Even with that understood, the profit doesn't come close to making purchasing a McDonald's a worthwhile endeavor.
I understand that most businesses do not have great profit margins for the first few years, however, it is going to take you 10 years... Actually, more than 10 years to get a return on your investment, be it $800,000 and the culmination of properties and loans to be a part of the McDonald's brand I can't see that as worth it
I respect your opinion, but I strongly disagree with your position. For anyone to imply that $150K a year is insignificant is not a realist. I stated this fact in another thread, but the median income of a black household in America is about $35k. Any black person earning $150K annually is in the top 5% of black households.
Secondly, as someone else pointed out earlier, people in this thread are confused about what return on investment (ROI) means. Return on investment is simply getting capital back after your initial contribution. You are assuming you have to be 100% debt-free to make money. That's not how businesses work. Having debt isn't a bad thing. It is just a thing. Poorly managing debt is a bad thing.
Lastly, once a person has purchased his or her first franchise (or any other business) and has had consecutive profitable years (income is more than expenses), it is much much easier to purchase additional units. Banks are in the business of loaning money, this is how they make money. So......
One of the first lessons I teach is that
credit is simply one's ability to make payments over time. Low income affects this ability. High expenses affect this ability. Industry trends affect this ability. Your consecutive on-time payments demonstrate this ability. Having a high debt to income ratio demonstrates an inability. Making a large lump sum payment demonstrates your ability to pay but does not demonstrate an ability to make payments
over time which in turn does not benefit the bank. Therefore, they will not necessarily give you points for that because they do not make money, so they really do not want you as a customer. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but this is how it works. Live and die by this definition in your personal and business lives and you will always be able to get a line of credit to purchase homes and businesses.