A couple franchise selection questions
 

Hey guys, I'd love any advice from anyone who is knowledgeable about franchises, or really anyone who can add some value to this discussion:

I am starting an MBA program in the fall. In the meantime, I have access to a large amount of capital that I'm thinking about using to open a franchise.

I also own a portion of some land that is within 1 block from a large high school (2000+ students), near several residential areas, and in an area of high traffic. I am trying to come up with franchise ideas that meet the following criteria:

1. appeal primarily to high school students, teachers, and their parents that pass through this area several times a week

2. franchises where I can hire a manager to oversee day-to-day operation as I attend my MBA program

The things that immediately popped to my mind were coffee franchises (damn you for not franchising, Starbucks), smoothie places such as Smoothie King or Smoothie Factory, or a juice place like Juice Zone, Jamba Juice, etc, but I'm open to any and all ideas.

Some key points:

I won't be able to devote an incredible amount of time to day-to-day operations because I will be at class a significant amount of time. I will, however, be able to be there most late afternoon/evenings and the weekends.

Students have off-campus lunch and are frequently passing by this location, it is literally 30 seconds from the high school. There are also a large amount of residential neighborhoods and a decent amount of businesses nearby.

The land is large enough to build a strip mall on, with several tenants, however, there are 2 strip malls nearby that have many open spaces (troublesome).

A high-traffic CVS pharmacy is on the opposite corner.

So what do you guys think? Any franchise opportunities pop to mind that would be a great fit/profitable?

Thanks,
Matt

Re: A couple franchise selection questions
 

Subway's are pretty inexpensive to start; appeal to your target group, and are always ranked very high on the top franchises to own list.

Re: A couple franchise selection questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
Subway's are pretty inexpensive to start; appeal to your target group, and are always ranked very high on the top franchises to own list.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I like this idea.

Re: A couple franchise selection questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
Subway's are pretty inexpensive to start; appeal to your target group, and are always ranked very high on the top franchises to own list.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, they don't make much but are nothing tough...maybe pizza type place also

Re: A couple franchise selection questions
 

Subways range anywhere from $90k - $200k to start. This includes all fees, equipment, and three months worth of expenses. See the post at the bottom of this thread. The franchisee that made the post says the average store does ~ $400k per year in sales with a 20% net profit margin.

Re: A couple franchise selection questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
Subways range anywhere from $90k - $200k to start. This includes all fees, equipment, and three months worth of expenses. See the post at the bottom of this thread. The franchisee that made the post says the average store does ~ $400k per year in sales with a 20% net profit margin.

[/ QUOTE ]

First, thanks to those that replied, I could run with this Subway thing, but I do have more questions/thoughts:

A 2 to 1 sales to investment ratio with 20% net profit is pretty damn good, but is that realistic for every store? (The average often isn't). In addition, I would like to meet those goals the first year of operation.

Also, I was under the impression that for Subway and other food-related franchises, the owner is the full time operator. I have to hire someone for day-to-day, I can't manage this full time.

Anyone Subway franchisees out there to shed some light?

Re: A couple franchise selection questions
 

The subways I go to always have high school kids working there. I'm sure if you advertised or gave even a school discount you could clean up in that area.

Re: A couple franchise selection questions
 

I've been up (can't sleep, this franchise idea is consuming me) and I've been thinking, real, real hard about an It's a Grind coffeehouse franchise.

Right next to a highschool, huge pool of students/teachers/parents, off-campus lunch, they can't spend a large amount of time there to annoy other customers..seems pretty sweet.

What other market research/due diligence would be recommended to see if the location will support a profitable coffee shop?

Re: A couple franchise selection questions
 

coldstone, chipotle?

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky