Fed up with being the VP of marketing? Done with your days as
the director of technology? The upheaval in the economy has brought
layoffs and uncertainty, devalued portfolios and a feeling that no
matter how hard you work in the corporate world, you may not have
as much control over your career as you'd like. And all these
factors have led to one trend: an increase in professionals leaving
their corporate digs to try their hand at franchising.
"Since the Internet bubble burst, we've seen a dramatic
increase," says Jeff Elgin, founder and CEO of Eden Prairie,
Minnesota-based FranChoice Inc., a company that provides free
consulting to consumers looking for a franchise. "A lot of
people have been downsized two or even three times over the past 12
years, and they're sick of it." So sick of it, in fact,
that they're moving into franchising with the hope of
controlling their own destiny and not being at the mercy of someone
else's balance sheet.
Why franchising? Probably because the leap from corporate
employee to entrepreneur can be terrifying. Execs who used to
delegate tasks to marketing, advertising and accounting departments
can suddenly face the prospect of taking care of everything
themselves. Franchising's appeal is that it offers the
incentive of business ownership and cushions the blow by providing
the training, assistance and structure ex-execs are accustomed
to.
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It's a combination that makes sense. "With a franchise
system, there are some boundaries, [because the franchisor] has
learned from trial and error," says Elgin. "Why reinvent
the wheel?"
If you're ready to learn, willing to get your hands dirty
and aching to build a company with a successful track record, this
may be your gig. Meet three ex-corporate execs who found the dream
was theirs.
Ready to make that leap from corporate
denizen to fearless franchisee? Here are some resources to help
you:
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Originally published in the July 2002 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine
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