Is an area known for its innovative ideas and entrepreneurship falling for the surrogate thing? The rising interest for setting up franchise retail stores in the Silicon Valley area such as Baskin-Robbins certainly points in that direction.

Seventy five percent of the entrepreneurs seeking to buy into a franchise formula in the San Francisco Bay Area have a background in technology, according to FranNet, a franchise consulting group.

The laid of tech workers have lost faith in the job security of big corporations and hope that there is a better future in being self-employed. "[The entrepreneurs] choose franchises because it's a proven system. They're given training and a formula for succes,'' FranNet president Joan Young told The San Jose Mercury News.

Running a franchise retail store offers some middle ground between founding a new company and old-fashioned employment. In a sense, the franchise is entrepreneurship for dummies. Is dummy-filled Silicon Valley next?

29 Dec 2004