RESTAURANT FRANCHISE ALTERNATIVES
The main alternative to a restaurant franchise is a service franchise, where crews travel to the customer instead of customers coming to a building. Skipping site selection, leasing, and construction removes the longest part of a restaurant opening.
WHERE THE MONTHS AND THE MONEY GO.
College Hunks figures are disclosed in Items 5, 7, 11, and 19 of the current Franchise Disclosure Document, issued April 30, 2026.
Per Item 11. The agreement requires opening within 150 days of signing.
Both concepts in one Zone. Trucks and working capital drive the range.
Across 144 franchised locations, per Item 19.
Some College Hunks Hauling Junk businesses have earned these amounts. Your individual results may differ. There is no assurance you will earn as much.
REAL ESTATE IS WHAT COSTS YOU THE YEAR.
Both models sell you a proven system and a territory. Only one of them makes you build a building first.
If you are comparing food franchises, the category most buyers end up weighing them against is service franchises: businesses that send trucks and crews to the customer rather than waiting for customers to arrive at a location. College Hunks Hauling Junk® is one of them. Everything below uses disclosure figures and each brand’s own published statements, because a six-figure decision deserves numbers you can go check yourself.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO OPEN EACH ONE?
A College Hunks territory opens in 110 to 140 days. That range is disclosed in Item 11 of our Franchise Disclosure Document, and the franchise agreement requires the business to be open within 150 days of signing. Restaurant concepts run considerably longer, and the reason is the building.
Zoom Room, a fitness franchisor, publishes a clear breakdown of why: brick-and-mortar concepts typically take four to nine months, restaurants often six to twelve because of build-out and permitting, and models with no customer-facing build can launch in 30 to 90 days precisely because they skip real estate and construction. Jack in the Box states on its own franchising site that it typically offers an 18-month term to open the doors of a first location, with extensions available for a fee.
None of that is a knock on those brands. It is the honest arithmetic of any concept that needs a customer-facing building before it can serve anyone.
| Service franchise (College Hunks) | Restaurant or QSR franchise | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to open | 110 to 140 days (Item 11) | Commonly 6 to 12 months; one major QSR publishes an 18-month term |
| What gates the timeline | Vehicle delivery, licensing, hiring | Site selection, lease negotiation, permitting, construction |
| Total initial investment | $203,100 to $355,500 (Item 7, both concepts) | Varies by brand; disclosed in each brand’s own Item 7 |
| Largest capital line | Vehicles and equipment | Leasehold improvements inside a building you lease |
| Real estate needed | Office and warehouse, about 1,500 sq ft | Customer-facing site with parking, frontage, or a drive-thru |
| Revenue lines | Two: junk removal and moving | One: food service |
WHAT DOES IT COST TO OPEN?
The combined College Hunks investment is $203,100 to $355,500, covering both the junk removal and the College Hunks Moving® concept in a single Zone. One concept on its own runs $158,100 to $252,000 for junk or $211,600 to $335,500 for moving. The initial franchise fee inside those totals is $75,000 for both concepts purchased together, or $55,000 for a single concept.
Restaurant investment ranges are disclosed the same way, in Item 7 of each brand’s own Franchise Disclosure Document. Compare those totals directly and ignore the franchise fee when you do. The fee is a small fraction of what you will actually spend and tells you close to nothing about whether the business works.
WHERE DOES YOUR MONEY GO IF IT DOES NOT WORK?
Most comparison articles skip this question. In a restaurant, the largest share of the initial investment becomes leasehold improvements: hoods, walk-in coolers, grease traps, seating, a drive-thru lane. Those improvements live inside a building you lease rather than own, and they are hard to recover if you decide to exit.
In a service franchise the largest capital line is vehicles and equipment. Trucks hold a resale market and can be sold or redeployed across your territory. No franchise removes risk, and this one does not either. What differs is the shape of the downside, and that is worth understanding before you sign either agreement.
WHAT ARE THE ONGOING FEES?
Owners pay a 7% continuing royalty on Gross Sales inside the Designated Territory, 8% on sales generated outside it, plus a 2% Brand Development Fund contribution and a 1% technology fee.
Local advertising is the line most often quoted incorrectly, including by sites that summarize our own disclosures. It is not a flat percentage. The obligation is the greater of 8% of Gross Sales or a monthly dollar floor charged per Zone: $1,500 per Zone for moving and $1,100 per Zone for junk hauling. On a lower-revenue or multi-Zone location the floor is what binds, so build your model on the floor rather than the percentage.
WHAT DO FRANCHISE OWNERS ACTUALLY EARN?
Item 19 of the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document reports gross sales grouped by how long a location has been open. The 82 locations at 60 or more months averaged $1,999,230 with a median of $1,555,903. The 37 locations at 37 to 60 months averaged $1,126,072 with a median of $868,852. The 25 locations at 13 to 36 months averaged $730,493 with a median of $691,222.
Read the medians rather than the averages, and note that the system-wide average of $1,554,610 is carried by the oldest cohort. Item 19 contains the material assumptions and the full underlying data set, and you should read it in full before drawing any conclusion about a specific market.
CAN SOMEONE ELSE OPEN THE SAME BRAND IN YOUR TERRITORY?
If you buy only one of the two concepts, we may operate the other concept, or grant it to a different franchisee, inside your Designated Territory. Buy both and no one else runs either concept there. That is disclosed in Item 12, and it is the practical argument for taking both rather than starting with one.
Adding the second concept later costs $55,000, and only if it has not already been placed with someone else. A single-service brand cannot offer an equivalent protection, because it has only one concept to place. A Zone is roughly 300,000 to 400,000 people set from U.S. Census data, and your Designated Territory is every Zone you hold.
WHO IS THIS A BAD FIT FOR?
This is an owner-operator model, and the franchise agreement requires it. You will not run it from a distance while keeping another job, and it is not operated out of your house. If that is what you are shopping for, this is the wrong category, and Item 15 of any brand’s Franchise Disclosure Document sets out what it expects of an owner.
It also asks for people management from day one. You will recruit, train, and keep crews, and in the early years that is most of the job. Owners who enjoy building a team tend to do well. Owners who wanted to buy a system and step back tend not to. The financial bar is a $200,000 net worth, and qualifying veterans and first responders receive $7,500 off the initial franchise fee.
Heather runs franchise development. A 20-minute call answers more than any brochure.
Qualifying veterans and first responders receive $7,500 off the initial franchise fee.
THREE THINGS THAT ACTUALLY DIFFER.
You open in months, not years
Item 11 puts a territory at 110 to 140 days from signing, with a contractual requirement to open inside 150. No site search, no lease negotiation, and no construction schedule stands between you and your first paid job.
Capital that stays portable
The biggest line in a restaurant build is leasehold improvement inside a building you lease. Here it is vehicles and equipment, which hold a resale market and can be redeployed across your territory as demand shifts.
Two businesses, one territory
Junk removal and moving run under one franchise agreement, one office, one back office, and one Designated Territory. Buy both concepts and no one else operates either one in your market.
STILL WEIGHING YOUR OPTIONS?
Tell us the market you are looking at and we will tell you straight whether a territory is open and whether this fits what you are after. No pressure, just answers.
