One of the most popular franchise magazines in the country by entrepreneurs is Franchise Magazine. Its wide popularity stems from the fact that franchising in the US is big business and accounts for a huge percentage of total retail sales (about 51% of retail sales and 6.5% of GDP) and sales from franchises total over$1 Trillion annually. Franchise Magazine provides very comprehensive information on the country’s top franchises in a wide variety of business sectors such as fast foods, cleaning services, medical and home care, grooming services, coffee franchises, automobile, hotels etc. It also offers information on the start up capital required to start one of these franchises .The ranking is also broken down according to industries. The ranking of the top ten franchises by Franchise Magazine is done by considering some quantifiable aspect. This could be parameters such as rate of growth based on revenues or number of new branches opened over a period of time usually one year) , rate of return on investments measured as a percentage, customer satisfaction with services offered(usually measured through surveys),sales to investment ratio(the ideal ratio being 2:1),the dedication of the franchisor to its franchisee in helping them succeed, the strength of leadership and consistency of the strategies employed. Another important parameter is the start up cost and ranking is done for some of the cheapest franchises i.e with the lowest start up cost. Some of these parameters are quite subjective, especially those that try to measure customer satisfaction and brand strength and recognition. The most preferred analytical tool is the sales to investment ratio. The average unit sales volume for the franchisor is also a good figure to consider, although most franchisors do not disclose this information. While it is true that high sales do not always translate to high profits, the sales figure will give a prospective franchisor a good idea of the strength of the industry they want to invest in. Some other information given by these magazines is the length of time a franchisor has been franchising. In the year 2010, the following industries, in different categories, were ranked in the top ten by Franchise Magazine : Instant Tax Services Snap Fitness Incorporated Stratus Building Station Chester International HealthSource(Chiropractic) Going Postal Helper,s Senior Oreck’s Clean Home Fast On-Site computer Services Murphy’s Financial Corp,s It is a good idea that on top of reading this magazine that gives you the latest information on franchises, you should also consult a reputable financial advisor when you plan to open a franchise.