Franchises May Be Just Ticket for ‘Corporate Misfits’
Are you stubborn, determined, tenacious, a corporate misfit?
If so, those traits--along with a great deal of self-confidence--could mean you have the potential for a career in franchising, says an expert in the field.
According to Robert Snelling Sr., president of Snelling & Snelling, Inc., an employment services firm, those managers who find corporate life too confining and unrewarding may be ready to strike out on their own.
The prospective franchisee should, however, carefully evaluate the franchise opportunity before leaping into it, advises Snelling, author of a new book, “The Right Job.”
Franchising offers a relatively low-risk way to own your own business, he says, because most franchisers provide training, national advertising, guidance on legal and tax matters and motivation--franchisers earnestly want their franchisees to succeed.
“If you’re considered a corporate misfit,” Snelling notes, “you just might have what it takes.”
One rapidly expanding franchise business is in the field of personnel recruitment--the pairing of specific people with suitable positions.
Personnel recruitment is described as the third-fastest-expanding industry in the United States by Jacques Lapointe, founder of Retail Recruiters and Spectra Professional Search, headquartered in the greater Boston area.
“When I started the business in 1973, only 3% of key employees were hired through outside personnel placement services,” Lapointe recalls.
“Today, almost 20% of middle-management positions are filled through recruitment firms, and that figure will climb to 40% in the next five to 10 years.”
Fast food and maintenance cleaning have traditionally dominated the franchise field, but newcomers include such widely divergent businesses as windshield repairing, gourmet coffee beans, dance exercising, photo developing and a mobile name-brand tire installation service that makes house calls.
Further advice on franchising is available from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s “Franchise Opportunities Handbook,” which can be bought for $15 from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Washington 20402-935.
