The American Dream of small-business ownership is alive and well, and the fastest-growing group of people making that dream a reality are immigrants. Though they make up only 13.5 percent of the U.S.. population, immigrant entrepreneurs now account for 27.5 percent of all new entrepreneurs in America. That’s up from 13.3 percent just a decade ago. Not only that, but immigrants are much more likely to become entrepreneurs than native-born Americans, with 0.53 percent rate of entrepreneurship for immigrants against only a 0.29 percent rate for natives.
As a franchise business consultant, I hear from lots of these immigrant entrepreneurs who are choosing their path to small-business ownership through franchising. The franchise industry has been on a winning streak for years and 2017 is expected to be one of the strongest yet. The International Franchise Association predicts growth of 5.2 percent in nominal dollars in 2017, accounting for $426 billion.
Franchising continues to be popular for budding entrepreneurs who prefer having a proven model of success, established brand equity and support systems in place to help their business grow. For immigrants looking for their piece of the American Dream through small-business ownership, franchises provide even more value.
Franchising makes complicated circumstances simpler.
Macdonald and Linda Vasnani came to the United States in the 1990s as he was launching a shipping business in his home country of Ghana. Having recently attended a Ghanaian festival in Chicago, he saw opportunity to expand his business to Aurora, Illinois, to serve the more than 200,000 Ghanaians residing in the area.
However, setting up a business in America had a different set of challenges than what he was used to in Africa.
“Compliance was a big issue for us,” MacDonald said, “There were so many things for us to learn about doing business in America and we had to take that all…