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Archive for December, 2010

With over 30,000 locations and fifty years in the burger business, the McDonalds brand is the most recognized and successful franchise in the world. Not surprisingly, before considering anything else many would-be franchise owners ask themselves: How much does a McDonalds franchise cost and how can I buy a McDonalds franchise? They hear it only costs ,000 to get a Mighty Mac franchise, an investment that’s quite within their franchise affordability range.

The McDonalds Franchise Fee
As with most things in life, a little information is a dangerous thing. While it’s true McDonalds charges a ,000 franchise fee, this is only the initial franchise fee for licensing rights – the upfront fee charged to join the network. There’s a LOT more financial commitment and cost involved to buy a McDonalds franchise after that. On top of the investment, there are other qualifications besides having the money.

Different McDonalds Franchise Ownership Options
According to McDonalds, there are two ways to buy a McDonalds franchise and enter their system. The first, and most frequently used method is purchasing an existing restaurant, either one operated directly by McDonalds or from a McDonalds franchise owner/operator. The second, infrequently used way is obtaining franchise rights for a new restaurant. Let’s consider these in reverse order, since McDonalds provides few financial details on the first, most frequently used method.

Buying A New McDonalds Franchise
For franchise licensing rights to a new McDonalds, the company charges its standard ,000 initial franchise fee, except if the franhise is for a McDonalds in a gas station or convenience store, the fee is rduced to ,500. There is also a reduced franchise fee for McDonalds Satellites located in universities, hospitals, etc.

The other cost categories for a new McDonalds franchise include real estate, signage, seats, equipment, decor, opening inventory, training and working capital. These are broken down in Item 7 of the McDonalds FDD.

For a Satellite McDonalds, the range is 8,375 to 8,400; for a McDonalds located in a gas station or convenience store, the range is 0,750 to .2 million. The standard, new McDonalds restaurant clocks in with a range of million to .8 million.

So, basically a new McDonalds franchise is a 8, 375 to .8 million investment depending on the model selected.

The factors impacting new restaurant costs are: size of the McDonalds restaurant facility, area of the country, pre-opening expenses, inventory, selection of kitchen equipment, signage, and style of decor and landscaping, McDonalds says. A detailed breakdown of the initial investment costs into discrete categories, including a working capital component, is provided in the McDonalds FDD Franchise Disclosure Document which can be obtained at the Franchise Foundations website (see link below).

Owner/operators must pay forty percent (40%) of the total cost from liquid, personal assets and may finance the remainder from traditional lending sources.

Buying An Existing McDonalds Franchise
What about the most frequently used way to buy a McDonalds franchise – purchasing an existing restaurant from a current McDonalds franchise owner or one that’s company-owned by McDonalds and sold as a “turnkey franchise”? Unfortunately, details about how much this type of McDonalds franchise costs are not specified, other than the following statement:

“The purchase price of an existing restaurant varies and is dependent upon a number of factors including sales volume, profitablity, occupancy costs, reinvestment or improvement needs, competition and location.”

To get a better handle on this statement, when existing, “turnkey franchises” are sold in any industry (McDonalds franchises included) the purchase price reflects the value of the business as a going concern, generating (in the case of McDonalds) $ X million in sales and $ Y in profits. A typical McDonalds restaurant that’s been operating for at least one year produces over ,000,000 in annual sales, with profits in the low six-figure range. I estimate the sales price of an existing McDonalds franchise (or company-owned restaurants sold as turnkey franchises) to be in the million to million range, plus or minus. Twenty-five percent (25%) of the purchase price must come from liquid, personal assets and the balance can be financed from traditional lending sources.

Ready to whip out your checkbook? Even if you are, there’s a lot more to obtaining a McDonalds franchise than just have the investment capital.

The McDonalds Franchise – Item 19 Financial Performance Representations
According to the McDonalds FDD Item 19, the average annual sales volume of traditional restaurants in the U.S. open at least one year as of 12-31-09 was ,37 million in 2009. The highest sales volume for a U.S. McDonalds in 2009 was .3 million (the “star” performer). The lowest performing McDonalds clocked in at 7,000.

Item 19 of the McDonalds FDD goes on to list proforma financial results for restaurants that hit three different sales levels – million, .2 million and .4 million, showing cost of sales, gross profit and operating profit at each level. Unlike other franchise companies with similar investment levels, McDonalds steps up to the plate and provides franchise earnings information in Item 19 of its FDD.

Getting the McDonalds FDD Franchise Disclosure Document
If you would like a copy of the entire 383-page McDonalds FDD published 2010 (or just particular sections of the FDD, like Item 19 Financial Performance Representations or Item 7 Estimated Initial Investment) to review and get further information, go to the McDonalds Franchise page of the Franchise Foundations website.

copyright 2008-2010, Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D. – all rights reserved

For further information, visit the Franchise Foundations website

Evaluating franchise attorneys and evaluating franchise consultants can seem a daunting task. But the firm a company selects to assist its entry into franchising, refine existing franchise efforts or make franchise opportunity investment decisions will have profound consequences. While asking for a list of references is one approach (and when is anyone ever dumb enough to provide a bad reference?) there are more objective criteria that are not dependent on selectively disseminated information.

By addressing the nine Franchise Questions, topics and subcategories of information discussed below, you will eliminate virtually 95% of the individuals or firms you are considering. Then efforts can concentrate on evaluating the 5% cream of the crop (especially franchise attorneys) that truly merit consideration:

A. FRANCHISE EXPERT:
The #1 factor in evaluating so-called expertise – are the principals really franchise experts? There are objective criteria to determine this:

(1) Have they qualified and been allowed to testify as a franchise expert in court and arbitration proceedings? Being involved as a franchise expert in the franchise litigation process gives a sensitivity and radar for detecting and avoiding future franchise problems.

(2) How many books on franchising have been written by the principals?

(3) How many franchise articles have been published in journals or magazines?

(4) What is their franchise-related teaching experience? (see topics E and F below)

(5) What is their depth of experience in the franchise industry? (see next topic below)

B. EXPERIENCE IN THE FRANCHISE INDUSTRY:
(1) Length of time the firm has operated exclusively in the franchise industry?

(2) Experience on both sides of the franchise fence – working with franchise companies (franchisors) as well as with individual investors (franchisees) who have purchased a franchise?

(3) Past experience principals have owning and operating a franchised business? This factor is absolutely critical. If the principals have owned and operated a franchise, they bring a unique perspective and radar for avoiding future franchise relationship problems from disgruntled franchise owners.

C. COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING & ONGOING SERVICES; CONTROL SYSTEMS:
(1) Can (and will) the firm train your personnel to operate and manage your new franchise company? Remember, you’re entering an entirely different business, one requiring new skills and abilities. If this topic is not addressed in detail, you might as well earmark the franchise fees received when you sell franchises for a future franchise litigation war chest;

(2) Will the firm help you review and update operational (franchise operations manual) and legal documentation (franchise offering circular) on an ongoing basis?

(3) Has the firm developed, and will they help you put into place, franchise marketing, sales control and legal compliance programs during the critical implementation (start-up) phase of your franchise program?

The existence of these programs is essential to ensure only the cream of franchise applicants are allowed to enter the network, and to create a series of documented files should a dispute arise in the future. Most of the legal risk in franchising occurs during the franchise marketing cycle when franchises are sold. If your company’s done a good job here with these programs, then you’ve eliminated most of the risk.

D. LEGAL: FRANCHISE ATTORNEY
(1) Is the law practice devoted exclusively to franchise law?

(2) Total number of franchise disclosure documents (formerly called franchise offering circulars) drafted and reviewed?

(3) Experience filing franchise registrations and working with state examiners in all 14-plus franchise registration states?

(4) Experience represeting franchise companies as well as persons buying a franchise? Knowing both sides of the fence is a tremendous asset.

E. ACADEMIC: UNIVERSITY & COLLEGE
Experience teaching franchise courses at graduate and undergraduate university levels?

F. ACADEMIC: PROFESSIONAL
Experience teaching franchise courses to franchise attorneys and general practice attorneys?

G. BLEND OF BUSINESS & LEGAL SKILLS:
Specialist franchise attorneys and law firms produce tight legal agreements (sometimes overly so leading to future franchise relationship problems) and usually adequate franchise offering circulars. Setting aside the overly tight contract issue, the problem is most franchise attorneys – franchise lawyers are not capable of making sound, strategic business decisions and providing practical, ongoing advice. Some franchise consultants, on the other hand, have good business sense, but lack the requisite legal skills. Questions:

(1) Does the firm have the proper blend of business savvy and in-house franchise legal expertise? It’s always a big plus if the franchise attorney also has an MBA. You can do a Google search with these twin attributes (franchise attorney MBA) and narrow the field considerably.

(2) Can the firm produce good legal documentation (franchise disclosure documents) and help you edit (or create) consistent operational documents (such as the franchise operations manual, training program, etc.) If your franchise agreement says “x” but your franchise operations manual or advertising materials say “y” about the same issue, be prepared to pay hefty franchise litigation fees and deal with franchise litigation attorneys in the future.

(3)Can the firm provide competent and practical ongoing advice in critical areas like effective franchise marketing, media decisions, interviewing franchise buyers, adopting the best franchise organizational structure, implementing a franchise advisory council, etc? Mistakes made in these areas can easily cost the franchise company tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

H. CONTRACT FAIRNESS:
Does the firm give you an option of choosing between:
(a) an hourly rate and
(b) a flat contract amount, where you don’t have to worry about accumulated hours and an unknown total amount?

I. RED FLAGS – BEWARE OF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

Combination teams where one entity does one part of the project and another the other part. For example, a consulting firm does planning, and operational documentation, while an attorney “they know very well” writes the legal documentation.

Or, a variant of the above, the company in the fine print of its contract, requires your attorney (who you obviously have to pay) to review and approve everything they do because the company (it says) is not rendering legal advice. Actually, by providing documents that affect legal rights, they are rendering legal advice, but in an illegal manner. Its called the unauthorized practice of law. You end up paying two attorneys – yours and theirs. Besides the expense, it sets you up for future franchise problems. Their attorney represents who? The franchise packaging group, of course, and definitely not you. He or she is typically a recent law school graduate who hasn’t figured out what they’re doing is illegal and could cause them to lose their license to practice law. Besides that, they represent the franchise consulting group, whose interest is to churn as many franchise packages per year as possible. You end up with a bad franchise disclosure document and sloppy franchise operations manuals. To save time, the franchise agreement gets watered down so it’s easier to push through some franchise registration states. Some of the “t’s” may be crossed and some of the “i’s” dotted, but not most of them. The end product are documents that set you up for future franchise litigation difficulties.

Firms that advise you to franchise your business, and they’ve never seen your business! You’d be surprised how often this happens.

Firms that say they’ll write your franchise operations manual for you. How someone, who knows absolutely nothing about your business, could ever come close to anything but a mediocre product at best, is a frightening thought. The use of boilerplate manuals produced by consulting groups is yet another future litigation time bomb. You are the true expert in your business. With competent guidance and editing, you’ll be able to produce a professional and workable operations manuals, if you don’t have these already.

Pricing quotes that seem exceedingly high or low (especially “do-it-yourself” franchise kits).

If you are buying a franchise, BEWARE of any attorney recommended by the franchise company. Even worse, beware of franchise companies who say you don’t need to use an attorney. There are a couple of these online.

Firms (or individuals) that have EVER been sued for fraud, misrepresentation, the unauthorized practice of law or violating any franchise law. DON’T FORGET TO ASK THIS CRITICAL QUESTION!!

1990-2008, Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D. – all rights reserved

For more informaton, consult the Franchise Foundations website.

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Some children will know what their careers and employment choices will be before they finish grade school. Their careers and employment choices might be determined by the visits of many professionals that come to their school to share the experiences that they have on the job. Many boys know straight off the bat, that they want to be firemen or policemen when they grow up.

While growing up, children may change their careers and employment choices a hundred times, before they reach high school. Many high school students are visited by military professionals who offer many careers and employment choices that will last a lifetime. These careers and employment choices are available only if the high school students meets the specific program requirements, and many high school students find out that they qualify for many jobs that are offered by the military recruiters that visit their schools.

The careers and employment choices in any military service are classified according to qualifications that an applicant shows through rigorous testing cycles that are commonly referred to as ASVAB scores. These armed services vocational aptitude battery scores will show the strengths and weaknesses in a persons education. Their careers and employment choices are centered toward the strengths, and weaknesses will be worked on through other military training sources.

With the careers and employment choices offered by all military services, childrens dreams of one day becoming a firefighter, police officer, or even a person that works in the medical field and drives an ambulance can be a reality in a very short time. The careers and employment choices offered in the military services are always offered with a guarantee of paid training included in the job offer.

If the person is highly trained in the computer field, there are many careers and employment choices available in the military services, and most of them can be found in exotic overseas locations. There are more choices available to military members after they join the military services. With their careers and employment choices taken care of, they can start to think about how they can use their military benefits to save for retirement, and enjoy the low cost travel opportunities that could take them around the world if they cared to go.

In the military, people can make careers and employment choices, and change their mind at a later date. Their careers can still be centered on earning a retirement, but they are also afforded the opportunity to try new experiences, and switch their jobs to something else, which is especially helpful when their job classification is overmanned, and the only way to move up the advancement ladder is to switch to a job classification that has many job positions to be filled by somebody that is trained to perform that employment position.

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