‘Computers Can’t Tie Balloons’: 8 Innovative New Franchises
These franchises identified market gaps, and are turning unique ideas into scalable business models for our current moment.
This story appears in the January 2026 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
To view our entire 2026 Franchise 500 list, including category rankings, click HERE.
Want to spend your days doing something unexpected? This year’s Franchise 500 ranking showed there are all kinds of wacky, inventive, thoughtful concepts cropping up. Whether you want to stay active or get creative, check out these unique new franchises.
Get ambience on demand!
Weddings have become a $70 billion industry in the U.S. A huge portion of that is rentals — tables, chairs, linens, and more. But when Mindy Halley started SoCal Candle Rentals in 2022, she’d never heard of anyone supplying luxury candles and design services for parties and events, she says. “During the process of training new employees, I had the light-bulb moment,” Halley says. “If I could easily train our team members to deliver this beautiful service flawlessly, I could certainly share this refined system with like-minded entrepreneurs,” she says. She now has five franchises and two affiliate locations throughout Southern California and Arizona.
Sports for all abilities!
Inclyousion Sports’ mission is right there in the name: It’s to create inclusive sports programming for children of all ability levels. Since small class sizes and highly trained coaches are key to the model, cofounder Kristen Perkins says she saw two paths to keep growing — either keep bringing on employees, or “become a franchise business and empower passionate people to become business owners and impact their community the way we have ours.” Perkins developed a “turnkey model” for franchisees to start up quickly and easily. But success will always require deep engagement with local communities to ensure that Inclyousion is meeting everyone’s unique needs.
Have your corn and eat it too!
Aww Shucks is turning a street-fair favorite into a franchise opportunity: It sells fire-roasted corn from food trucks and storefronts. Founders Avrie and Phillip Powell started the company in 2020 as a way to bring healthier food alternatives to outdoor events — like festivals and concerts — around Birmingham, Alabama. Two years later, they opened their first brick-and-mortar store, but “meeting the enthusiasm of our customers has been our greatest challenge,” Phillip says. Once they started franchising, their idea truly caught fire. In addition to their location in Birmingham, they are opening a franchise in Atlanta in the spring.
Blow up your balloon game!
Party City used to dominate the party-supply business…until it filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and then again in 2024, and closed its doors in most locations. That’s when Andrea Ferguson saw her big opportunity. She’s the founder of Up in the Air Balloons, which creates unique balloon creations (like balloon arches, garlands, photo backdrops, and more) for events. And with Party City nearly gone, she knew that event hosts would be looking for new suppliers. Ferguson spent the past year laying the groundwork to franchise, and is currently speaking with her first franchisees. In an era of increasing digitization, she says, her business has an advantage: “Computers can’t tie balloons.”
Related: This One Type of Business is Booming Amid a Drastic Population Change
Pickleball to your heart’s content!
David Klembith, a former professional tennis player, had already been building tennis courts for more than 20 years when the pickleball craze seized the U.S. That’s when he saw the chance to truly scale his business. He rebranded it as Cortz, a company that builds and resurfaces playing courts — be they pickleball, basketball, or others. “As we set our sights on national expansion,” Klembith says, “franchising became the logical next step.” He set clear goals from the start: The first five franchise locations would have to demonstrate immediate results before he was willing to move on to more. He’s now at 21 franchise locations, with the goal of reaching 50 by the end of 2026.
Connect with your inner child!
There are few things more fun than splattering paint on a canvas, which is exactly what you can do at Shot of Art. The first location opened in New York in 2022, and “from Day 1, guests were saying, You have to open one in my city!” cofounder Nadia Kuzmina says. The company started opening corporate-owned locations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, then moved on to a franchise in Irvine, California, in 2024. As Shot of Art prepares to open new franchise locations, the biggest challenge has been “giving each owner creative freedom” while keeping the brand consistent, Kuzmina says.
Related: 8 Bold New Franchise Concepts You’ll Want to Know About
Build your own bouquet!
Bouquet Box sells flowers in a brand-new way. It began by offering DIY flower-arranging subscriptions, where recipients would receive a monthly box of flowers (along with instructions on how to make that month’s design). Then clients asked for an in-person experience at events, so Bouquet Box created the “Flower Bar” — a lineup of flowers that people could arrange into their own bouquets. Demand quickly spread, so cofounder Amy Nebens sought out new ways to expand. That’s why they began franchising. A year and a half in, Bouquet Box Flower Bar now has three franchise locations: Nashville, Tennessee; Tampa, Florida; and California’s wine country.
Give your dog an adventure!
There’s doggie daycare, and then there’s Hike Doggie, which picks up your dog in the morning, takes them on an outdoor adventure, and then delivers them back home in the afternoon ready to nap. From the beginning, founder Kath Allen knew the business was a natural fit for franchising. Still, she took it slow. “For the first year, we ran the business out of my home as if we were a franchise,” Allen says. Now, Hike Doggie has six franchise locations in and around the Mountain West (including three in Colorado, where the company is based, plus another one in Idaho), one in Tennessee, and one in New Mexico.
Related: Want to Buy a Top-Tier Franchise? These Brands Rise Above the Rest.
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To view our entire 2026 Franchise 500 list, including category rankings, click HERE.
Want to spend your days doing something unexpected? This year’s Franchise 500 ranking showed there are all kinds of wacky, inventive, thoughtful concepts cropping up. Whether you want to stay active or get creative, check out these unique new franchises.
Get ambience on demand!
Weddings have become a $70 billion industry in the U.S. A huge portion of that is rentals — tables, chairs, linens, and more. But when Mindy Halley started SoCal Candle Rentals in 2022, she’d never heard of anyone supplying luxury candles and design services for parties and events, she says. “During the process of training new employees, I had the light-bulb moment,” Halley says. “If I could easily train our team members to deliver this beautiful service flawlessly, I could certainly share this refined system with like-minded entrepreneurs,” she says. She now has five franchises and two affiliate locations throughout Southern California and Arizona.
