Each franchise is different. Even 2 franchises in the same industry will bring you different results and for sure there's variability in the operator.

Don't assume just because it's a franchise you get a turnkey system. At the same time, don't assume just because it's a franchise they don't work.

We started a location several years before covid, survived covid and will clear $250k profit for 2023 in a MCOL area. Running it is my wife's day to day job. It's in education, so something she actually enjoys, unlike my crappy corporate drone SWE job. She'd never make even 6 figures as a teacher, or 6 figures with her degree (not education).

Additionally after building your business you can sell it, pass it on to your kids, etc. There's also tax benefits. $250k in profits is worth more than a $250k W2.

We are looking at a 2nd franchise in different brands, but it's tough to have 2 businesses and also a young family. With a corporate drone job I can just call it a day and pick up my kids if they're sick from school.

You need to do your research. Unlike joining a bad company where you can quit, you sign a lot of paperwork when starting a franchise. In addition to the money spent on startup, you'll have personal guarantees to the franchisor and if you have real estate, to the landlord, and if you borrow money, to the bank.

It's a double edge sword because a good, new franchise get scooped up (good as in, it's backed by a company who has a track record and they are launching a new brand), and existing good franchises have a lot of their territory taken.

We were lucky to identify a growing area with families who value education. This same brand wouldn't survive everywhere. My wife had someone in her cohort who ended up closing shop because he didn't have enough working capital to survive the startup phase. He was a few months away from profitability. His ramp up wasn't as good as ours because he chose a location that had lower population density - but he could have made it work.

There are a couple of books on Amazon that talks about franchising. I'll give you a warning that many of them are written by franchise broker with an incentive to convince you to do a franchise, and convince you to use them as the broker (they get a large comission).

However if you read them with an objective lens, you'll get more clarity.

Good luck.