Members of the largest living generation have been called apathetic, lazy, and narcissistic. But as they come into their own, they’re proving to be a tantalizing franchise target.

They’re the largest living generation in the world!

They spend more money in restaurants per capita than any previous generation, according to Restaurant Marketing Labs.

They’ve been credited with changing the restaurant landscape forever by seeking out brands that offer customized food choices, quality ingredients, freshness, authenticity, transparency, and environmental and social responsibility.

They grew up on more trendy fast-casual brands like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Panera Bread, and the dozens of fast casual 2.0 chains that came after them.

And they’re about to own a franchise near you!

Millennials—those born roughly between 1980 and 2000 and comprising the biggest world generation, according to Pew Research Center—are coming of age as entrepreneurs and business owners. Maligned by some, millennials have been called apathetic, lazy, and narcissistic. But as the generation ages and matures, some of its members are transitioning from their roles as demanding teen customers and misunderstood entry-level employees to innovative managers and business owners.

And franchisors should be ready to capitalize on their potential.

The new franchise landscape

Technology has also created new ways for millennials to afford the dream of owning a franchise.

Companies like ApplePie Capital, an online lender solely dedicated to the franchise industry, have made it easier for potential franchisees to borrow money for startup costs.

“The target audience of these types of sites is millennials,” one millennial says. “We didn’t have that 10 or 20 years ago. Today, there are endless amounts of money available online, but you have to be tech-savvy and social media–savvy to get it. I’ve heard stories of people with no money at all who raised enough to open three restaurants.”

Still, as with other generations, millennials don’t want to have to do everything themselves. That’s partly why franchising is attractive to them, experts say; millennials are in tune with what they are good at—and what they aren’t.

Why millennials choose franchising

Sharing is something millennials do a lot of, usually through social media. Andrew Gruel, chef and founder of the rapidly growing seafood fast casual Slapfish, acknowledges that he’s sometimes frustrated by millennials who care more about how his food will look on Instagram than how it tastes. But he appreciates the usefulness of social media for attracting franchisees to his brand.

“We get so many more leads off Instagram and Facebook than traditional lead generation,” he says.

The 36-year-old Gruel says another reason some of his peers, especially in tech-dominated California, are interested in becoming franchisees is that they made money at a young age in startups and are looking for new ways to invest their money.

“Restaurants are traditionally viewed as risky, but not to them,” he says. “They’ve gone through risky with tech. They see franchise agreements as a built-in insurance policy. They’ve got proven data, unit economics, operations manuals, legal protections … and that’s built-in safety.”

Gruel says there are some negatives when it comes to millennial franchisees.

“The human variable is not a widget or a digit,” he says. “If someone is coming from the tech space, technology is binary and there’s not as much of a human element. In a restaurant, if three people who were scheduled to work call in sick and you can’t find fill-ins, your service goes down the drain and you might get a bad Yelp review and it’s a slippery slope. A lot of millennials don’t understand and appreciate that human aspect.”

While some millennials are interested in franchising because they made money in the last decade or so and need a relatively safe place to invest it, others are interested because they lived through the Great Recession between 2007 and 2009 and are looking for opportunity.

This especially applies to fast-casual franchises, Gruel says. He points out that many millennials came of age during the recession, a time when fast casuals started to take off as casual-dining customers traded down. Private equity investments in fast casuals started to explode, he says, and many concepts started to go viral through Instagram and Facebook.

The recession set three things into motion. First, it taught millennials that nothing is guaranteed and the best way to control one’s destiny is to be your own boss. Second,  the recession “ruined” real estate markets, which made it more affordable for young franchisees to open restaurants.

Many people were laid off, giving them the push they needed to start a business. The recession helped fuel franchise growth with new brands, and less expensive brands, and more unique brands.

Another characteristic attributed to the millennials is that they are the boomerang generation, moving back home with their parents, at least for a while, after college graduation. A 2016 study from Fidelity Investments found that 21 percent of millennials were living with their parents, up from 14 percent in 2014, and two-thirds of the survey respondents said it’s acceptable for children to live with their parents.

This shows that millennials likely have a tighter bond with their parents as adults than previous generations did, something that has led to more franchising partnerships between parents and children.

The lifestyle factor

While attention has shifted in recent years to fast-casual brands that have pledged not to franchise—thereby creating the impression franchising is more a thing of the past—it seems owning a franchise is just as attractive to millennials as it was to past generations.

Being your own boss has great appeal, being able to grow a business from the bottom and make it prosper takes a lot of work, and it’s exciting when you have it all set up and don’t have to be there 100 hours a week anymore.

Millennials are concerned about their quality of life, and franchising gives them the flexibility to either stop at one or two units or grow to 50 or more.

Gallup reported in August 2016 that 21% of millennial workers changed jobs within the preceding year, and six in 10 were open to different job opportunities. Meanwhile, only half of millennials planned to be with their company a year in the future.

This propensity toward job-hopping is sometimes viewed as a desire in millennials to get rich quick. But it could also be a sign that many millennials are just looking for a perfect fit—a fit that franchising might be able to provide.

“Franchising is not a way to get rich quick, but it is a way to be your own boss quickly,” Gruel says. “At the end of the day, potential franchisees have to ask themselves if that is satisfying enough to endure the long hours and hard work of the restaurant industry.”

♦ QSR