For Many Immigrants, Owning a Franchise Is the Path to the American Dream

For many immigrants, working in big business is difficult. They dream of one day running their own business. Many see the benefits of a franchise system that can guide them.

Mrs. Khononov and her husband, Gregory, ran a diner in Queens, N.Y., for six years. But when it came time to think about expansion in 2001, they borrowed money from a bank and friends and turned to a franchise instead.

... She says they considered it a fairly easy concept to operate since "you don't have to prepare all the food from scratch" and the franchiser's big marketing campaign would give their business instant recognition. Her husband, also an immigrant, adds that it would have been much harder for them to expand the diner on their own.

The decision has paid off. The Khononovs now operate four Subway stores in Brooklyn. And this past summer, Subway, a unit of Doctor's Associates Inc., named Mrs. Khononov its top multistore franchisee in North America, among 12,200 competitors.

It's not just brand recognition that helps. Immigrants can be unfamiliar with local customs and the nuances of the market.

Mrs. Urias from Tehran, Iran came to the U.S. as a refugee 16 years ago.

She started working at a Sports Clips Inc. hair-care franchise in Austin as a part-time stylist. After moving her way up to manager, Mrs. Urias, by then remarried, moved to Tucson, Ariz., and purchased her own Sports Clips franchise -- the first one in that area. While she could have opened an independent shop, Mrs. Urias says she saw advantages in going with a proven concept with a solid market niche and "policies and procedures in place. All the hard work is done."

... Mrs. Urias acknowledges finding bookkeeping and some other aspects of running a business unfamiliar, but says help from Sports Clips is only a phone call away. "Without their support, I would be lost."

What a few in the industry might understand is what isn't written in this WSJ article. While franchisors are increasingly going abroad to access franchise investment, immigrants can have a network of clansmen and foreign capital to invest in a franchise when the credit crunch makes investing tough for many others.