“Biggby makes it easy for you” to open a franchise, says Henry Lin, who with his wife, Justine, just opened one on Jackson Rd. The East Lansing company now has around 222 stores.

Lin and his wife are involved in several other businesses–she owns a nail salon in Dexter, and he has rental property and works with a nonprofit foundation. He says that when they were casting around for a franchise to buy into, Caribou (now Peets) “didn’t even return our phone call. And the big ones like Taco Bell and KFC, you don’t pick them, they pick you.” Even other smaller, newer franchises, like a California froyo enterprise, didn’t respond to their inquiries.

Biggby, says Lin, did more than respond promptly–it gives a seminar twice a month in Lansing about how to be a franchise owner. Two other Biggby franchises–with two other owners–also opened recently, on Packard near State and at Platt and Ellsworth.

Biggby, 5245 Jackson Rd., 369-6872. Mon.-Sat. 6 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m.-9 p.m. biggby.com