Franchise Trends: Recruitment of Younger Franchisees

In her article “In With the New” Wall Street Journal reporter Jonnelle Marte reports on a subtle but growing trend focused on a franchise “youth movement” .  Ms. Marte identifies two “service and advertising  base d” franchisors (Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, Inc. and WSI) focused on the development of “young” franchisors. 

Jonnelle Marte describes in her article that "Last year, Valpak created the Entrepreneurship Award Program in an effort to recruit young people who could open new franchises or take over existing ones as owners prepare to retire. The potential franchisees sign on with the company as salespeople, and if they hit certain goals they get a discount on their franchise fee. Along the way, they get to know the business and the company gets a sense of how they perform".  

While there are many components and factors to be evaluated in the purchase of a franchise, without question, the training of a younger generation coupled with real training "could"  be a good thing and, quite possibly, a win-win situation.  However, if the undercurrent and motivation for this trend is just to expand the base of prospective franchisees and sell to a young and inexperienced demographic then this "trend" could prove to be destructive.  For an informative take on this potential hazard, read the Franchise King's take on this "trend" in his post "Why are Franchisors Starting to Target Younger Prospective Franchise Owners?".