r/Franchises

I’ve been advised by an experienced franchise owner to do a Proforma and find a location *before* my wife and I sign contract for a franchise.

Is he just being extra? He’s experienced but also a very “extra” kinda person. I have had many convos with the franchise and I know where they do and don’t have locations available.

Also anyone have a template? Many thanks in advance!

I'm curious how many hours per week an owner operator is required to work and I'm curious to see if a chik fil a opportunity is even worth it in the long run

Hi everyone, I’m seriously considering taking a franchise of an educational/after-school institute (things like Kumon, UCMAS, BB, or similar concept-based learning centers). I’m looking for honest feedback from people who have already taken such a franchise or know someone who has. Would really appreciate inputs on the following: Things to carefully check / red flags before signing Hidden costs, royalty structure, renewal terms, territory protection, etc. Important questions to ask the franchising team What are the must-ask questions that most people forget? Realistic numbers What kind of monthly turnover / revenue can one expect in a decent location ? Approximate break-even period? Typical monthly expenses (rent, staff, royalties, marketing, etc.)? Day-to-day reality How much time and involvement is actually required from the franchisee? Student retention challenges? Marketing support from the brand – is it real or just on paper? Any particular brand experiences (good or bad) with Kumon, UCMAS, or similar players would be super helpful. Location preference is currently open (open to suggestions based on demand). Thanks in advance for any advice, experiences, or warnings!

If you have any better suggestion for small businesses around 150k. We would love to hear about it.

I'll be straight with you.

I built a platform for franchise operators and I'm decent at building and marketing but I don't come from the franchise world. That's been my biggest problem from day one

The platform has two sides: one for operators who own multiple locations of the same brand and want to manage everything candidates, hiring, activity in one place instead of chasing each manager individually. And another for franchisees who want to connect with others in the same brand and share strong candidates instead of losing them.
I've been talking to operators for months and the conversations have been genuinely useful. But what I'm missing is someone who actually knows how this world works from the inside a franchisee, a multi-unit operator, a franchise consultant who could help me understand where I'm getting it wrong and who I should actually be talking to

Not looking for investment. Not looking for a co-founder. Just someone willing to have an honest conversation with someone who built something in their space without fully understanding it first.

If that's you, or you know someone, drop a comment or DM me.

I'm trying to understand something about franchise royalty reporting from people who have actually dealt with it.

If royalties are based on a franchisee's reported gross sales, how do you verify that the number they're reporting is actually complete and accurate?

A few things I'm particularly curious about:

• Do you primarily rely on POS integrations/reported sales?
• Do you conduct periodic royalty or financial audits?
• When you audit, what do you actually compare against — POS records, payment processors, bank deposits, tax filings, delivery platforms, supplier purchases, etc.?
• How often do those audits uncover meaningful discrepancies?
• What are the most common causes of discrepancies?
• Are you more concerned about intentional underreporting, or ordinary reconciliation/accounting differences?
• For a multi-location brand, do you check every location or sample a subset?
• If you could automatically reconcile reported sales against independent payment/settlement data every month, would that actually be useful?
• Or would continuous monitoring create more problems/work than it solves?

I'm not selling anything and I'm not looking for people to validate an idea. I'm trying to understand how this works in the real world.

If you've dealt with this from either the franchisor, franchisee, finance, accounting, or audit side, I'd especially like to hear what your actual experience has been.