How to Open a Domino's Pizza Franchise

Siblings Tom and James Monaghan founded Domino's Pizza in Michigan in 1960. The following year, Tom bought out his brother's half of the company with a Volkswagen Beetle. Tom started franchising Domino's in 1967 and it has grown into one of the largest fast-food organizations in the world.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Check out Domino's Pizza's website to see if there are any open houses coming up in your area. Representatives of Domino's will have booths set up in industry tradeshows with information about obtaining a franchise. They occasionally also conduct independent open houses. If nothing is listed for your area, express your interest by completing their online franchise form. They will email you if an opportunity arises.
2. Complete a Domino's Pizza franchise application online. To qualify, you must demonstrate experience in running a restaurant or retail store and have $75,000 in cash liquidity.
3. Understand the finances. It will cost you $141,400 to $415,100 to open a Domino's and you must pay a $15,000 annual franchise fee. Domino's also receives 5.5% of all royalties.
4. Apply for a business loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA) if you don't have access to that amount of money. The SBA reports that out of the 167 loans for Domino's Pizza stores taken out through the SBA, only .6% have failed to pay back the loan. The SBA has completely charged off only .18% of the amounts loaned out to Domino's Pizza franchises.
5. Receive training at the headquarters and in the store. In-store training lasts six-to-eight weeks.
6. Hire 15-to-20 employees to help you run your store.
7. Receive ongoing support in the way of newsletters, company meetings, security and safety procedures, a grand opening and field operators, who continually evaluate your store. You also will receive co-op advertising and national media exposure.

Tips & Warnings

• 60% of all Domino's franchisers own more than one unit.
• Domino's is ranked #6 in the best franchises to own in 2007 by "Entrepreneur" magazine.
• With Domino's Pizza, you must commit to being the operator of the store. Absentee ownership is not allowed. You also must commit to a ten-year agreement when you purchase this franchise.