Let’s start at the beginning. Franchising as a concept has been around for decades and began, as many ideas do, in the US. The earliest franchising was product franchising which, according to online encyclopedia Wikipidia, was initiated by Isaac Singer to distribute his sewing machine in the 1850s; Coca Cola’s product expansion was a more successful early franchise. Modern franchising began in the 1930s with quick service restaurants and the concept has now infiltrated 70 countries. Franchising can embrace vehicle dealerships, product distribution, a co-operative of retailers purchasing from a wholesaler, and the most common structure, a standard business format. And the standard business format is what we are dealing with here.
At its heart, franchising is all about individuals buying into an existing business system and profiting from the expertise, branding, resources and training provided by an organisation which has already ironed out many of the difficulties of trading. It is about running and owning, in many cases for a specified time, your own business and having some level of control over what you do and when you do it; although the degree of flexibility will vary from system to system with some deploying quite rigid rules of operation, other businesses allowing for greater individual input. Full article.