How Much Does an American Family Care Franchise Owner Make?

Item 19 officially reports revenue for franchised Centers, but it does not report franchisee profit, owner salary, distributions, or take-home pay. For calendar 2025, the 291 included Franchisee Owned Centers generated average Cash Revenue of $1,867,756 and median Cash Revenue of $1,699,854. Those figures apply only to Centers that operated for the full year.

The 2026 FDD defines Cash Revenue as revenue received during calendar 2025, excluding amounts tied to 2025 visits that had not yet been collected by year-end. Franchisee Owned Centers reported on a cash basis, while Affiliate Owned Centers reported revenue on an accrual basis. The FDD also states that Cash Revenue is calculated differently from Net Payments, the contractual base for royalty and marketing fees. These definition differences are central to the uncertainty in any owner-earnings estimate.

The model applies revenue-sensitive Affiliate Owned 4-Wall EBITDA margins to disclosed franchised Cash Revenue anchors, then subtracts current franchise fees. This is estimated, not official. It uses calendar 2025 performance for full-year Centers and rounds final outputs to the nearest $1,000.

The scenario formula is:

Estimated pre-tax, pre-debt owner earnings = franchised Cash Revenue × matched affiliate 4-Wall EBITDA margin − 6% royalty proxy − 2% marketing-fee proxy − $9,204 annual technology fee.

The percentage fees are applied to Cash Revenue because Item 19 does not publish Net Payments. That is a modeling limitation: actual royalties and marketing fees are calculated on Net Payments, not Item 19 Cash Revenue. Local advertising is not subtracted again because the FDD’s 4-Wall EBITDA definition already includes Center-level marketing expenses; an additional deduction would risk double counting.

Item 6 separately requires at least $2,000 per month of local advertising beginning three months after grand opening. The current 2% marketing fee and local advertising are collectively subject to a 5% of Net Payments cap after the franchisee gives the required notice. The $767 monthly technology fee is also subject to increase by an amount not exceeding 1% of Net Payments. The scenario uses the current stated amounts, not possible future increases.

Active involvement may increase the owner’s total economic benefit by roughly the cost of a paid Center Administrator, but the added amount compensates the owner for full-time labor. It is not passive business profit. The 2026 FDD requires the owner or an approved owner-designated Operating Principal to manage the Center full time, and each Center must have a full-time Center Administrator responsible for direct supervision. The Center Administrator may be an owner.

For illustration, the model adds $106,990 when the owner personally replaces a paid administrator. That figure is the May 2024 BLS median annual wage for medical and health services managers in outpatient care centers. It is a national benchmark, not an AFC pay requirement, and it does not include payroll taxes, benefits, local wage differences, or the possibility that AFC’s Center Administrator duties differ from the BLS occupation.

The estimate is closest to a pre-tax, pre-debt, unit-level owner result, not personal take-home pay. It starts with a 4-Wall EBITDA proxy, deducts current percentage franchise fees and the current fixed technology fee, and leaves several owner-specific cash demands outside the model.

Included in the affiliate proxy

Direct costs, Center employee wages and benefits, rent, utilities, Center-level marketing, local insurance, and other facility-level operating expenses, as defined by Item 19.

Added franchise obligations

6% royalty, current 2% marketing fee, and $767 monthly technology fee. Percentage fees are estimated on Cash Revenue because Net Payments are not disclosed.

Excluded from 4-Wall EBITDA

Corporate overhead, allocations from parent or affiliate entities, interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

Excluded from this owner estimate

Financing principal, interest, personal income taxes, depreciation, capital expenditures, remodels, equipment replacement, and entity-level overhead not captured in the proxy.

Not an after-tax figure

Entity structure, state and local tax rules, deductions, owner compensation policy, and personal circumstances determine after-tax cash.

Confidence is limited because the crucial profit margin comes from Affiliate Owned Centers, while the revenue anchors come from Franchisee Owned Centers. The two populations differ in ownership, accounting basis, fee structure, purchasing scale, overhead allocation, geography, and potentially staffing and payer mix. The FTC specifically advises buyers to examine whether company-operated results are economically comparable to franchised outlets.

• Accounting-basis mismatch: franchised Cash Revenue is reported on a cash basis; affiliate revenue is reported on an accrual basis.
• Fee-base mismatch: royalty and marketing fees are contractually based on Net Payments, while the scenario applies them to Cash Revenue.
• Affiliate-cost mismatch: Affiliate Owned 4-Wall EBITDA does not necessarily include the same royalty, marketing-fund, technology, purchasing, or entity-overhead burden as a franchisee.
• Center mix: Item 19 excludes 34 Centers opened in 2025 and 2 temporarily closed Centers, so it is a full-year cohort rather than every year-end outlet.
• Wide operating distribution: affiliate 4-Wall EBITDA ranged from a loss of $410,892 to positive $1,092,938, showing that a single average does not describe every Center.
• Newer-center effect: franchised Centers opened from 2021 through 2025 averaged $1,531,721 in Cash Revenue, below the $2,206,107 average for Centers opened in 2020 or earlier.

A buyer should rebuild the model with written substantiation and actual franchisee financial statements from comparable Centers. The highest-value checks are the relationship between Cash Revenue and Net Payments, the true administrator payroll burden, and whether local operating margins resemble the affiliate proxy.

• Request Item 19 written substantiation and reconcile every revenue, Gross Profit, and 4-Wall EBITDA definition.
• Ask AFC Franchising, LLC for the exact relationship between Cash Revenue, Net Payments, billed charges, contractual allowances, and collection timing.
• Interview franchisees with similar state, payer mix, Center age, visit volume, rent, and staffing—not only top-volume operators.
• Obtain monthly profit-and-loss statements showing provider costs, Center Administrator compensation, billing expense, supplies, insurance, local advertising, technology, royalty, and marketing fees.
• Separate owner salary, distributions, retained earnings, capital expenditures, interest, and financing principal.
• Use Item 20 contacts to speak with current and former franchisees, including recent openers and owners of transferred or terminated outlets where available.

The strongest defensible range is an estimated loss of about $161,000 to positive pre-tax, pre-debt owner earnings of about $482,000 per full-year Center, with a central scenario near $122,000. It is scenario-based, not official franchisee profit disclosure. The most important driver is patient-volume and revenue scale because the affiliate data show substantial operating leverage. The largest unresolved uncertainty is whether Affiliate Owned 4-Wall EBITDA margins translate to franchised Centers after cash collection differences, Net Payments-based fees, franchisee overhead, and local staffing costs.