2002 Small Business Census and Franchising
Wanted: Women Franchise Owners
Here are some interesting results of the recently released report, Characteristics of Business Owners: 2002 (pdf: 62 pgs). Yes, it is true that the survey is from 2002 and this is the end of 2006. Nobody said the federal government works fast. Women owners in retail franchising are considerably less as a percentage than their counterparts in independent retail businesses. Some in franchising candidly admit that women just seem to have less capital than men and therefore do not qualify as readily as franchise owners. That's too bad because women seem to do alright on their own. For example, in retail, an industry with one of the highest percentage of women-owned businesses, there were almost as many female owned businesses at 715,524 compared to 852,192 male-owned and 330,074 equally male-/female-owned respondent firms.
Yet 8.4 percent of the male-owned employer respondent firms in this industry were franchised and less than half of that (3.8 percent) female-owned. 6.3 percent both owned together by male and female.
A 2002 Characteristics of Businesses census (pdf: 1614 pgs) reports the largest sector of franchising compared to the general industry to be:
- Accommodation and food service firms were most often franchised at 16.2 percent
- Followed by employment search firms (8.6 percent)
- And retail trade (7.1 percent)
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Thanks to FranSynergy for sharing the reports, the US Census Bureau, and a summary by Patricia Schaefer of Attard Communications
