In this era, when beauty, wellness and healthcare have gained a universal appeal in urban India, franchising offers huge business opportunities to these sectors. In a recently held franchise knowledge series workshop, in Mumbai, experts from these fields shared their views on the rising trends of franchising in beauty, wellness and health sectors. My sole aim is to provide my readers with some major factors that have propelled the Indian entrepreneurs to invest in these sectors.

Women, with the 10th year of the millennium 2000, are synonymous of power, grace and independence. This can be rightly called as the women’s era, seeing the remarkable progress of the fairer sex in the field of entrepreneurship. Till a few years back any woman venturing into the business arena was looked upon as an alien and was always believed that it was a man’s prerogative to earn money. But with time, women have made a successful transition from home-makers to business entrepreneurs.

The cash-loaded Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to flout global economic trends as merchandising is being considered to be the subsequent big avenue for generating income for the league. With majority of the telecast rights having being sealed already, merchandising is undoubtedly a well-thought-out step coming from the IPL. For instance, SET Max, the official broadcaster of the sporting event, IPL season three, has already sold 85 per cent of its advertising inventory.

The whole world has been engulfed by environmental crisis. If nothing is done things are going to spiral out of control. If everyone decides to go green and make eco friendly lifestyle changes, then we would all be in a much better position. Being an integral part of the business industry, franchising has also been enfolded by this rising concern.

Going green is the buzzword today. Going green is a way of doing your bit for the environment. As global warming has started showing its affects on the world, retailers are gearing up to follow strategies to help restoring the ecological balance and making their contribution. Even though the revolution of going green started more than a decade ago, it is only now becoming the ‘in’ thing.