What does it cost to open a fast food franchise?

A restaurant of your own

Why become a restaurant franchisee? There are obvious perks: parent companies take care of the marketing, advertising and brand development for your restaurant, but that comes with a price.

Many franchise owners pay initial “franchise fees” to the company, as well as advertising fees and weekly or monthly royalty fees; altogether, often these can add up to a multimillion dollar investment.

On top of that, the restaurant chains often make sure you have at least a few hundred-thousand dollars to your name before you even fill out a franchisee application. Most national and international fast food chains require that franchisees have several hundred-thousand dollars—if not millions—in net worth and liquid assets.

Restaurant chains—both publicly traded and privately held—often list franchise information on their company websites. Here are the costs of opening franchise locations for the top 10 fast food chains in the U.S., ranked by annual retail sales, as analyzed by Technomic, a food market research firm, and what each franchise locations earns annually, on average.

Source: cnbc.com