24 Top-Ranked, Affordable Franchises You Can Buy for $25,000 or Less

Entrepreneur Franchise 500 list rank: 170

Initial investment: $8,639 to $296,598

Initial franchise fee: $3,500

New units in 2016: -1 units (-0.1 percent)

Chester’s has one of the widest ranges for initial investment — you will need to invest anywhere between $8,000 to almost $300,000. However, depending on your current assets and plans for the fried-chicken franchise, there’s a chance you could start a new location for less than five figures, which makes it worth investigating.