The Ultimate Guide to Responsible Franchising

Conclusion

In 1985 I was 21 years old and fresh out of college when I took my first job in franchising. At the time I had no idea what franchising was or how it worked. I recruited new franchisees and penetrated new markets for Subway, who at the time had about 400 restaurants open in about 20 or so states. I used to ask all franchise candidates the same question: “Why are you looking at Subway?”

I expected to hear things like, “It’s a safe investment, everyone has to eat,” or “It’s a noncooking restaurant and easy to manage,” or “It’s a small restaurant with low overhead costs,” which of course came up in conversation, but it was almost never the primary driver.

People used to pour their hearts out to me. I would hear stories about firings and layoffs, economic uncertainty for families, careers that were stagnating or stopped, and dreams that were left unfulfilled. Within a few months I came to the conclusion that people really didn’t want the business at all; it was a means to achieve an end. They wanted extraordinary lives and careers. They wanted to make a difference for themselves, their families, and their communities, and they were willing to put some or all of their finances at risk to do so. They were brave, if not heroic.

I remember thinking as a marketer, is there a greater product to represent than someone’s dreams back to them as a reality if we do business together? I knew at that time that this was all I was ever going to do. Fast-forward almost 40 years, and ...