This post is sponsored by Microsoft in honor of National Entrepreneurship Week February 20 to 24, 2017. On this episode, I cohost with Melanie Gass from Microsoft and our guest is Jania Bailey, CEO of FranNet about how to get started in a franchise.
Many entrepreneurs realize the American dream through buying a franchise. In fact, according to Jania, 1.2 million jobs have been added to the economy over the last six years as a result. Over the last five years, 60,000 new franchise outlets have been opened with each one adding between 15-20 jobs per location. The GDP for the franchise industry has increased every year for seven years, outpacing the general economy by 2.6 percentage points in 2016. This was approximately 90% higher than the general economy.
There are a lot of choices on where to get started. Jania discusses that franchising is more than french fries and a million-dollar investment. Everyone fears they’re going to be flipping burgers in a greasy kitchen, but there are over 3100 franchises over 90 different industries that don’t have to be a restaurant or cost $1M to get started. Fifty-five percent of all franchise concepts cost less than $250,000. Jania says what is booming now is senior, pet and hair care, automotive repair, damage restoration, and IT.
She sees more women and young people seek franchising as an alternative to a corporate career. FranNet reports a 71% increase in women business owners since 2011 and a 93% increase in young people aged 20-39.
Jania believes that you don’t need to have experience in the area to build a profitable business. Successful franchises follow a system and a playbook to achieve success. They’re looking for people with broad-based business skills to become franchisees. They then teach them the system to follow.
Listen to Jania Bailey on the entire radio show #417.
Jania Bailey is CEO of FranNet and joined the company in August, 2006. Under her tenure, the company has seen an astonishing 18-fold increase in system-wide revenue, transitioned FranNet to a franchise business model, more than doubled the number of consultants across North America, and guided the company’s expansion into Europe. For the last six years, FranNet has been nationally recognized on the prestigious Inc. 500/5000 list as one of the fastest growing privately-held companies in the U.S.
Melanie Gass, Sr. Business Development Manager for Microsoft and the brainchild behind National Entrepreneurship Week. She helps shape Microsoft Community Connections (MCC) to deliver strong value to customers and influencers.
