Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue II, 2013 | Page 66

Franchising
By Helen Bond

F

Female franchisees
are carving out
their own success stories

or most of her 40-year career, Linda
Read says she has had to work harder,
be smarter, and produce better results
than the men in her field. Today she’s
the largest Auntie Anne’s franchisee in California.
While she has seen improvement in attitudes toward women in business over the past four decades, she’s also endured
some seriously backward behavior in her earlier career as development director, first at a law
school and then at two hospital
foundations.
“I remember a man in a job
interview asking, ‘Are you sure a
woman can ask a man for money?’” says Read. These days, such
a question is not only verboten,
hardly anyone even thinks to ask
it anymore.
Proof of business success can
be found in production, says Read,
who operates 11 Auntie Anne’s
pretzel stores. “Results are the
great equalizer, and a successful
woman who out-achieves her
male counterparts is a force to
be reckoned with,” says Read,
president of Pretzel King, LLC
in Glendale, Calif.
Whether seeking more control over their work lives or a
fresh business start, women are
increasingly choosing to make
their own way in the world
of business—and franchising. Linda Read

64

Multi-Unit Franchisee Is s ue II, 2013

Although data is limited, at last count, women accounted for
25 percent of franchisees.
Between 1997 and 2012, the number of women-owned firms
in the United States grew 54 percent—a rate 1.5 times faster
than the national average, according to a study from American
Express Open. And women own about 8.3 million businesses in
the U.S., 30 percent of the total, generating nearly $1.3 trillion
in revenues and employing 7.7 million, according to AmEx’s
2012 “State of Women-Owned
Businesses Report.”
Read, the mother of two young
sons, was seeking greater flexibility
in her schedule when she traded
in two decades in the corporate
world to become her own boss.
It didn’t take long for the handson manager to discover that the
skills she honed in the corporate
world would serve her well in her
new role as a franchisee.
Read was just 26 when she was
tapped to run the development
department of Southwestern Law
School in Los Angeles, making
her one of California’s first female
executives in the fundraising profession. Eventually, she was named
assistant dean before moving on
to serve as development director
at two major hospital foundations.
Along the way, Read, who hails
from a family of entrepreneurs,
cultivated her talents in the areas
of public and community rela-