{"id":12865,"date":"2021-07-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-31T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/?post_type=ftm_episode&p=12865"},"modified":"2022-05-20T16:48:45","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T20:48:45","slug":"franchising","status":"publish","type":"ftm_episode","link":"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/series\/hard-reset\/franchising","title":{"rendered":"The underdog challenging McDonald\u2019s and Wall Street"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Since 2015, the Los Angeles-based startup, Everytable, has been innovating fast-food dining by offering healthy grab-and-go meals at competitive prices. But what\u2019s potentially revolutionary about Everytable isn\u2019t the prepackaged salads and wraps. It\u2019s how the company is working to help its employees accumulate wealth. Everytable aims to do that by reimagining one of the most common paths to business ownership: franchising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are about 750,000 franchise establishments in the U.S. today. Virtually all of the entrepreneurs who opened those franchises had to prove good credit and put down a lot of cash. For example, opening a McDonald\u2019s franchise requires an initial investment of at least $500,000 in non-borrowed capital. And that\u2019s just to get started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Becoming a franchisee is often out of reach for Americans born into low-income communities without the head-start of generational wealth. Everytable wants to remove those hurdles. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The company recently started a program that trains and provides capital to employees from marginalized communities who want to work toward owning their own Everytable franchise. It\u2019s a system that fuses both capitalistic and social principles, said CEO Sam Polk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverytable is a business where there is no tradeoff between what\u2019s good for our business and what\u2019s good for our mission,\u201d Polk told Freethink. \u201cIt\u2019s all intertwined and synchronistic.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This socially focused franchise model could serve as a blueprint for how other companies can grow and profit while giving workers the opportunity to gain wealth \u2014 not just a wage.<\/p>\n\n\n
How entrepreneurs benefit from franchising <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
Here\u2019s the basic idea: A business builds a successful brand and wants to expand. Instead of opening more stores on its own, the business partners with entrepreneurs called franchisees. Franchisees pay licensing fees \u2014 and sometimes buy stores and property \u2014 to sell products or services using the brand\u2019s name. The franchisee owns the store. But franchisees must operate according to standards set by the franchisor, to whom they also pay royalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Franchising has helped businesses grow and prosper at minimal risk for more than a century.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a relatively safe way for entrepreneurs to own and operate a business: Unlike starting a company from the ground up, franchisees get a headstart by piggybacking on the success of established brands. But the perks of owning a franchise have long been limited to people with access to capital.<\/p>\n\n\n
From homelessness to business ownership<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
After her second divorce, Dorcia White-Brake became a single mother with three kids and no home. She worked multiple jobs and went to school on nights and weekends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI always knew that I had to work really hard to get a better life for my kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blake eventually landed a job at an Everytable store in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. She worked her way up to store manager and later as a brand ambassador. Now, she\u2019s set to become the company\u2019s first franchisee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It marks the launch of the company\u2019s Social Equity Franchise program, which aims to help Everytable employees work toward owning their own store by providing them free training and loans with a 2-percent interest rate to cover the cost of buying the store. To enter the program, Everytable employees must work as a store manager for at least six months. But the program is free and becoming a franchisee requires no upfront capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n