11% growth in the overall population based on Congressional Budget Office statistics. An aging population presents the Personal Services industry with many avenues for growth including specialized Health and Wellness, Therapy, and Home Care services.

Interest Rate Outlook

The growing consensus among Wall Street economists is that the Federal Reserve’s credit tightening has come to an end. From its June 2022 peak of 9.1%, inflation has come down to an expected 3.1% in January 2024 and is forecast to trend down to 2.3% by Q3 2024 according to Trading Economics. This is good news for the Personal Services industry because consumers tend to rely upon credit cards or BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) financing to purchase personal services.

What Stands in the Way of Growth and Prosperity for Personal Service Franchise Brands?

Favorable economic and demographic trends, bolstered by improving consumer sentiment, create a land of opportunity for organic growth and emerging concept development in the Personal Services industry. The dramatic growth in recent years of salon suites, both franchise and corporate-owned concepts, is an example where commercial real estate investors have capitalized on consumer demand for Personal Services by renting “suites” to independent beauty Pros.

What was an emerging business model 10 years ago is now a multi-billion-dollar industry. Today’s emerging concepts in the Personal Services industry include hydration bars, mobile gyms for people (and pets!), and elderly care businesses providing services such as helping the 11,000 baby boomers reaching retirement age every day downsize and simplify their lives. FRANdata recently reported on the acceleration of Personal Service’s emerging concepts.

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Find the full 2024 Business Outlook here.

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