Blog #2 - Wings Over...

                  Hello everyone! The franchise I chose to research was the Wings Over... Franchise. The Wings Over... businesses are chicken wing restaurants that also offer beverages, fries, wraps, burgers and ribs. The first restaurant opened up in 1999. It was located on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Two students, Patrick Daly and Harold Tramazzo at UMass created it because they were not content with the restaurant industry at the time. Most wings places at the time just reheated food that was cooked in a factory some where else. They decided to do something about it by opening a wings restaurant that delivered fresh, hand cooked wings and boneless wings directly to people. The website itself claims they were so successful was because, "people, especially college kids, loved the idea of having wings delivered to them, and not too many places in the country were doing this yet." Due to their success, there are almost 30 locations in the U.S., with some being located as far away as North Carolina and Wisconsin.

                 After doing some research and reading many reviews, I've seen a common theme. Most people love the wings, and are impressed with the fast deliveries. I think that franchising this business in a high traffic area, preferably near a large high school or college, would be ideal. This is because the price is not terrible, but the quality is so high that people would even be willing to pay more than what they pay already. These factors give me good reason to believe that starting a Wings Over... franchise in a large city or college town would be quite successful.

               According to The Franchise Mall, the initial franchise fee is $20,000. Also, according Entrepreneur, you have to have at least $50,000 of liquid cash available, and a net worth of $275,000. By franchising a Wings Over... restaurant, you incur a 4% royalty fee. The Franchise Mall also says that your total investment may be upwards of $275,000. While that is a large sum of cash, I do think it would be very lucrative to franchise a Wings Over... restaurant. This is because of the training offered in lieu of financial assistance. Before you even open your restaurant, you receive training for 10 days from 3 trainers to get you and your staff ready. Included with that are newsletters, meetings, 24/7 phone line, and field operations evaluations. All in all, I think this would be a great investment, short term and long term.