r/Franchises

Reached a point where staying in corporate stopped making sense on any level. Not just the grind but the math. Years building value for someone else's operation while your trajectory stays capped by a salary band and a 401k. Started researching alternatives and landed on home services franchise ownership after a few months of comparison.

Restaurant franchises were my first look and first to get crossed off. Entry costs past half a million, weekends and holidays gone, margins thinner than the investment justifies.

Home services were a completely different equation. Lower entry point, essential demand that doesn't disappear in a downturn, physical operations without the overhead of a retail storefront. The category just made more financial sense as a starting point.

College Hunks is the one I keep coming back to. Junk hauling plus local moving under one roof so you're not locked into one revenue stream. Investment runs 250 to 350 and from what I can find average locations are doing over a million. The thing that actually got my attention was how much they handle after you sign, lead gen, booking, ongoing coaching. Most brands I looked at basically disappear after training week. Fees run lower than the bigger names too which matters a lot when you're projecting out a few years.

The takeaway from months of comparison: total fee burden versus what the franchisor actually delivers after you sign is the only comparison that matters. Recognition means nothing if the economics fall apart under scrutiny. Still looking at brands outside junk and moving to round out the comparison but nothing has matched what College Hunks puts together at that price point so far.

I'm running 3 locations now and the way I'm doing communication is genuinely starting to mess with my life. Every employee has my personal cell. Every shift change, every callout, every random question about whether they can wear a beanie goes straight to my texts. My wife is over it. I'm over it. I tried setting up a groupme for each store and that worked for about a month before the rosters got messy from people quitting and new hires not getting added.

The other thing is half these tools charge per user and I lose like a third of my staff every quarter. Doesn't really make sense to pay for seats that turn over constantly. I just want something I can drop new hires into when they start and remove when they go, without restructuring my whole bill every 6 weeks.

What are you all actually using? I'm not looking for the heaviest software on the market. I just need announcements to land somewhere people actually check, and shift coverage to not require me as a middleman every time someone wants Saturday off.

I’m thinking of opening a VR AR gaming experience. I see most gaming franchises open in mall and not outside mall.

Why do these AR VR gaming opening in mall ? I’m thinking of opening one but should I go into mall or outside mall.

I’m bit confused , so pls guide me . Pls share any reading material which will help make a decision.

Investment path (A) $150K investment yields you 3% stock and a monthly return once the dealership of your investment becomes profitable under our ownership estimated 3 months , clear exit unless you decide to stay .

Investment path (B) $500K investment yields you 10% stock and a monthly return once the dealership of your choice becomes profitable under our ownership estimated 3 months , clear exit unless you decide to stay .

Investment path (C) You have a 700 Beacon score and 1.35M to invest , work in the store for a paycheck , commission , and a yearly dividend with a clear training path , CSI , education, a approval path to becoming the dealerships executive manager or dealer principal. We are working with an awesome SBA lender - Demo provided

Investment path (D) You have a 700 Beacon score and 1.35M liquid to invest , you get a monthly return once the dealership becomes profitable under our ownership estimated 3 months , We are working with an awesome SBA lender -Demo provided

Investment path (E) 5M investment all in on the NC Chevrolet dealership or SC Chevrolet dealership .you get a monthly principal plus interest return once the dealership becomes profitable under our ownership estimated 3 months with a clear exit . 2 Demos provided

About us , we have 80 years of combined General Motors dealership only experience. One is a former Chevrolet dealer principal (Organizer) and is inside a GM dealership doing turn around consulting every day of the week , the other a General Manager in a GMC dealership and will be our Dealer Principal candidate . One of our investors is the former dealer principals son who will manage the parts departments while training to eventually be Dealer Principal. This individual will also pledge 1.3 million of personal real estate into the deal .

Please no brokers , or loan sharks . This is an investment that you can see , touch , smell , and drive . You can visit your investment any time 365 24 7 . Both are in awesome economic areas in both states . The SC store is ready to close , the NC store is heading towards a close .

Phone calls preferred 843 289 7922 , leave a text or message for a call back

The scam of a lifetime. Predatory, false claims, and a lot left to be desired. It all starts with the franchise consultants, a group of low life predators that will do anything for placements to make commission on. They will try to sell anything and everything while making pretend like they actually care about the trajectory of your life. Next comes the brand rep, they will put anything infront of you to only shine light on positive and not the negatives of a business. You could also call them predators, but in a different way. These individuals are on the road traveling to headquarters, conferences etc. and this is where they thrive. Getting inappropriate with others in the industry… until they get put on probation and can no longer attend conferences or drink at them. Franchising is like an STD, it can be temporary, but you’ll never forget how bad it was.

From my own perspective working around franchises, I’ve noticed I’ve shifted more toward appreciating the “boring but steady” side over time.

Early on, it’s easy to get drawn to the exciting, high-growth concepts. But the longer I look at real operators, the more I see that consistency usually comes from simple, repeatable services. Things like home services, cleaning, restoration, senior care, or pet-related businesses. Not flashy, but steady demand is hard to ignore.

The higher-growth franchises can definitely be appealing, but they usually come with more uncertainty, more competition, and a bit more pressure to “get it right” quickly. That’s not necessarily bad, it just depends on your risk tolerance and how hands-on you want to be.

Personally, I think the real question isn’t just growth vs stability, but: what kind of stress are you willing to deal with every day?

Where others land on this, would you take steady and predictable, or aim for higher upside even if it’s less certain?

I make about $400-500k a year at my W2 job. The job itself is very flexible and I work 20-30 hours a week. I could also put someone underneath me and work less for a small pay cut.

I'm interested in venturing into franchising something. I'm not looking to replace my income anytime in the near future, but I really like the idea of scaling something to multiple units over 5-10 years that eventually turns into a cash cow.

Anyone in a similar situation who has done this successfully? If so, what was your experience like?

Trying to figure out what the best are

Came across this recently a customer messaged the same franchise brand through Instagram at two different locations on the same day. One replied in 20 minutes. The other never replied at all. The customer left a 2-star Google review on the second location mentioning they "couldn't even get a response."

The franchisor found out three weeks later.

You can standardise the product, the fit-out, the uniforms. But the moment someone messages or calls, it's completely down to whoever is working that shift and whether they even check that inbox.

Has anyone at a network level actually built a system around this, or is it just treated as a franchisee autonomy problem?

I'm a 64-year old supply chain manager. Most of my experience is in defense/aerospace manufacturing. I was laid off in January and am having difficulty finding gainful employment.

Thinking about going into business for myself, and considering franchises. The one that has my attention is lawn care, specifically non-toxic, organic fertilizer, weed control, etc. Subscription service, so recurring income.

I'm in great shape for a man ten years younger, so I'm sure I could do the work - at least until I have enough clients to hire a technician.

The leap is scary, I don't have a lot of time to recover from a failed experiment.

What would you do?

I’ve noticed a lot of people assume the first step in franchising is picking a brand, but in reality, most of the conversations I have start with something much simpler: what kind of life are you actually trying to build?

Some people want flexibility, others want structure, and some just want something more stable than what they currently have. And depending on that answer, completely different franchises can make sense.

Curious when you were choosing your first franchise, or even thinking about it, what mattered most to you? The brand name, the investment level, the support system, or something else?

Would love to hear different perspectives on this.

https://preview.redd.it/wbanny4e431h1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9991a299c41f9cabb45a5aabcef0ff2b7f7d179e

I’ve worked for a small restaurant franchise group for 16 years and the last 10 as GM and have opened 3 new locations in that time. I make 100k including all of the benefits they cover and it’s 9-5 M-F. However I’m past the point of being tired of what I’m doing with no real end in sight as far as a regional roll since it’s only a handful of locations and I don’t see another coming for another few years at least. I also want to move closer to family I’m only here because it would be impossible to find a comparable job.

I found a newer franchise with less than 30 locations and 20 in development. It’s a healthier concept which I think more consumers are starting to shift to. I haven’t talked to them yet but they claim the initial investment is around 500k but the AIV is 1.6m with the worst location still doing over 1m and no location closures. The investment vs AUV seems really good compared to most franchises. It’s just hard to leave a stable job that I know will be extremely difficult to replace.

Anyone have experience with QSR franchise ownership? Would you do it again? I would have to get an SBA loan. I know that it’s going to be a job at least to begin with. I’ve done this for 16 years so I’m not new to restaurants and do this on a daily basis anyway. It would basically be a comparable job for me to start but obviously taking on the risk as well. I know this isn’t a passive investment to start. I just feel like I need to do something to have a chance to get ahead. I’ve been able to save money and invest but I’m starting to feel stuck with no upside at my job and the cost of living starting to catch up and eat into what I usually am able to save.

I’ve spent the last 10 years working with founders and executives, and I’m currently looking at how fitness owners are scaling beyond just opening more gyms.

I’m curious, once you have a solid footprint in fitness, do you usually look for 'complementary' services (like wellness or beauty) that serve the same member base, or do you prefer to stick to what you know? I'd love to hear some real-world stories of what worked (and what didn't).

Each franchise location has daily, weekly, and monthly checklists. Managers say they did them but corporate has no proof.

I need checklists assigned by role and location, mobile forms with photo proof, and instant alerts if missed. At month end I want a compliance score per location. If a location misses 3 days, escalate to the area manager. We don’t want another app managers hate. It has to be text or mobile web.

Looking for perspective from the 3+ location crowd (or anyone who just made the jump from 1 to 5.)

Why do so many new GMs hit a wall at 90 days? Looks great on paper, interviews well, you spend two weeks with them on the floor, you're feeling good. Second you stop breathing down their neck, the wheels fall off. Labor blown out, culture turns toxic, weird calls on food waste that eat the month's profit. They know the rules but maybe they don't have the judgment yet.

Two questions:

1. What does it actually cost you when a new GM doesn't work out? I hear $20K+ once you count lost profit and turnover. in my experience it's higher when you add three months of you going back in to fix the store.

2. If you could run someone through the 10 worst shifts they'll face before they ever take the keys - a flight sim for new GMs if you will - would you actually use it? Or is there no substitute for letting them screw up in real time?

Trying to figure out if we're all just living with this as a cost of doing business, or if anyone's cracked it. Horror stories and wins both welcome.

"Tried to get a job at a franchise while back. Applied to 20 different locations of the same brand — got called back by 7 of them.

Every single interview was the same thing. Same questions, same process, same vibe. None of us got hired.

Later, talking to other candidates, we figured out that some of those locations were desperately short-staffed — while others were turning people away that same week.

Same brand. No one talking to each other.

That stuck with me. So I'm building something to fix it — a tool that lets franchise networks share and screen candidates across units instead of each location starting from scratch.

As franchisees — how are you currently handling candidate overflow? Are you just letting good people walk out the door, or is there actually a system in place?"

Tried to get a job at a franchise a while back. Applied to 20 different locations of the same brand — got called back by 7 of them.

Every single interview was the same thing. Same questions, same process, same vibe. None of us got hired.

Later, talking to other candidates, we figured out that some of those locations were desperately short-staffed — while others were turning people away that same week.

Same brand. No one talking to each other.

That stuck with me. So I'm building something to fix it — a tool that lets franchise networks share and screen candidates across units instead of each location starting from scratch.

As franchisees — how are you currently handling candidate overflow? Are you just letting good people walk out the door, or is there actually a system in place?

With over 10 stores either sold for the price of the equipment or just stores shuttering this is not what you want to invest in. The owners are not good people, they are not supported and there mission is to open as many franchise locations no matter what your results are. Our legal team has told us that none of the locations are profitable, seems the only locations that can seem to show profit are the corporate stores. Don't be fool, I wish we had someone tell us before we invested.

Is that the cash up front to open for business?

1. Picking the right model is the best first step: it has to be a model that's not just profitable in your hands, but also in those much less skilled than you perceive yourself to be. Your customers/franchisees are buying your franchise unit because they trust it will be a profitable investment/venture for them.

2. Avoid FDOs/FSOs: almost every single new franchisor has been hit with $15k - $50k fees to set up their franchise with Franchise Sales/Development Organizations. This is ridiculous. I didn't get it in time, but there's a platform that does it for like $4k and it's legit (franchisebuilders.us). They do the documents (FDD / FA / OM) but their real value is in franchisee setup and management.

3. Royalties: these will become an issue sooner than later... I suggest going ahead and having a CHRGD (chrgdtechnologies.com) account so that your new franchisees can onboard quickly and automatically. It does nightly royalty payments so your franchisees literally can't get behind, don't have to budget lump sum payments, etc. It's a non-negotiable win for any franchise.

4. Legal: don’t overcomplicate at first: Most people swing too far one way here. They either ignore legal until it becomes a problem, or they get buried in expensive, overly complex setups that slow everything down. The goal isn’t to build the most sophisticated legal structure possible — it’s to have clean, enforceable, understandable agreements that actually get used when hiring staff, etc. What helped me was using something like EasyLegal (easylegal-ai.com) to handle the core docs and logic without turning every small change into a billable event. You still want a real attorney involved where it matters, but day-to-day legal shouldn’t be friction.

5. Your biggest bottleneck won’t be ops — it’ll be lead flow: Everyone focuses on getting the system right (which matters), but very few think about how they’re actually going to consistently bring in qualified franchisees or customers at scale. You can have a perfect model and still stall out if your pipeline is inconsistent. What I’ve seen work best is treating marketing like infrastructure, not a one-off effort — centralized strategy, repeatable campaigns, and clear visibility into what’s actually driving results. Tools like AdGenius (adgenius-ai.com) are interesting here because they remove a lot of the manual trial-and-error and let you scale campaigns without every location or operator doing their own thing. DO NOT pay the "marketing experts" $2k+ monthly, it's not worth it.