Franchising has quietly made countless Americans rich
特许经营，正悄悄让无数美国人变富
When Greg Flynn graduated from Stanford Business School in 1994, with the dotcom boom in full swing, his friends chose the obvious career path. But while they “were all making PowerPoint presentations…becoming paper millionaires,” he went off to help a friend open a second restaurant. A few years later, spotting generous financing on offer for would-be franchisees, Mr Flynn bought eight Applebee’s restaurants of his own.
1994年，当格雷格·弗林（Greg Flynn）从斯坦福商学院毕业时，互联网泡沫正如火如荼地上演。他的朋友们都选择了那条“显而易见”的职业道路。但就在他们“忙着做PPT、成为纸面百万富翁”的时候，弗林却跑去帮朋友开第二家餐厅。几年后，他注意到银行正在为潜在加盟商提供相当宽松的融资条件，于是买下了8家Applebee's餐厅。
He now runs more than 3,000 franchise outlets across seven brands in three countries, and is reportedly worth more than $1bn, probably the first franchisee in the world to reach that milestone. On February 22nd the International Franchise Association, a lobbying group, inducted him into its Hall of Fame—an accolade previously reserved for franchisors, the innovators on the other side of the business who established big chains, such as Ray Kroc of McDonald’s or Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC.
如今，他经营着横跨三个国家、七个品牌、超过3000家加盟门店。据报道，他的身价已经超过10亿美元，可能是全球第一位达到这一里程碑的加盟商。2月22日，国际特许经营协会（International Franchise Association）将他纳入“名人堂”。此前，这项荣誉通常只属于“加盟体系创建者（franchisors）”——也就是建立大型连锁品牌的那一方，比如麦当劳的雷·克罗克（Ray Kroc）或肯德基的哈兰·桑德斯上校（Colonel Harland Sanders）。
Mr Flynn’s is a tale of slow and steady success. So is that of the franchise model, which began spreading across America in the 1950s. Nowadays there are close to 850,000 franchise establishments in the country, run by around 250,000 owners, employing some 9m people and generating about 3% of GDP. As many as one in six businesses with at least one employee are part of a franchise.
弗林先生的故事，是一个缓慢但稳定积累成功的故事。而特许经营模式本身也是如此。自20世纪50年代开始，这种商业模式就在美国不断扩张。如今，美国已经拥有接近85万家特许经营门店，由大约25万名老板经营，雇佣了约900万人，并贡献了大约3%的GDP。甚至可以说，美国每六家至少有一名员工的企业中，就有一家属于特许经营体系。
