pMartha Matilda Harper and the American Dream- How One Woman Changed the Face of Modern Business uncovers the buried story of how Harper created America's first retail franchise network, a radical new business model that encouraged women to own businesses, to enrich themselves spiritually and financially, and even to marry - all on their own terms. This biography captures the rags to riches true story of how a 19supthsup century Canadian immigrant woman transforms her life and the lives of thousands of other poor women. The first 100 of her Harper shops went only to impoverished women. Harper, thereby, pioneered, modern franchising, social entrepreneurship and invented the reclining shampoo chair we use even today.ppBorn in Ontario, Canada, Harper struggled for twenty-five years as a servant to change her life and that of other working-class women. Bound out into servitude at age seven, Harper was determined to find an alternative to her fate.ppIn 1888, after immigrating to the United