Franchise Process | Toasted Yolk Cafe Franchise

Ownership Process

What is the process to become a Toasted Yolk franchisee?

The process is fairly simple and is actually very similar to buying and building a house. The goal is to streamline the process to maximize our collective time and to minimize points of frustration.

Be Prepared Financially. Real World Initial Expenses Normally Before Your Loan Funds:

$45,000 – $81,000 franchise / development fee

$25,000 – $40,000 first & last month of rent

$40,000 equipment deposit

$20,000 architecture project deposit

$10,000 signage deposit

$10,000 legal, accounting & professional

Total – $150,000 – $226,000

Read all of the numbers here

Generally these funds will go towards the initial capital contribution of your loan. As an example, $900,000 loan, 20% or $180,000 franchisee contribution, your portion of the loan could be satisfied with your pre-opening expenditures.

Here are the steps:

Step 1:

Initial Call

Have an initial call with The Toasted Yolk development team. You will receive an NDA, all of the brand franchise information as well as the link to download the most recent version of the franchise disclosure document.

Step 2:

Follow Up Call

Follow up call with the Toasted Yolk development team regarding the information you have received and reviewed. At this point, together we will determine if this is a good fit for us, you, your family and/or your portfolio. If the plan is to move forward, you will be sent a franchise application.

Step 3:

Disclosures

Return the signed NDA, franchise application and FDD receipt which is the last page of the franchise disclosure document. This doesn’t obligate you to anything, it simply confirms that you have received the most recent version of the document.

Step 4:

Approval!

Approval! Once your application is reviewed, the decision will be communicated in three business days. It is important to note that the franchise disclosure document contains the full version of the franchise agreement. Please review the disclosure document and the franchise agreement and/or consult an attorney to assist in review. When agreements are sent to you they are expected to be signed and returned, and the franchise fee paid within 72 hours of receipt.

Step 5:

Funds

How will you fund your first location, self-funded, or loan based? If loan based, we ask that you get a simple loan approval letter from your lender. If you do not have a lender, we are aligned with multiple lenders, in multiple states, we are happy to share the vendors’ contact information.

Step 6:

Due Diligence

You will have the opportunity to connect with current Toasted Yolk owners. Understand that while they are our biggest cheerleaders, they are also restaurant operators and normally busy between 7 am and 3 pm. They respond more quickly to texts and emails, and of course we will help facilitate the process as much as possible. They are at their own liberty to share as much, or as little financial information as they see fit.

Step 7:

Discovery Day

It is time to schedule your in-person discovery day visit to our corporate offices in Houston. We generally start around 9 am at our Woodlands location, so depending on where you are traveling from, you might need to get into Houston the night before. We will meet with the corporate and support staffs, tour the facilities, try multiple menu items and visit a variety of restaurants. It is typically a six-hour day and you will most likely get to meet with several Toasted Yolk owners in person. We will review the franchise disclosure document and franchise agreement at this meeting as well.

Step 8:

This is the time...Join our Team!

This is the time! Are you ready to join the team? If so, the territory will be defined and you will be issued the franchise agreement(s). The franchise agreement in its entirety is in the Franchise Disclosure Document that you were given, this is the same version that you will sign. We advise everyone to please review the franchise agreement in advance and let’s discuss any questions that you might have during Step 2 of the process.

If you are not in person, we will close by phone, this takes roughly 30 minutes. We will review the areas where your party needs to sign and our CEO will counter-sign. You will provide us the wire receipt for the funding of franchise fee(s), or a copy of the overnight slip and we will have a final executed agreement and hard copies will be overnighted to you.

DO NOT be concerned about creating your business before you sign the agreements. We always issue the agreements in your personal name and provide a simple transfer of franchise which puts the franchise into the company’s name well before you open for business.

Step 9:

Site Selection

We have a network of commercial real estate brokers around the US who all specialize in restaurant real estate. We have a vetted site criteria checklist that we use to secure ideal sites for the Toasted Yolk concept. We have years of experience in securing “A” quality real estate and we will assist in effectively and efficiently moving through the process. You are not required to use our preferred brokers, however your broker must be licensed, in good standing, and have experience in selecting restaurant sites.

General Q & A

I would rather wait to start the lending process until I have experienced the franchise and met with the leadership, is this acceptable?

We are only asking for a pre-approval, not a loan commitment letter. Your lender can easily provide you this based on your application.

I do not want to commit to coming to a discovery day, I would rather check a few locations on my own, is this okay?

You are welcome to visit any of our locations as a customer. As you can imagine, owners and managers likely will not have time to meet with you one on one. You will get to experience the food and atmosphere though.

I want to find a location before I commit to the franchise. Is this okay?

This is possibly the worst decision you can make for a number of reasons. First, you cannot represent yourself as a Toasted Yolk franchisee if you officially are not, so you cannot submit a letter of intent or sign a lease. Second, in competitive real estate markets "A" quality sites lease quickly if they ever even make it to the market. So "shopping" for sites is risky as most of the sites you are looking at more than likely will not be there once you are offically a franchisee. Last and most importantly, brokers and landlords alike more and more are asking for a signed franchise agreement or a signed territory map from the franchisor in order to initiate the process.