North Star Franchise Advisors, LLC. - Your Guide to the Perfect Franchise

About Franchising


Franchising is a business strategy for getting and keeping customers. It is a marketing system for creating an image in the minds of current and future customers about how the company’s products and services can help them. It is a method for distributing products and services that satisfy customer needs.

Franchising is a network of interdependent business relationships that allows a number of people to share:

  • A brand identification
  • A successful method of doing business
  • A proven marketing and distribution system

In short, franchising is a strategic alliance between groups of people who have specific relationships and responsibilities with a common goal to dominate markets, i.e., to get and keep more customers than their competitors. A few interesting Franchise Facts:

  • The word "franchise" comes from Old French meaning privilege or freedom.
  • Current concept of franchising comes from the mid 1800s when a major German ale brewer granted certain taverns the exclusive right to sell their ale.
  • Singer Sewing Machine Company was the first to use franchising in the United States.
  • Singer developed written franchise contracts for the distribution of their sewing machines and was the first to implement the predecessors of modern franchise agreements.
  • After WWII, millions of servicemen and women returned home, and with that - the Baby Boom began. The large work force demanded the opportunity to explore and develop more and better business opportunities, which changed the business and our economy forever.