The Ultimate Guide to Franchise Restaurants

Franchise restaurants are establishments licensed to operate under a brand name using specific products and business models. We’ll provide insight into what these restaurants are, the benefits and drawbacks of running a franchise, and how to launch and operate your franchised restaurant successfully.

What Is a Franchise Restaurant?

A franchise restaurant is a dining establishment that operates under a franchise agreement, entitling the owners to use a brand name they don’t own. The franchisee, or owner of the individual location, pays for the rights to use the franchise’s brand name, logo, business model, and products.

A franchise business structure allows individual franchise restaurants to benefit from the larger brand’s established reputation, best practices, and customer base. While they have to adhere to guidelines set by the franchisor regarding food quality, service standards, and restaurant decor, franchisees also get support in areas like marketing and supply chain management.

Pros and Cons of Investing in a Franchise Restaurant

As with any restaurant, franchises have advantages and disadvantages. Understanding the pros and cons of investing in a franchise can give you a better idea of what to expect from franchising and whether the franchise business model may be right for you.

Pros

Proven business model: Franchise restaurants operate on an established business model. This considerably reduces the risk of failure compared to starting a restaurant from scratch. As a franchisee, you can leverage the franchisor’s experience and expertise, learning from their best practices.
Brand recognition: Buying a franchise means investing in a known and trusted brand. This instant brand recognition can attract customers right from the start, giving you a head-start on marketing that can be expensive and time-consuming.
Ongoing support: Most franchisors provide continuous support to their franchisees. This can range from initial training, site selection, and construction support to long-term operational and marketing assistance. This support can be invaluable, especially for first-time operators.
Greater purchasing power: Being part of a franchise network often means benefiting from the franchisor’s purchasing power. Franchises often negotiate lower inventory, equipment, and supplies prices, saving individual franchisees money.
Easier access to financing: Financial institutions are often more willing to lend to franchisees due to the lower risk associated with the business model. This can be a significant advantage when covering the considerable costs of building out and equipping a restaurant.

Cons

High initial investment: Franchise restaurants often require a substantial upfront investment. This can include the franchise fee, construction costs, equipment, and inventory purchases. These costs can be considerable and may take two years or more to recoup.
Ongoing fees: As a franchisee, you must often pay the franchisor ongoing royalties and other fees. This is usually a percentage of your gross sales, regardless of your profitability.
Limited creativity and flexibility: While a proven business model is a plus, you have less freedom to make decisions. The franchisor sets the menu, decor, uniform, and operating procedures. This lack of control may not suit entrepreneurs who prefer flexibility in running their businesses.
Dependence on the franchisor’s reputation: Your success as a franchisee is closely tied to the brand’s overall reputation. Any negative press or scandal involving the franchisor can harm your business, even if your specific restaurant is performing well.
Potential profit sharing: Some franchisors require franchisees to share a portion of their profits. You’ll need to review the franchise agreement to understand all the obligations carefully.
Rigorous standards and rules: Franchisors often have strict rules and standards to ensure uniformity across all locations. Compliance with these standards can be challenging, and failure to meet them could lead to penalties or even termination of your franchise agreement.
Termination risk: Franchise agreements typically have termination clauses. If a franchisee doesn’t meet certain performance standards or violates the agreement, the franchisor has the right to terminate the contract.

How Much Does It Cost to Buy a Franchise Restaurant?

The cost of buying a franchise restaurant varies greatly depending on the specific brand you choose to affiliate with, the location of your restaurant, and the buildout required. Generally speaking, you’ll be required to pay a franchise fee of at least $10,000 to $25,000, the cost to acquire and renovate a property, staff costs, marketing fees, and ongoing expenses like royalties.

Here’s some detail on what you can expect to pay when opening a franchise:

Franchise Fees

A franchise fee is the initial cost a franchisee must pay to gain the rights to operate a franchise. These fees typically cover the franchisor’s administrative expenses, training, site assistance, and the right to use the franchisor’s trademarked brand, including their name, logo, and other materials.

Franchise fees can vary significantly based on the brand’s recognition, success, and the resources provided by the franchisor, but generally range from $10,000 to $50,000. However, some high-profile restaurant franchises can command fees of $100,000 or more.

Real Estate Costs

Real estate costs are the expenses associated with securing a physical location for your franchise to operate. These costs vary greatly depending on the size, location, and whether you buy or lease the property. Also included are costs associated with renovating the space to meet the franchisor’s specifications, which include interior design, signage, and equipment installation.

If you are leasing, monthly rental rates could range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands. If you are purchasing a property, you can expect to pay several hundred thousand dollars to a few million. However, if you buy and later close or move your franchise, you can often recoup a large portion of your real estate costs by selling the property.

Marketing Fees

Marketing fees charged by some franchisors contribute to the brand’s regional and national advertising efforts. These fees are sometimes a percentage of your gross sales – often between 1% and 4% – and are used to promote the brand through various marketing activities such as social media advertising, TV commercials, print ads, and promotional campaigns.

While you benefit from the franchisor’s marketing efforts, you may still need to budget for local marketing to raise awareness of your specific location.

Royalties

Royalties are ongoing payments that franchisees make to franchisors in return for the continuous use of the franchisor’s brand name and business model. The royalty fees also often cover the franchisor’s support services, such as training, operational support, and updates to the business model.

Royalty fees are typically calculated as a percentage of the gross sales of the franchise restaurant and often range from 4% to 8%. Some franchisors may also have a minimum monthly royalty fee, which franchisees must pay regardless of their sales volume.

How To Open a Franchise Restaurant

Opening a franchise restaurant typically requires following a well-formed process established by a franchisor. While the process is exciting, it’s often much more complex than opening a standalone restaurant.

Here’s an outline of the process for establishing a new franchise restaurant:

Thoroughly research franchise opportunities. Start with extensive research into available franchise opportunities, industry trends, and market demand in your planned location. Analyze the success rate, brand reputation, and support system each franchisor offers before making a decision.
Hire a consultant with experience opening franchise concepts. If you’re new to franchises, consider engaging a professional consultant with experience opening franchise restaurants. These consultants can provide valuable advice, prevent costly mistakes, and help streamline the process. For example, consider consultants like Monte Silva, who have a proven track record in this field.
Understand the financial commitment. Familiarize yourself with all the costs of opening and operating a franchise restaurant. This includes franchise fees, real estate costs, marketing fees, and royalties. Review the specific costs of individual franchisors and prepare a business plan to manage these expenses.
Arrange your finances. Ensure you have adequate funds to cover the initial investment and running costs until the restaurant becomes profitable. This typically involves arranging debt financing as saving or raising equity funds to cover part of your upfront costs.
Meet compliance requirements. Consult an attorney to understand the legal requirements, franchise agreements, and other regulations related to owning a franchise restaurant in your desired location.
Choose a location. Decide on a location that ensures high traffic and easy accessibility for your target audience. It should also be in line with the brand image of the franchisor.
Recruit and train staff to follow brand standards. A well-trained team can enhance customer experience and ensure smooth operations. Make adequate provisions for their training as per the guidelines of the franchisor.
Make the most of marketing and promotion. Use online and offline marketing strategies to create brand awareness and attract customers. This could involve social media advertising, local radio spots, hosting a grand opening event, and other steps recommended by the franchisor.

Owning a franchise restaurant is a significant commitment. It requires a strong dedication to a brand and its operational standards, as well as a relentless focus on customer satisfaction. However, if you follow the process carefully, partner with a strong franchisor, and manage your location effectively, it can be a rewarding and satisfying experience.

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Product and Company News

Kickfin Named to Deloitte Technology Fast 500 List for Second Consecutive Year

Kickfin is proud to announce that we have once again been named to the 2025 Deloitte Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America, now in its 31st year.

Kickfin is the only company on the list purpose-built for restaurants and bars to automate tip management — marking another major milestone for our team, our partners and the thousands of restaurant operators who trust us to modernize their tip-pooling and payout workflows.

Why it matters

When it comes to tipping out employees, cash is no longer king — and needs are changing fast. Hospitality workers demand (and deserve!) faster, cashless payouts; burned-out managers need more hours in their day; and now more than ever, operators care about visibility, compliance, and employee satisfaction.

Kickfin delivers on all of those fronts by:

Freeing managers up from bank runs and the back office, so they can focus on everything that can’t be automated.
Ensuring employees walk out the door with their earnings already in their existing bank account, no waiting, no detours.
Helping operators stay compliant, track everything, and uncover new efficiencies.

What sets Kickfin apart

There’s a reason Kickfin is the best-in-class tip management solution.

Broader POS integrations: We’ve expanded our direct integrations with leading POS brands, including Toast, Square, SkyTab, Genius POS, Union, and more — so managers can pool and pay out tips in a matter of clicks.
Enhanced tip-pool logic and flexibility: Our platform automates even the complex tip pool policies, with more tip pooling and automated reconciliation features than any other solution, while keeping the end-user experience simple and intuitive.
Instant, cashless payouts: With fewer cash drawer runs and real time bank deposits, teams experience faster shift-close, fewer errors and improved satisfaction.
Built-in compliance and reporting: As tip-pooling regulations continue to evolve, Kickfin empowers customers with robust features like digital paper trails and payroll integrations to ensure accuracy and compliance from end to end.
Customer success focus: Our fully U.S.-based Customer Success team is partners with customers to make onboarding fast and easy, no matter how tricky your tip policy may be, so you get ROI right away.

A big thank you

We’re honored to be recognized by Deloitte, and even more excited about what comes next. For restaurant operators, managers and employees alike, the future of tip management is here, and we’re thrilled to be your partner.

Ready to see what automated tip pooling and instant payouts look like in action? Book a demo today!

Product and Company News, Technology and Software

New Kickfin Feature Alert: Blended Payouts Are Here!

Brand new feature, coming in hot!

As part of our latest product release, Kickfin now offers Blended Payouts for even easier, fully automated tip management and reconciliation.

Why Blended Payouts Matter

Now more than ever, restaurant guests use credit cards or digital payment methods instead of cash. For many operators, that means there isn’t enough cash on hand at the end of a shift to pay out tips. But employees still want to receive their payouts immediately after clock-out.

As our customers know, Kickfin solves for those cash shortages by automating and digitizing the payout process — giving you the power to send instant, cashless payouts directly to your employees’ bank of choice, 24/7/365.

The result: minimal cash handling and risk, better accuracy and tracking — and of course, fewer bank runs.

However, digitizing payouts often results in some leftover cash in the drawer. Over time, we’ve heard from customers who prefer to use up that cash to pay out tips, then distribute the remaining tip amounts via Kickfin.

With Blended Payouts, you can do just that — and still account for every penny paid out, quickly and accurately, within the Kickfin platform.

How Blended Payouts Work

As always, all Kickfin customers can still choose to split individual payment amounts between instant payouts and payroll. Once you enable the new Cash Payouts feature, you will now be able to account for any cash tip payments that were also distributed.

Note: This feature lives within Kickfin’s Tip Calculator, which means you must have an active POS integration to use it.

Once it’s enabled, you’ll see the new “Cash Payouts” button on the Payment Review screen.
After clicking the button, users will be able to enter the individual cash amounts that were distributed to employees.
Back on the Review screen, you’ll see instant payout, payroll, and cash payment amounts for each employee. All three payment methods will have their own line items and be accounted for under your Payment Details.

Watch here for a full walkthrough of the new feature.

Ready to enable Blended Payouts?

If you’re a current customer, in touch with our Customer Success team at support@kickfin.com to activate this new feature.

(Not a customer yet? Click here to see Kickfin in action and learn how you can automate tip pooling and payouts!)

Product and Company News, Technology and Software

Kickfin Partners with Union POS to Automate Tip Distribution for High-Volume Bars and Restaurants

Kickfin is excited to share the latest addition to our integration marketplace. Read on for all the details around our partnership with Union POS. (If you’re a current Union POS customer and you’d like to learn more about how Kickfin automates tip pooling and payouts, schedule a live demo here.)

AUSTIN, Texas (August 13, 2025)—Kickfin, the leading tip management software, today announced the launch of its integration with Union, the purpose-built POS and engagement platform powering the nation’s busiest bars, nightclubs and restaurants.

Thousands of operators use Kickfin to eliminate tedious tip calculations and remove cash from the tip distribution process so managers can move faster, track everything, and ensure accuracy and compliance.

By activating the Kickfin-Union integration, we eliminated clunky spreadsheet formulas and fully automated our tip pooling process. After going live, we reduced our time to close out by an average of 30 minutes after every shift.

The Kickfin-Union integration gives Union’s customers the power to auto-calculate tip pools in a matter of clicks and send payouts directly to employees’ bank of choice—no cash or pay cards required.

“By integrating with Kickfin, we’re giving operators the power to choose best-in-class tools that work seamlessly with their Union POS and data,” said Alex Broeker, the CEO and founder of Union. “This direct integration brings automated tip management to our operators while unlocking new opportunities for operational efficiency, employee satisfaction and simplified compliance.”

KPG Hospitality, which operates experiential bars and unique concepts throughout Texas and Tennessee, was among the first operators to activate the Kickfin-Union POS integration.

“Our venues run at a very fast pace. When you consider the time it takes managers to manually calculate tip amounts every day, after every shift, across every location, it’s a lot of unnecessary admin hours,” said Troy Cramer, the managing partner at KPG. “By activating the Kickfin-Union integration, we eliminated clunky spreadsheet formulas and fully automated our tip pooling process. After going live, we reduced our time to close out by an average of 30 minutes after every shift.”Key Features of the Union + Kickfin Integration:

Automated Tip Pool Calculations: Calculate complex tip pools in seconds, saving managers hours of administrative work while ensuring accuracy and transparency.
Instant Cashless Payouts: Pay out tips directly to employees’ bank of choice instantly, eliminating the need for cash handling and bank runs.
Simplified Compliance: Maintain a digital record of every payout, making tip reporting and tax compliance straightforward.
Enhanced Tracking: Easily track tips by pay period with comprehensive reporting capabilities.
Streamlined Operations: Implement complex tip policies with just a few clicks through an extremely easy-to-use interface.

“Our integration with Union, a leading POS system built specifically to support the busiest venues in the industry, makes perfect sense,” said Kickfin co-CEO Brian Hassan. “Together, we’re creating a solution that saves time, reduces errors, and delivers a better experience for both operators and their staff.”

Available immediately through both Union and Kickfin, venues can integrate their systems and begin leveraging these capabilities today. To learn how this partnership can transform your tip management operations, schedule a demo at GetUnion.com or kickfin.com/demo.

About Union
Union powers a first-of-its-kind venue operating system purpose-built for the nation’s busiest bars and restaurants. More than a point-of-sale, Union connects 1,500+ establishments with 5M+ consumers and leading brands through real-time consumption data. The platform drives operational efficiency, enables frictionless mobile ordering, and facilitates brand-patron interactions that enhance venue loyalty. With $2B+ in annual transactions, Union creates a virtuous cycle where venues improve customer experiences, brands gain direct consumer engagement, and patrons enjoy personalized rewarding hospitality—transforming high-volume operations into next-gen guest experiences. To learn more about Union, visit http://www.getunion.com

About Kickfin
Kickfin is a leading digital tip management platform that automates tip pool calculations and delivers cashless tip payments directly to employees’ bank accounts. Designed to eliminate the administrative burden of tip management, Kickfin helps restaurants, bars, and hospitality venues save time, reduce errors, and improve employee satisfaction. With features like instant payments, digital record-keeping, and simplified compliance, Kickfin is transforming the way venues handle tip distribution in today’s increasingly cashless economy.

Industry Trends, Restaurant Management

Kickfin vs. TipHaus: Which Tip Management Software is Best for You?

If you’re in the market for tip management software, you might find yourself comparing Kickfin and TipHaus.

Kickfin is the largest provider of instant tip payouts on the market and has processed more than $2 billion in employee payments for all kinds of restaurants, from “mom-and-pops” to national franchises — and everything in between.

Kickfin and TipHaus are both designed to digitize tip distribution for restaurants. However, there are some significant differences between the two platforms that you’ll want to consider before making a decision.

Kickfin and TipHaus: Compare at a Glance

Why Do Operators Choose Kickfin Over TipHaus?

Kickfin Offers Better Pricing

Kickfin’s direct-to-bank transaction fees are more competitive than the transaction fees TipHaus quotes their customers.

This is primarily due to the fact that Kickfin is the largest provider of instant payouts in the country (validated by Visa and MasterCard data), with more than $2 billion in employee payments and multiple payment processor relationships.

Employees Prefer Kickfin

Kickfin was built to make life easier not just for operators, but also for their employees.

No app downloads: Kickfin only requires a one-time, 30-second enrollment for employees. (No app downloads or extra phone storage needed!) Payment history and reporting data can be viewed as needed simply by logging into their browser.
No paycards required: Kickfin also doesn’t require pay cards, while TipHaus offers “HausMoney” as a primary payout option for employees. HausMoney is essentially a pay card that employees’ tips are loaded onto. Funds aren’t available to use until the following day. HausMoney may be free for operators, but many employees don’t want to be forced to use a pay card due to the hassles of transferring funds to their own bank accounts, as well as the transaction fees and wait times they may incur. They’d prefer their earnings streamed to their accounts instantly, after every shift—which is how most Kickfin customers choose to pay out their employees.

Zero Prefunding* With Instant Payouts

With Kickfin, customers can send instant, direct-to-bank payouts with zero prefunding required.* While TipHaus does offer zero prefund, employee payouts must be sent to a TipHaus paycard (HausMoney). In other words, if you want to use a zero prefund option with TipHaus, you won’t be able to offer instant, direct-to-bank payouts to your employees.

Option to Manually Input Tip Data

With TipHaus, a POS integration is required, and all tip payment data is generated by the software’s tip calculator.

Kickfin was designed for ultimate flexibility. While many customers use Kickfin’s POS integration to auto-calculate tip amounts, some restaurants don’t need automated tip calculations and prefer to use Kickfin unintegrated. That isn’t an option with TipHaus.

Additionally, some Kickfin customers use Kickfin to auto-calculate tip pools, then manually upload other tip data on an as-needed basis. This comes in handy when you need to pay out “extra” staff, like entertainers, security guards, etc.

Easy, Accurate Distribution of Auto-Gratuities and Service Charges

Kickfin tracks Tips and Auto-gratuities separately. As a result, you can report those types of payments to payroll separately and handle them independently for tax purposes.

Why does that matter? In light of the 2025 “No Tax on Tips” legislation, tipped employees no longer have to pay federal income tax on the first $25,000 in tips earned each year. However, they do need to pay taxes on earnings from services fees, autogratuities and other compulsory charges that are not considered tips by the IRS.

(If 100% of your service charges does not go to your employees, Kickfin allows the “house account” to retain a portion of service charges, while the rest is distributed to your team.)

Enhanced Tip Calculation Functionality and Features

Kickfin’s Tip Calculator was designed to be both highly robust—so it can handle the most complex tip pooling policies—while also being incredibly simple and intuitive to use.

A few unique things about Kickfin’s Tip Calculator:

No data sync delays: Tip calculations are immediate and on-demand. With Tiphaus, a data sync process is required which can add extra time to your tip calculation process.
Built-in flexibility: Kickfin releases new Tip Calculator features on a regular basis based on feedback we regularly source from customers. For example, Kickfin now offers check splitting for both individual checks and groups of checks, making it easier to handle large parties and events.
Ease of use: Customers regularly shout out our sleek, high-quality user interface compared to other platforms. Notably, we’ve made it easy for managers to review all details before hitting “submit,” ensuring the accuracy of every payout.

Cash Tip Tracking and Payouts

Many operators choose Kickfin because they don’t have enough cash on hand to pay out credit card tips, and they want to reduce the amount of cash handling in their restaurant altogether.

However, we know cash will probably always be (a small) part of the equation. Kickfin makes it easy for you to handle that with some added functionality:

Tips left in cash: If a diner leaves a pile of cash at your table, it might not get recorded in your POS. However, Kickfin allows you to record it and distribute it through our platform.

Cash payouts: Many operators may want to distribute all of the cash left in their register at the end of a business day to avoid bank runs. Again, that’s easy to do with Kickfin.

Multiple Payment Processors for Guaranteed Deliverability

For many employees, especially those living paycheck to paycheck, it’s critical that they receive their tip earnings and that they’re instantly accessible/ready to use.

TipHaus uses only a single processor. Kickfin uses multiple payment processors to ensure deliverability of payouts should a processor experience a disruption or become insolvent.

Direct POS Integrations

All of Kickfin’s POS integrations are direct API integrations, while TipHaus has been known to utilize third-party software to integrate with some POS systems. The problem with third-party software is that it can be susceptible to more connectivity issues, creating problems with data reliability.

Top-Ranked Customer Support

Kickfin has an award-winning Customer Success team that is exclusively focused on helping our operators get the most value possible out of Kickfin.

Every member of our team is based in the U.S. We provide free, personalized training and onboarding for your whole team, and when questions or issues arise, we can be reached by phone, email, text or chat. We also have a robust library of support documentation and videos that provide step-by-step guidance for every aspect of the platform.

Credibility and Recognition

At the end of the day, Kickfin’s large and fast-growing customer base speaks for itself, as do their rave reviews of the platform.

For multiple years, Kickfin has been the only tip management software that is recognized on both the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Fast 500 lists. Kickfin has received recognition from peer software review sites like G2 and Capterra for consistently high customer rankings and reviews.

*Zero prefund is available to select customers after a credit review to confirm their fit with the zero prefund program.

Ready to take the next step?

See why thousands of restaurant pros use Kickfin to auto-calculate tip pools and pay out tips in real time, no cash or math required! Get a demo today.