Franchise, Franchise, Franchise!

You see them everywhere - Franchise Row - all around us - Fast Food Franchises, Automotive Franchises, Hotel Franchises, Retail Franchises, Fitness Franchises, even "Franchise Your Business" Franchises, and Franchises to sell you a Franchise.

What's behind this Franchise Mania? How can a nation that thrives and even prides itself on entrepreneurship and maverick individualism spawn over 700,000 people who want to buy a franchise and CONFORM - yes, CONFORM, to a system that requires total compliance with rules and regulations? And this huge kingdom of operating franchises in virtually every kind of business endeavor is ruled by only about 4,000 companies who answered the call to "Franchise Your Business" - a small minority of the 16 million businesses in operation in the United States.

Franchising has been primarily the domain of the small business entrepreneurs who franchised their businesses mostly because they lacked the capital to open more outlets out of their own capital resources. Franchising allows them to expand with "other peoples' money", a motivated owner-operator, and an opportunity to expand more rapidly than they possibly could with their own resources.

But franchising works for the franchise buyer too. 700,000 people can't be wrong. And in a way, franchising is really not in opposition to the American Dream, the entrepreneurial spirit or independent business ownership concepts. Franchising actually embodies all of these elements, but with a Safety Net!

Department of Commerce statistics have stated that 90% of all new businesses fail, but the "Franchise Your Business" movement and "Buy a Franchise" response has created a system of mentoring in which Franchisors teach, assist, support and counsel individuals initially, and on an on-going basis, down the road to success.

Franchise, Franchise, Franchise!!! Let's face it! It Works!