The Growth and Scope of Franchising Including Work From Home Opportunities

By B. Boyd

People may say that franchising is a new concept in the business industry. Some may even claim that it is started by the companies in a big league that wanted to expand their operations. History also points to Albert Singer of the sewing machine brand as the instigator of the franchising system. But franchising is a system that actually dates back to the mid-1800s in the German industry of brewery.

Nowadays, franchising has developed so much that several industries are becoming part of its widening system. Even businesses that are based online and that offer work from home businesses are offering their brands for franchising. This is probably the most acknowledged development of the franchising system-the fact that it opens up more opportunities for people to earn.

In terms of the quality and development of franchising, there is a lot to be said about its progress as a system and an entire industry on its own. Franchising has started with the simple process of providing legal permission to a third-party venture to market the brand and sell the product of a larger business. But over time, it has developed into a more sophisticated system. There are now franchising companies that allow its franchisees to run and decide over their own franchises. They are given full sovereignty on governing the business.

But looking at the quantity, the numbers look more astonishing. In a report of the International Franchise Association, the United States has recorded 828,138 franchises in the year 2007 only. This is already a huge deal because it has very positive effects on the economy of the entire continent. These positive effects include 9,125,700 work opportunities and a staggering $468.5 billion contribution to the Gross Domestic Product. Although this report does not specify if the numbers pertain to both offline and online businesses, the numbers still have quite an impact.

Entrepreneur 500, meanwhile, shares a percentage data on how much of an industry offers franchises that are home-based. In this data, Home Improvement holds the record on having the biggest part to be run home-based. 82% of the industry is work from home opportunities. It is followed with 81% of the maintenance services, 75% of the Internet, and 66% of business services. Overall, the data reports that of the entire franchising industry in the United States, 51% is home-based. This is also based on the data available in the year 2007. If the 51% is derived from the data of the International Franchise Association, the result points to 422,350 franchises.

Assuming there is at least a 3% growth in the next years, the numbers reported by the International Franchise Association from 2007 may have grown into roughly 970,000 for the year 2013. Using the same projection on the report of Entrepreneur 500, the percentage of home-based franchises may have increased to 60%. That is already more than half of the entire franchising industry.

If the projections will remain positive, these numbers will grow to include more franchises in the coming years. Truly, one cannot say that franchising is only for a few. Unlike before, when only the less privileged group of aspiring business owners are likely to avail of franchises, franchising at present is a really popular choice. Even the best entrepreneurs and the most accomplished business people can and are likely to avail of franchises.

Due to the continuing popularity of online businesses, determining how widespread franchising is now can be quite difficult. There can be thousands of franchises in a particular field in one country only. If the United States can record hundreds of thousands in a particular year, definitely the number of a worldwide count will yield a higher value. But even without a solid and firm data, there can be no doubt that the online franchising industry is really on its way to dominance.

Ultimately, franchising is seen to grow so much wider in the next few years. More developments are also foreseen. As long as more people will learn of the benefits of buying franchises, the numbers of the ventures will be far bigger. The growth will definitely affect work from home opportunities because of the online offerings in terms of convenience and cost-efficiency.

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