Known for many as the best-fried chicken franchise in the world, KFC is a popular fast-food chain in America that expanded to over 130 countries as of 2022. All thanks to the decision of its founder, Harland Sanders, to franchise it after the original restaurant was hitting a difficult spot.
KFC started out as a simple business selling traditional fried chicken. Today, they offer a variety of chicken dishes, including the one we all know (and tastes amazing), but also grilled chicken and boneless wings. Let’s not forget about all side dishes and options available, including desserts.
Kentucky Fried Chicken has many franchise opportunities available, focusing on it as a franchise. The costs vary depending on the location and the type of restaurant that you open. Not all franchises are alike, which is something you ought to keep in mind.
Even if the goal and service of the business are the same all over the world, you have many options based on the size of the place you want to run and how you want to do it. Is KFC a franchise that you can manage? Is it worth the investment in your area? Those are the questions you should be worried about.
As popular as a franchise can be, and regardless of its success over the years, you need to wonder if a franchise investment is what you need, can afford, and should be aiming for. Once this is clear, you can start thinking about the specific company with which you want to become a franchisee.
With this in mind, let’s learn about Kentucky Fried Chicken, dive deeper into this KFC franchise review, and how this opportunity may be the best out of all the franchisors available.
When It Started: Making the Best Fried Chicken
Before you decide to invest in a business, it is only natural to learn a bit more about the company and its origins. When was it founded? Who did it? And more importantly, why?
To get things straight, we must first learn more about Harland Sanders, the great founder.
Harland Sanders was born in 1890 in Henryville, Indiana. When Sanders was five years old, his father died. His mother had to work to provide food and resources for Sanders and his siblings after his death.
He took care of his siblings and cooked meals for them while his mother was at work. His mother remarried when he was 12, after a few years of being in a relationship.
But Sanders had to deal with the difficulties of his stepfather not being pleased with the idea of having step-children. He left his home not long after the wedding as a result of the bad relationship that came from it.
In order to survive alone, he worked on a farm to make ends meet.
Harland tried his best to survive. He had to work in many occupations, including streetcar driver, lawyer, railway fireman, steamboat operator, and railroad fireman.
After a difficult childhood, Sanders was left to his own efforts and hard work for most of his teenage years, clearly shown with the previous aspects of his life.
However, a new chapter in his life opened when he acquired what would boom thanks to his recipes and talent in the kitchen: the original restaurant/motel in Corbin, Kentucky.
Although the motel operated as any regular one, he prepared meals for customers in order to earn extra money and provide regular service. One of the top recipes was his fried chicken and other dishes that he learned as a child.
His cooking quickly became very popular, and truckers and travelers were forced to stop at the gas station to try Harland’s fried Chicken.
With the popularity and everyone coming back, he once let people know that he loved the recipes his mother taught him. But besides the great recipe for his fried chicken, which wasn’t even complete, Harland started to make and add pan-fried chicken, country ham, fresh vegetables, and homemade biscuits to his dishes.
One of the secrets he shared back in time is that KFC and Sanders’ chicken is based on the pressure cooker technique that he invented to speed up the cooking process. He reduced the cooking time and still maintained the highest quality of his meal.
He was doing well and even received an endorsement in Duncan Hine’s Adventures in Good Eating in1939.
Sanders had already created his “Original Recipe” with 11 herbs and spices this year. It is still a secret recipe passed down from generation to generation everyone would die to know, even when Sanders mentioned himself how all the ingredients could be found in every home.
But how was “The Colonel” included in all this? After all, it is KFC’s image today.
In his first restaurant, the name “KFC” wasn’t the thing. Instead, we still have a long way to go to get to the moment when it was integrated.
The image of “The Colonel” played a significant role in the history of Kentucky. In 1950, Governor Lawrence Wetherby appointed Sanders to be a Kentucky Colonel. Friends started to call him that as a joke and gave him the nickname.
Harland decided to play the role at this point and began wearing the iconic white suit that he wore in public, and we know today.
This is a fascinating story. But how did “The Sanders Court & Cafe” become a franchise?
Sanders decided to franchise his recipe by 1952 to expand his company to other states. He began his venture with Pete Harman, a Utah friend who was also an operator at one of the biggest restaurants in the area.
He shared his recipe for the first time, but franchising began in 1955 when the route for Interstate 75 had been planned. The route bypassed Corbins, making it a place not many would continue to stop by. This would cause the restaurant to lose many clients over the long term and short term.
Sanders sold the property and moved to the city to share his recipe and product with other restaurant owners. Over the next four years, he convinced many other restaurants to include his Kentucky Fried Chicken in their menus.
However, it wasn’t until Don Anderson was able to create the names “Kentucky Fried Chicken” and “KFC” later through his hard work. After investing in the business, this sign painter was a huge contributor. He even created the slogan “It’s finger-lickin’ good.”
Thanks to this move and how Harland negotiated the deals, he was now making more than he did with the restaurant.
In 1963, Sanders’s recipe was sold to more than 600 locations in the United States and Canada, making pretty much the largest fried chicken recipe used around the USA, and its popularity was just getting started.
Sanders was a self-employed entrepreneur who had 17 employees at the time. He found it too overwhelming to manage his business at some point and noticed it was only growing.
Given Sanders’ success, many people tried to buy KFC from him. However, it wasn’t until 1964 that Harland Sanders sold KFC to an investor group that paid $2 million at the time.
The sale was made on the condition of quality being maintained and that he would get a lifetime income. In this agreement, he will remain the company’s figure or image, which, as we all know, has been true.
There were 3,000 outlets in 48 countries by 1970. Heublein purchased KFC for $285 million in 1971. Not long after, the legendary Colonel was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia and succumbed to pneumonia in 1980, months after his diagnosis. He was 90 years old.
KFC had 6.000 outlets across 48 countries at the time Sanders died.
R.J. Reynolds later acquired Heublein in 1982, which was a tobacco giant. He later sold the company to PepsiCo. The company grew and, in 1997, spun off its restaurant chain, which included KFC and Taco Bell, into Tricon Global Restaurant Inc. Yum! was the new name of the company. In May 2002, Yum!
KFC has a variety of foods to meet changing tastes and also offers vegetarian options to appeal to a wider range of customers in countries such as India.
As of one of the last reports, it has 22.600 outlets across the globe in 135 countries. Its brand value is $8.3B, and its sales are $27.9B.
Starting to Invest in KFC: How Much Will You Spend?
When it comes to expenses, we’ll be discussing how much it costs to open your own KFC franchise. We can tell you in advance it is quite an expensive opportunity due to the business’s popularity and company size.
KFC isn’t one of those cheap franchises, and it does require a lot of effort to start even when assistance is provided, as you would expect from big franchises that break sales every year.
Although it is true that the company is large and has been franchising for 72 years, it is still a smart investment for the same reason. However, it will only last as long as you are willing to work in the industry and take your time.
If you have the funds, it is a good idea.
KFC, like all franchises, has certain requirements that not many people can meet if they want to become franchisees:
- Initial franchise fee: $45.000.
- Initial investment: This can vary depending on where you are located, how well-trained, what type of employees they are, and other factors such as logistics, training, location, etc.
- Minimum net worth: $1.5 Million
- Cash requirement: $750.000
You must also deal with the terms of the agreement, which include 5% in an ad royalty fee, 4-5% general royalty fees, and a term period of 20 years that is renewable.
The question is: What does it offer specifically?
You may already know that franchises can help you open a business, establish it, train your staff, and manage everything. Franchises are like starting a business, but with additional benefits and without the need to be alone.
KFC offers additional benefits and options, which can vary depending on the specific franchise you start in terms of the restaurant’s size and all logistics:
- Marketing, grand openings, proprietary software, franchisor intranet platform, site selections, security, meetings, and other support are all included.
- Nine weeks of training on the job.
- 1.5 days classroom training.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Franchising with KFC?
It is obvious that you have realized the amazingness of becoming a franchisee after the research you need to perform before deciding to take this business opportunity. The question you must include in it is: at what price?
Franchises are not free, clearly, and evaluating how much it costs isn’t only a matter of money but also pros and cons. Is it something you will make a lot of money with? How much work do you have to put into it?
Next, it is important that every aspect of the discussion is covered, from how you will manage the business model to what KFC (in our case) has to do with all this in the business in the short and long term.
Take a look at the following list of pros and cons and make sure to consider the aspects of both being a franchisee and deciding to work with KFC or not:
Pros:
- It has been franchising for decades. This makes it a trusted franchisor and a company you can learn about easily, considering it is a top one in the market and industry.
- KFC is a great company for anyone who is interested in opening a restaurant as it has remained strong and continues growing despite situations like COVID-19 and pandemic.
- KFC’s team will take care of every step, including finding your location and training employees.
- Training is quick and can be completed in as little as nine weeks, which is a considerable advantage compared to other franchises.
- It is a global brand and franchise that allows you to open it anywhere in the 130+ countries it operates.
- If you’re in the right spot, it is almost certain that you will succeed. KFC is a place billions of people visit every day to eat and enjoy.
- Fried chicken is the main item, but many other options can be offered.
- Here you will find everything you need from a franchise: reputation, awareness, and all the things that tend to boost a company during its beginning and later on.
Cons:
- There is no financing from third parties or the company.
- You will need to manage royalties for the rest of your life, just like every franchise, which reduces your profit and future income.
- You are responsible for the business, but you must follow the terms and renew the contract at least every 20 years. This means you aren’t strictly the owner but more like a “manager” with more responsibilities.
- It’s quite costly, as you only need to spend $1.5+ million.
- All digital orders are subject to a 3.5% digital fee.
- You don’t get exclusive territories.
Take notes and consider benefits based on your situation and needs—also, projects.
Keep in mind that KFC (or franchising) isn’t necessarily bad. It is expensive and takes a lot of time. But it does promise at least a 50% of success rate.
It is important to evaluate your long-term and short-term goals. For it, ask yourself, “Is this the kind of business I want?”
Is this a budget-friendly amount? It takes approximately 4 to 6 months for KFC to start. You need to train, find employees, etc. It is a lot of work, so you better add this to the number you need to handle in terms of responsibilities.
On the other hand, when you get started depends a lot on the size and complexity of the restaurant. However, it won’t take you less than a few weeks to get everything settled.
Final Thoughts
You can always place a wager on businesses, regardless of how expensive they may be. KFC is an example of a profitable bet, as long as you have funds, capital and can maintain the cash flow it offers.
Franchise owners who have been successful over the years are responsible for high success rates. They know that if they want things to work, it takes lots of time and effort to achieve.
While we don’t discourage hard work, you must be in the industry to make the investment decision. You will waste your time if you’re not convinced that this business is something you want.
We prefer to work on things that make us less tired and keep going without going back to it every day. In addition, they can make you earn just as much.
There are many business models out there, so it is important that you research them all before deciding on a franchise opportunity.
Before you move on to the regular ones, it is smart first to try online alternatives. You might wonder what we recommend. For us, lead generation is what works best.
This digital business model allows you to generate leads right from your home. It doesn’t require additional staff or real estate, and it will enable you to save money while still allowing your business to run the way you want.
It’s simple, and even though you might need employees in the future, this is all you need right now.
- You can support local businesses or small businesses by choosing a niche. You can even promote a franchise but only for smaller businesses.
- Reach out to them to offer to build a website.
- Once you have closed the deal, you can begin building the site.
- To generate traffic, you must rank your site on Google. This is often the most crucial part.
- Once your website is up and running, you can begin to convert traffic into leads.
- You get paid per lead.
Passive income doesn’t require you to do the same thing twice. Once you have completed the setup and generated traffic, you can now wait for companies that will pay you after the hard work for their websites.
Training and tools will be required. It is usually much less expensive than a KFC franchise or other big options.
Do you not know where to start? Proper training can be acquired with us.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your KFC Franchise
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My KFC Franchise Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic KFC Franchise Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.