Historically, Johnson says, franchising has been a grow-your-own industry in which brands selected their franchisees and then asked them to develop more units gradually. Those individual operators were able to grow with the franchise and, therefore, agreements and fee schedules were able to expand accordingly.

What’s happened in the multi-unit era is that emerging brands are leap-frogging single-unit owners. Established brands now must compete with newcomers in luring multi-unit franchisees. “There are emerging brands coming right out of the gate with only experienced, existing multi-unit operators,” Johnson says. “They have put together different franchise development agreements based on that method of growth.”

And because there is such a sizable multi-unit presence nowadays, changing expectations come almost every month. “A lot of franchisees want to diversify their holdings, and they will find the fee structure that’s obviously the most advantageous to them,” Johnson says. “It’s a shell game right now to see what support they need and what it will be worth on the marketplace.”

What they might need assistance with is fine-tuning their own in-house, staff-training program, something an individual unit owner would not have the infrastructure to supply. Another franchisor’s representative touched on the idea that some franchisees’ complex business structures have surpassed the agreements they signed a decade or so ago.

“Their reaction is ‘I can follow your operations manual fine, thank you,’” Johnson says. “They need a different type of support.”

Among the types of business models being explored are licensing agreements, which tend to be less intricate than franchising models. These agreements are specifically being written for multi-unit operators. At the recent Multi-Unit Franchising Conference and Expo, which drew some 300 attendees, the emphasis was on franchisees who might be looking for smaller, lower-maintenance brands to complement their larger franchise holdings. That’s where licensing comes in, especially for beverage and treat brands that would help augment any lulls in business at restaurants that make their money for franchisees during lunch and dinner.

Jo To Go Coffee announced its licensing agreement proposal for multi-unit, experienced franchisees at the expo. The proposal has been a year in development and keys only to multi-unit operators already firmly established in their markets.

“Our research shows that the morning daypart is literally exploding with possibility—it is the fastest growing segment in the fast-food industry,” says Jonathan Lukens, vice president of franchising for Jo To Go. “Our specialty coffee products can provide a significant boost in revenue during the morning daypart when sales at, for instance, the burger drive-thru or taco stand were otherwise pretty sluggish.”

And modern franchising isn’t about sluggish.