The following is a good example of what focusing on younger crowd presents to a franchise company.
A case study
One of the franchise companies launching a business strategy to recruit young franchisees is Valpak, a direct mail franchise company.
Valpak – based in Florida, US – has launched Entrepreneurship Program 2 years ago, targeting younger group of entrepreneurs who is interested in franchising. The program is basically rewarding new franchisee recruits with discounts on franchise fee and a chance to pair with a mentor who will guide them.
The discount is indeed to attract new franchisees, as the mentorship is to help young franchisees speeding-up their learning process so that they can take on the business challenges on their own. The latter, too, helps dispel critics of bringing young people into the franchise company before they are ready.
The video below is The Wall Street Journal’s coverage on Valpak, revealing a short story of Nicholas Hernandez, Valpak Franchise Trainee.
Hernandez, 23 years old, explains the reason why he joined Valpak is due to the Entrepreneurship Program. To aid him in his entrepreneurial endeavour, he was guided by a very experienced mentor – A Valpak franchisee for 34 years.
Please watch the following video to learn what Hernandez think of the Program.
A wise move?
A bold and innovative move by Valpak, I must say, and a risky one. One of the major challenges for the young franchisees is their limited access to growth financing. As Hernandez explained in the video, being a 23 years old entrepreneur raises a red flag to banks and creditors.
Nevertheless, I think that we should give young people a chance. A major benefit working with young people is that they are generally passionate, motivated, energetic and ready to learn as much as they could – Something that are perks for the right franchisors with the right business development strategy.
Being passionate, motivated, energetic and ready to learn also means that young franchisees can also adapt well to a franchise system, procedures and policies – way much better than the more seasoned entrepreneurs; this is a big plus of recruiting young franchisees.
What do you think of Valpak’s strategy in recruiting young entrepreneurs to be their franchisees? Please share your opinions by commenting on this article.
Ivan Widjaya
Young franchisees rock!
