How Much Does a CLUB Z! In-Home Tutoring Services Franchise Owner Make?

Officially, Item 19 measures student counts and hourly rates—not annual owner earnings. For 2025, Club Z!, Inc. divided 319 mature franchised businesses into four cohorts based on hours worked during regular business hours. It then disclosed the average, median, low, and high number of private students for each cohort. Separate tables disclose tutor pay rates and client pay rates as recorded in the customer-management software in March 2025.

The distinction matters. A private-student count is not Gross Sales, and the difference between a client hourly rate and a tutor hourly rate is not business profit. Annual revenue still depends on tutoring hours per student, active weeks, cancellations, discounts, subject mix, and collection rates. Profit then depends on royalties, advertising, technology, recruiting, insurance, payment processing, administration, and owner or manager labor.

The estimate is scenario-based and uses a bottom-up tutoring-hours model. It starts with disclosed private-student counts and disclosed median K–12 client and tutor rates, then subtracts the current FDD’s recurring fees, the FDD’s recommended local advertising level, and a clearly labeled allowance for other operating costs. The result is pre-tax cash available to an owner who performs the director role, before financing costs, debt principal, and capital expenditures.

Rounded to the nearest $100 after calculating with full-precision inputs. “Recurring FDD fees” includes the modeled progressive monthly Royalty/Support Fee, the 2% Advertising Fund contribution, a $300 monthly Business Package fee for a mature year-three-or-later business, and the $75 monthly software/phone/web/email fee. The four-month launch-advertising charge and Item 7 startup investment are excluded from the mature annual model.

The student counts, hourly rate inputs, and franchisor fees are official or directly derived from the 2026 FDD; session intensity and the broad overhead allowance are estimates. The scenarios use the 20–30 hour cohort median of 30 students for the conservative case, the 35+ hour cohort median of 47 for the base case, and the 35+ hour cohort average of 52 for the upside case.

• K–12 rate mixThe modeled $53.33 client rate is the simple mean of the $50 elementary, $55 middle-school, and $55 high-school medians. The modeled $24.33 tutor rate is the simple mean of the corresponding $24, $24, and $25 tutor medians. Test-preparation rates are excluded because the FDD does not disclose the revenue mix.
• Tutoring cadence1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 weekly hours per student and 32, 36, and 40 active weeks are editorial scenario assumptions. Item 19 does not disclose tutoring hours per student, retention, seasonality, or cancellations.
• Other operating costsThe 12% allowance covers costs not quantified in Item 19, including payment processing, insurance, recruiting, screening, bookkeeping, virtual-address expenses, supplies, and payroll-related or fulfillment leakage. It is not a franchisor-provided expense ratio.
• Royalty calculationThe model applies the Item 6 monthly tiers progressively—8% through $10,000, 7% from $10,001 through $20,000, and 6% above $20,000—subject to the $550 monthly minimum. A buyer should confirm the franchisor’s actual billing calculation in writing.

Active ownership can be the difference between a positive owner benefit and an operating loss after manager pay in this model. Item 15 requires the owner—or the owner’s manager—to participate personally in direct operation. Item 19 also reports materially higher median student counts in higher owner-work-hour cohorts. That association is official, but it is not proof of causation.

The manager sensitivity uses the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2023 mean annual wage of $78,840 for Education Administrators, All Other in privately owned Other Schools and Instruction. The BLS estimate excludes self-employed workers and does not include employer payroll taxes or benefits, so a fully loaded manager cost could be higher. The occupation and industry are proxies, not CLUB Z! payroll data.

The recurring burden includes a monthly Royalty/Support Fee, a system Advertising Fund contribution, the Business Package, and the technology/communications fee. These are official 2026 FDD obligations disclosed in Item 6, pp. 4–7, and Item 11, pp. 12–18. The model also includes the franchisor’s recommended $1,000-per-month local paid-advertising level, although the FDD describes that amount as a recommendation rather than a mandatory fee.

• Royalty/Support FeeThe greater of the monthly percentage calculation or $550. Item 6 discloses 8%, 7%, and 6% Gross Sales tiers; an Expanded Territory pays a fixed 6% royalty.
• Advertising FundThe greater of 2% of Gross Sales or $50 per month, beginning 30 days after training.
• Club Z! Business Package$250 per month initially, increasing to $300 per month beginning in the third year. The scenario uses $3,600 annually because Item 19 covers mature businesses and the model is intended to represent a stabilized year.
• Software and communications$75 per month for proprietary software, a virtual business telephone number, web hosting, and one email account.
• Local paid advertisingItem 11 recommends at least $1,000 per month. The scenario deducts $12,000 per year separately from the 2% Advertising Fund.

The largest unresolved variable is annual billable tutoring hours per student. Item 19 gives a student count at a point in the operating model and hourly rate schedules, but it does not disclose how many sessions each student buys, how long students remain active, how much is discounted or refunded, or how rates differ by territory and service mix. Those missing variables drive revenue before expenses are considered.

• Student retention and seasonalityA territory with the same 47 students can produce very different annual revenue if students average 1.5 versus 2.5 hours per week or remain active for 30 versus 40 weeks.
• Subject mixItem 19’s test-preparation median client rate is $100 per hour versus a $27 median tutor rate, substantially above the K–12 spread. The FDD does not disclose what percentage of sessions are test preparation, so the scenario excludes that potential uplift.
• Realized rate versus posted rateThe disclosed rates were posted in the management software. The FDD does not show actual collected revenue after discounts, refunds, uncollectible accounts, package pricing, or cancellations.
• Employment classification and payroll burdenThe FDD reports tutor hourly pay but does not provide payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, contractor classification, benefits, or recruiting and screening cost per tutor.
• Geographic sampleThe 319-business Item 19 population appears to align with the worldwide outlet count, while the U.S. count was 305. A U.S.-only table could change the student and rate benchmarks.
• Financing and taxesItem 10 states that Club Z!, Inc. does not offer or guarantee financing. Interest, debt principal, and personal income taxes are not included in the owner-benefit range and should be modeled separately for the buyer’s actual capital structure.

A buyer should request the Item 19 written substantiation and rebuild the model with U.S.-only operating records from comparable territories. The Federal Trade Commission advises buyers to examine the source, assumptions, sample coverage, and limitations behind financial performance representations and to speak with current and former franchisees.

• Ask Club Z!, Inc. for written substantiation showing whether the 319-business Item 19 population includes the 14 non-U.S. outlets reported in Item 20.
• Request U.S.-only data for active students, billed tutoring hours, collected hourly revenue, tutor cash pay, refunds, discounts, cancellations, and student retention by month.
• Compare owner-operated territories with manager-run territories at similar population sizes, maturity, and service mix.
• Confirm the monthly Royalty/Support Fee tier calculation, minimum payment, Advertising Fund assessment, Business Package fee, software fee, and any required or customary local marketing spend.
• Interview franchisees near 30, 47, and 52 active students and ask for actual annual profit-and-loss statements, owner hours, manager hours, and normalized owner compensation.
• Separate owner salary or labor value from distributions, retained earnings, interest, depreciation, debt principal, and personal taxes.
• Review Item 20 turnover and reacquisition patterns, including the decline from 312 to 305 U.S. outlets during 2025, and ask former franchisees why they left.