“Franchising is one business sector that really welcomes people over 50 who are looking for a mid-life change of career,” says Michael Johnson, Managing Director of greeting card franchisor Card Connection. “The balance of our franchise network falls into this age category and their maturity is a key positive for us.”

As Card Connection are market leaders in the franchise distribution of greeting cards, perhaps the traditional nature of the product they supply also lends itself nicely to the generation that grew up with cards as central to keeping in touch with their friends and relatives?

That said, franchising as a whole is a great fit for the over 50 age group, for a number of reasons:

• The sector values their business experience
• Maturity and life-skills are major assets that add to their self-assurance
• They tend to be better financed and so able to invest in a franchise

“We find this age group is ripe pickings for candidates looking to make a major life-change by purchasing one of our franchise territories,” explains Johnson. “Add to this the sad reality that people over 50 are more likely to be made redundant than any other age group, and with redundancy pay-outs to invest, you can begin to understand how all these factors combine to make franchising so attractive to people in later life.”

Another major appeal of franchising to this age group is the chance to step away from previous 9 to 5 experiences of working for others and be more in charge of their own destiny. A franchise gives them more control, as they are their own boss, but they still have the experience of an established franchisor behind them, should they need help and advice.

“In our experience, people of this age group are self-starters, able to hit the ground running when it comes to taking up a new challenge. So, it’s very much our experience that it’s simply not true that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” smiles Johnson.

Card Connection’s award-winning business model had provided hundreds of franchisees with a profitable living for 30 years. Since the franchise network in the UK and Ireland is complete, the available opportunities now consist of acquiring an already established territory from an existing franchisee. For more information about this territory and Card Connection please visit www.cardconnection.com