In Franchising, Let’s Make Unconventional Thinking Conventional Again

I remember having lunch with a franchise executive in 2010 when she pulled an iPad from her satchel to show me her new gadget. Apple had just launched it, and I didn’t “get it.” It was like my iPhone, except I couldn’t make calls. And it was too big. What was Apple founder Steve Jobs thinking?

Today, I’m on my third or fourth iPad, and I use it every day. Once considered cool, it’s now a ubiquitous household tool, and Apple remains a market leader.

My initial reaction to the iPad reflects how I’ve responded to some other big ideas. (Don’t get me started on Taco Bell using Doritos for its shells in 2012. My reaction? Ho-hum.)

Good thing entrepreneurs don’t always listen to conventional wisdom. They challenge assumptions, spot opportunities others miss and find new ways to do things better, boost profits and grow faster.

That kind of unconventional thinking is on display in our coverage of the fitness sector in this issue, and from real estate strategies to new restaurant formats and homegrown technology.

Fitness Ventures CEO Brian Hibbard, a Crunch Fitness franchisee with 107 gyms across 30 states, is one such entrepreneur. His company ranks No. 17 on the Franchise Times Top Fitness Franchisee ranking, based on year-end 2025 unit data.

Hibbard signed a three-unit deal with Crunch in 2016 and opened his first location in Athens, Georgia, a secondary market. While the brand focused on big cities, Hibbard saw opportunity elsewhere.

“Let’s go be the big fish in the little pond,” he told FT Editor in Chief Laura Michaels. “[The franchisor] actually looked at me like I had two heads. But man, we started outperforming everybody else in the system by doing that.” Fitness Ventures expects to finish 2026 with $350 million in revenue.

Florida-based Little Greek Fresh Grill President and majority partner Nick Vojnovic takes a similarly unconventional approach to growth. The brand has 60 stores in seven states, 80 percent of which are franchised. His priority, he told FT Reporter Alyssa Huglen, is helping operators “maximize sales and maximize profits. The name of the game for me is franchisees making money.”

(In my mind, that should be the name of the game for ALL franchisors.)

That philosophy led Vojnovic to a conversation with Tampa Bay Rays management, which needed more grab-and-go options at the stadium. His answer was a smaller concept, Little Greek Express, averaging just 1,200 square feet. One location now operates at the Rays’ Tropicana Field.

He also partnered with regional chain Westshore Pizza to bring the Express concept into some of its struggling locations. Four months after the conversion, sales were up 43 percent, Alyssa reported.

Fitness Ventures has taken unconventional thinking into technology, too, earning the Strategic Impact Award at Crunch Fitness’ most recent franchisee convention. Rather than simply hire an artificial intelligence software vendor, the company’s marketing team decided to build a custom tool better suited to its business. The resulting AI “agent” converts incoming calls into memberships, generating an additional $1 million in revenue so far this year.

“I wanted to solve real problems for us,” said Hiba Abduljawad, Fitness Ventures’ chief marketing officer. “I wanted to bring real money to the table.”

Now that’s unconventional thinking.

It’s also a reminder that the next big idea doesn’t always look like one at first. Sometimes it’s a gym in a secondary market, a smaller restaurant in an unlikely location or an AI tool built in-house. The common thread is to question the way things have always been done. Sometimes it just takes the rest of us a while to catch up.