When Jim Treliving and Arlene Dickinson, two of the dragons from CBC Television's Dragons' Den, chose 24-year-old business administration student Jennifer Howarth as the winner of a free franchise in November, she decided to fast-track her university plans by taking summer courses so she can get started a year from now in January 2011.
"I love being in school, but I also want to take advantage of being my own boss and owning my own company as quickly as I can, now that I know it's waiting for me," she says.
Ms. Howarth won the franchise as part of a competition launched by the franchise company with the Canadian Youth Business Foundation called YPreneurGene, which gives her $70,000 plus a $30,000 repayable loan.
But finishing her education at Cape Breton University first, having already graduated in public relations from Cambrian College, will be a great asset as she embarks on her entrepreneurial career as the owner of a PropertyGuys.comfranchise.
With the intense media glare off her for now, the reality -- and opportunity -- of the business model itself is sinking in for Ms. Howarth.
She is about to join a new breed of franchise owner.
PropertyGuys.com is one of an increasing number of franchises without any storefront, operated out of the home, providing a low-cost service to consumers in a variety of markets, from real estate marketing services to mobile pet grooming services.
The low startup costs are attracting more people like Ms. Howarth, from young, highly educated entrepreneurs to downsized corporate executives -- although most don't usually come entirely free.
"It's a home-based, servicebased business and the actual initial startup is very, very affordable," says Ken LeBlanc, the founder of PropertyGuys.com, which markets and provides sales support to home sellers at a lower cost than the traditional real estate commission model. Its franchisees work on a high-volume, high-margin basis and work closely with private home sellers to market the property for as little as $350 and up to about $1,500. For an initial investment of $30,000 to $70,000, depending on the size of the territory, franchisees gain exclusive rights to that market.
The typical buyer is every bit as entrepreneurial as Ms. Howarth, but they aren't looking to spend $500,000 on a large restaurant or coffee shop. "These people typically haven't saved up hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a storefront, so they look for businesses they can get into starting at $10,000," he says.
This "affordable franchise" model, as he calls it, is being successfully applied to a wide range of industries within the service sector.
Take mobile pet grooming. For about $100,000, you can buy yourself a territory with two fully outfitted Mercedes Benz vans with mobile pet-grooming firm Aussie Pet Mobile of Canada Inc., with the option to rapidly scale up the business.
However, you don't always have to invest the entire amount up front. There are variations of a pay-as-you-go model involved in this concept.
"People are investing $40,000 or $50,000 to take up those business opportunities and the business will sustain borrowings on the other half," says Richard Avis, president of Aussie.
As the business grows, you make additional investments to expand the company. There are ready markets among both franchisees and their consumers in this low-cost, service-based market.
"We know nothing of this so-called recession," says Mr. LeBlanc, whose firm opened 24 new franchises in 2009 and is expanding at the rate of about one every eight days.
Aussie, meanwhile, launched in Canada in 2006 in Toronto and Vancouver and now has 37 franchises with plans to grow across Canada to 300 territories within five years.
"Home-based opportunities are flourishing," Mr. Avis says. "It's a very scalable business."
There is also a big "convenience factor" to such a model, especially for multi-unit operators. They often manage a business like Aussie, employing a team of groomers who "squirt the water and collect the cash," he says.
Leasing costs are about $1,000 a month for each additional custom-designed, fully self-contained van with air conditioning, heat, electricity and water, complete with eco-friendly products and processes.
"They're not committing to a five-or 10-year commercial lease with landlords and overhead," Mr. Avis says.
Like Aussie, PropertyGuys.comhas no storefront, providing all of its services online and in person. Each company has a different twist on this new model, but the concept is growing in popularity including the thriving personal home health-care industry. As Ms. Howarth heads to the PropertyGuys.comannual convention in Las Vegas in January, she will work with a franchisee in Sydney, N.S., before taking formal training to launch her venture in January 2011. "She's chomping at the bit," Mr. LeBlanc says. He sees her as yet another example of where the future of business is headed and how people define work. Maybe all self-proclaimed entrepreneurs in our knowledge economy might just start turning their skill sets -- a mobile service -- into a low-cost, franchise system.
"Our economy as a whole is shifting to an entrepreneurial society," he says.