Reasons why an Outplacement Agency Should have Expertise in Franchises

There is a wide range of challenges displaced employees can experience in deciding their next career move. Experienced career coaches at outplacement agencies are usually adept at assisting the displaced employees with resume writing, strategic interviewing, and negotiations, but most burned out executives and employees who need a new job don’t want to go back to the corporate world or better yet can’t leave town for a dream job because their kids are in school and their spouse doesn’t want to leave their dream job. Does this sound familiar?

People described in the situations above often times don’t see business ownership as an option because owning a business seems so far from reality and all possibility. The most common paths to business ownership are establishing a consulting practice, starting a business from scratch, or buying an existing business. An outplacement agency should have in-house expertise enabling employees to make the change from employee to employer. Naturally, entrepreneurship provides an alternative to traditional employment and exploring the various self-employment options broadens the opportunity base for transitioning employees. An unexpected area of interest is in franchise business ownership. This is especially true of seasoned professionals and those who desire to minimize the risk of owning a business. Most people are unaware of executive franchises and outplacement agencies that cater to mid to senior level professionals will benefit from having expertise in this area.

Experienced professionals who hit the gray ceiling or who worked themselves out of a job often want to do something on their own when the golden handcuffs are released and they are no longer captive to their industry or poor job prospects at the top of the org chart. It’s easy to buy a job for oneself via franchise business ownership but it is also possible to leverage executive skills in a franchise that has the owner working “on” versus “in” the business.

Here are some interesting facts from The Economic Impact of Franchised Businesses, 2007. Franchises provide over nine million jobs in the United States or 6.2% of the private non-farm workforce. These jobs have an annual payroll of $304.4 billion dollars. The number of jobs filled within and because of franchised businesses is a whopping 17,430,700. In addition, there are over 800,000 franchise establishments. The direct and indirect economic output of franchised businesses is $2.1 trillion. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of franchised businesses in the United States is $1.2 trillion.

When selecting an outplacement agency for your company, look for a depth of expertise regarding entrepreneurship including franchise business ownership.

Raymond Lee

Raymond Lee is the President of Careerminds, a global outplacement company based in Wilmington, Delaware. He has over 20 years of human resource, outplacement, and career consulting experience. He has his bachelor’s in psychology and holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Louisiana Tech University. He is active in SHRM and ATD. Raymond’s been featured on SiriusXM Business Radio, CareerTalk, and the Wall Street Journal and he’s published a book titled, Clocking Out: A Stress-Free Guide to Career Transitions.