necessarily,” she said. “They come to
Happy’s to get 220menu items.”
Restaurants can be positioned in both free-
standing buildings or as parts of retail strips.
The company is also working on a
conversion model in which it would take
existing restaurants or pizzerias and update
them with the equipment necessary to
become a full-fledged Happy’s Pizza
location.
“Anything to lessen the cost and the initial
investment for our franchisees,”Rice said.
Happy’s was slotted at No. 350 on
Entrepreneur magazine’s “Franchise 500”
list for 2014. The baseline financial
requirements for franchise prospects are a
net worth of $300,000 and $150,000 in
available liquid cash. The franchise fee is
$35,000 and total investment ranges from
$336,500 to $608,000, with a $1,500
monthly royalty fee on a renewable five-
year agreement.
Many franchisees own more than one
l o c a t i o n a n d 8 0 p e r c e n t a r e
owner/operators, and Rice said the
company has had success with people from
myriadbusiness backgrounds.
A rigorous training program includes four
or five days of mostly book work at the
corporate headquarters, which is followed
by an in-house experience that runs 60 to 90
days at an open operating location – during
which the prospective owner is immersed in
all elements of the business, including
dipping fries inoil and sweeping floors.
“We definitely have had franchisees come
from all walks of life, anywhere from a
corporate CEO to an insurance agent,” she
June-July 2014
| BusinessWorld | 137
