The U.S. Census Bureau has reported comprehensive data of franchising.  According to the Bureau, franchises with paid employees account for 10.5% of US business. After studying 295 industries, spanning 4.3 million businesses, 453,326 were franchise related businesses.                                                     Along with the above total sales, franchised businesses were made up primarily of franchisee-owned at 77.4% and employed approximately 6.3 million employees. One group to thank for the above statistics and the overall growth of the franchise industry is the International Franchise Association.  For more information about the IFA, please visit www.franchise.org. To find out more about these statistics or to discuss franchising, please contact Lynne Shelton in our Austin, TX or Jason Power in our Tampa, FL offices at 866-99-FRANCHISE.