WASHINGTON – While traditionally, franchisers are reluctant to gamble on young entrepreneurs, opting instead for “seasoned managers” with built-up savings, many companies are rethinking that logic and recruiting twentysomethings, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Via franchise brokers, Facebook, and in many instances offering financial incentives such as deep discounts on franchisee fees, the franchisers, recognizing that many boomer franchisees are retiring, are going after the young, who in many cases have received strong training in college and possess enthusiastic business sense.
"Sometimes the younger people have more drive and are willing to put in more time and maybe are hungrier than a corporate person who has other commitments," said Patty Meyer, a senior consultant for Toronto-based MatchPoint Franchise Consulting Network. "Younger people are able to get things moving faster in some cases."
Many franchisers have also joined the Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative (known as VetFran), also in order to attract young entrepreneurs. The program, created by The International Franchise Association (among others) aims to help veterans by giving them a discount off franchise fees of member companies, usually between 10 and 15 percent. The program has proven successful with franchisers.
Rich Wilson, chief operating officer of CertaPro Painters, a painting franchiser with over 300 locations in the U.S. and Canada, joined VetFran, in an effort to recruit young veterans.
"We have people [ages] 25, 26 and 30 coming in and earning better numbers than our more mature franchisees," said Wilson, adding that about 15% of the franchisees his company recruited recently are younger than 35, up from 10% six years ago.
However, the focus on youth is not without risk, especially when incentive programs are involved.
"The real risk is that you end up bringing on a marginal franchisee that is going to cost you more and return less," said Mark Siebert, CEO of iFranchise Group Inc., a franchise-consulting company based in Homewood, Ill.