Today we have a lot to celebrate. It's Friday and the sun is (somewhat) shining. We've just launched our Facebook timeline, with a host of historical goodies in store throughout the history of franchising and of Franchise Direct.
This morning, as we were just about to launch our Facebook Timeline, we were looking back over how the business has grown, and learnt we've just received our 2 millionth application.
We have tracked the history of the industry right from Isaac Singer's sewing machine franchise in 1858, to the opening of Burger King in Coventry Street, London to McDonald's in Manchester in 1986.
We've added screen shots of Franchise Direct through the ages, to give you an online visit down memory lane. Starting in 1998 (the year Google opened their first office in California), through the dot com bust in 2000, the timeline will give you tingles as you look back on how the internet used to look, feel and click. (We take no responsibility if it conjures up the awful memory of that death rattle your modem would make connecting to dial up.)
Right from the early days in our offices in Dublin 4, our Managing Director Sean McGarry wanted to put entrepreneurial minded people in touch with franchisors and interesting business opportunities. And that goal is still being fulfilled.
We only started keeping records in October 2005 (the year Youtube was born and we started viewing cats a different way), and by December that year we had made 10,000 connections between franchisors and those looking for a business.
By the following September of 2006, we had received 250,000 applications, doubling to 500,000 in May 2007. By Christmas 2008 we had broached the 1 million mark.
Curious about the history of franchising? Check our new Facebook Timeline
This is what our first ever site looked like in 1998:
