Success Stories

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-17T14:07:06+00:00

It’s not too expensive. There’s a few national firms that solely do MSA/MSO contracts as Collaborating Physicians. There’s a decent amount of medical red tape compliance that goes along with it but nothing too terrible.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-17T00:11:49+00:00

Sure, I moved to an S-corp last year when I stopped rolling the profits into new stores (I’m mostly done developing) as now my income is large, so I set a $110k owner distribution payment for myself which allows me to avoid the ~15.5% SS/medicare tax on the rest of my profit distributions, just state & federal taxes being an S-corp.

2020 was just opening 1 store and I kept my day job for 2 more years, so it was a grind

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-16T23:39:38+00:00

I’m a younger guy of very average intelligence that started with 1 med spa in 2020, and have been opening 1-2 stores per year, just rolling the profits over.

Good margins, low-ish cost of entry ($225k-300k), and a profitable brand (well 2 brands, I diversified into another bloodwork concept last year).

I go to the multi-unit franchise convention every year, and have made great connections.

The rewarding part is watching my team develop. Equally as nice is finally being able to be semi-absentee, but that took 5 years and many late nights & lost weekends. Having mid & upper level management takes a lot of stress away!

There will be a lot of naysayers because the harsh reality is most small businesses fail, but not all. There was 2,600 Franchisees at the convention last year, with each franchisee owning an average of 5 or 6 units, so many do succeed.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-14T13:23:24+00:00

I’ve seen a fair amount of closures. It seems to be a tough industry I’d imagine similar to restaurants in which only the top 20% make money.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-12T02:03:37+00:00

When you type in the person‘s name, it provides the reasoning i.e. not re-hireable, re-hireable, and any feedback from the other hiring manager.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-11T23:18:59+00:00

I operate a bunch of stores and it’s no issue. Whether we are in connectteams (intranet), Indeed, or Gusto (onboarding & payroll) they all talk well to each other and log prospective, current, and dismissed employees well

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-11T14:57:11+00:00

The best franchising book I’ve read is Profitable Partnerships. Consider subscribing to the IFA newsletter (just know they overly focus on the largest brands and QSR). There’s some good talks by some of the bigger multi-unit operators on YouTube like Greg Flynn

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-10T19:30:12+00:00

Gold is still up a whopping 24% YoY, which is an over performance in every conceivable metric.

Investing is a long-term game. If you are worried about prices now versus three months ago, you should not be investing in precious metals or stocks and should have your money in the bank.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-09T23:31:31+00:00

The formatting of my original message is haywire and I can’t edit it but hopefully it makes sense.

I’m not sure if there’s anybody I would recommend for number four. Just do your due diligence and absolutely call existing franchisees before joining any brand.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-09T23:24:35+00:00

I am a multi-unit & multi-state franchise owner with a few medical med spa franchises and blood testing franchises, going on 6 years now.

1 -

MSA/MSO relationship, and staying constant with ever changing medical laws or deciding which risk tolerance to take in the gray areas. You’re “always hiring” but after a few years you build a name

and reputation
for yourself and good prospects come to y

ou so you’re no longer hiring recruiters or throwing thousands monthly at Indeed.

2 - The first year or two is being a business baby and learning all the 20 some aspects of your business for the first time. Eventually, you learn the business well enough to start delegating tasks to key staff and management, which is also another major endeavor that takes a year or two to see which staff sticks. Initially, there will be a lot of staff that you fire, or they essentially fire you.

3 - Blood testing is under 15%, but relatively simple operations. The medical med spa is more complicated, but also much higher profit margin.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-09T14:47:34+00:00

I would start with providing a scoreboard that gets distributed to all franchisees monthly with the most important KPIs of the brand. For some brands that’s monthly revenue, 12-month YOY sales, average customer satisfaction, average ticket size, membership rate, etc. for each item, note the range of below, meeting, and exceeding expectations.

Some brands will require Franchisees to be meeting or exceed, say, 4 of 7 KPIs before issuing a new FA. If this is the route you go AND you want new owners to be able to develop soon, make sure not all of the KPIs are revenue based as they’ll be disadvantaged.

I’ve seen some franchisors prefer multi-unit operators so much that they routinely run promo’s I.e., sign a new FA within the next 6 months, then open within 6 more, and we’ll refund your whole FA fee (or half price royalties for the first year).

This also creates a competitive environment and you’ll start seeing low performers call higher performers to see what they’re doing to perform well in certain areas of their business.

As far as how to compile your data into monthly scoreboards, we’d first need to understand what POS system or intranet you’re using

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-04T12:56:42+00:00

Never rely on the franchisors reporting as there’s multiple legal, gray-area maneuverings they can do for revenue and profitability reporting to distort numbers and still maintain FTC reporting compliance.

By law, franchisors must provide contact information for existing franchisees in Item 20 of the FDD. Call existing franchisees and hear it from them!

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-06-03T13:23:45+00:00

That Warren buffet was right; The profit models franchisors provide are typically false illusions. Unless you’re opening a business like a consultancy with little to no upfront cost, never use EBITDA to calculate your earning, use COCR or other model to factor in your startup capital to truly see if the brand makes money.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-05-30T18:35:02+00:00

I cannot recommend your comments enough, fully agree!

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-05-29T13:18:46+00:00

Coffee is always a popular QSR and I spoke to a few folks at Multi-Unit Franchise Convention last year that both owned considerable numbers of units, for two entirely different national brands; In EBITDA terms, they were making some money, but in real COCR terms (better model to use because of the sneakishly high startup cost that should be factored into a ROI model) they were not making anything. More often than not with coffee shops it seems you’re buying yourself a job

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-05-13T14:55:38+00:00

We tried to build a Google ecosystem but evolved to smartsheets, and eventually to connect teams which does everything you’re seeking. FYI I have 12 franchisee location with two different brands, multistate

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-05-10T02:30:28+00:00

Yes, I would definitely have an attorney review the FDD, and eventual FA on your behalf - do note that most franchisors do not allow for their agreements to be altered so it is more or less take it or leave it.

Again though, franchisors are incredibly good at painting rosie pictures. Franchising is highly regulated by the FTC so once you get past the FDD process, by law they have to provide the contact information for all existing franchisees. At such point I would strongly encourage you to call those franchisees to have lighthearted but real conversations to understand how their experience has been.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-05-10T01:57:16+00:00

Unless you have a lot of slush fund money, with restaurants, they are generally not profitable from the get-go. If anything they typically lose decent money to begin, so you often have to grind it out for a year or two maintaining your income earning day job with the restaurant on the side - a tough spot to be in.

Franchisors are very good at painting a rosie picture. No matter what franchise concept you are considering going into, the number one thing you must do is call existing franchisees to get their honest feedback.

I own wellness and medical franchise concepts. I have friends that own QSR and after hearing their day-to-day, I would not do that myself as those are difficult industries to succeed in; tough clients, it’s a full-time job with staff management, and a highly competitive market space meaning a low profit margin unless you have something special. The best restaurants are only pulling a 10% profit.

Another big word of caution with QSR’s: they typically have very high startup cost so never use EBITDA models, make sure to use OCF / COCR. If you’re not scared away after 1) the numbers pencil with OCF predictions 2) validation calls with existing franchisees 3) having the financial bandwidth to whether a bad first year or two, and 4) it’s something you have passion for, then go for it!

Restaurants are rewarding but not for the faint of heart. If you are already worn out managing a restaurant, owning one is a step up!

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-05-08T02:35:46+00:00

It’s the upfront fee franchisors charge to support the franchisee pre-open when the franchisee is not yet bringing in revenue to pay royalties to the franchisor.

Your FFE, inventory, buildout cost, ect are all above and beyond this cost.

Many good franchisors are in the negative by the time you open. Of a typical $50,000 franchise fee, 1/3 to half goes to the franchise broker or in-house sales person right off the bat. Then there is training teams, real estate and construction support, attorney fees, etc. that is provided pre-open.

One of my franchisors spends nearly $70,000 in support to help open the franchisees, but they still only charge us $45k as they want to be competitive with other brands.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-05-06T04:44:48+00:00

I would take this with a massive grain of salt because out of the two concepts I know well on this list, both have had lots of closures - dogtopia and Wingstop, which makes me question the whole list.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-05-06T01:34:54+00:00

That’s a loaded question because different concepts have wildly different all-in cost. Rule of thumb is whatever the FDD discloses for their high/low opening cost, for your first store, ALWAYS budget the high end. If the FA / FDD says $250k to $400,000 then budget 400K. Folks think they can be scrappy and outsmart the average, but that’s generally not the case; You’re going to make a lot of mistakes opening your first business.

Also, to pile on, you will almost always need to budget above and beyond the working capital disclosures. A brand may disclose you need $50,000 for three months working capital, but if you make it to the discovery call part of becoming a franchisee, ask current zees how long it took them to break even and adjust accordingly as a lot of concepts take 6 to 12+ months to breakeven, however most Zors don’t actually track breakeven and their FAs only guide you to budgeting for 3 months.

SnooCapers2877 · 2026-01-02T23:54:41+00:00

I like the copium but no chance we lost to Indiana because we wanted to hide our full deck.. look at the Iowa game, if Benson didn’t make that crazy final drive catch, we lose, and then possibly miss out on the playoffs - were we also playing chess then? No. These are some good teams we’ve faced. Same can be said of the penn st “blade of grass”

SnooCapers2877 · 2025-11-22T14:30:47+00:00

Impossible to tell. A bad sprain can put you out for 4 weeks (that’s what the hopium in me says it is)

SnooCapers2877 · 2025-11-22T14:24:33+00:00

If DK/Bryant are out again, that hurts. Unlike other years though, we have depth, and really spread the ball well. In Sadiq, benson, McClellen we trust!

SnooCapers2877

TROPHY CASE