2008 is a great year for the franchise industry; unfortunately the same cannot be said about the rest of the market. Since 2001, the economic depression has seen many competent workers out of job or trapped in a highly unsatisfactory work. Most of this talent pool is now turning its attention towards the franchise industry, thus giving a boost to the business. As of 2005, the annual turnover of the industry was $1.53 trillion according to a report by PricewaterhouseCooper. It has increased tremendously in the last two years and poised to grow even more in 2008. There are various reasons behind the advancement of the franchise industry, despite the ongoing slow economy.
The changing demography and society has given rise to new kinds of businesses like maid service, senior care service or handyman service.
Though the demand of franchise business for sale offers from the food industry remains in the first position, it is experiencing a slower business-rate when compared to these emerging categories. Some franchise fields that are luring people into starting a franchise are staffing franchises, child-related franchises and technology-related franchises. All these segments are spreading quite fast and so is the franchise industry.
To keep up with the burgeoning demand, the franchise business itself is changing the rules of the games. By July of this year, the new FTC rules regarding the franchise disclosure document (FDD) will be in place. These long overdue changes will make the industry more transparent by giving all kinds of relevant information of the franchisors to the franchisees. That will make people trust this form of business more than ever.
The other aspects of the industry that are changing include the rigid stipulation that the franchisee has to be owner/operator. Nowadays, technology has provided effective tools to the franchisees for remotely monitoring their units. This has drawn in franchisees with good investment power that otherwise stayed outside, because they did not want to leave their jobs.
The International Franchise Association is also wooing investors from specific strata of the society through its different programs. The VetFran or MinorityFran programs of the participating franchise companies have broadened the prospective franchisee base. The active courting of women in franchising businesses, especially by those offering home-based low cost franchise business for sale, have brought in talented franchisees who left the job scenario for family or some other reasons. What’s more, the trend of the business to encourage people to buy a franchise as a multi-unit operator is bringing in angel investors and those with big ambition and talent for it. All these are helping franchise business to surge forward as the economy slowly walks on.
http://www.firstprizefranchise.com/franchising ...