With entry-level corporate positions few and far between these days, many new entrants to the business world are turning to franchising and building a future with a different kind of venture: their own.
Reuters reported Neil Ehrlich, 23, is one of those individuals. He owns and operates an Express Oil Change franchise in a suburb of Austin. "I'm the youngest franchisee in this chain," says Ehrlich, who graduated with a business degree from Sonoma State University in May 2008, just as the recession was kicking into full swing. "I love the challenge and I can't wait to see what happens." Ehrlich, whose entrepreneurial bent began at the tender age of 14 when he helped start up a contracting firm, always knew he wanted his own business. He and his father, a corporate executive, spent a good part of Ehrlich's junior year in college researching franchises in the automotive service sector, including Meineke, Midas and Jiffy Lube, before making their selection. He says they were impressed by Express Oil's commitment to supporting its operators.
Throughout the country, more twentysomethings are considering franchising as an alternative to the corporate grind or riskier notions of starting an independent business. "Consistently year over year we're seeing a gradual increase in younger franchisees in our system," says Maribel Guiste, vice president of franchise operations for Toronto-based WSI, short for We Simplify the Internet. The company operates a global franchised network of some 1,500 one-stop-shops that provide Web consulting and development targeted at small to medium-sized companies. In 2008, about 8 percent of WSI's operators were under the age of 30, up from just 2 percent in 2006, says Guiste, who estimates an increase to more than 12 percent this year. She says members of the so-called Generation Y and Millennial sets are particularly well-suited for the company's business model because they have grown up with a natural degree of comfort in the virtual world. "Because we're an Internet marketing company, they get this," she says, adding that many in the age bracket are more confident and focused than their predecessors. "They're so in tune. They do it easily."
The time-tested operations of franchise systems seem to work in their favor. Franchises, whose corporate managers define strategic direction for all operators, foster the entrepreneurial spirit while also establishing parameters for what works and what doesn't. Those guidelines are important for those cutting their chops for the first time. Greg Meyer, the 26-year-old owner of a CertaPro Painters franchise outside St. Louis, says such a structure helped him develop business acumen. Meyer, who has been painting homes since he was a teen, brought solid technical skills to the table, but says he lacked some of the knowledge necessary to keep a business on the growth track. "I saw that a franchised system would fill in the missing pieces that would make me successful," says Meyer, who graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in marketing. "It puts you in an environment around other franchisees."
