Quoted: “When you buy into a franchise, you are buying a system of operations and you are buying an accepted brand,” says Michael Williams, director of entrepreneurship activities and director of the business and entrepreneur clinic and faculty associate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship. “Franchising ebbs and flows with the economy; when we have a slowdown or recession and people are laid off, there may be an uptick in franchising as people look to replace their incomes.”