Eyes Wide Open

After five years of fine-tuning a business that uses occupational therapy to restore people's vision, Michele Vandendooren felt confident enough to take it national.

The founder and president of Sarasota-based Low Vision Works, Vandendooren launched the expansion at a large industry tradeshow in Los Angeles in fall 2009. Her plan was to recruit a network of affiliates, places like V.A. hospitals and home health care offices, which would license her company's proprietary vision enhancement programs. She would charge a onetime startup fee, and then a smaller monthly fee.

But less than three years into national expansion, Vandendooren faces a challenge she never saw coming: Going national this way, through a hybrid-franchise program, hasn't worked out. It's actually a complicated, labor-intensive process — with thin margins, to boot.