A high jobless rates means that some people may be thinking outside the box and are more likely to buy a franchise.  Consultant Michael Sipe was a guest on 1110 KBND's "Your Town" Wednesday morning.  He's been helping people discover if they want to buy a franchise for more than twenty years.  He says there seems to be a big trend towards franchising. "The concept has been around for a long, long time.  As much as 30 years ago it was frowned upon, there were a lot of irregularities in the industry, but regulation has been a good thing."  He says now that the industry is highly regulated it can be the easiest, safest and quickest way to get into owning a business. Sipe says some people can buy a franchise for 100 thousand dollars or less.  Plus, there is financiing and programs available for Veterans.  The address for the free consulting website is www.frannet.com  Frannet is short for "Franchising Network", a group that started many years ago.