Franchise India is helping employees from the IT and ITeS industry take the entrepreneurial plunge at a time when these industries are facing job losses and uncertainty.

These tech-enabled businesses suit such professionals who are having a tough time holding on to their jobs in areas like product management and software development.

The franchising body gives support in deal-structuring, business and legal advice to new entrepreneurs to start their franchise operations across almost 700 brands.

Gaurav Marya, Chairman, Franchise India, said: “Recently we got on board 10 employees from firms like Cognizant, TCS and IBM to take up franchisees for technology-backed services like laundry and food. These are mostly employees with relatively lower salaries serving in IT and ITES firms in stagnant functions like product and software development, with not much scope for growth and even those whose jobs are under immediate threat.’’

The consulting firm in franchising is ready to give opportunities to qualified professionals who understand technology and are interested in taking the entrepreneurial leap.

Professionals are encouraged to become franchisees for young start-ups across sectors from laundry (UClean) to travel and fitness based brands like Body Building India and Fitpass.

“Employees in the top four IT firms, especially those in the low-salary brackets, are already fatigued doing their jobs, which have limited growth prospects and we are giving them the opportunity of become franchises for our brands,’’ he added.

For instance, nine-month-old laundry start up, UClean, has already roped in IT professionals who have been laid off in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune to become its franchisees.

With relatively lower investments (between ₹10 and ₹37 lakh), tech-enabled laundry is something the IT professionals may be comfortable doing since it has lower investment and manpower costs with a higher degree of automation.

“Almost 50 per cent of our franchisees have a background in B.Tech and BE and have been employed with IT firms, drawing salaries up to ₹2.5 lakh a month. There is a tech angle to becoming a franchise for laundry stores as it does not require much investment and manpower since the machines are automated. Some of these IT professionals who are our franchisees are also using it as a backup while they continue to work in their respective IT firms as they are uncertain about the future of their salaried jobs,’’ said Arunabh Sinha, Founder & CEO, UClean.

Professionally qualified IT professionals have also been seeking franchise opportunities in travel (Yatra.com) and real estate (Remax) which require low investment as well.

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