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You’re never too young to start a franchise, the saying goes, and that’s truer than ever given the state of the economy. One group directly suffering the consequences of the economic downturn are this year’s college graduates, who enter into a fearful jobs market with most businesses running on threadbare staff.

So for young people, the dream of franchising has probably never been more alluring. That is the suggestion in a recent young franchisees profile by Reuters. They talk to four franchisees under the age of 26, who reveal why franchising has worked for them in their young careers.

“I saw that a franchised system would fill in the missing pieces that would make me successful. It puts you in an environment around other franchisees,” said Greg Meyer of CertaPro Painting. The story says that Meyer had found steady work as a teenager painting houses, but the franchising system allowed him with the solid business foundation to turn his moonlighting gig into a paying careeer.

Maribel Guiste of Top 100 Global franchise WSI Internet says that she’s witnessed a clear rise in the number of young people wanting to be franchisees, with WSI enjoying at least a 6% spike in young  franchisees since 2006.

So it’s not just that young people are searching out franchise opportunities. Franchisors are welcoming them with open arms. If you’re a young entrepreneur, you’re likely to find the business for you here at Franchise Direct.

Our thoughts again turn to the restaurant industry, especially the quick-service restaurant sector. Our Top 100 Global Franchises was dominated by the QSR franchises and for those considering expansion, either on a domestic or an international level, have to figure out how to negotiate a tricky and competitive market.

Franchise Times has an eye-opening story about the QSR sector in their most recent issue. It starts in Quaker Steak & Lube unit and the promises its founders made 35 years ago: that customers are having fun and feeling the food is unique. When a number of customers responded ‘No’ to both questions, Quaker Steak & Lube begin a root-and-branch examination of how their business functions. They encouraged staff to have more fun with customers and spend more time with them, while adding on extras wherever possible.

The result: Franchise Times reports that Quaker have enjoyed steady growth over the last year, despite the economic downturn and the exceedingly-competitive QSR sector. The reason: “They put more scrutiny on where they spend their dollars,”  Ken Cole, Quaker CEO, told the magazine.

Here’s how Franchise Times breaks down the restaurant sector at the moment:

A more discerning consumer is insisting on strong value and customer service and is punishing brands that don’t provide them to their satisfaction. Diners “are less influenced by prestige and more influenced by performance,” said Malcolm Knapp, publisher of the Knapp Track, a monthly report which tracks casual dining sales.

There’s a lot to chew on in this article, pertaining back to issues we were discussing yesterday. More and more, franchises are being asked to deliver a unique experience, unique even from other franchises operating under the same umbrella. If you’re a prospective restauranteur/franchisee, keep in this mind.

You’ll not only be expected to deliver a product that’s original, but an experience as well.

As the economy has tightened up and competition has put the squeeze on businesses, we’ve seen franchises in the quick-service restaurant sector really get ruthless in trying to attract new customers. This year, we’ve already had the coffee wars and we’re about to witness an exciting new front in fast-food competition: the burger wars.

Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., which are both owned by CKE Restaurants, Inc, have announced they will be taking on the world’s #1 Global franchise, McDonald’s, in September. Their plan is simple. They are offering any customer a mail-in rebate if they honestly believe the McDonald’s Angus Burder tastes better than the Carl’s Jr. Six Dollar Angus Burger  or a $3.49 Hardee’s Angus Thickburger.

“After they so blatantly copied our burgers, we felt it was fair play,” Andrew Puzder of CKE told the Wall Street Journal.

It’s an interesting tactic. If beef is the only issue at stake here, then the CKE franchises have a valid argument to consumers: The Big Carl, for instance, boasts more than twice the amount of beef compared to its Goldern Arches rival.

But the competition is tight.  The WSJ reported that “combined same-store sales at its two burger chains declined 3.6% in the four weeks ended Aug. 10.” Clearly Hardee’s and Carl Jr. feel the need to fight back against McDonald’s, so much so that “one day next month, the company will park a Carl’s Jr. mobile diner outside McDonald’s restaurants in Los Angeles and offer to swap McDonald’s customers’ Big Macs for Big Carls.”

The problem for these franchises is that they’re competing with the world’s  #1 Global Franchise. We’ll be watching the burger wars closely over the coming weeks and we’re curious what McDonald’s next salvo will be.

Franchise Direct’s Top 100 Global Franchises has barely been published two weeks and we’re already seeing franchises competing to improve their standing for next year’s rankings.

News comes to us from the Financial Times that Pizza Hut UK are considering serious expansion over the coming months. The UK’s eminent business paper has reported that Pizza Hut UK is considering opening up 30 - 50 new units by the beginning of 2010.

“Delivery has been a very successful part of our business over the past 12 months or so,” said Jens Hofma, head of Pizza Hut UK, told the FT.

“Clearly, the economic situation has caused customers to dine in more often and resort to pizza delivery. So this is definitely a sector which is in strong growth.

This is interesting on a few levels. For one, it backs up all of our statements about the state of the pizza franchise industry, which we published in our inaugural franchise study.

At the same time, it backs up the foundation of our Top 100 Global Franchise study, which claims that the franchises that are expanding internationally are best positioned to thrive in this struggling.

It will be interesting to see where Pizza Hut finish on next year’s list.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be analyzing certain components of our Top 100 Global Franchise rankings. There’s enough material in here to keep us blogging until Christmas. I hope you’ve been finding the poll as informative as we have.

Today, we’d like to tale a general look at emergence of international franchising. The Wall-Street Journal recently wrote a long and informative story on how American franchises are exploring international options in order to discover new markets. The timing couldn’t be better, as the next day we published our Top 100 Global Franchises rankings. The story focuses on a few big franchises, like Subway, Curves and McDonald’s. Basically, it states that larger, more established franchises are now looking to foreign markets to expand. Look at McDonald’s. This year they’ve opened 53 units in America. Compare that with 286 units abroad. Subway has opened 202 more franchises abroad than in America since January 2008. These are the top two franchises in our Top 100 Global Franchises and they provide the template for any franchise looking to expand. Franchisors looking at foreign markets must take an already easy-to-replicate franchise concept and streamline it further. “We’ve kept costs and fees low, and our operation very simple,” says Don Fertman, Subway’s director of development told the WSJ. “It’s the type of business that just about anybody can get into.” Now take a look at our rankings. Of the Top 100 Global Franchises, 85 are based in America. Six of the top ten franchises sell food. Let’s say you’re a food franchisor. You’re doing well and you want to grow your business. There’s the highly competitive domestic market, and there’s the wide-open world of international franchising. It’s one that’s fraught with risk, but nothing was ever gained without something being risked. It’s an interesting time for franchising. As countries around the world like France and Germany emerge out of recession, perhaps the best opportunity to grow lie in far-away places. The beauty of franchising is that it not bound to any single language, just a single concept.