How Much Does a Best Brains Franchise Owner Make?

Officially, it gives no owner-earnings number. Item 19 states that Best Brains, Inc. does not make representations about a franchisee’s future financial performance or the past performance of company-operated or franchised outlets. Therefore, sales, profit, salary, cash flow, and owner take-home figures cannot be attributed to the franchisor.

The FTC Franchise Rule Compliance Guide explains the framework for financial performance representations. A franchisor may omit an Item 19 earnings claim; when it does, independent estimates must remain clearly separate from the FDD.

Item 20 provides system structure, not unit economics. The U.S. franchised outlet count rose from 122 at the end of 2023 to 162 at the end of 2024 and 201 at the end of 2025. In 2025, the table shows 39 openings, one non-renewal, no terminations, and no outlets ceasing for other reasons. Those figures describe network movement; they do not prove that an individual center was profitable.

Source: 2026 Best Brains FDD, Item 20, pages 29–35. The two company-owned outlets are described as learning centers owned and operated by principals of the franchisor and are not combined with the franchised count.

The range is a three-case estimate for one established Premium Learning Center. It applies a 22% to 28% operating contribution margin to modeled annual revenue of $180,000 to $420,000. The resulting amount is labeled owner-operator benefit because the FDD requires personal participation and on-premises supervision.

• Revenue assumptions: $180,000, $300,000, and $420,000 are editorial scenarios, not FDD-reported sales. They represent different combinations of active students, subject mix, monthly billings, retention, and seasonal utilization.
• Margin assumptions: 22%, 26%, and 28% are analytical operating-contribution margins after normal center expenses and disclosed recurring franchise fees, but before owner compensation or a replacement manager.
• Government context: 2023 IRS sole proprietorship data for educational services reports $16.808 billion of receipts and $4.943 billion of net income less deficit, a broad 29.4% ratio. The model remains below that ratio because a branded retail learning center bears a 14% royalty, occupancy, certified-teacher labor, and other center-specific costs.
• Exclusions: financing principal, personal income tax, capital expenditures, depreciation, and interest are excluded. The model does not assume the Teacher Learning Center has the same revenue or cost structure.

Owner involvement changes the interpretation more than the arithmetic. Item 15 requires the franchisee to participate personally in direct operations and provide personal on-premises supervision. An owner-operator can preserve the modeled contribution as owner benefit, while a more heavily staffed center must pay for management and still cannot be assumed to be passive.

The staffed comparison uses the 2024 BLS median annual wage of $66,140 for first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, plus a 12% editorial payroll-burden assumption, producing a $74,100 fully loaded proxy. A real center director may cost more or less by market, schedule, qualifications, and benefits. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program should be checked for the buyer’s specific metropolitan area.

The 14% royalty is the largest disclosed recurring franchise charge in the model. At modeled revenue of $180,000, $300,000, and $420,000, a 14% normal royalty equals approximately $25,200, $42,000, and $58,800 before the Brand Development Fund, technology, subject-material, bbSupport, inventory, or other operating costs.

Source: 2026 Best Brains FDD, Item 6, pages 4–8. Item 7 startup investment is not subtracted from annual revenue. Renewal, transfer, default, and other event-driven fees are not treated as ordinary annual expenses.

No defensible same-range claim can be made. The 2026 FDD describes the Teacher Learning Center as smaller, typically non-retail, and available to a certified teacher in the United States or Canada. Lower occupancy and startup requirements could improve cost efficiency, but capacity, enrollment, pricing, and owner teaching workload may differ. Because Item 19 supplies no format-level sales or profit data, the Premium Learning Center scenarios should not be transferred to the Teacher format.

Enrollment economics are the largest driver, while the missing Item 19 sales distribution is the largest uncertainty. A center with weaker retention, lower monthly billings, excess teacher coverage, or expensive retail occupancy can fall below the conservative case. A mature center with higher utilization and disciplined labor scheduling can exceed the modeled contribution, but the FDD provides no evidence for how often either outcome occurs.

• Enrollment and retention: student count, subjects per student, cancellations, and summer utilization determine revenue and variable fee burden.
• Labor design: certified-teacher scheduling, class density, administrative coverage, and the owner’s own hours determine whether labor value becomes owner benefit or payroll expense.
• Occupancy: the Premium format is typically in a retail strip center, so rent, common-area charges, build-out condition, and local zoning can materially change the margin.
• Royalty status: a location in a probationary period may pay 18% instead of the normal 14% royalty, reducing operating contribution on affected sales.
• Financing: loan interest and principal are not included. Item 7 states that Teacher Learning Center financing may be available up to $30,000 over 24 months at 0%, but the Premium model assumes no specific financing structure.

A buyer should replace every editorial assumption with center-level evidence. The most useful work is to obtain written substantiation for any earnings statement and compare it with actual operating records from current and formerfranchisees listed in Item 20 and the FDD exhibits.

• Ask Best Brains, Inc. to confirm in writing that the 2026 Item 19 still contains no financial performance representation and request substantiation for any sales or income statement made outside the FDD.
• Interview Premium Learning Center owners separately from Teacher Learning Center owners; do not average the two formats.
• Request trailing 24-month student counts, monthly billings, subject mix, refunds, bad debt, teacher payroll, rent, and all franchisor deductions from several mature centers.
• Separate owner salary, owner draw, distributions, retained cash, and business profit. Ask how many owner hours are required each week.
• Rebuild the royalty, Brand Development Fund, technology, subject-material, bbSupport, and worksheet charges from actual student and subject counts.
• Review closed, transferred, and non-renewed centers as well as current operators. Item 20 reports six transfers in 2025 and states that no recent confidentiality clauses restricted franchisees from speaking openly.
• Model rent and manager compensation for the exact metropolitan area using current lease proposals and local wage data, not national averages.
• Keep debt service and personal taxes outside the operating comparison until the buyer’s financing and entity structure are known.

The strongest defensible range is approximately $40,000 to $118,000 in annual pre-tax owner-operator benefit for one established Premium Learning Center, with a base scenario near $78,000. It is a limited-confidence structural estimate, not an official Item 19 result. The most important driver is revenue per staffed teaching hour, while the largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of same-brand sales and expense distributions. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify Item 19, demand written substantiation for any financial claim, and replace the model with actual records and owner-hour data from comparable Premium Learning Center franchisees.

Definition used: estimated pre-tax owner earnings means cash available after normal unit-level operating expenses and disclosed recurring franchise fees, before personal income taxes and financing principal. The owner-operator figure also includes labor value; the staffed residual subtracts a manager proxy. Interest, depreciation, capital expenditures, and debt service are excluded and must be modeled separately.