Franchising A New Career

Clarionledger.com:

Jeff Taylor figured he had gone as far as he could working as an engineer at a small company, so he considered becoming his own boss.

He found his new career path on a trip to Birmingham in 1998 when he and a friend spotted a Two Men And A Truck moving van. ‘It was my friend’s reaction that caught my attention,’ he said.

Taylor researched the moving company, visited its headquarters in Lansing, Mich., and opened a Two Men And A Truck franchise for Hinds, Madison and Rankin counties in 1998. He paid a franchise fee of $30,000, and it cost between $100,000 and $200,000 to get started in business, he said.

He employs 20 people to do the driving and heavy lifting, has a management staff of 5 and soon will operate 9 trucks, which is 7 more than he started with. ‘It’s been real good for us,’ he said.

Attracted to a franchise because he wanted a business with a proven way of doing things, Taylor isn’t alone.

The International Franchise Association estimates that franchised businesses operated 767,483 establishments in the U.S. in 2001, including those owned by franchisees and franchisors. The businesses provided 9.8 billion jobs, met a $229 billion payroll and accounted for 7.4% of all private-sector jobs and 5% of all private sector payroll in 2001, the most recent year the association has statistics.

Franchised businesses employed about the same number of people in 2001 as did all manufacturers of durable goods such as computers, cars, trucks, planes, communications equipment, primary metals, wood products and instruments, according to the association. Read more.