What It's Like to Buy a McDonald's in Your 50s

Steps to starting a McDonald's franchise

Here’s a three-step look at how the process of buying a McDonald’s works.

1. The application process focuses on financial readiness and customer service.

The process starts with an online application. That initial form for what the company calls the Registered Applicant Program — which is for people who have no previous experience with McDonald’s — is not much different than a standard job application form until the short section about whether they’ve previously owned a business. The answers to those questions for this part of the process can be brief. But for applicants who advance past this stage, the screening for financial readiness gets more rigorous, and they're asked to provide documentation of their finances and assets. Bennett says it took her a few days to gather the documentation to complete the second part of the application process.

The next stage for applicants who advance is the interview. Those interviews typically happen at the company’s corporate headquarters in Chicago. Potential owners interview with several employees experienced in different aspects of the business, such as human resources and finances.

“I think it's an opportunity for them to really get a good feel for you, to make sure you're going to deliver on the customer service aspect that they want their customers to see,” says Bennett.

If the interviews go well, there’s one more round in the screening process. Applicants have to hire their own accountant to certify that their reported finances are accurate and sufficient to purchase a restaurant when one becomes available.

2. The training program teaches franchisees the business from bottom to top.

Once applicants pass the interview and financial screening processes, they’re paired with a McDonald’s owner in their region to get a hands-on look at how the restaurants operate on a daily basis.

“I learned how to work a cash register, I learned how to be the grill cook, I learned how to clean that [McFlurry] ice cream machine that's so famous,” says Bennett. “You know, you learn total store operations from the bottom up.”

Bennett opted to go through this training full time, but many hopeful franchisees tackle it part time. Either way, it requires completing multiple shifts in a variety of roles. McDonald’s estimates that it generally takes 12 to 18 months for prospective franchisees to complete this part of the process.

3. Buying a restaurant might involve a change of scenery.

After successfully completing the training program, applicants finally become eligible to purchase a restaurant. The important thing to note about this step is that in many cases, the earliest opportunities to buy a restaurant may not be close to where the applicant lives. That’s because prospective franchisees (and McDonald’s owners looking to buy additional restaurants) typically have to wait until a current owner decides to sell their business. While the corporation does open new restaurants, when it does, those locations are not built with the intention of selling them to a specific franchisee. Anyone who has completed the training program could be eligible to purchase a new restaurant, regardless of where they live.

Throughout the application process, aspiring owners are reminded that they might need to either move or commute once they actually get the chance to purchase a store. In many cases, having the means to purchase multiple McDonald’s simultaneously can increase the opportunities for new franchisees because the owners who are selling are often looking to sell more than one location.

'This is mine'

The financial investment and the extensive training required to purchase a McDonald’s or other restaurant franchise can pose additional hurdles for older aspiring entrepreneurs.

“It's not an easy business to be in for someone who is 55-plus,” says Stites. “Many people may not want to kind of commit to that level of work because they are trying to slow down and look for opportunities where they can maybe not be so involved.”

For Bennett, who purchased her two restaurants in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the business of being an owner has been labor intensive but rewarding.

“We're understaffed, so I'm the manager on duty for a lot of shifts,” she says. “That means that when I come home, I'm doing my back-office functions, because I also am the back office. So I am working very, very hard. But not one day have I gotten up and said, ‘I regret the decision I made’ or ‘What the heck did I get myself into?’ I work seven days a week, but it doesn't feel like the work that I was doing before, because I look at it as ‘This is mine.’ ”

Kenneth Terrell covers employment, age discrimination, work and jobs, careers and the federal government for AARP. He previously worked for the Education Writers Association and U.S. News & World Report, where he reported on government and politics, business, education, science and technology, and lifestyle news.