Who invented franchise

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They had an automobile franchise network. And soon, automobile franchises were appearing everywhere. Lots of automobiles were sold by automobile franchises. More roads became paved. Americans were able to travel longer distances in a shorter amount of time. But, these new machines, these automobiles, needed gasoline to run. The oil companies started opening gasoline service stations to keep all of the automobiles fueled.

Some of them became franchises. Some of them, like Chevron, still are. Another form of energy was needed for this growing legion of automobile drivers—food. As the years went by, restaurants independent ones at first started popping up all over the place… especially near all of the freshly-paved roads.

Eventually, food franchises starting opening. Raymond Albert Kroc is my personal franchise hero. Born in , Ray Kroc was a sales guy with an incredible vision. He started out selling milkshake-mixing equipment.

He believed in the product the Multi-Mixer so much, he mortgaged his home to become a distributor of this machine which could make five milkshakes at the same time. Kroc traveled all over the country selling Multi-Mixers to people in the food industry. He decided to take a drive out to California to see how they did it. What he observed there was an assembly line-like system.

The McDonald brothers appeared to have this procedure of theirs down to a science, and Kroc was impressed. He envisioned restaurants like theirs opening and operating all over the country. Ray saw something big in the making and tried to convince the brothers that they should start thinking bigger also. A few years later, the three owned multiple restaurants.

He recognized that it was the perfect time to introduce a chain restaurant like theirs, as automobile travel was becoming increasingly popular and freeways were beginning to appear in more and more places. Issac Singer and his partners were able to find an easier way for consumers to buy their product.

The Singer Sewing Machine installment plan made it possible for Singer to ramp up production of his sewing machines; he just needed an efficient distribution system. He developed one, and his licensing system was a precursor to franchising as we know it today. Henry Ford played a part in the actual design of the franchise model.

Once he was able to get mass production down to a science, he knew like Singer that he had to hone in on the distribution side of the business, too. He did so by creating a franchise dealer network all across the country. In addition, the restaurants he built near freeway exit ramps were quickly followed by other businesses—some of the franchises, like hotels and motels that cater to people traveling by automobile.

It was a domino effect. Ray Kroc, Henry Ford, and Isaac Singer were in the right place at the right time and did something about it. And more. Martha Matilda Harper, an entrepreneur who ran a salon business, franchised her first salon in She then developed franchise systems that you would recognize today. She provided franchisees with training, branded products, and training, and grew the system to over salons and training schools.

But slightly before that, Albert Singer, who had had difficulty marketing sewing machines, found success in franchising as a way to sell his machines in the s. He is credited as having been the first to develop a franchise contract.

But even further back, we have a familiar name: Benjamin Franklin. Franchising grew more fashionable in the mids in the US when a new type of franchise popped up in the form of retail and fast food chains.

By the s, the franchising industry was booming. Everything from auto supplies to hotels, convenience stores, and plumbing, was being franchised.