Older Workers, Tired of Routine, Turn to Franchising

by Brent Bowers
NYTimes.com

It is a happening place to be. The International Franchise Association (www.franchise.org) in Washington, estimates that the ranks of franchised businesses have increased to 850,000 from 760,000 six years ago, and says that from 2003 to 2005, the number of "franchise concepts" shot up by 900, to 2,500. Franchising cuts across 75 industries and generates one out of seven jobs in the private sector, the trade group says.

For people with long workplace experience and discontent with the tedium of their jobs, or of retirement, plus a nest egg waiting to be raided, it can be a happy hunting ground.

The industry is obliging older folks by coming up with ideas that cater to their inclinations, like seasonal businesses. If you buy a location from Rita's Water Ice (www.ritasice.com), a chain based in Trevose, Pa., with 400 stores and plans for 1,500 by 2010, for example, you could sell Italian ices and other cold treats in Boston in the summer and retreat to the golf courses of Florida in the winter.

On the flip side, a growing number of franchises are filling the needs of really old geezers by offering services like disposing the accumulated possessions of a lifetime when they move from their big houses in the suburbs to assisted-living homes, or sending their staff to help the ones who stay in their big houses with their shopping or medications.

Franchising is not risk-free, of course. "There are a lot of bad guys out there," says Barney Greenbaum, who runs the Columbus, Ohio, office of FranNet (www.letsfranchise.com), a network of franchise advisers. His counsel to potential franchisees: Hire a local consultant who specializes in the industry (him, for example, if you live in Columbus), actually read the inch-plus-thick and confounding "offering circulars" that franchisers are required to send interested parties, sound out existing franchisees about their experience and get the advice of a financial adviser and an accountant and, before you sign on the dotted line, a lawyer.

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