Who can take credit for being the first to implement the franchising model is debatable. According to this report by the International Franchise Association, it is widely believed the first franchisor in the U.S. was the Singer Sewing Machine Company in 1851. The same report also contends that others credit Martha Matilda Harper — who built a network of beauty salons with a retail component. — to be the first franchisor. Then, of course, there's the McDonald's story, with Ray Kroc's involvement, that many refer to as arguably one of the first forays into food service franchising.

Why am I mentioning all of this?

As I've witnessed in the twenty-or-so years that I've been involved in franchising (on the franchisor, franchisee, and consultant sides of the industry), it demonstrates that franchising was — and still is — a viable business expansion model with a long track record. Over the decades, franchising has come into its own, from a novel idea for business growth to a sophisticated, regulated way of doing business that benefits both the franchisor and its franchisees. Since that first handshake deal, savvy entrepreneurs have developed best practices and trainable systems to help people, from corporate escapees who buy a single franchised unit to highly capitalized, large multi-territory owners, to build sustainable businesses.

Franchising is often considered an enormous and growing industry in and of itself, and its principles are employed by countless other industries and business models, from restaurants to automobile services to beauty salons and retail stores, to all kinds of B2C and B2B services. Even dentists and dermatologists (and those in numerous other healthcare segments) are enjoying the benefits of franchising their business models.

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