FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITIES AT THE DAWN OF A NEW DECADE.
FranchisingAuthor :
Martin Greenspon 
Martin Greenspon founded M-Four in 1981. His lifetime career has included the manufacturing sector as well as being a Director of one of Canada's leading investment firms. He can be reached at martin@mfourintl.com
"What's past is prologue," Shakespeare said through Antonio in The Tempest, and considering the tempestuous state of the world today, the prologue for franchising is calling for activity on an unprecedented scale.
If Shakespeare were alive today, he could not help but notice the world's dwindling energy supplies, stubborn recession, high unemployment, families undergoing wrenching social change and a needless waste of human talent. Being a playwright, he might be moved to write a play.
If Antonio were a modern businessman instead of a Shakespearean character, he too could not help but notice the world's dwindling energy supplies, stubborn recession and everything that Shakespeare and everyone else would notice these days. If he were a modern businessman, he might be moved to open a franchise.
The more problems there are in the world, the more opportunities there are for franchise driven concepts to solve them. When the franchise community encounters unprecedented problems, it sees unparalleled opportunity.
Franchising, more than ever before, is the best answer for some of the world's worst problems.
Canada has proven particularly fertile ground for franchising over the past 30 years, and prospects for the future appear exceptionally bright. In a difficult economic climate, neither big business nor small business has as much going for it as does franchising… the sturdy hybrid of both big and small. Independent small business in North America today is an exceedingly risky proposition. Statistically, 80% percent of new small businesses ultimately fail - many in the first year of operation. Big business, on the other hand, is having its own problems raising capital for expansion during a period of economic uncertainty. More than that, North Americans today are disillusioned by the recession and distressed at the high cost of living that is eating away at all they've worked for. They want more control of their own destinies.
Consequently, over the next ten years, Canada is likely to experience a growth in independent profit centers, a move towards decentralization, economics on the human scale. The entrepreneurial instincts are going to be running high.
There is a new breed of entrepreneur making waves in America's population pool… one who finds no security in the large corporations. One who wants to create their own security.
Franchising, with its unsurpassed record of success, will be able to offer the new entrepreneur an opportunity to succeed at the lowest possible risk. So the supply of prospective franchisees should be greater than ever.
There is another reason why franchising can succeed in Canada today more than ever. The country needs it. There is a good deal of talk in the current administration about the reindustrialization of Canada. But industry does not start up on its own. It requires increased sales at the retail level. Over the past 30 years, franchising has established its track record for generating retail sales. In the 1981-82 recession, franchise retail sales rose 7.5%. Today, franchising accounts for one in every two retail sales dollars. Canada needs franchising to get the wheels of industry rolling.
Those industries whose franchised sectors have already grown strong, the food service industry, for example, will continue strong throughout the next decade. But the greatest opportunities for growth will lie in areas where franchising has not yet spread its wings.
Now getting back to Shakespeare's Antonio, if he were a businessman today, what kind of franchise would he open?
"Antonio's Cellular Solutions Center", the combination of franchising and mobile communication technology… it's already here and will be thriving for a long time.
With the high price of energy, "Antonio's Power Centre", or any one of a thousand variations to answer the world's shrinking traditional energy reserves looks promising.
The automotive aftermarket and service industry has already grown through franchising and should prove excellent prospects for Antonio and the franchise community well into the future.
A final area, largely as a result of recessionary/inflationary forces, we might expect Antonio to enter is the expanding field of franchised services - a broad category taking in everything from the professions ("Antonio’s Decompression and Pain Center") to skilled trade services.
TECHNOLOGY
Technology is advancing so quickly that the cellular phone you buy tomorrow will likely be second rate a week after you purchase it. The lag between innovation and production can be 1-2 years long in the technology sector, but the innovations are being developed faster than ever – it has been said by many industry personalities that computer technology (cell phones, smart phones, laptop, etc…) will double in capability every two years. It is the 21st century and we have witnessed a technological revolution that is making the Industrial Revolution look like nothing more than chapter in a history book.
Franchising is already providing technological solutions to the public at large, and the trend will unquestionably continue to be strong for many years to come. In addition to selling products, franchise networks will be mass marketing the services of larger companies. Information services, already on the market, represent an obvious application for the franchise marketing method. Security systems are growing with franchised offices and monitoring homes wirelessly. Franchising, with its ability to cover vast geographic areas quickly, down to the neighborhood level, is well suited to provide the nation with the information, service and products it will need.
EDUCATION
Technology is making remarkable changes in our lives, but the changes cannot be implemented without innovations in education. Franchising, as a system, has particularly benefited from education in the form of standardized training programs, and the adaptation of business format franchising to the field of education is a marriage made in heaven.
The whole system of government-funded, non-competitive education in Canada is the subject of ongoing debate, as the standards of education are falling. High schools in Canada are graduating functional illiterates. Colleges are accepting the illiterates and giving them sources in remedial reading. There is a desperate need for the quality standards and business format that franchising can provide in educating Canadian youth and youth the world over.
In the adult education sector, the popularity of evening classes is on the rise. The trend towards individualism and the need to respond to a rapidly changing technological society has fueled interest in a variety of personal growth courses and advanced formal degree courses respectively. The popularity of adult evening courses, for example, reveals an insatiable appetite for learning. And the surge in admissions to business colleges underscores a heavy demand for a practical degree to weather the recessionary winds of the next decade.
Franchising has made a reputation for itself by satisfying stomachs around the world. By making educational services available, the franchise community is satisfying minds as well.
ENERGY
The cost of energy in North America may be approaching a crisis situation, but the franchise community ought to see it as a major opportunity to meet human needs and not meet them halfway, but at their point of need.
Canadians feel threatened by soaring gasoline prices. The consumer is not at all comfortable with the thought that the price he pays to heat his home and drive to work is being manipulated by forces beyond his control. He has a burning desire for independence. The back-to-nature movement, the conservation cause, the do-it-yourself trend all stem from the belief that personal freedom is a birthright.
Understanding this consciousness, the tightly knit strands of energy and freedom in the fabric of Canadians, franchise driven operations recognize a need to be met. Whether a franchise is aimed at saving energy or generating it, the market is ready and waiting. Franchises selling energy-conscious products such as insulation, new homes, gasoline-conserving items, solar panels, and generators, to name a few, will ease the demand for energy from conventional sources.
Businesses both large and small have been studying the energy problem for some time now. When it comes time to implement scientific breakthroughs, either in supplying energy or conserving it, franchising is almost certainly the best possible marketing strategy. Franchising, with its proven ability to go small-scale in a big way, to rapidly reach communities coast to coast through the people who live in those communities, have created multiple formats to serve the energy needs of the masses by allowing individual franchisees to make an investment in their own communities and their future.
ELECTRONICS
Anyone who remembers what the transistor did to radios, and what transistor radios did to North American culture, would do well to move towards the field of electronics. Electronics has more solutions than we have problems. The only problem, then, is deciding which solutions the public needs and wants the most.
As with other skilled servicemen and women, those working in the field of electronics repairs will be better able to reach the market of the future through franchising - better able to reach a market made up of people relying for their sustenance upon electronic devices. Services using electronics to solve a myriad of unrelated old problems with new tools will find, in franchising, an efficient way of quickly expanding and meeting the needs of the people. Let's suppose, for example, that electronics researchers come up with a new device for mowing lawns in record time, to a standard height. Suppose additionally, that the new device costs ten thousand dollars, but can do the job for competitive prices. The high cost would prevent individuals from buying the tool, but the service would generate instant success as a franchise.
DO-IT-YOURSELF SERVICES
The recession, putting some people out of work and threatening others, is likely to cause an upswing in the supply of service franchises. Because of tight credit, however the new service franchises should require a minimum of initial capital to put a franchisee in business.
To be successful, the services will have to pay for themselves, as there is a growing do-it-yourself movement taking shape in Canada. This hands-on trend is rising as much for the sake of individual satisfaction as it is for actual savings. Alert franchisors can answer this need for creativity by providing products and services that make it easier for customers to do-it-themselves… paving the way for many “do it yourself” franchise opportunities.
MOBILE FRANCHISES
Services available at the customer's place of work is another viable area the franchise community has exploited. People working in suburban industrial parks, in particular, will have a special need for work site services, to cut down on their rising costs of traveling. Mobile franchise units, capable of serving wide geographic areas, are able to offer everything from automobile tune-ups to laundry services. Serving people at the workplace will result from two basic trends: the fact that families require duel incomes, so neither parent has an excess of time to handle simple tasks like shopping and second, the increase in fuel costs. One van, traveling to reach ten customers, is more efficient than ten customers driving to one store.
The skilled and the highly skilled, including trade workers, business experts, creative workers, and professionals, should all benefit through the discipline and economic freedom provided by business format franchising in the new decade.
THE PROFESSIONS
The professions need franchising. A young man sacrifices his youth to become a doctor. A young woman gives up her best years to become a lawyer. Yet when they graduate, their services will be marketed in a ludicrous, haphazard manner. Canada today is more careful about saving hamburger meat than it is about saving the minutes and hours and days that add up to the lives of our professionals.
Thirty years ago, people said that franchising would never really take hold in the real estate profession. Today, gross real estate commissions from franchised outlets alone, are expected to reach fifteen billion dollars. Emerging companies in this market are offering an alternative to the traditional “agent sold home” by offering a “for sale by owner” real estate service concept.
HEALTH CARE/SENIOR HOME CARE/ASSISTED LIVING
In response to inadequate public healthcare, a trend has developed towards smaller, local health services, which unquestionably profit by the expertise and service of business format franchising. Over the next decade, franchise driven operations will increase their market share in this industry - seeing to it that people get the health care they need — when they want it, where they want it and the way they want it. 89% of seniors prefer to live independently rather then relocating to an assisted living facility. Senior home care is one of the best opportunities in the franchise forum.
BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B) SERVICES
To remain competitive in business today it is important to outsource certain services that can be handled by those with a competitive advantage that can perform the task at a lower cost than attempting to include these services “in-house”.
Management training, mentoring, coaching, digital imaging, graphic design, payroll services, factoring, packaging, shipping, advertizing, recruiting, printing and so many more are rewarding franchise opportunities.
These outsourced services today form the growth trends and framework for numerous companies across Canada and offer many franchise opportunities for service-oriented entrepreneurs.
In summing up franchising’s contribution to small business development, Martin Greenspon president of M-Four International, Canada’s most comprehensive franchise development group, is convinced that the opportunities in franchising in this new decade have never been more attractive for individuals who are seeking the security of operating a business of their own.
If Shakespeare were alive today, he could not help but notice the world's dwindling energy supplies, stubborn recession, high unemployment, families undergoing wrenching social change and a needless waste of human talent. Being a playwright, he might be moved to write a play.
If Antonio were a modern businessman instead of a Shakespearean character, he too could not help but notice the world's dwindling energy supplies, stubborn recession and everything that Shakespeare and everyone else would notice these days. If he were a modern businessman, he might be moved to open a franchise.
The more problems there are in the world, the more opportunities there are for franchise driven concepts to solve them. When the franchise community encounters unprecedented problems, it sees unparalleled opportunity.
Franchising, more than ever before, is the best answer for some of the world's worst problems.
Canada has proven particularly fertile ground for franchising over the past 30 years, and prospects for the future appear exceptionally bright. In a difficult economic climate, neither big business nor small business has as much going for it as does franchising… the sturdy hybrid of both big and small. Independent small business in North America today is an exceedingly risky proposition. Statistically, 80% percent of new small businesses ultimately fail - many in the first year of operation. Big business, on the other hand, is having its own problems raising capital for expansion during a period of economic uncertainty. More than that, North Americans today are disillusioned by the recession and distressed at the high cost of living that is eating away at all they've worked for. They want more control of their own destinies.
Consequently, over the next ten years, Canada is likely to experience a growth in independent profit centers, a move towards decentralization, economics on the human scale. The entrepreneurial instincts are going to be running high.
There is a new breed of entrepreneur making waves in America's population pool… one who finds no security in the large corporations. One who wants to create their own security.
Franchising, with its unsurpassed record of success, will be able to offer the new entrepreneur an opportunity to succeed at the lowest possible risk. So the supply of prospective franchisees should be greater than ever.
There is another reason why franchising can succeed in Canada today more than ever. The country needs it. There is a good deal of talk in the current administration about the reindustrialization of Canada. But industry does not start up on its own. It requires increased sales at the retail level. Over the past 30 years, franchising has established its track record for generating retail sales. In the 1981-82 recession, franchise retail sales rose 7.5%. Today, franchising accounts for one in every two retail sales dollars. Canada needs franchising to get the wheels of industry rolling.
Those industries whose franchised sectors have already grown strong, the food service industry, for example, will continue strong throughout the next decade. But the greatest opportunities for growth will lie in areas where franchising has not yet spread its wings.
Now getting back to Shakespeare's Antonio, if he were a businessman today, what kind of franchise would he open?
"Antonio's Cellular Solutions Center", the combination of franchising and mobile communication technology… it's already here and will be thriving for a long time.
With the high price of energy, "Antonio's Power Centre", or any one of a thousand variations to answer the world's shrinking traditional energy reserves looks promising.
The automotive aftermarket and service industry has already grown through franchising and should prove excellent prospects for Antonio and the franchise community well into the future.
A final area, largely as a result of recessionary/inflationary forces, we might expect Antonio to enter is the expanding field of franchised services - a broad category taking in everything from the professions ("Antonio’s Decompression and Pain Center") to skilled trade services.
TECHNOLOGY
Technology is advancing so quickly that the cellular phone you buy tomorrow will likely be second rate a week after you purchase it. The lag between innovation and production can be 1-2 years long in the technology sector, but the innovations are being developed faster than ever – it has been said by many industry personalities that computer technology (cell phones, smart phones, laptop, etc…) will double in capability every two years. It is the 21st century and we have witnessed a technological revolution that is making the Industrial Revolution look like nothing more than chapter in a history book.
Franchising is already providing technological solutions to the public at large, and the trend will unquestionably continue to be strong for many years to come. In addition to selling products, franchise networks will be mass marketing the services of larger companies. Information services, already on the market, represent an obvious application for the franchise marketing method. Security systems are growing with franchised offices and monitoring homes wirelessly. Franchising, with its ability to cover vast geographic areas quickly, down to the neighborhood level, is well suited to provide the nation with the information, service and products it will need.
EDUCATION
Technology is making remarkable changes in our lives, but the changes cannot be implemented without innovations in education. Franchising, as a system, has particularly benefited from education in the form of standardized training programs, and the adaptation of business format franchising to the field of education is a marriage made in heaven.
The whole system of government-funded, non-competitive education in Canada is the subject of ongoing debate, as the standards of education are falling. High schools in Canada are graduating functional illiterates. Colleges are accepting the illiterates and giving them sources in remedial reading. There is a desperate need for the quality standards and business format that franchising can provide in educating Canadian youth and youth the world over.
In the adult education sector, the popularity of evening classes is on the rise. The trend towards individualism and the need to respond to a rapidly changing technological society has fueled interest in a variety of personal growth courses and advanced formal degree courses respectively. The popularity of adult evening courses, for example, reveals an insatiable appetite for learning. And the surge in admissions to business colleges underscores a heavy demand for a practical degree to weather the recessionary winds of the next decade.
Franchising has made a reputation for itself by satisfying stomachs around the world. By making educational services available, the franchise community is satisfying minds as well.
ENERGY
The cost of energy in North America may be approaching a crisis situation, but the franchise community ought to see it as a major opportunity to meet human needs and not meet them halfway, but at their point of need.
Canadians feel threatened by soaring gasoline prices. The consumer is not at all comfortable with the thought that the price he pays to heat his home and drive to work is being manipulated by forces beyond his control. He has a burning desire for independence. The back-to-nature movement, the conservation cause, the do-it-yourself trend all stem from the belief that personal freedom is a birthright.
Understanding this consciousness, the tightly knit strands of energy and freedom in the fabric of Canadians, franchise driven operations recognize a need to be met. Whether a franchise is aimed at saving energy or generating it, the market is ready and waiting. Franchises selling energy-conscious products such as insulation, new homes, gasoline-conserving items, solar panels, and generators, to name a few, will ease the demand for energy from conventional sources.
Businesses both large and small have been studying the energy problem for some time now. When it comes time to implement scientific breakthroughs, either in supplying energy or conserving it, franchising is almost certainly the best possible marketing strategy. Franchising, with its proven ability to go small-scale in a big way, to rapidly reach communities coast to coast through the people who live in those communities, have created multiple formats to serve the energy needs of the masses by allowing individual franchisees to make an investment in their own communities and their future.
ELECTRONICS
Anyone who remembers what the transistor did to radios, and what transistor radios did to North American culture, would do well to move towards the field of electronics. Electronics has more solutions than we have problems. The only problem, then, is deciding which solutions the public needs and wants the most.
As with other skilled servicemen and women, those working in the field of electronics repairs will be better able to reach the market of the future through franchising - better able to reach a market made up of people relying for their sustenance upon electronic devices. Services using electronics to solve a myriad of unrelated old problems with new tools will find, in franchising, an efficient way of quickly expanding and meeting the needs of the people. Let's suppose, for example, that electronics researchers come up with a new device for mowing lawns in record time, to a standard height. Suppose additionally, that the new device costs ten thousand dollars, but can do the job for competitive prices. The high cost would prevent individuals from buying the tool, but the service would generate instant success as a franchise.
DO-IT-YOURSELF SERVICES
The recession, putting some people out of work and threatening others, is likely to cause an upswing in the supply of service franchises. Because of tight credit, however the new service franchises should require a minimum of initial capital to put a franchisee in business.
To be successful, the services will have to pay for themselves, as there is a growing do-it-yourself movement taking shape in Canada. This hands-on trend is rising as much for the sake of individual satisfaction as it is for actual savings. Alert franchisors can answer this need for creativity by providing products and services that make it easier for customers to do-it-themselves… paving the way for many “do it yourself” franchise opportunities.
MOBILE FRANCHISES
Services available at the customer's place of work is another viable area the franchise community has exploited. People working in suburban industrial parks, in particular, will have a special need for work site services, to cut down on their rising costs of traveling. Mobile franchise units, capable of serving wide geographic areas, are able to offer everything from automobile tune-ups to laundry services. Serving people at the workplace will result from two basic trends: the fact that families require duel incomes, so neither parent has an excess of time to handle simple tasks like shopping and second, the increase in fuel costs. One van, traveling to reach ten customers, is more efficient than ten customers driving to one store.
The skilled and the highly skilled, including trade workers, business experts, creative workers, and professionals, should all benefit through the discipline and economic freedom provided by business format franchising in the new decade.
THE PROFESSIONS
The professions need franchising. A young man sacrifices his youth to become a doctor. A young woman gives up her best years to become a lawyer. Yet when they graduate, their services will be marketed in a ludicrous, haphazard manner. Canada today is more careful about saving hamburger meat than it is about saving the minutes and hours and days that add up to the lives of our professionals.
Thirty years ago, people said that franchising would never really take hold in the real estate profession. Today, gross real estate commissions from franchised outlets alone, are expected to reach fifteen billion dollars. Emerging companies in this market are offering an alternative to the traditional “agent sold home” by offering a “for sale by owner” real estate service concept.
HEALTH CARE/SENIOR HOME CARE/ASSISTED LIVING
In response to inadequate public healthcare, a trend has developed towards smaller, local health services, which unquestionably profit by the expertise and service of business format franchising. Over the next decade, franchise driven operations will increase their market share in this industry - seeing to it that people get the health care they need — when they want it, where they want it and the way they want it. 89% of seniors prefer to live independently rather then relocating to an assisted living facility. Senior home care is one of the best opportunities in the franchise forum.
BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B) SERVICES
To remain competitive in business today it is important to outsource certain services that can be handled by those with a competitive advantage that can perform the task at a lower cost than attempting to include these services “in-house”.
Management training, mentoring, coaching, digital imaging, graphic design, payroll services, factoring, packaging, shipping, advertizing, recruiting, printing and so many more are rewarding franchise opportunities.
These outsourced services today form the growth trends and framework for numerous companies across Canada and offer many franchise opportunities for service-oriented entrepreneurs.
In summing up franchising’s contribution to small business development, Martin Greenspon president of M-Four International, Canada’s most comprehensive franchise development group, is convinced that the opportunities in franchising in this new decade have never been more attractive for individuals who are seeking the security of operating a business of their own.