When we look back in history, we see franchising had its beginnings in the medieval times. The very first commercial retail franchise is considered to be the Singer Sewing Company. As long ago as the mid-19th century, Isaac Singer invented his sewing machine, which he was keen to market extensively.
Isaac soon realised that to move his business forward he would have to teach prospective customers how to use his new invention. An immediate problem he soon realised was that he lacked capital; necessary if he was to consider any form of mass production. Thus evolving the concept, for the franchisor to expand and get capital required for the same.
Isaac thought about these problems and very sensibly, as history has proved, he decided to sell his proprietary rights, his business interest to people locally. Now armed with this information they were then able to sell the machines, whilst at the same time training others in the best way to use them.
This is the bedrock of franchising and it was not surprising that the enterprise as a whole developed and expanded quickly. The enterprise generated income from the licence of the right’s Isaac had provided and this helped him in his manufacturing capacity. Because each new franchise owner was in fact self-financing, it was not necessary for Isaac himself to recruit a manager for each of the sewing machine centres. By the early 20th century this form of business enterprise had been followed by other industries.