Should You Franchise? How to Decide.

I first met John Leonesio shortly after a handful of fanatical terrorists had killed nearly 3,000 innocent people, throwing the nation and the economy into shock. Flags were flying in the streets. But on Wall Street -- and on Main Street -- the economy was flying at half-mast, as the one-two punch that had started with the dotcom bubble bursting was now overshadowed by the fear that these maniacs would strike again. In the immediate aftermath, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 14.3 percent in a week -- then a record number -- on top of the losses already sustained from the end of the dotcom bubble. Unemployment jumped from 3.9 percent to 6 percent in a matter of months. And fear was everywhere. The sale of gas masks in some quarters jumped 500 percent overnight as anthrax was found in the postal system. Would our malls be next? A sporting event?

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In the face of this market, Leonesio had developed a therapeutic massage concept that was different from those around the country. He called it Massage Envy. And despite people's economic woes, they loved it. In fact, the economic times may have contributed to his success. At the time, fewer than 15 percent of Americans had ever experienced a therapeutic massage, and Leonesio knew a tremendous opportunity existed in the marketplace.

Using his decades of experience in the health club industry, he had created a new, membership-based model for marketing spa and therapeutic massage services. He first opened the new concept in a strip mall in suburban Phoenix, and now the business was so successful that he was actually turning away new members.

But Leonesio had a dilemma, the same dilemma I have seen dozens of times over the years. People were walking through his newly opened operation with notepads and cameras. And while he tried to keep them out, he knew it wouldn't be long before jumped into his market. He could see what would happen next. People would begin knocking off his concept, and