The average McDonald’s Franchise owner owns 6 Restaurants and the average revenue exceeds 2.5 million per year. If you have frequented a McDonald’s restaurant over the years you will have noticed that the McDonald’s franchise owners are actively and continuously reworking and rebuilding their stores. This may be a requirement by McDonalds corporate, but there is no doubt that these restaurants generate a lot of traffic. Therefore, a customer of a McDonald’s restaurant is not only wearing out kitchen equipment but they are wearing out pavement too. Most store owners do perform routine sealcoating and pavement maintenance and when it is time they do not hesitate to resurface or re-pave their parking lots. This outside maintenance can create repeat business for you. Many contractors think they want to perform work for these store owners, but often learn there is a lot of work and customer service involved in maintaining the pavement of a high volume retail or restaurant customer. Further, they often have expectations of service that is similar to what is expected of them by their customers.

The McDonald’s corporation requires that its franchisees actively operate their stores. This means no passive investors and so there are many opportunities for you to meet someone in the family who is part of the ownership or maintenance team. If you take the time to learn which stores are owned by your local franchise owner you can earn the opportunity to begin working on 6 or 8 nice pavement projects. But be prepared that there may be some light duty pavement work needed at any time throughout the year. This can include simply repainting the parking lot lines or custom stencils. These large restaurants and retail chains require you to paint the exact logos and designs that they have created for their parking lots. Burger King, Walgreens, Walmart, and Menards all have their own special stencils that personalize their parking areas.

Owning some of these proprietary and custom paint stencils can help you earn that work right away. My suggestion is to consider your business and what you can accomplish successfully for one of these retailers before approaching and then be realistic with management as to what types of work you can service successfully. The larger paving projects or resurface work at one of these fast food restaurants is not for the average paving contractor. Great coordination, speed, and precision in paving are required to keep this customer happy. Managing this work in a way that minimizes downtime is a must.