Anyone here have any experience with franchising? Any insights you can share? Pros and cons?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Girl I work with is part owner of a 7/11 (her, a brother, and two cousins).

The cousins work there to ensure the store is run to the owners' expectations.

A hunting buddy owns three Sonics - same thing for him, he works at each of them for the same reason (until he knows the manager(s) will/can do it).

Franchises are not inexpensive to acquire and they typically requires suitable cash reserve in addition to the franchise purchased. Go carefully with due diligence.

Good luck,
RMD

You could open a place that sells mlikshakes. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

The only one I could think that would work is a Chick Fil A.


They can't be cheap to get one though.

From the little I've read about franchises, it's gonna be more like a full time job with OT and not just for extra income on the side. Here are some comments on the same subject from a financial forum I frequent: https://www.bogleheads.org/for...ewtopic.php?t=187313

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
The only one I could think that would work is a Chick Fil A.


They can't be cheap to get one though.

You have to be very well vetted, Christian and the kind of person mgmt would trust w their kids. No joke. Plus you generally can only have one store. A few lucky/successful people get 2. You'd better love working.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
The only one I could think that would work is a Chick Fil A.


They can't be cheap to get one though.

https://www.chick-fil-a.com/Careers/Franchise

Not 100% sure if there's more to it, but it's $10k, for the franchise fee.

Probably, actually one of the cheapest.

quote:

Not 100% sure if there's more to it, but it's $10k, for the franchise fee.

Probably, actually one of the cheapest.

How much do you think it costs to build one of the buildings they are housed in?

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

Not 100% sure if there's more to it, but it's $10k, for the franchise fee.

Probably, actually one of the cheapest.

How much do you think it costs to build one of the buildings they are housed in?

For the building and all of the equipment, I would guess $300-400k not including the land.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
The only one I could think that would work is a Chick Fil A.


They can't be cheap to get one though.

I talked to a franchise owner the other day. He started with a small rinky dink mall location nearby and graduated to a large stand alone. He came up in the Atlanta area working as a manager, and he said the corporate types love to recruit in house for new franchises. He also said that all franchise owners work 6 days a week for 10-12 hours a day. And there are NO foreign owners, period.

quote:

For the building and all of the equipment, I would guess $300-400k not including the land.

I'm working on opening a restaurant. I could spend that much in a 2,500 square foot strip center.

I bet those free standing, drive through franchises are pushing $1 million. The $300 to $400K would probably be realistic for one of the smaller non-free standing units.

Corporate does front the money, but that comes at a cost. 15% of sales plus 50% of profit for rent.

The last company my girlfriend worked for was building free standing, 150 seat, fast casual restaurants at $2 million a copy.

Figure a million plus liquid, or more, the 10k is just their fee off the top
A good friend of mine has 4 subways, he is selling them
Tired of the hours, even paying 40k or so for a store manager doesn't get you a reliable employee apparently

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

Not 100% sure if there's more to it, but it's $10k, for the franchise fee.

Probably, actually one of the cheapest.

How much do you think it costs to build one of the buildings they are housed in?

When I was in college I worked for dominos pizza as a driver (best job ever btw) it was the only pizza place in the small town and had been for over 10 years.

The owner was in there daily and actually working as much as any employee, not just sitting on the computer in the office, he was actually making pizzas and doing dishes etc.

But then again, when I was in highschool I worked at a mccdonalds and the owner had the biggest house in town and drove a Porsche, his 2 sons my age had 2 cars each (a truck and some sort of sports car) and didn't work at th McDonald's.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

Not 100% sure if there's more to it, but it's $10k, for the franchise fee.

Probably, actually one of the cheapest.

How much do you think it costs to build one of the buildings they are housed in?

It's used to be $5k

quote:

Chick-fil-A has a distinct franchise business model. The franchise fee to join Chick-fil-A is a very accessible $5,000. Chick-fil-A corporation will pay for land, construction and equipment for a restaurant, then rent it to the franchisee for 15% of sales plus 50% of pretax profit remaining.

Not sure how much of that is still accurate.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

Not 100% sure if there's more to it, but it's $10k, for the franchise fee.

Probably, actually one of the cheapest.

How much do you think it costs to build one of the buildings they are housed in?

For the building and all of the equipment, I would guess $300-400k not including the land.

A single, franchised, fast food restaurant location cost my family a cool million to open, and that was more than 20years ago. I find it hard to believe that a Chick Fil A is cheaper, especially nowadays. Maybe, but I doubt it.

(grew up in a franchised, multi location, restaurant family)

Some years back I looked into opening a Dunkin' Donuts. At the time, the cost was $400K up front with a certain amount of money in reserve (can't remember the amount but it was substantial). That pretty much killed my idea at the time. Additionally, they had requirements on local population, traffic flow in the area, etc.... It was a pretty big deal and much more than simply cutting a check and putting up a DD sign.

Now that I'm much more financially stable, I've been entertaining it again. Only problem is DD doesn't have any franchises in this part of the country and getting the deliveries might be an issue. It would still fund my retirement easily, so I may start looking at it seriously.

My ex boss has 2 franchise auto repair shops (Christian brothers automotive) he is the only franchisee to have 2 locations and he was also the first franchisee. I wont get into the hypocrisy of it being a "Christian " based franchise. When i left there his wife was working getting a chicfila franchise. Extreme vetting of personal life, religion, marriage situation and the franchisee has to work in a store for 6 months to a year and perform the duties of all positions before being chosen for a franchise. If they finance your store when the payment contract is up there is still an appraisal and buyout value assessed. Christian brothers is run the same way. They get you hard for the first 10-15 years. It took my ex boss 12 years to finally payoff then purchase the building of his first store. By then all the lifts, the floor and equipment needed replacing or repairs in a bad way. Also, anything that broke while he was still paying off CB he was responsible for repairs or replacing, for equipment and property he did not even own. If the store was less than successful or profitable (while under contract) CB could revoke his franchise and award it to someone else.

I know they aren't all this bad but even he regrets going the franchise route.

Steak and BJ'1 You could open the first one

Based on the response's in the running thread I bet business would be brisk.

My only words of advice: Stick with something you know.

You know tools? Distribute tools. Violins? Student rentals to high schools. Buying a company that cleans grease traps, well, you may be better off building that one from the ground up.

I like the idea of a power wash company. Me and my truck, and maintenance contracts. Do some graffiti removal and cover-up as well.

A real estate developer acquired a property across the street from his condo/office building. It was only a mid-street row, maybe 16' wide at the most. Small kitchen, long bar, bathrooms in the basement. We renovated with mild regard for cost, and came out with a cool space. The tab was $200,000, just for the renovation, using flagstone floors and concrete bar. That was in the late '90s.

A successful bar/restaurant owner once told me, as he stood out of the traffic pattern watching the kitchen, the bar, and the tables, all at once, he said he made 50¢ a customer on a lunch, after everyone/everything is paid. So he made $75 for staying open for lunch. He also did extensive catering and had a rollicking college crowd. This also was in the late '90s.

The son has it now. I've been doing service work for that family for 23 years.

Sometimes the money is in picks, shovels, and sheets. Not the actual panning.