An actively operated U.S. CPR Cell Phone Repair store may generate an estimated pre-tax owner-operator benefit of roughly $14,000 to $174,000 per year. The analytical base scenario is about $80,000. A manager-run version ranges from an estimated loss of about $38,000 to a positive $122,000 after subtracting a national wage-only manager proxy; its base result is about $28,000.
A matching official public copy of the 2026 FDD was not verified, so FDD references in this article are cited in plain text by year, Item, and page.
Pre-tax analytical range before financing principal and personal income taxes.
Uses the midpoint of the two disclosed decile averages and a 13.2% broad repair margin.
Base owner-operator benefit less a $52,030 wage-only manager proxy.
Tail averages for eligible 2025 U.S. franchised stores—not a systemwide average.
Stores open and operating for at least 12 months as of December 31, 2025.
Subject to a twice-monthly minimum after the initial waiver period.
How much may a Cell Phone Repair franchise owner earn annually?
The strongest defensible estimate is approximately $14,218 to $173,903 in annual pre-tax owner-operator benefit, with an analytical base case of $80,049. These are independent scenarios for one mature U.S. CPR store; they are not official owner-income figures and they are not a probability forecast.
The manager-run estimate is materially lower because the business must pay for day-to-day management. After subtracting the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ $52,030 mean annual wage for a First-Line Supervisor of Retail Sales Workers, the modeled residual is approximately -$37,812, $28,019, and $121,873 across the Conservative, Base, and Upside cases. The wage proxy excludes employer payroll taxes and benefits, so a fully loaded manager cost would reduce those residuals further.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor and status | All-in margin assumption | Owner-operator benefit | Manager-run residual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $139,390—official bottom-decile average Gross Volume | 10.2% | $14,218 | -$37,812 |
| Base | $606,433—analytical midpoint of the two disclosed averages | 13.2% | $80,049 | $28,019 |
| Upside | $1,073,475—official top-decile average Gross Volume | 16.2% | $173,903 | $121,873 |
Rounding occurs after calculation. The Base revenue figure is not the FDD’s average or median; the FDD does not disclose a central systemwide Gross Volume result. “Manager-run residual” is before financing principal and personal income taxes.
Annual pre-tax benefit for one mature U.S. CPR store; the labor value of an active owner is included.
Interpretation: Revenue variation dominates the range. The lower and upper revenue anchors are actual FDD tail averages, while the Base is only an analytical midpoint.
Sources: 2026 CPR FDD, Item 19, pp. 44–45; IRS Nonfarm Sole Proprietorship Statistics, Tax Year 2023. Calculations are independent scenarios.
What does the 2026 FDD actually report?
Item 19 officially reports 2025 Gross Volume for only the highest-performing and lowest-performing 10% of 364 eligible U.S. franchised stores. It does not report a systemwide average, a systemwide median, gross profit, operating profit, EBITDA, net income, cash flow, owner salary, owner draw, or distributions.
| Official Item 19 cohort | Average Gross Volume | Reported low | Reported high |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom 10% of eligible stores | $139,390 | $39,684 | $196,036 |
| Top 10% of eligible stores | $1,073,475 | $828,477 | $1,578,997 |
Official figures: 2026 CPR FDD, Item 19, pp. 44–45. “Gross Volume” is collected sales receipts as defined by the FDD; it excludes uncollected billings, customer refunds, and government taxes, but does not deduct credit-card charges.
A $1 million Gross Volume store can still produce modest owner earnings—or a loss—if parts, technicians, occupancy, advertising, royalties, warranty work, shrinkage, and management consume the revenue. Conversely, a lower-volume store with disciplined labor and occupancy can retain a higher percentage. Item 19 alone cannot answer which outcome applies.
How broad is the Item 19 population?
The official cohort includes 364 franchised CPR stores that had been open and operating for at least 12 months at December 31, 2025. That is 87.1% of the 418 franchised outlets open at year-end, but the omitted outlets were not a random sample.
The FDD excludes 29 stores opened during 2025, one store not required to use the accounting and reporting system, and 24 stores temporarily closed for relocation or a transfer. The year-end open count also excludes stores terminated, not renewed, or otherwise ceased during 2025. These rules make the disclosure more representative of full-year survivors than of every purchaser’s first-year experience.
How were the owner-earnings scenarios calculated?
The model multiplies each revenue anchor by an all-in repair-business margin, then separates active-owner labor from a manager-run residual. The calculation is estimated, not franchisor-reported, and applies to a single mature U.S. store. For this article, pre-tax owner benefit means cash available after normal unit-level operating expenses and recurring franchise fees, but before personal income taxes and financing principal. Whether the broad IRS margin fully captures CPR-specific fees is not verified and is the model’s central limitation.
Estimated manager-run residual = owner-operator benefit − $52,030 wage-only manager proxy
- Revenue anchors
- Conservative and Upside use the official bottom- and top-decile average Gross Volume figures. Base uses their arithmetic midpoint, $606,432.50, because Item 19 provides no central system result.
- Margin anchor
- IRS Tax Year 2023 data for “Miscellaneous repairs” report approximately $3.231 billion of net income less deficit on $24.439 billion of business receipts, a derived 13.2% margin across sole proprietorship returns.
- Margin sensitivity
- The Conservative, Base, and Upside margins are 10.2%, 13.2%, and 16.2%—the benchmark minus three percentage points, the benchmark, and the benchmark plus three percentage points.
- Owner compensation
- A sole proprietor generally does not deduct a salary paid to the proprietor on Schedule C. The resulting proxy therefore blends business residual profit with compensation for the owner’s labor.
- Manager compensation
- The manager-run scenario subtracts the BLS May 2023 mean annual wage of $52,030 for First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers. Employer payroll taxes, benefits, bonuses, and recruiting costs are not added.
- Debt, tax, and capital
- Personal income taxes and financing principal are excluded. IRS net income includes reported deductions such as depreciation and business interest where claimed, but the aggregate blends businesses with different financing and capital profiles.
The IRS category is a broad national sole-proprietorship proxy, not a matched sample of franchised electronics-repair stores. It can differ from CPR in product mix, store size, legal entity, owner hours, wage structure, inventory intensity, and franchise-fee burden. The scenario range is therefore suitable for screening and diligence—not for underwriting a purchase without store-level financial statements.
How much can recurring CPR fees absorb?
At the modeled revenue anchors, the specifically disclosed royalty, current national advertising fee, current technology fee, and maximum 2% local cooperative contribution equal about 8.3% to 16.5% of Gross Volume. This is an official-FDD-based fee calculation, not an additional deduction from the scenario earnings, because the IRS benchmark is already an all-in net-income measure and subtracting every cost twice would understate earnings.
| Recurring obligation | 2026 FDD amount | Annual modeling treatment | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 5.8% of Gross Volume | Greater of 5.8% or a mature full-year $14,400 minimum | The $600 twice-monthly minimum is waived during the stated introductory period. |
| National Advertising Fund | $285 per month | $3,420 per year | The franchisor reserves the right to charge up to 2% of Gross Volume in the future. |
| Local advertising cooperative | Up to 2% of Gross Volume | 2% used for the fee-load sensitivity | Actual cooperative requirements can differ. |
| Technology fee | $195 per month | $2,340 per year | The 2026 FDD permits an increase to $250 upon reasonable notice. |
| Required upgrades | $0–$5,000 per year estimate | Shown as an unmodeled cash-flow sensitivity | Actual upgrades may exceed the estimate. |
| National Accounts administration | Up to 6.5% of applicable National Accounts Gross Volume | Not applied to all store revenue | Only relevant to revenue generated through participating accounts. |
Official terms: 2026 CPR FDD, Item 6, pp. 9–12. The current FDD controls this analysis. The official CPR franchise page should not be used to override a different amount stated in the current disclosure document.
Royalty plus current national advertising and technology fees plus a 2% local cooperative contribution.
Interpretation: The twice-monthly royalty minimum is binding in the Conservative scenario, making the selected fee burden much larger as a percentage of low sales.
Source and formula: 2026 CPR FDD, Item 6, pp. 9–12. Selected fee load = greater of 5.8% of Gross Volume or $14,400 + $3,420 national advertising + $2,340 technology + 2% local advertising. It excludes upgrades, customer-feedback costs, and National Accounts administration fees.
How does active ownership change the result?
Active ownership can raise the owner’s economic benefit by replacing a paid manager, but that increment is compensation for work—not passive business profit. The 2026 FDD does not require personal supervision, although MMI-CPR, LLC recommends it. A non-supervising owner must designate an employee contact, and the manager or principal supervising the store must complete initial training and devote best efforts during business hours.
| Owner model | What the scenario measures | Base result | What is not captured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner-operator | Residual business income plus the market value of management labor performed by the owner | $80,049 | No separate hourly wage, benefits, or value assigned to the owner’s time |
| Manager-run | Owner-operator benefit less a $52,030 national retail-supervisor wage proxy | $28,019 | Employer taxes, benefits, bonus, overtime, recruiting, and local wage differences |
Calling the $80,049 Base result “profit” without qualification would overstate the economics. Part of that amount compensates the owner for managing staff, inventory, customer issues, quality control, local marketing, and store operations. The comparable manager-run residual is approximately $28,019 before any payroll burden above the BLS wage.
The wage input comes from the BLS May 2023 occupation profile for First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers. A buyer should replace this national wage-only proxy with a current local quote for a trained store manager and the employer’s full payroll cost.
What could move actual earnings outside the modeled range?
Gross margin on repairs and device sales is the most important unresolved driver, followed by technician productivity, occupancy, and owner labor. The FDD does not disclose parts cost, product mix, technician payroll, rent, credit-card expense, warranty expense, shrinkage, or store-level profit, so the scenario cannot determine how much of Gross Volume a specific location retains. Item 7 describes a site as potentially as small as 700 square feet and typically about 1,200 square feet, making local occupancy terms especially consequential.
- The two revenue anchors are distribution tails. The top and bottom decile averages are useful boundaries, but neither describes the middle 80% of eligible stores.
- The Base revenue is editorial. It is the arithmetic midpoint of two tail averages, not a franchisor-reported average, median, target, or expected result.
- The IRS margin is broad. “Miscellaneous repairs” covers businesses beyond electronics repair and uses sole proprietorship tax returns rather than matched franchised-store P&Ls.
- The all-in margin may not map cleanly to CPR fees. The model avoids automatically subtracting royalties and advertising twice, but actual CPR financial statements must show whether the benchmark sufficiently reflects those obligations.
- Debt can change owner cash flow without changing store operating performance. Financing principal is excluded, while business interest is embedded inconsistently in the IRS aggregate.
- One unit cannot be multiplied into a portfolio forecast mechanically. The article does not model multi-store ramp-up, shared overhead, development timing, or the manager structure required across several locations.
Does Item 20 add a warning signal?
Item 20 shows a net decline of nine franchised outlets during 2025 and 19 transfers, but those figures do not establish whether any particular store was profitable. Franchised outlets moved from 427 at the beginning of 2025 to 418 at year-end. The data make closures, transfers, and local economics necessary interview topics rather than proving a systemwide earnings conclusion.
What should a buyer verify before relying on the range?
A buyer should replace every broad assumption with store-level evidence from the franchisor’s written substantiation and from current and former franchisees. The most decision-useful verification requests are:
- Obtain the written substantiation supporting the 2025 Item 19 Gross Volume disclosure and confirm how the top and bottom 10% were selected.
- Request trailing-12-month profit-and-loss statements for comparable mature stores, with repairs, refurbished devices, accessories, and National Accounts revenue separated.
- Calculate gross margin after parts, device inventory, warranty work, discounts, refunds, and credit-card charges—not just Gross Volume.
- Confirm current royalty minimums, National Advertising Fund charges, local cooperative obligations, technology fees, and required upgrade spending in writing.
- Ask owner-operators how many hours they work and ask manager-run owners for fully loaded manager payroll, technician staffing, and owner oversight time.
- Compare local rent, common-area charges, insurance, wage rates, and repair demand with the stores used as comparables.
- Keep financing principal, personal taxes, owner draws, distributions, depreciation, and capital expenditure separate in the cash-flow review.
- Interview both current and former franchisees listed through Item 20, including stores that transferred, closed, or changed ownership.
Which public sources support this analysis?
The public support comes from the official CPR website and U.S. government data; the 2026 FDD remains the controlling same-brand source for the figures and obligations cited by Item and page. No directory, broker page, salary aggregator, forum, review site, or generic earnings article is used as financial evidence.
What is the most defensible earnings takeaway?
For one mature U.S. CPR Cell Phone Repair store, the most defensible published range is an estimated $14,000 to $174,000 in annual pre-tax owner-operator benefit, with a Base scenario near $80,000. It is scenario-based, not an official Item 19 owner-earnings disclosure. A manager-run store has a materially lower modeled range of roughly -$38,000 to $122,000, with a Base residual near $28,000 before payroll burden beyond the manager’s wage.
The largest earnings driver is the combination of Gross Volume and retained margin after parts, labor, occupancy, and recurring obligations. The largest unresolved uncertainty is that the 2026 FDD discloses revenue tails but no store-level expense or profit data. Before treating any figure as underwritable, a buyer should reconcile Item 19 substantiation, comparable-store P&Ls, current fee schedules, local manager cost, owner hours, and interviews with current and former franchisees.