Hey guys
I am wondering what are the costs for starting a 7-11 franchise in Taiwan. I’ve been searching for a long time; this board and other places but I cannot find any information. I found the 7-eleven.com.tw/ website but the franchise section is not very clear to me. Anyone have any information, from what I’ve gleamed from the website it will cost about 1.6 million or more. What’s the residency requirements any information would be greatly appreciated.
Good luck! It’s always good to corner a niche market.
If you have enough to invest in a franchise, I am sure you would meet the requirements for an “investor ARC”, I don’t have the current amount required, but PM the poster Llary. Or do a search for his thread on that subject.
I know two people that just sold off their C store franchise, one was a 7-11, the other was a Family Mart, they both said that basically, the only ones making money were the corporation, and the landlord. They claim it is not worth the amount of time and effort that they put in to it.
I also know personally (in-laws), landlords that rent out to franchisees of both chains, they report that it is a pretty good deal for them.
As always, YMMV. Buyer beware
Sounds like an absolutely terrible idea in Taiwan…looks like a saturated market to me.
been a few years but some buds had a 7/11 for 2 years or so. They said its a living but its 24/7. The two of them working six day weeks netted bout 100,000 to 120,000/month ,hiring as few workers as possible (but working themselves nearly into a divorce).
You are STILL working for THE MAN.
I’d say that unless you own the building it will be in, then don’t invest as the rent will skyrocket. For a lot of business that start out in Taiwan, Rent is one of the if not the biggest expense as there are few places to set up legally for the type of business that you would like to start.
Tommy - a quick question; would your friends hiring locals to do more of the work even if they make a little less money a better situation?
headhonchoII - do you mind sharing what do you do in Taiwan to make a living?
saddletramp - thanks for the reply, I figure it would be a lot of work but I don’t plan on working in the store; it’s more of an investment for myself. Hire locals to work the store; I’m not looking to bleed the area just prefer something physical to invest in. I’ll also search again but as you can see from my title, i searched for 7-11 many different ways and couldn’t really find anything.
I was thinking about that Okami. In the states I actually do a little commercial investing; own a few smal >50 unit apartment complexes, they are owned by me but I’ve never seen them in person. Management takes care of the headaches and everyone’s happy with their roles 
[quote=“daddyphatsaks”]Tommy - a quick question; would your friends hiring locals to do more of the work even if they make a little less money a better situation?
headhonchoII - do you mind sharing what do you do in Taiwan to make a living?
saddletramp - thanks for the reply, I figure it would be a lot of work but I don’t plan on working in the store; it’s more of an investment for myself. Hire locals to work the store; I’m not looking to bleed the area just prefer something physical to invest in. I’ll also search again but as you can see from my title, i searched for 7-11 many different ways and couldn’t really find anything.[/quote]
Yes hire locals, the pay is so low, if you work yourself you are paying yourself that low pay. They didnt make it cuz they tried to do it themselves. Thats not the way. The way is to hire young locals to man the store.
[quote=“tommy525”][quote=“daddyphatsaks”]Tommy - a quick question; would your friends hiring locals to do more of the work even if they make a little less money a better situation?
headhonchoII - do you mind sharing what do you do in Taiwan to make a living?
saddletramp - thanks for the reply, I figure it would be a lot of work but I don’t plan on working in the store; it’s more of an investment for myself. Hire locals to work the store; I’m not looking to bleed the area just prefer something physical to invest in. I’ll also search again but as you can see from my title, i searched for 7-11 many different ways and couldn’t really find anything.[/quote]
Yes hire locals, the pay is so low, if you work yourself you are paying yourself that low pay. They didnt make it cuz they tried to do it themselves. Thats not the way. The way is to hire young locals to man the store.[/quote]
True, but as you said, they manned the store but only netted netted bout 100,000 to 120,000/month, so add in hiring of locals, and they probably would have flopped earlier.
if you go around to all the 7 elevens , look how many of them employ young helpers rather then manned by people who look like they could be owners?
Fact is if you work it yourself seven days a week, after less then a year you will be toast.
Its best treated as an investment. If you can make that investment and hire people and still turn a modest profit at the end of the day, thats what its all about. Obviously some locations may work while others may not. Thats the roll of the dice.
You should do this study yourself. Physically go around to 200 7 elevens and take a quick look, who is manning the store?
[quote=“tommy525”]if you go around to all the 7 elevens , look how many of them employ young helpers rather then manned by people who look like they could be owners?
Fact is if you work it yourself seven days a week, after less then a year you will be toast.
Its best treated as an investment. If you can make that investment and hire people and still turn a modest profit at the end of the day, thats what its all about. Obviously some locations may work while others may not. Thats the roll of the dice.
You should do this study yourself. Physically go around to 200 7 elevens and take a quick look, who is manning the store?[/quote]
Yea tommy I see so many people who work so many different jobs to make money but in the end they end further ahead only in stress and frustration; burnt out after a year or two. If I’m not mistaken it will cost more for you to run the store than locals. It’s an investment for me and for the community that I open it up in, give some young ones a chance to make a little extra money if they want to work; there will always be people who want money but don’t want to work :loco:
Dan they “netted” 100k per month, that’s after expenses. Who knows what they were paying for rent or what mistakes “they” were making in order to cut costs.
which would you prefer?
Invested 1.6million never had to get up and go to work and netted 60,000 per month
or
Invested 1.6million and had to work 6 days a week and netted 120,000?
actually im more of the 2nd guy, put in the hours myself and make more, at least at first.
Slacking for me will come later 
I can make $100k a month by busting my ass teaching if I wished.
My goal is to open a franchised beverage place, but as with any business, from what I heard from business owners you need to keep a keen eye on it, because nobody knows or cares about your business more than you do.
You may see young kids manning the store, but be assured that the camera you see above their head is being observed by a laoban somewhere
hey Tommy, on a side note I used to wonder why kids do it… the graveyard shift for less than $100 nt /hr, and the sad part is that some of these kids are university grads. Or you see they are receptionists, juice bar jockeys, etc.
Add in the laoban constantly yelling at them in many cases.
Must be the state of the economy.
[quote=“dan2006”]actually im more of the 2nd guy, put in the hours myself and make more, at least at first.
Slacking for me will come later
I can make $100k a month by busting my ass teaching if I wished.
My goal is to open a franchised beverage place, but as with any business, from what I heard from business owners you need to keep a keen eye on it, because nobody knows or cares about your business more than you do.
You may see young kids manning the store, but be assured that the camera you see above their head is being observed by a laoban somewhere [/quote]
Yes if you plan on owning one or two or three or four seven-elevens you could and possibly should install monitors that tape activities you could review on demand.
However, if you plan to grow your business you have to manage by delegation.
You manage your managers who in turn manage the supervisors who in turn manage the staff.
Your success will then be how well you manage them and how well they manage their underlings.
Why do the kids do it? ITs a J.O.B. and can bring with it certain benefits. As in , just a few examples:
The Taiwanese word for JOB is taow loh, which means Initial Road. Its the first step on a long road of working and getting an income. Its essentially planting a seed towards success. Some seeds never become more then a seedling while some grow into giant trees.
Try searching for investor’s ARC, the thread wasn’t about 7-11’s.
I would think long and hard on such an investment, as Head Honcho mentioned, it is a pretty saturated market. The markup is very low, 3-4%, from what I learned from looking into it. Hard to pay people at that kind of margin.
If your ok with that low of a margin, perhaps you could find a franchise with a much lower fee.
I know a guy that bought a Breakfast store franchise for under 100,000 NT, and it takes less space and fewer equipment to start out with. Of course, location is everything with that type of store. He put it right across from a busy school with no other breakfast stores nearby and he is doing quite well.
My wife and I spent about the same money that you are talking about, 1.5 M NT, to start our business, but our margin is 40-50% and sometimes higher.
We employ 1 full time Shi Fu, and we sub out to tradesman and day laborers as needed.
If your just looking for an investment, without making it a career,and you are sold on the 7-11 brand, I think I would take the 1.5 million and invest it in Uni-President stock.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Edit: found Llary’s investor thread.
http://forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=43055&start=0&hilit=investors+arc
Tommy, you manage inventory. People need to be lead, not managed. 
7/11 kids? Managed !
saddletramp what type of business are you doing, if you don’t mind sharing? I found the thread, it’s very informative, I need to keep on referencing back to it as I need it.
I agree with what tommy is saying. I don’t really want to be managing anyone but the store managers they need to be able to effectively manage the workers and a lot better than I can seeing as they are Taiwanese. I have no problem looking into other franchises but I’d want something that can employ at least a few people, pay them a decent wage; like tommy said, for them it’s a start.
one thing that I find most disturbing in Taiwan, and in Asia are 30+ people still living off the parent’s tits
but it’s not a charity I also want a return, even 3-4% isn’t bad for me.
I have a friend with two 7-11 stores in Taipei County. If you can speak Chinese, I can put you in touch. I remember his biggest gripe was, you can’t leave the staff to manage the store as there is a really high level of theft by staff in the convenience store business. You can lose a lot of profit if you don’t stay on top of it.