A new report by the International Franchise Association (IFA) and prepared by Franchise Business Review shines a light on the industry’s ongoing efforts to encourage new business ownership among our returning veterans. Its release not only marks the observance of Veterans Day today, but reminds us of the shared responsibility we all have in assisting our nation’s heroes as they transition back into civilian life.
“Franchising is good for veterans, and veterans are good for franchising,” said IFA President and CEO Steve Caldeira. “Successful franchises run on proven and structured systems, and members of the military are used to implementing systems, following procedures and striving for operational excellence, which leads to success in franchising.” As well as in home-based franchise and other small business opportunity ownership, we might add.
One of the broadest studies ever done on the topic of veterans in the franchising industry, the report provides key findings that prospective veteran franchise and business opportunity owners will find both insightful and encouraging:
• Since 2011, more than 64,000 veterans, military spouses and wounded warriors have started careers in franchising, including 4,314 who have become veteran franchise business owners.
• There has been a surge of franchise brands recruiting and hiring veterans since 2011, including the more than 530 franchise brands that are now actively hiring and developing veterans as part of VetFran’s Operation Enduring Opportunity campaign.
• The most popular franchise industries among veterans include: Automotive (16%), General Services (15%), Food (15%), Residential/Home Services (11%) and Business Services (8%).
• Four out of five veterans “enjoy operating” their franchise business (83%), “enjoy being part of this franchise organization (81%) and would “recommend (their franchise brand) to others (79%).
• A full 95% of franchisees surveyed believe that veterans are a good fit for employment within their franchise business.
More than 1 million veterans are expected to transition out of military service by 2015. In an effort to help them create lives for themselves outside of the service and as part of its VetFran Strategic Initiative called Operation Enduring Opportunity, IFA has pledged to hire as team members or recruit as franchise business owners a total of 75,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014.
For more information, go to https://www.vetfran.com/. And to read IFA’s full report, just click here on “2012 Veterans in Franchising: A Progress Report” now!
Additionally, it’s important to note that the franchising industry is joined by hundreds of business opportunity owners who are also making an effort to encourage home-based and other small business ownership among our nation’s returning veterans. Many of them are offering start-up discounts for qualified applicants.
A good place to begin exploring what the business opportunity industry has to offer in this regard is BusinessOpportunity.com. Just click here on Great Business Opportunities for Veterans to get started now!