What It’s Like to Own a Chick Fil A

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[Bamawagoner]

When you get rejected from owning a Chick Fil A franchise

[emmanuelgutierrez]

Also you're not allowed to own any other businesses. They want dedicated people only

[NickyNugs]

Skipped a couple of steps between “coming in to mop floors” and “owning and operating a chic fil a franchise” lmfaoo

[Leroez]

Fun fact, you only need $10k to open one, which is available from loans, but the issue is the acceptance rate is lower than that of Harvard so the chance of you being accepted is kinda low

[MrRastawannabe]

My brother went through the process. Started working at a mall cfa at 16, stayed there till college, transferred to a location by his college, did an internship type deal with corporate (after college experience, and nearly 7 years of working his way up at both restaurants he worked with in HS and college) where he’s an “interim operator”. Goes to locations without an operator and acts as temp operator using solely corporate money to fix any issues, rework employee structures etc., then move on to a new location. He turned the first store around so drastically corporate offered him the owner-operator job at that location and he applied for a couple other stores since then and now is an owner-operator across the country from his first store. He’s killin this life shit Fr and all it took was loving a company that loves you back

[gregmax]

Worked for corporate for three years. Selection is more difficult to qualify than with Harvard. You’re literally going into business with Chick-fil-A. There’s only an initial 10, 000 dollar commitment. If you’re from outside the company they make you work your ass off to learn the ins and outs in a rigorous training program. They’re picky about personality but don’t care if you’re gay married etc etc like some might think. Profits are split 50/50 with corporate so you make fucking BANK as an operator compared to most fast food chains that only leave the franchisee with 10-20 percent of profits. But 50/50 is crazy bank on a decent location that turns even 12-16 percent profit after operating costs. They also audit the last 10 years of your finances to ensure you yourself are sound with your money before you’re even considered.

[BiggHoss]

My dad knew a guy who went through the process. He got so close to getting a franchise, but they found out he was a smoker. They denied him at a meeting when he asked to take a smoke break.

[puffdaddy]

Remember folks, if companies weren’t saving money at the franchisee’s expense, companies wouldn’t offer franchises. The house always wins

[starship]

I was selling cocain out of an arbys that I franchised in 87’. Started running it for the cartel in my speedboat. Lived in Miami at the time. Went to war with Puerto Ricans and eventually had to shoot up my stepdaughters quinceanera. Spent all the profits I made on an investment into the Jesus Ark Encounter down in Kentucky. Long story short I lost everything. I work at wattaburger now. Tryna get back into the game selling supplements at GNC on the side.

[Welldunn]

For people saying this isn’t fair you need to look into the costs to open other franchises like a McDonald’s($1.3-2.7 million) where the franchisee assumes all the risk and then when you look at the net profits at the end of the year($150k average) it’s startling low considering how high the cost of entry is

[j.tp]

This is 100% true! I've worked at CFA for 10 years for several different operators. All of my operators started as cashiers

[ScottAndrew]

The American dream is to work hard ..
To quote George Carlin, "its called the American dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it"

[matthewglaze]

I work for Chick-fil-A and the operator said his earnings per year were based on total sales. He did almost 7 million in one year his profits for the year were $585, 000. So a little less than 10%. After issuing bonuses to staff and such.

[ZeroFlowers]

He makes this sound way easier than it is. You need to be SUPER exceptional to not only get promoted high enough, but becoming an operator is super tough. They do not just take anyone, you need to be truly exceptional.

[vancouvervito]

I said it once and I’ll
Say it again..this guy knows everything about everything

[r.fo.]

If you work hard and really have no other options then this would be a one way ticket to success. But the thing is you’d be selling pretty much your whole life away to…. Chick-Fi-A

[KKSRetardo]

Incorrect. For free standing restaurants, Operators do not have equity in the restaurant. It’s a well structured agreement with some benefits of ownership given to the “Operator” but this does not include equity.

[josiahluse]

That’s a raw deal if you are exceptionally good at being a manager.

[anobonano]

Btw this is very similar to how Sonic owner/operators work. I don’t know the exact pay structure, but the owner of the sonic is called the owner/operator and he/she answers to lots of people - his/her direct supervisor and corporate heads. The supervisor takes a certain percentage from each store that they supervise - I think around 5-10 stores depending on the location. Then the higher levels of management get percent of profit and so on. The owner/operator of a sonic essentially does the most work of all the people he answers to and gets paid the least. I know a handful of them that make between $100k-350k/year. They get paid salary (very small) and the bonuses that are based on profit each month. They are also paid based on the amount that they put in up front for their buy-in

[PinkFZeppelin]

Franchises make almost zero sense. A wise mentor told me “never buy yourself a job”. Which is effectively what a franchise is.