Money
What it costs to open: reading an investment range
Every brand page shows an investment range like $120K to $162K. What is inside that number, what is not, and why the two ends are so far apart.
2 minute readTwo figures decide which brands can consider you at all. What counts as liquid, how net worth is added up, and why the survey asks for both.
Updated Sep 26 · 1 minute read
Most brands publish two financial requirements beside their investment range: minimum liquid capital and minimum net worth. They are the brand's answer to one question: can this person fund the opening and survive the first year?
Money you can put into the business within a short time without borrowing:
Cash and savings.
Stocks, bonds and funds outside retirement accounts.
Retirement funds only if you plan to use them through a program designed for that, such as a rollover for business start-ups. Talk to a funding partner before counting them.
It does not include home equity you have not borrowed against, the value of a car, or money a relative has said they might lend you.
Everything you own minus everything you owe. Your home counts here, at its value less the mortgage. Retirement accounts count. Debts of every kind are subtracted.
Liquid capital pays for the opening and the first months. Net worth tells the brand, and a lender, that you have something behind you if the first year is slower than planned. A brand that requires $100K liquid and $300K net worth is saying that owners below those figures tend to struggle, and it would rather not award a franchise that fails.
The Match survey asks for both in ranges. Your Match score treats the brand's minimums as gates: below a minimum the score is held down, because the brand cannot accept you. Near a minimum the breakdown says so, because financing sometimes closes that gap. Update your profile if your figures change; scores recompute.
Buyers sometimes round up. Do not. Brands verify these figures before an offer, and your coach would rather hear the real number on the intro call than watch a deal fall over at Discovery Day.
Every brand page shows an investment range like $120K to $162K. What is inside that number, what is not, and why the two ends are so far apart.
2 minute readThe common routes: savings, SBA-backed loans, retirement rollovers, equipment financing and a mix of them. What each needs from you and where our partners come in.
1 minute readThe match survey takes about 8 minutes. Your coach reviews every match before you see it.
Take the match surveyAbout 8 minutes. No cost, no obligation.
From the match survey to the day you sign, the same four steps in the same order. What happens in each one, who does what, and how long it tends to take.