The franchising industry is one of the fastest-growing industries across all business sectors.
Why is franchising growing so rapidly? Because franchising works. Franchising allows aspiring business owners to pursue their dreams in an industry they love while eliminating much of the risk and guesswork that usually accompanies a new business start-up. A franchise provides a proven system; a business model forged from trial and error.
Today, franchising is a major force in almost every industry imaginable, accounting for a disproportionate share of service-related sales throughout the US.
HERE ARE SOME KEY FRANCHISING STATISTICS:
- The franchising industry employs over 18 million people in the U.S., and over half (54%) of franchisors and franchisees expect to add jobs in their businesses in the year ahead.
- Nearly 85% of franchisors say they plan to increase the number of establishments, with more than one-third (34.9%) saying, they plan increases of 6% or more. No franchisors expect a significant decrease in the number of businesses, and no franchisors expect a sales decrease in the coming year.
- A new franchise opens every 8 minutes of every business day.
- It is estimated that franchise businesses accounted for approximately 3% of U.S. GDP, or a total of $495 billion, in 2014. Based on employment and output forecasts for franchising in 2015, it is projected that nominal GDP of the franchise sector will increase by 5.1% to $521 billion. This will exceed the growth of total U.S. GDP in nominal dollars, which is projected at 4.9%.
- According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce, 95% of franchises are still in business after 5 years.
- While franchises account for only 8% of all U.S. businesses, they claim over 40% of all service-related revenue and 50% of all retail sales.
Some benefits of franchising include a higher chance of success than in a sole proprietorship, shorter time to opening, initial training and ongoing support from a corporate office, selling power of a known brand, lower costs through group purchasing, use of an established business model, national and regional advertising campaigns, and more.
