Thread: Own a business?... Looking for advice.

I owned a Domino's Pizza for 3 years Vin, and believe me when I tell you ...you might "own" the business, but they still "own" you. The franchise agreement is about 2 inches thick to protect them, and allows them to make you do what they want you to do. They have "consultants" that come out under the guise of helping you, but they really don't do much in that department. And you have to pay for this. This is why I own my own independent restaurant now. Granted there are a lot of advantages to falling under the umbrella of a national franchise chain, but there are many more disadvantages. Now with my anti-franchise rant out of the way, let's talk finances. What everyone above said is true, it's expensive to start up a new business. And if you are going to start up a restaurant franchise.....$$$$$$ .....BIG BUCKS. Not to mention the fact that almost ALL bankers will give you a serious blank stare if you ask for a 700K to 1M loan to start up said business. Now you can go the SBA route and see if that will help you, but when I got my SBA loan for my restaurant (1.3M), they required us to have at least 20% capital infusion (your own money or equivalent equipment value). Now if you manage to have that and can find an SBA lender (not all banks are SBA lenders) you might be in business. That is if your business plan (months of research) is seen as viable by the bank. Now even in a flourishing economy it's hard to get a loan of the amount your will need, so imagine how hard it would be to get one now. I don't mean to rain on your parade, but what you are trying to do is REALLY, REALLY hard unless you have 1M sitting in a bank some where. And add this to your check on the down side - franchise businesses have a higher rate of failure than you might think. It certainly is no sure bet.
The Best Franchises to Own and the Worst Franchises to Own | Inc.com

Damn guys, thanks for the info. I can't say I have my mind set on any particular franchise at the moment, but I know that the coffee shop I was looking into has a pretty good success rate, but this is always attributed to LOCATION. The only reasons for them failing would be a lack of cleanliness and poor managment. Recently they've been popping up all over the place and no matter how big or small they all seem to pull in a good amount of money. As far as still being owned by the company that I'm purchasing the franchise from... I don't mind whoring myself out (in a sense) to be successful, just as long as I am able to generate a good income I'll be happy. The pet food store I work at now is sort of the same as what you describe, the company still basicaly runs the place but the owner is free to run the store how he wants.

I think that learning about money is going to be a big focus now, and in time learning about more franchise options and what locations are best suited for that business. The owner of the pet food store that I work at has owned the place for about 15 yrs now and has made a lot of money. He's rather secretive with all the numbers but the store makes roughly 15-20K per week, now how much of that is actually money that goes into his pocket I don't know, probably something like 5-10K and then he has to pay employees so...

Anyways, to be honest the reason I want to purchase a franchise is because my hope is that after around 5 yrs or more of owning the business I will have worked up enough money to invest in what I truly want to do: open a paintball field. But no ordinary one. This is very video game fueled but it also has a plus side. Milsim, or scenario, style paintball is becoming very popular. Paintball marker manufacturers are making mag-fed paintball guns and some fields are starting to hold mag-fed only tournaments. I know it sounds silly but in the US there are a lot of tournaments that bring in people from all over the world, and generaly these tournaments or big games can bring in about 100K (depending on size) in about a week. Of course there is much that needs to be done before you try and run a tournament in hopes of bringing in so much cash, basicaly making a name for yourself and having a good reputaion but paintball is becoming a much more popular sport.

I suppose it works like this - Owning a franchise is what I want to do, but the paintball field is my dream. I hope that I can use the franchise to fuel that dream.

Trust Xav. He may fuck donkeys, but he knows how to start up a great business. I still need to practice my Spanish some more and go to his restaurant. 5 stars food made with truffles...enough said.

Originally Posted by VinDeagle

Anyways, to be honest the reason I want to purchase a franchise is because my hope is that after around 5 yrs or more of owning the business I will have worked up enough money to invest in what I truly want to do: open a paintball field. But no ordinary one. This is very video game fueled but it also has a plus side. Milsim, or scenario, style paintball is becoming very popular. Paintball marker manufacturers are making mag-fed paintball guns and some fields are starting to hold mag-fed only tournaments. I know it sounds silly but in the US there are a lot of tournaments that bring in people from all over the world, and generaly these tournaments or big games can bring in about 100K (depending on size) in about a week. Of course there is much that needs to be done before you try and run a tournament in hopes of bringing in so much cash, basicaly making a name for yourself and having a good reputaion but paintball is becoming a much more popular sport.

I suppose it works like this - Owning a franchise is what I want to do, but the paintball field is my dream. I hope that I can use the franchise to fuel that dream.

If that is your dream, then borrow money to start THAT business. Don't put a ball and chain around your neck that will always take up too much of your time to do what you really want to do. I know everybody looks at business owners and say "man they got it made", but it's hard ****in' work. Vacations are hard to come by, family events get pushed to the side, and if you're barely surviving profit-wise it can put a stress on you that you can't believe. You have to be passionate, or you will fail - franchise owner or paint ball entrepreneur. You really need to learn as much as you can Vin, things just like Xav said "business management and corporate finance? What do you know about managing a restaurant, managing people, operations management, accounting, processes" These are the cornerstones to owning a successful business that need to be second nature to a business owner.

My best friend and his family owned a paintball field that I helped run. The profit margins aren't great unless you are running really big tournaments or scenarios. If you have to buy the land that will likely be a large payment due each month. Then you add money for field improvements, insurance, equipment, employees, etc. good luck.


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Originally Posted by Xavsnipe

Now...you´re talking about investing around 1 million dollars in something you don´t really want to do? I think, in my humble opinion, you already have a weakness there.

Secondly...how much do you know about business management and corporate finance? What do you know about managing a restaurant, managing people, operations management, accounting, processes (administrative and operative) and the like. To invest 1 million dollars in a start up, assuming that this is a large sum of money to you, and for it to be your first business venture is risky to say the least...it´s borderline reckless.

What´s the payback for franchisee´s, in general terms, when it comes to service industry (restaurants, bars, hotels, etc)??

Ok, so I'll start by replying to Xavs post and then another 1 or 2 that caught my eye. It will be double posts cause I suck at quoting so sorry...

As far as the first paragraph... You're right and wrong. Owning a franchise is something I want to do and something I want to invest in if "the price is right". Basicaly what I mean is if the location is right and if the business I want to invest in has a good turn around rate than I would risk the investment. As for the second paragraph/last sentence these are things I will have to learn about. I know that large businesses will provide training to their franchisees so that they understand and know how to run their franchise. I understand you won't learn everything needed to run a business but again there will be things I will have to learn before considering what I want to do.