This is a derived annual owner-operator benefit range, not a franchisor-reported salary or take-home figure. A base scenario is approximately $87,000. The calculation uses Christmas Decor's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, 2024 Holiday Lighting Services sales cohorts, the official 44% average Estimated Net Profit as a Percentage of Sales, a 5% royalty, and a $2,395 software-plan assumption. A separately paid manager, additional fixed overhead, financing, and taxes can reduce the amount materially.
The dollar range above is not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Decor Group Franchising LLC. It combines identified facts from the 2026 Christmas Decor FDD with a separately identified software assumption and arithmetic. Actual results can differ materially because of territory, market format, sales volume, labor, product costs, advertising, fixed overhead, financing, owner involvement, and execution. The figures are pre-tax and do not estimate personal after-tax take-home pay.
Legal franchisor: Decor Group Franchising LLC. Disclosure: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document issued March 23, 2026; Item 19, FDD pages 54–58. Applicable formats: Christmas Decor Standard Market and Community Market territories selling Holiday Lighting Services. Population: franchised businesses; there were no company-owned Christmas Decor outlets in Item 20. Evidence status: Item 19 reports sales and a defined profit-margin measure, but not owner salary, distributions, cash flow, or after-tax income. Checked: July 16, 2026. No matching 2026 FDD was verified on a franchise-controlled public website, so the FDD references in this article are unlinked page citations.
Item 19's exact metric excludes royalty fees and owner salary or draws.
The median is higher than the average; Item 19 says 64% of respondents were above the average.
Holiday Lighting Services Gross Sales for the mature cohort in Table 1.
The Table 2 survey represented 93% of active franchises at the reporting deadline.
The model subtracts the royalty separately; MDF treatment is disclosed as an uncertainty.
What does Christmas Decor's Item 19 actually measure?
Officially, Item 19 measures Holiday Lighting Services Gross Sales and a survey-based Estimated Net Profit as a Percentage of Sales. It does not report an owner's salary, draw, distribution, cash flow, or personal take-home pay. The sales data cover the most recent fully completed season ending in December 2024, while the profit survey covers the 2024 operating year.
Table 1 used sales reporting from 183 franchisees representing 225 franchised businesses, or 92% of the 244 active Christmas Decor franchises at the January 20, 2025 reporting deadline. It excluded 11 franchises that did not report or had de minimis activity associated with a sale process, plus eight franchises operating for less than 12 months from the Average Gross Sales cohorts.
| Item 19 sales cohort | Average Gross Sales | Median | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2–4 years in operation | $163,915 | $79,164 | 20 businesses |
| 5+ years in operation | $432,619 | $229,705 | 205 businesses |
| Top 10% by sales | $2,563,502 | $1,698,728 | 24 businesses |
Source: 2026 Christmas Decor FDD, Item 19, Table 1, FDD pages 55–57. Gross Sales means Holiday Lighting Services sales less sales tax, discounts, allowances, and returns, including residential and commercial customers.
How should the 44% profit figure be interpreted?
The 44% figure is official, but it is not ordinary accounting net income. Item 19 defines Estimated Net Profits as total sales less product costs, labor, sales and marketing costs, equipment rental, and other variable costs specifically related to Christmas Decor. The definition expressly excludes royalty fees, owner salary or draws, and allocations of fixed assets unchanged by the Christmas Decor business.
Table 2 was based on 184 franchisees representing 227 franchises, or 93% of active franchises. It reported a 44% average and 52% median Estimated Net Profit margin. Seventeen franchises were excluded because their owners did not respond or did not respond thoroughly. The FDD does not separate Standard Market from Community Market results, owner-operated from manager-run businesses, or stand-alone from add-on operations.
The mature-cohort average of $432,619 is Gross Sales, not owner income. Even the 44% Estimated Net Profit measure requires further adjustment for the 5% royalty and may omit incremental fixed overhead, owner compensation, depreciation, capital spending, debt service, and personal taxes.
How is the annual owner-operator range calculated?
The $28,000–$166,000 range is derived from three current-FDD sales observations and one consistent profit formula. It is an analytical comparison, not a probability forecast and not a claim that a new owner will land at the midpoint.
- Conservative revenue anchor: $79,164, the official median Gross Sales for Christmas Decor businesses operating 2–4 years.
- Base revenue anchor: $229,705, the official median Gross Sales for businesses operating 5+ years.
- Upside revenue anchor: $432,619, the official average Gross Sales for businesses operating 5+ years. This average is above the mature median and is not presented as a likely outcome.
- Software assumption: $2,395, the 2026 FDD's annual Plus-plan license price. Actual required software cost ranges from $1,897 to $4,389 depending on plan and usage.
- MDF treatment: no second subtraction is made because Item 19 says sales and marketing costs are included. The FDD does not state specifically whether the 1% Marketing Development Fund contribution is inside the survey response; if it is not, subtract another 1% of sales.
| Scenario | FDD sales anchor | Calculated benefit | What it represents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 2–4 year median | $28,479 | Earlier-stage reported sales with the 44% average margin. |
| Base | 5+ year median | $87,190 | Mature-cohort midpoint sales, before unmodeled fixed overhead and financing. |
| Upside | 5+ year average | $166,326 | Mature average sales, which are elevated relative to the mature median. |
What do the three owner-operator scenarios produce?
Annual dollars after the 5% royalty and a $2,395 software assumption, but before personal taxes, financing, and unmodeled fixed overhead.
Interpretation: sales maturity is the largest modeled driver. The mature average-sales point produces nearly six times the calculated benefit of the 2–4 year median point.
Source: 2026 Christmas Decor FDD, Item 19 Tables 1 and 2, FDD pages 55–58; Item 6, FDD pages 8–22. FranchisesBiz calculation; values rounded to the nearest dollar.
What is included and excluded from these figures?
The scenarios include product, crew labor, sales and marketing, equipment rental, other reported variable costs, the 5% royalty, and one software-license assumption. They exclude personal income taxes, financing principal, and any incremental fixed overhead that Item 19's variable-cost definition did not capture. Interest, depreciation, owner salary, manager compensation, capital expenditures, and debt service are not consistently identifiable from Item 19 and therefore are not silently inserted into the model.
If the 1% MDF contribution was not already included in the survey's sales and marketing costs, the scenario results would fall by approximately $792, $2,297, and $4,326, respectively. If a stand-alone operation needs extra rent, insurance, office administration, vehicle expense, or storage that an add-on operator already has, the reduction could be larger.
How does owner involvement change the result?
Christmas Decor is not structured as fully passive ownership during the holiday decorating season. Item 15 describes a full-time business from roughly September through the following February. The owner is not required to supervise on-premises personally, but the franchisor recommends it; otherwise, an approved employee must devote full-time on-premises attention during the season. Even with a manager, the owner or owner-operator must devote sufficient time, energy, and best efforts.
The Item 19 profit survey does not disclose which respondents were owner-operated, manager-run, or divisions of existing businesses. It also does not say whether a separately paid general manager was included in each respondent's labor cost. Therefore, the following chart is a sensitivity test, not an official wage estimate. It applies an incremental manager cost only when that cost is not already captured in the 44% margin.
How much could paid management reduce the base residual?
Illustrative annual management-cost sensitivity applied to the $87,190 base owner-operator benefit.
Interpretation: at the base sales point, a separate $30,000–$60,000 seasonal management cost would reduce residual pre-tax business profit to roughly $27,000–$57,000. The active-owner figure compensates the owner partly for labor performed and should not be described as passive profit.
Source: 2026 Christmas Decor FDD, Item 15, FDD pages 49–50, for the operating-role requirement. Manager-cost amounts are editorial sensitivity assumptions, not FDD-reported wages. Buyers should replace them with local, fully loaded compensation and avoid double-counting management labor already included in an outlet's P&L.
The $87,190 base figure is best labeled estimated owner-operator benefit, because Item 19 excludes owner salary and does not isolate passive residual profit. If the owner performs sales, scheduling, supervision, or management work that would otherwise require paid labor, part of the benefit is compensation for that work.
Which fees and omitted costs can move owner earnings most?
The largest known recurring adjustment is the 5% royalty, while labor, product costs, advertising, and incremental fixed overhead create the largest operating uncertainty. Item 6 sets a 1% Marketing Development Fund contribution and minimum payment schedules for both Standard Market and Community Market territories. The FDD also lists annual software license fees and estimates local or regional advertising materials at 2%–8% of Gross Sales when incurred.
- Royalty Fee
- Officially 5% of annual Holiday Lighting Services Gross Sales, subject to minimum schedules in later franchise years. It is expressly excluded from Item 19's Estimated Net Profit definition and is subtracted in the scenario model.
- Marketing Development Fund
- Officially 1% of annual Holiday Lighting Services Gross Sales, with minimum schedules. The FDD says an increase may be approved through its stated process and that the increase would not exceed 2%; the disclosure does not further clarify that phrase in the fee note. The scenario avoids a second subtraction because the Item 19 definition already includes sales and marketing costs, but the specific MDF treatment is not stated.
- Software license
- After the first year, the annual Light Right Cloud renewal is $1,897 for Essentials, $2,395 for Plus, or $4,389 for Enterprise in the 2026 FDD. The base model uses Plus as a disclosed editorial assumption.
- Incremental fixed overhead
- Rent, storage, insurance, administration, vehicles, and other fixed costs may be low for an add-on division and higher for a stand-alone operation. Item 19's variable-cost definition does not provide a reproducible allowance for these items.
- Debt service and taxes
- Financing interest and principal depend on the buyer's capital structure. Personal federal, state, and local taxes depend on entity structure and owner circumstances. Neither is included in the published range.
The 2026 FDD describes Christmas Decor as potentially home-based or operated as a division of an existing business. That distinction matters: an add-on operator may share office, vehicles, storage, administrative staff, and insurance with an existing service company, while a stand-alone owner may need tofund more of those costs directly. Item 8 also requires approved sources for required lighting products and materials, which can affect product-cost variability.
How much uncertainty remains around the earnings range?
Uncertainty remains material even though the current Item 19 population is broad. The strongest evidence is same-brand and current, but the derived dollars combine sales cohorts from Table 1 with a margin survey from Table 2. Those tables have similar system coverage, yet they are not presented as matched outlet-level observations.
The sales distribution is also highly skewed. For businesses operating 5+ years, average Gross Sales were $432,619 while the median was $229,705; the highest reported value was $7,538,747 and the lowest was $28,313. Only 41% of the mature cohort was above its average. This means the average is not a typical-outlet proxy and should be treated as an upside anchor rather than a central expectation.
Item 20 reported 245 franchised outlets and no company-owned outlets at the end of fiscal 2025. Therefore, there is no company-operated P&L proxy to validate labor, fixed overhead, or manager-run economics. The system increased from 240 franchised outlets at the start of 2023 to 245 at the end of 2025, and three outlet transfers were reported in each of 2023, 2024, and 2025. Those counts describe system structure, not profitability.
The confidence rating is Moderate because the 2026 Item 19 directly reports a broad, same-brand profit-margin measure, but the owner-dollar range is derived from non-matched sales and margin populations and depends materially on omitted fixed overhead and owner-role treatment.
What should a buyer verify before relying on these numbers?
A buyer should obtain written substantiation and reconcile real franchisee profit-and-loss statements to the Item 19 definition. The franchisor states that written substantiation for the financial performance representation will be available upon reasonable request. Existing and former franchisee interviews are necessary to test whether the modeled range resembles actual cash economics in the intended territory and operating structure.
- Request Item 19 substantiation and confirm how each survey respondent calculated product cost, labor, sales and marketing, equipment rental, and other variable costs.
- Ask whether the 1% MDF contribution, local advertising, credit-card fees, insurance, storage, vehicles, software, depreciation, and replacement equipment were included in the 44% and 52% metrics.
- Separate Standard Market from Community Market results and compare territories with similar household counts, climate, commercial mix, and labor rates.
- Obtain P&Ls from 2–4 year and 5+ year franchisees rather than relying on the system average alone.
- Measure owner hours by month and identify which sales, scheduling, production, and management tasks would require paid replacement labor.
- For a manager-run plan, verify fully loaded manager compensation and confirm it is not already inside the reported labor line.
- Model debt service separately using the actual financed amount, rate, term, and lender fees; do not treat operating benefit as after-debt cash flow.
- Interview current and former franchisees listed in Item 20 and ask for low, central, and strong-season results, including years with weather or staffing disruption.
What is the practical earnings answer for a Christmas Decor buyer?
The strongest defensible annual range is approximately $28,000–$166,000 in derived pre-tax owner-operator benefit, with a base scenario near $87,000. It is scenario-based dollars built on an official Item 19 earnings measure, not an official owner salary or guaranteed result. The most important earnings driver is Holiday Lighting Services sales maturity; the largest unresolved uncertainty is how much additional fixed overhead and paid management sit outside the Item 19 variable-cost definition.
A buyer should verify the Item 19 substantiation, obtain matched outlet P&Ls for the relevant market and age cohort, and use franchisee interviews to separate owner labor value from residual business profit. Debt service and personal taxes should then be modeled separately.