Sally Haulman of Yardley, Pennsylvania, spent 40 years in corporate America, most recently in software sales at IBM. But when she was laid off in January 2003 at age 61, she decided it was time to become her own boss. The question was, boss of what?
Starting a business from the ground up was not an option, given Haulman's limited funds and the time it would take to build a profitable venture. The way she saw it, she had only two choices: going into real estate or buying a franchise.
Haulman chose the latter course and today she owns two women's fitness franchises in Pennsylvania for Slim and Tone, offering 30-minute workouts, which have gained popularity in recent years.
She is part of a flood of restless middle-aged and elderly people that has come upon the franchising world with surprising swiftness. Today, about 8 percent of franchisees or prospective franchisees are 55 years or older, compared with almost zero just five years ago, estimated Satish Mehta, president of Franchise Info Mall Inc in Torrance, California. His firm does periodic surveys of people who visit his online franchise directory, franchiseinfomall.com.
Steve Hockett, who is president of FranChoice Inc, a national franchise referral network based in Minnesota, said about 15 percent of the people he now places with franchise companies, roughly 80 to 100 individuals over the last year, are 55 and older, compared with just a handful two years ago.
Their motives for giving franchising a whirl range from economic necessity to boredom with retirement, experts say. What unites them is the desire to have an organization that does most of the planning for them.
"It does give an investor who has a reasonable amount of capital to put to work the opportunity to invest in a business but not be required to be the master of that business ... because of the support and training provided by the franchise system," said Matthew Shay, executive vice president and chief operating officer at the International Franchise Association, an industry trade group in Washington.
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