Corporate Exiles Turn To World Of Franchises

Virtual Entrepreneur:

For many people, today will be another day at the same old job, the kind of quietly maddening Monday that makes you yearn to be your own boss, in your own business, doing something you love.

You’re not alone.

White-collar workers across the state are dropping out and diving into an ever-widening array of franchising opportunities, driven by a climate of downsized staffs, dead-ended ambitions and career burnout.
Advertisement

“The vast majority of candidates that come through the franchise system and become successful franchisees are the baby boomers,” said Lori Kiser-Block, vice president of FranChoice, a company that helps guide workers toward franchise opportunities. “They’re somehow disenchanted with corporate America.”

In 2001, Delaware had 2,281 franchises — from the Coffee Beanery to Blimpies — employing 29,268 people for a payroll of $786 million, according to the International Franchise Association. “There’s no question that in the last five to six years there’s been a huge uptick” in former professionals entering a franchise business, said Nathan Greenberg, general manager for Siegel Capital, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., company that helps would-be franchise owners capitalize on their dream.

Many in the new generation of franchisees say ownership was a leap worth taking — even those who have yet to land on both feet. They also say it was the scariest thing they’ve ever done: giving up a steady, stable job, investing a life’s savings, all in exchange for countless hours of hard work and uncertain success.