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What's New Things popping up and sitting up (arf!) in franchising today

By Devlin Smith

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Self-crowned Queen of Pop Michelle Hebert has always lovedpopcorn-she even worked for a Canadian company specializing ingourmet varieties of the treat. But when the company wouldn'texpand into her adopted home of Michigan, Hebert struck out on herown, starting Pop Culture in 1996.

Each Pop Culture location serves 23 flavors of popcorn,including Pickled Wrangler, Dreamy Chocolate Drizzle and CoolRanch. Pop Culture franchisees are also encouraged to create theirown flavors, as Puerto Rican franchisee Vivian Torres did withBanana Split-popcorn topped with banana, creamy caramel and whitechocolate flavors.

Have a new puppy? John Van Olden believes dogs are best trainedin the home first, with no outside distractions. Using hisexperience as an army dog trainer, Van Olden put this belief intopractice with K-9 Advantage, a company he founded in 1998 and beganfranchising in 2000.