Carpets and hospitals out, franchises in

A pair of out-of-work Gulf Coast executives discovered salvation in cell phones and chocolate.

In separate and unrelated moves, each executive, Bob Hughston, formerly with Mohawk Carpets, and Jim Ayersman, previously with the HCA hospital chain, will take a chance on franchise-based entrepreneurship.

Hughston is on the mobile phone side. He opened a Wireless Zone store in Venice last month, the first of what he hopes could be five stores in the next two years. Middletown, Conn.-based Wireless Zone is one of the 35 fastest-growing franchises in the country, according to Entrepreneur Magazine. It sells a wide variety of Verizon Wireless products, though Verizon doesn't own the firm.