The First 90 Days After Signing a Pet Franchise Agreement: A Week-by-Week Look
Top TLDR The first 90 days after signing a pet franchise agreement cover four phases: initial onboarding and system access, site selection and real estate work, buildout planning, and pre-opening preparation. For Wagbar franchisees, this period is guided by the proprietary Opener app and culminates in a one-week in-person training at the Asheville, North Carolina headquarters. Begin by downloading the Opener app and reviewing your training manual on day one.
Key Takeaways
The first 90 days after signing a pet franchise agreement focus on site selection, buildout planning, licensing groundwork, and pre-opening operational preparation.
Wagbar's Opener app guides new franchisees through every setup step from site evaluation through construction, reducing the learning curve for first-time business owners.
In-person training at Wagbar's Asheville, NC headquarters — typically scheduled within the first 90 days — covers dog behavior management, bar operations, staff training, and marketing.
Wagbar partners with a company that converts shipping containers into fully equipped bars and bathrooms, which simplifies the buildout process compared to traditional construction.
The franchise fee is $50,000, with a total investment range of $470,300 to $1,145,900 covering licensing, training, support, and launch resources.
Royalties are 6% of adjusted gross sales, plus 1% to the Wagbar marketing fund.
Signing a franchise agreement is the moment a business idea becomes a legal commitment. What happens in the 90 days that follow shapes how smoothly everything after it goes.
Most franchise systems have a structured onboarding process, but the level of structure varies widely. Some leave new franchisees largely on their own with a manual and a phone number. Others build a guided system that walks franchisees through each phase in sequence. How that first quarter unfolds tells you a lot about how the franchise relationship will work for the next several years.
For anyone who just signed — or is weighing whether to sign — a pet franchise agreement, here's a realistic week-by-week look at what that period actually involves.
Weeks 1 and 2: Getting Into the System
The first two weeks are administrative and organizational. You're not building anything yet. You're getting oriented.
For Wagbar franchisees, this starts with the Opener app. It's Wagbar's proprietary pre-opening tool, and it's where your training actually begins before you ever set foot in Asheville. The app guides you through the setup sequence from site selection through construction, with a deep dive into the operations manual built in. If you treat it as your daily task list for the first 60 to 90 days, you'll move through the process in the right order without gaps.
Beyond the app, the early weeks involve connecting with your Wagbar support contact, reviewing your franchise agreement with your attorney to confirm you understand your obligations, and getting your initial financial accounts and business entity set up if you haven't already. Franchisees who come in with business structures already in place — LLC or corporation, business banking account, accounting software — move faster in this phase than those who are setting it up fresh.
It's also the right moment to brief your household on what the next 6 to 12 months will actually look like operationally and financially. The income gap during buildout is real. Having a clear, shared picture of the financial runway at week one prevents difficult conversations at month four.
Weeks 3 and 4: Site Search Begins in Earnest
Site selection is the most consequential decision of the first 90 days. It determines your customer base, your buildout complexity, your lease terms, and your competitive positioning. It doesn't happen fast, but it has to start early.
Wagbar locations require outdoor space suitable for safe, supervised off-leash dog play, proximity to concentrations of dog-owning households with above-average incomes, and a surrounding environment that supports a bar operation. Those criteria don't fit every market equally. The Opener app helps franchisees evaluate potential sites against Wagbar's criteria, and the Wagbar team provides support throughout this process.
In weeks three and four, the typical work involves identifying the market area you're targeting, researching available properties that meet Wagbar's space and zoning requirements, and beginning conversations with commercial real estate brokers who know the local market. You're not signing a lease yet. You're building a short list of viable options to evaluate further.
This is also the right time to begin your local licensing and permit research. Zoning requirements, alcohol licensing, health department requirements, and any local regulations governing dog facilities vary significantly by city and county. Getting early clarity on what the approval timeline looks like prevents surprises during buildout. Wagbar's support resources and the pet business legal guide on their site both provide orientation on compliance requirements.
Weeks 5 and 6: Site Evaluation and Shortlisting
By weeks five and six, you should have a short list of candidate sites and be moving into deeper evaluation on each one. This means getting into the specifics of each property: square footage and outdoor area dimensions, lease terms and landlord flexibility, construction or renovation requirements, proximity to competitor businesses, and the demographics of the immediately surrounding area.
Wagbar's shipping container bar partnership is one of the factors that simplifies this evaluation. Rather than designing and constructing a bar buildout from scratch, franchisees can use a pre-established conversion system that turns shipping containers into fully equipped bars and bathrooms. That reduces buildout uncertainty and helps contain construction cost variability. When evaluating sites, factoring in whether the layout accommodates the container placement makes the comparison more concrete.
This is also when you should be engaging a commercial real estate attorney if you haven't already. Lease negotiation is a specialized skill, and the terms you accept now will follow you for the duration of your franchise agreement. Longer lease terms with renewal options, buildout allowances, and clear assignment clauses all matter significantly in a franchise context.
Weeks 7 and 8: In-Person Training in Asheville
The one-week in-person training at Wagbar's Asheville, North Carolina headquarters is typically scheduled during this window, though the exact timing depends on your site selection progress and Wagbar's training calendar.
This week is the operational foundation of your franchise. It covers everything from managing dog behavior in an off-leash environment to running the bar, training your future staff, and executing Wagbar's marketing approach. Franchisees who arrive in Asheville having spent six or seven weeks working through the Opener app consistently get more out of the week than those who show up without that preparation. The in-person training builds on the foundational knowledge the app delivers — it's not designed to deliver that foundation itself.
The Asheville location is also where you'll see a live Wagbar in operation. That experience is worth more than any manual. You'll observe how the staff manages the park, how the bar operates in practice, how membership check-in flows, and how the space handles a busy day versus a slow one. Every question you bring with you will get answered by watching the actual operation.
Weeks 9 and 10: Site Agreement and Buildout Kickoff
By weeks nine and ten, the goal is to be at or near a signed lease or site agreement. Not every franchisee hits this target exactly — commercial real estate timelines are notoriously unpredictable — but it's the milestone the rest of the buildout timeline depends on.
Once a site is secured, buildout planning can begin in earnest. This involves finalizing your construction or conversion plans, getting contractor bids, submitting permit applications, and establishing a project timeline from groundbreaking to open date. The Wagbar team and the Opener app both remain active resources during this phase.
Staff hiring typically doesn't begin until the buildout is well advanced, but weeks nine and ten are the right time to develop your hiring criteria, draft job descriptions, and think through your organizational structure. How many staff do you need on day one? What's your split between full-time and part-time? What does your training process look like for new hires who aren't coming through Wagbar's system directly?
Weeks 11 and 12: Pre-Opening Marketing and Community Building
The final weeks of the first 90 days should have a dual focus: pushing the buildout forward and beginning the pre-opening community work that determines how many people walk through the door on day one.
Pre-opening marketing for a dog park bar is largely local and social. Building awareness in the dog owner community before you open — through social media, local dog events, partnerships with local pet businesses, and word-of-mouth outreach — gives you a warm audience when you're ready to receive visitors. Wagbar provides marketing support and branded tools as part of the franchise system, but the local relationship-building work is the franchisee's responsibility.
This is also the window to begin building your membership pipeline. Wagbar's four-tier membership structure — daily, monthly, annual, and 10-visit punch passes — means that even before you open, you can be collecting expressions of interest and cultivating a list of people who are ready to become members on opening day. A strong early membership base compresses the revenue ramp-up period meaningfully.
The broader community strategy that makes a Wagbar location into a genuine neighborhood destination is covered in depth on Wagbar's community-building resource. The pre-opening period is the right time to get grounded in that approach before you're in the middle of daily operations.
What the First 90 Days Tell You About Yourself as an Owner
The first 90 days after signing a pet franchise agreement do more than advance the buildout. They reveal how you operate under conditions of sustained uncertainty.
Most things in this period are moving simultaneously without clear completion dates. Site selection is ongoing while licensing research is ongoing while financial planning is ongoing while training is happening. There's no clean sequential handoff from one task to the next. Franchisees who adapt well to managing multiple open loops tend to find this period energizing. Those who need sequential clarity to feel in control tend to find it frustrating until they adjust.
Neither reaction is wrong. But understanding which one describes you helps you structure your work more effectively. Prioritizing the Opener app as a daily anchor, blocking time for focused work on the site search, and keeping your support contact at Wagbar in the loop regularly all help manage the ambiguity of this phase.
Frequently Asked Questions
How quickly do most Wagbar franchisees find a site after signing?
Site selection timelines vary widely depending on the market and how active the local commercial real estate environment is. Some franchisees identify strong candidates within the first 30 days. Others take three to four months. Wagbar provides site selection support throughout the process.
Is in-person training mandatory, and when does it happen?
Yes. The one-week in-person training at Wagbar's Asheville, North Carolina headquarters is a required part of the franchise process. It's typically scheduled within the first 90 days, though exact timing is coordinated with the Wagbar team.
What happens if site selection takes longer than 90 days?
Site selection is one of the most variable elements of the pre-opening timeline. The first 90 days are an orientation and foundation period, not a deadline for completing all pre-opening work. The full timeline from signed agreement to grand opening typically runs 9 to 18 months.
Do I need staff hired within the first 90 days?
No. Staff hiring typically begins later in the buildout process, once you have a realistic open date. The first 90 days focus on site, licensing, buildout planning, and training.
What is the Opener app and how does it work?
The Opener is Wagbar's proprietary pre-opening guidance tool. It walks franchisees through each phase of the setup process from site selection through construction with step-by-step guidance and integration with the training manual. It's the primary operational anchor for the first 90 days.
Getting Started the Right Way
The first 90 days after signing a pet franchise agreement set the pace for everything that follows. Franchisees who enter this period organized, engaged with the Opener app, and clear about their financial runway tend to move through buildout faster and open with more momentum.
If you're still in the evaluation stage, the Wagbar franchising page covers the investment structure and how to request the FDD. You can also review what to look for when investing in an off-leash dog bar franchise and explore current Wagbar territories to assess market availability before beginning the conversation.
Bottom TLDR The first 90 days after signing a pet franchise agreement cover site selection, licensing groundwork, buildout planning, in-person training, and pre-opening community development. Wagbar's Opener app structures this period week by week, and the required one-week training in Asheville closes industry-specific knowledge gaps for franchisees from any background. Use the Opener app daily from day one and prioritize site selection as your most time-sensitive task in the first 30 days.
