If you're trying to work out whether to buy a franchise, take a licence, or build your own brand, the honest answer is that the three options solve different problems. The franchise vs licence vs own brand decision usually comes down to how much you want to build yourself, how much control you want to keep, and how quickly you need to be earning. None of the three is automatically the right answer — it depends on what you're starting with.
This matters if you're looking at running events, games, or any kind of local entertainment business, because the differences between these three routes show up fastest in businesses that depend on repeat bookings and word of mouth.
What's the actual difference between a franchise and a licence?
A franchise usually means you're buying into a tightly controlled system: fixed pricing, fixed territory rules, a franchise fee, ongoing royalties, and a manual that tells you how to run almost every part of the day. You're buying a proven method, but you're also signing up to strict oversight.
A licence is looser. You get the product — the games, the brand, the training, the booking system — but you're running your own operation underneath it. You bring the venue relationships and the local audience. You keep the large majority of every ticket sold, rather than handing over an ongoing royalty on top of a franchise fee. It suits people who want a working business model without giving up control of how they run their week.
What does it cost to build your own brand from scratch?
Building your own brand means writing your own material, testing it on real audiences, working out pricing by trial and error, and building a booking system before you've sold a single ticket. None of that is impossible. But it's slow, and most of the cost isn't cash — it's the months you spend getting the product right while competitors with an established format are already taking bookings.
You also carry all the risk of getting the format wrong. A game that doesn't land with a live audience doesn't fail quietly — it fails in front of paying guests, at a private event or a public one, and that's expensive to recover from.
Why do people choose a licence over a franchise?
Mostly because of what they keep. A licensee gets the games, the training, the brand, and the booking system, but keeps the large majority of every ticket rather than paying an ongoing franchise royalty on top of fees. You're not locked into a rigid operating manual either — you bring the venue and the audience, and you run the business your way.
The other reason is speed. A licence means you're not writing scripts, designing puzzles, or working out how many actors — sorry, characters — a room needs. That work is already done. You can see what a public event actually looks like by browsing public events by city, which gives you a sense of the format before you commit to running it yourself.
What do you actually get with a licensee program?
With the licensee program at A Murder Mystery Dinner, you get a full set of murder mystery games ready to run, training on how to run them, the brand, and the booking system that handles your customers. You bring the venue and the audience — private bookings, public ticketed nights, or both.
This is different to running a single private event through the main company. If you just want one game run at your own venue, you'd look at private event pricing and availability instead. The licensee route is for people who want to run this as an ongoing local business, not book a single night.
Which one is right for you?
If you want total control over every detail of a proven, tightly run system and you're comfortable with an ongoing royalty, a franchise might suit you. If you want to build something entirely your own and you have the time and budget to get it wrong a few times before it's right, building your own brand is the honest long route.
If you want a working product, a recognisable brand, and a system that's already been tested with real audiences, without giving away most of your ticket revenue, a licence sits between the two. It's the option that lets you start with something that already works and put your energy into your venues and your customers instead of your product.
Whichever way you're leaning, it's worth reading through the frequently asked questions before you commit money to any route, and if something specific isn't answered there, you can just contact us directly. There's more general reading on the business side of running events like this on the blog too.
If what you actually want is a business that's already been built and tested, rather than one you have to design yourself, that's exactly what the licensee program is for — and the next step is simply to look at the licensee application and see what's required to bring it to your area.