Up sh** creek without a paddle? Need a pedicure but don't want a human touching your feet? Like a bit of porn with your pizza? You're in luck - there's a franchise to meet your needs. As you’ll see from this collection of 20 franchise concepts that made us go: “No! Surely not?” Then we checked them out and they all exist – or did exist until recently. Really. Then again, ten or twenty years ago, we thought dog walking and washing franchises were wacky. Now they’re mainstream. Do these kinds of franchises prove any viable business can be franchised, no matter how offbeat? Are they simply innovative and original – tomorrow’s dog washing franchises? Or are they exploitative, bringing discredit to the franchising industry as a whole? We’ll let you be the judge. A common criticism of franchising is that because it seeks to systemise and standardise, it can be too boring and beige. These franchises prove otherwise!

1. The World’s
20 Wackiest
Franchises
Proving you can franchise
just about anything

2. Up sh** creek without a paddle? Need a pedicure but don't want a human touching your feet? Like
a bit of porn with your pizza?
You're in luck - there's a franchise to meet your needs. As you’ll see from this collection of 20
franchise concepts that made us go: “No! Surely not?” Then we checked them out and they all exist
– or did exist until recently. Really.
Then again, ten or twenty years ago, we thought dog walking and washing franchises were wacky.
Now they’re mainstream.
Do the kinds of franchises prove any viable business can be franchised, no matter how offbeat? Are
they simply innovative and original – tomorrow’s dog washing franchises? Or are they exploitative,
bringing discredit to the franchising industry as a whole?
We’ll let you be the judge.
A common criticism of franchising is that because it seeks to systemise and standardise, it can be
too boring and beige. These franchises prove otherwise!
Welcome to 20 of the World’s Most
Unusual and Bizarre Franchises

4. Wacky Franchise #1:
Hangover Heaven Mobile
Hangover Treatment Clinic
“I don’t believe someone should lose an
entire day to a hangover because they
decided to relieve stress and have a
good time.”
So says Dr Jason Burke, the founder and
president of Hangover Heaven, a bus
that comes to you to deliver fast
hangover treatment via IV.

5. “After experiencing a few bad
hangovers in my lifetime, I decided to
apply my skills and develop a treatment
protocol that would take someone from
a semiconscious, porcelain-hugging, hit-
by-a-truck hangover to feeling like
you’re ready to take on the world in less
than 45 minutes,” says Dr Burke.
Just because it is currently only based in
Las Vegas doesn't mean there isn't a
city in the world where there wouldn't
be strong demand for the service. No
doubt that's the reason Burke's next
step is to franchise.

6. Wacky Franchise #2:
NitPro Head Lice Removal
Franchise
Queensland-based Kristen Semmens
had an itch to get into business for
herself so she and her husband Dave
came up with a unique concept –
creating a double income stream from a
kids hair salon franchise and a head lice
removal franchise.
Nice synergy.

7. With the slogan “We take nits seriously,
so you don’t have to”, Kristen was a
finalist in the 2012 AusMumpreneur of
the Year Services Category.
Nitpicking entrepreneurs have hatched
similar franchises in other parts of
Australia - No More Nitz in Sydney and
Melbourne’s Itch No More and National
Head Lice Treatment Centre. One we’ve
come across in the United States is The
Texas Lice Squad. We reckon it might
have been better named The Texas
Head Lice Massacre. Does your head
itch too just at the thought of it?

8. We quite liked the name of this
business ‘The Hairforce Lice Assassins’,
but we really loved the slogan on the
uniform – ‘Comb to Kill’ – and the Flash
Gordon-style ‘medical magnifying
goggles’.
This photo is from an article in The
Guardian about a woman who spent
four hundred pounds trying to rid her
daughter’s hair of lice.

9. Wacky Franchise #3:
Climax Drive Thru Strip Joint
Could this be the ultimate in convenience? We’re not
sure how this classy-looking establishment, the Climax
Gentlemen’s Club, actually works, but next time we’re
in New Alexandria, Pennsylvania, we may well check it
out. Purely for research purposes, of course.
This concept isn’t franchised yet but knowing those
entrepreneurial Americans, it’s only a matter of time.

10. Wacky Franchise #4:
Animals on the Move
We’ve already used the ‘hatching’ pun so
we’ll just say that the owners of Old
MacDonald’s Farm came up with the
idea of the Henny Penny hatching
programme for schools back in 1999 and
has been giving children the opportunity
to see chicks emerging into the world
ever since.
Animals on the Move is a kind of ‘try
before you buy’ programme for people
interested in calves, lambs, pigs, chooks,
ducks, geese, rabbits, and guinea pigs.

11. Wacky Franchise #5:
Heart Attack Grill
We’re big fans of honesty in advertising
but we can’t help feeling these guys
have gone a bit too far. Pictured below
is the triple bypass burger, one of the
most popular items on the menu at
Heart Attack Grill of Chandler, Arizona.
You can get it with flatliner fries ("deep
fried in PURE LARD!") and Jolt cola.
Makes your mouth water, doesn’t it?

13. Wacky Franchise #6:
Lollypotz Chocolate Bouquets
Bouquets made from chocolate?
Sounds the perfect gift, corporate or
personal. Loads of other people must
think so too because Lollypotz had sales
of $7 million last year and an average
annual growth rate of 131% over the
three years since they began.

14. Wacky Franchise #7: Sarah’s Smash Shack
Frustrated? Stressed? Finding that aromatherapy and massages just aren’t
working? Try hurling dinnerware at images of your boss or partner.

15. Wacky Franchise #8:
Wild Birds Unlimited
The world's largest system of franchised
specialty bird feeding stores. Their
marketing material claims the bird
feeding & watching is a $US4.7 billion
industry.
Go figure.

16. Wacky Franchise #9:
Mattress Doctor
Demand can be a capricious thing.
There wasn't a demand for yo-yos until
someone invented them, then demand
took off but just as quickly disappeared.
Who would have dreamed a few years
ago that there would be any demand at
all for dog washing or workplace
massage services?
The same thing happened in the case of
former accountant Bryan Williams. He
and his wife were researching ways to
relieve her asthma when they came
across businesses in Germany and the
United States that removed dust mites
and other asthma-inducing nasties from
mattresses.
"The more we looked at it we found
that no-one was doing it in the UK,"
says Bryan.
And a new franchise was born.

17. Wacky Franchise #10: SHE Sanitary Pad Franchise
This one sounds unlikely but it actually fulfils a vital social need in
African communities, where every year, around 50 days of school
or work are missed by girls and women who don’t have access to
sanitary pads, or can’t afford them. The alternatives - mud, bark
and rags - are not only ineffective but dangerously unhygienic.
Convinced that market-based strategies to social and health
problems are a more effective long-term solution than donations,
an organisation called SHE — Sustainable Health Enterprises — has
started providing training and micro-finance to women wanting to
manufacture and distribute low-cost sanitary pads made from
locally-sourced raw materials. SHE has used franchising because
the model can be replicated wherever there’s a need, enabling it to
help more people faster while allowing franchisees to become
financially self-sufficient.

18. Wacky Franchise #11:
Mini-franchises for Kids
Remember the "Lemonade 5 cents"
stand in Peanuts cartoons? Americans,
and to a lesser extent Kiwis, have
always applauded and encouraged
enterprise in their children.
Now there's a franchise that takes this
way beyond lemonade stands. Florida-
based FranChild provides children with
a "Business in a Box" for an initial fee of
just $US79. The young franchisees can
then order business cards, marketing
materials and a range of products which
they can sell to family and friends or, for
the more ambitious, at markets and
craft shows.

19. Wacky Franchise #12:
Beef Jerky Outlet
We're not fans of dried up bits of meat
so we can't see the appeal of stores
selling beef, lamb, wild game and even
ostrich and kangaroo, but we're told
there are queues for it at the new
American stores, especially during
NASCAR and other major sports events.

20. Wacky Franchise #13:
Shit Creek Paddle Stores
Talk about your recession-proof
franchise concept! We can’t decide if
this is the best franchise brand name
ever, or the worst. And if the original
business is located anywhere near a
creek, we’re pretty sure it’s not named
what the store’s named. We’re also sure
the business wasn’t established in 1868,
as their coat of arms implies (that’s
when their website says the expression
“up shit creek without a paddle” was
coined.)
The demand for this kind of franchise is
apparent from the Franworst website.
“I am 62 years old and can’t tell you
how many times I needed one of your
paddles,” said Bill.

21. Wacky Franchise #14:
Piranha Pedicures
Yes, it’s Kim Kardashian. What is it that’s
causing her to squeal like a not-famous-
for-being-famous girl in these photos?
Why, man-eating fish nibbling at her
toes, of course. Long available in Turkey
and Asia, skin exfoliation using tiny fish
is the newest beauty craze to hit the
United States and United Kingdom.

22. In what they call “sushi’s revenge”, the
Daily Mail reports that the Kensington
elite are “queuing up to pay £45 to put
their feet into a large tank of warm
water and have their dead skin nibbled
by the piranha's baby brother, the garra
rufa fish.” Not to be outdone, the
pregnant Kim Kardashian had herself
filmed taking the treatment – see the
video here. "Oh my god, oh my god, I
don't like it, I don't like it!" she shrieks.
"Can I take them out, can I take them
out?”

24. Wacky Franchise #15:
Private Arrangements
If you’re a woman over thirty looking for
a bit on the side, or a man needing
companionship and perhaps a bit more,
Private Arrangements could be for you.
“PA is unique to New Zealand,” says
Invercargill-based sexagenarian founder
“Kate” on her website. “Nowhere else
can you find a service which brings
ordinary people together for a candid
exchange of services of all sorts. It is not
an escort service or a dating site. It
offers commercial companionship,
opening the possibility of an exchange
of services from mundane to intimate.”
Last we heard, Kate was looking for
licensees to help her expand Private
Arrangements’ services throughout
New Zealand.

25. Wacky Franchise #16:
Yard Green Grass Painting
We really thought Richard Quick,
“beloved multimillionaire and president
of Franworst”, the satirical website on
“franchising’s worst scenarios”, was
pulling our chain on this one. But lo and
behold, there turned out to be not one
but several grass painting franchises in
the United States. This blurb from one
of them, Turf Painters, explains the
need for the service:
“Who paints there [sic] Lawn any way's?
“Most major sporting events touch up
(Paint) there greens. They use the same
products we use. Realtor's and
foreclosure brokers who are looking for
that curb appeal call on us to paint
there grass and Homeowners who need
a perfect looking lawn for that special
event, birthday, wedding or graduation
party .as well as renters who are sick of
the maintenance, and the high water
bill.”

26. Wacky Franchise #17:
SnorePro
It seems that men in New Zealand can’t win. If they’re not
short of a bit of female companionship, as we mentioned
earlier, they’re driving their companions to distraction with
their snoring. But never fear, another local franchise comes
to the rescue! SnorePro’s solution is a device that will look
familiar to many Kiwi blokes because it resembles a sports
mouthguard. SnorePro says it has a 98% success rate and
has ambitious plans to franchise the concept
internationally.

27. Wacky Franchise #18:
Private Arrangements
It’s troubling to see so many franchises
that are using sex to sell themselves.
There certainly must be a lot of sad
lonely guys in Winnepeg, Canada,
because we can't imagine too many
families or even couples ordering pizza
so they can add to their collection of
porn photos. That's Porno Pizza's point
of difference in a crowded market – as
you gobble up each slice of pizza, more
and more of the pornographic image
underneath is revealed. Sloth, gluttony
and lust combined – some would say it's
the perfect business. While we're not
sure how well entrepreneur Corey
Wildeman’s business is going, or how
many franchises he's sold, we do know
he has received a load of free publicity
and that according to him, young
women like the ones pictured with him
above are lining up to be featured in
the, er, photography.

28. Wacky Franchise #19:
Grumpy’s Bail Bonds
Grumpy’s founder Leah Hulan doesn’t look grumpy but the former Miss
Tennesee beauty queen is a bounty hunter, according to her website. And
she’s clearly prepared to use any points of difference she may have to stand
out from competitors such as Capital Bonds who are working, they say, to
become “the Wal-Mart of bail bonds”.
If, like us, you’re a fan of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels, this
franchise concept will make perfect sense to you.

29. Wacky Franchise #20:
1-800-AUTOPSY
Vidal Herrera has a thing about death.
His nickname is “El Muerto”. He started
his working life as an assistant medical
examiner with the Los Angeles County
coroner's office. Then, when he
damaged his back lifting a corpse, he
started his own private autopsy
business, and eventually franchised it.
Toxicology reports start at $400, and
you can get an autopsy from $1,500 to
$6,000. Harrera also has a spin-off
business called Coffincoaches.com (yep,
sofas made from disused coffins) and a
props business which hires out
embalming tables and body crypts to TV
and movie production companies.
The business is said to be booming and
for some reason, Harrera has no
competitors in the franchising world.

30. Wacky Franchise #20:
1-800-AUTOPSY
Vidal Herrera has a thing about death.
His nickname is “El Muerto”. He started
his working life as an assistant medical
examiner with the Los Angeles County
coroner's office. Then, when he
damaged his back lifting a corpse, he
started his own private autopsy
business, and eventually franchised it.
Toxicology reports start at $400, and
you can get an autopsy from $1,500 to
$6,000. Harrera also has a spin-off
business called Coffincoaches.com (yep,
sofas made from disused coffins) and a
props business which hires out
embalming tables and body crypts to TV
and movie production companies.
The business is said to be booming and
for some reason, Harrera has no
competitors in the franchising world.
Is your business franchise-able?
Take our free five-minute online Franchise
Feasibility Test at www.noordinary.co.nz
.