Owning fast food restaurants can be pretty lucrative, but to get into the game, you're going to need some pretty substantial preexisting wealth.
How substantial? Well, every single major fast-food chain listed below requires you to be a millionaire to even franchise it. Wendy’s in particular requires $2 million in liquid assets to even be considered for a franchise.
One happy exception? Chick-fil-A, which requires no startup costs. But don’t get too excited, because the chicken giant takes a bigger bite out of gross sales than anyone else mentioned here.
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Before moving forward with franchising a major fast-food chain, it’s important to not only understand the start-up costs but what percentages and royalty fees you will be paying ongoing.
Rather than scouring the interwebs to find out, we made an easily-accessible list that includes the following:
Total startup costs
Minimum net worth
Minimum liquid assets
Franchise fee
Royalty fee
Advertising fee (if applicable)
Any additional fees
There’s a corresponding link to each franchise site to make it easy to apply -- after you pick your jaw up off the floor, that is.
Burger King
Total startup costs: $1.9 million to $3.3 million
Minimum net worth: $1.5 million
Minimum liquid assets: $500,000
Franchise fee: $50,000
Royalty fee: 4.5% of gross sales
Advertising fee: 4% of gross sales
Chick-fil-A
Total startup costs: None
Minimum net worth: No requirement
Minimum liquid assets: No requirement
Franchise fee: $10,000
Service fee: 15% of gross sales (plus 50% of the remaining pretax profit)
Note: While not across the board, Chick-fil-A tends to stick to a one-location-per franchisee rule, which can limit overall profit margins.
Hardee's
Total startup costs: $1,600,000 to $2,120,000
Minimum net worth: $1 million
Minimum liquid assets: $300,000
Franchise fee: $35,000 (includes a $10,000 development fee)
Royalty fee: 4% of gross sales
Advertising fee: Up to 7% of gross sales
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Kentucky Fried Chicken
Total startup costs: $1.4 million to $2.8 million
Minimum net worth: $1.5 million
Minimum liquid assets: $750,000
Franchise fee: $45,000
Royalty fee: 5% of gross sales
Advertising fee: 5% of gross sales
McDonald’s
Total startup costs: $1 million to $2.2 million
Minimum liquid assets: $500,000
Franchise fee: $45,000
Royalty fee: 4% of gross sales
Additional fees: According to Business Insider, franchisees must also pay a percentage of monthly sales to account for rent.
Sonic
Total startup costs: $1.24 million to $3.53 million
Minimum net worth: $1 million
Minimum liquid assets: $500,000
Franchise fee: $45,000 ($25,000 for non-traditonal)
Royalty fee: 5% of gross sales
Taco Bell
Total startup costs: $570,000 to $3 million
Minimum net worth: $1.5 million
Minimum liquid assets: $750,000
Franchise fee: $45,000
Royalty fee: 5.5% of gross sales
Sales + marketing fee: 4.25% of gross sales
Wendy’s
Total startup costs: $2 million to $3.7 million
Minimum net worth: $5 million
Minimum liquid assets: $2 million
Franchise fee: $50,000
Royalty fee: 4% of gross sales
Advertising fee: 3.5% of gross sales
Additional fees: A $5,000 application fee, which is higher than many others on this list.
[Photo: Erik Mclean via Pexels]
