Estimated annual owner earnings
A mature, one-outlet CMIT Solutions franchise may produce approximately $48,000 to $94,000 in estimated pre-tax manager-run owner earnings per year, with a base analytical point near $69,000. This is a scenario range for one U.S. territory, not an earnings figure reported by CMIT Solutions, LLC. The 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document reports 2025 Gross Revenue, selected gross margins, and technician cost ratios, but it does not report operating profit, EBITDA, net income, owner compensation, or distributions.
Independent estimate: The $48,000–$94,000 range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by the franchisor. It combines identified facts from the CMIT Solutions, LLC 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document with a U.S. Census Bureau industry expense benchmark and clearly labeled modeling assumptions. Actual results can differ materially because of territory quality, service mix, sales, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, client concentration, pricing, and execution.
Data basis
Median one-outlet Gross Revenue
2025 revenue for the mature one-territory franchised cohort; revenue is not owner earnings.
One-outlet reporting franchisees
Operators met the FDD's age, continuity, reporting, and full-time criteria.
Industry operating-surplus proxy
Revenue less reported operating expenses as a share of revenue for NAICS 5415 employer firms.
Royalty plus MDF rates
7% royalty and 1.5% Marketing Development Fund contribution, each applied to GPS Revenue and subject to minimums.
Annual local-marketing minimum
$2,500 per month for each territory under the 2026 FDD, subject to change.
Item 19 evidence
What does the 2026 CMIT Solutions Item 19 actually measure?
Officially, Item 19 measures 2025 Gross Revenue and selected cost relationships—not annual owner earnings. The most decision-relevant population is the 74 franchised operators with one outlet, where an outlet means one territory. Those businesses had operated for at least 24 months, reported at least 10 months of Gross Revenue, and met the FDD's continuity and full-time criteria.
The exact Item 19 term is Gross Revenue. It includes managed and professional services, project work, cloud services, technical support, training, commissions, and hardware or software sales. It is broader than GPS Revenue, the contractual base used for the royalty and Marketing Development Fund contribution. That difference prevents a simple 8.5% deduction from total Gross Revenue without a revenue-mix schedule.
| Official 2025 franchised cohort | Reporting franchisees | Average Gross Revenue | Median Gross Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| One outlet: one territory operated by one franchisee | 74 | $516,821 | $309,717 |
| Multiple outlets: portfolio result per reporting franchisee, not per territory | 57 | $1,607,079 | $1,048,908 |
For the one-outlet cohort, Item 19 also reports an average managed-service gross margin of 67%, a median managed-service gross margin of 73%, an average hardware/software gross margin of 13%, and a median hardware/software gross margin of 21%. Technician cost averaged 27% and had a 24% median, measured against managed and professional services revenue. These figures cannot be combined into a complete owner-profit calculation because the FDD does not disclose the systemwide revenue mix or all remaining operating expenses.
Revenue is not earnings
The $309,717 median is the central official revenue anchor, not salary, cash flow, EBITDA, or take-home pay. The gap between revenue and owner earnings still has to absorb service delivery, technician labor, sales and administrative payroll, required marketing, franchise fees, technology, insurance, professional services, occupancy where applicable, and other operating costs.
FDD source: CMIT Solutions, LLC 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, pp. 44–49. For the regulatory meaning and limits of financial performance representations, see the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer's Guide to Buying a Franchise.
Scenario model
How was the $48,000–$94,000 owner-earnings range estimated?
The range is estimated by applying transparent revenue and margin sensitivities to the official $309,717 one-outlet median Gross Revenue. Because Item 19 provides no quartiles or complete operating-expense statement for the 2025 one-outlet cohort, the model uses an analytical 80%/100%/120% revenue spread and a three-percentage-point margin sensitivity around a broad government benchmark.
2022 NAICS 5415 revenue: $648.805 billion
Less reported operating expenses: $504.509 billion
Derived operating-surplus proxy: ($648.805B − $504.509B) ÷ $648.805B = 22.24%
The underlying figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau 2022 Service Annual Survey tables for employer firms in NAICS 5415, Computer Systems Design and Related Services. The 22.24% result is a derived industry proxy, not CMIT Solutions EBITDA, net income, or owner compensation.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor | Operating-surplus proxy | Estimated manager-run owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $247,774 | 19.24% | $48,000 |
| Base | $309,717 | 22.24% | $69,000 |
| Upside | $371,660 | 25.24% | $94,000 |
Estimated manager-run owner earnings by scenario
Annual pre-tax residual for one mature territory; rounded to the nearest $1,000.
Interpretation: Revenue and cost control compound. The difference between the conservative and upside scenarios is about $46,000, even before financing principal and personal income taxes.
Sources and calculation: 2026 FDD Item 19 median one-outlet Gross Revenue; 2022 Census Service Annual Survey Tables 2 and 3; scenario earnings = scenario revenue × scenario operating-surplus proxy. The Census Bureau's Service Annual Survey methodology explains the employer-firm survey framework.
Scenario assumptions and exclusions
- Revenue spread: 80%, 100%, and 120% of the official $309,717 median. This spread is editorial analysis, not an FDD-reported distribution or probability forecast.
- Margin spread: 19.24%, 22.24%, and 25.24%, using the Census-derived proxy minus three percentage points, unchanged, and plus three percentage points.
- Expense treatment: The Census ratio is used as an all-in operating-expense proxy. Royalty, MDF, local marketing, manager compensation, and other normal costs are not deducted a second time because the benchmark does not provide a compatible CMIT-specific line-item bridge.
- Debt and taxes: Financing principal, owner personal income taxes, and capital expenditures are excluded. The Census aggregate does not allow interest and depreciation to be isolated precisely.
- Rounding: Full-precision inputs were used, then published earnings were rounded to the nearest $1,000.
Owner role
How does owner involvement change the economic result?
Estimated owner-operator benefit is materially higher than manager-run residual profit because it includes the market value of work performed by the owner. For the same mature one-outlet scenarios, replacing a paid Operating Principal with owner labor raises the labor-inclusive range to approximately $151,000–$197,000, with a base analytical point near $172,000. This is an estimated benefit measure, not passive business profit and not an Item 19 result.
Item 15 requires personal participation. When the franchisee is an entity, an approved Managing Owner must own more than 50% and devote sufficient time to the business. The business also must have an approved Operating Principal who devotes all business time and attention to operations; the Managing Owner may fill that role. A manager-run structure is therefore possible, but the model is not a passive-ownership model. For modeling purposes, normal Operating Principal compensation is assumed to be embedded in the Census all-in expense ratio; the owner-operator calculation adds that labor value back only when the owner performs the role.
Manager-run residual versus owner-operator benefit
Owner-operator benefit adds $102,950 of labor value to the modeled residual in each scenario.
Interpretation: The additional $102,950 is labor value, not a free increase in enterprise profit. An owner who serves as Operating Principal is being compensated economically for a full management role.
Sources and calculation: 2026 FDD Item 15, p. 36; manager-run scenario residual plus the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2024 median annual wage for general and operations managers. The national, cross-industry wage may differ from compensation needed for a specific CMIT Solutions territory.
Keep the measures separate
- Estimated manager-run owner earnings
- Modeled annual operating residual after normal unit-level expenses under an all-in expense proxy, before personal income taxes and financing principal.
- Estimated owner-operator benefit
- Manager-run residual plus the modeled market value of the Operating Principal labor performed by the owner. It combines business residual and compensation for work.
- After-tax take-home pay
- Not estimated. Federal, state, local, payroll, and entity-level tax results depend on the owner's structure and circumstances.
Recurring obligations
Which disclosed fees can move CMIT Solutions owner earnings most?
Officially, the largest visible recurring obligations are the 7% royalty on GPS Revenue, the 1.5% MDF contribution on GPS Revenue, and the $30,000 annual local-marketing minimum per territory. These 2026 FDD terms apply to the offered U.S. business format, although percentage fees have contractual minimums and the franchisor may adjust specified amounts.
| Recurring item | 2026 FDD amount | Owner-earnings interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 7% of GPS Revenue | After month 12, the payment is the greater of 7% or the applicable minimum royalty. |
| Marketing Development Fund contribution | 1.5% of GPS Revenue | After month 12, the payment is the greater of 1.5% or the applicable minimum contribution. |
| Local marketing | $2,500/month | $30,000 per year per territory; at the $309,717 median Gross Revenue, this fixed minimum equals about 9.7% of revenue. |
| Technology fee | $200/month | $2,400 annually, charged once for all CMIT Solutions businesses operated by the franchisee. |
| Listed core software minimums | $193.32/month | Autotask minimum, one Office 365 E3 license, and QuickBooks Online total $2,319.84 annually before extra users, setup, or usage-based tools. |
| Convention fee | $850/year | Excludes travel and related expenses, including employee wages. |
Fee-model limitation
The scenario does not subtract these obligations again from the Census-derived margin. That government ratio is used as a complete expense proxy, and a second deduction would create an unsupported double charge. This is also why the confidence rating is Limited: a buyer needs actual franchisee profit-and-loss statements to determine whether the broad NAICS 5415 expense structure adequately absorbs CMIT-specific royalty, marketing, technology, and management costs.
FDD sources: CMIT Solutions, LLC 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 6, pp. 7–14; local-marketing annualization and the 9.7% ratio are derived calculations using Item 6 and the Item 19 one-outlet median.
Uncertainty
What could make actual owner earnings fall outside the range?
The largest uncertainty is the absence of a complete CMIT Solutions operating-profit statement for the mature one-outlet cohort. The $48,000–$94,000 estimate is therefore sensitive to service mix, manager productivity, client acquisition cost, technician utilization, and the fit between a broad 2022 employer-firm benchmark and a specific franchised territory operating in 2025 or later.
Material uncertainties to verify
- Service mix: Managed services carried a much higher reported gross margin than hardware/software sales, but Item 19 does not provide the systemwide mix needed to translate category margins into total gross profit.
- Technician utilization: One-outlet technician cost had a 27% average and 24% median against managed and professional services revenue. Billing mix, subcontracting, and staffing can move the residual materially.
- Cohort selection: Item 19 excludes newer outlets, operators without at least 10 months of reported revenue, and businesses not operated full-time for health or personal reasons. The published cohort therefore does not describe a typical launch year.
- Population reconciliation: Item 19 states that 191 franchisees operated 297 businesses, while Item 20 states that 168 individual franchisees operated 297 territories as of December 31, 2025. Item 19 also identifies 131 included franchisees and 50 excluded franchisees, which does not fully reconcile to 191. Written substantiation should explain the definitions and counts.
- Benchmark age and scope: The Census benchmark covers 2022 U.S. employer firms of many sizes in NAICS 5415, not only managed-service providers, home-based businesses, franchises, or CMIT Solutions territories.
- Financing: Loan principal is not deducted. Interest, depreciation, and capital spending cannot be isolated cleanly from the aggregate benchmark, so lender-specific cash flow may be lower.
Item 20 adds useful context: U.S. franchised territories increased from 272 at the start of 2025 to 296 at year-end, with 29 openings, one termination, and four reacquisitions. Those figures do not establish profitability, but they reinforce the need to separate mature-cohort results from ramp-up economics and transferred or reacquired territories.
Buyer verification
What should a buyer verify before relying on the estimate?
A buyer should treat $48,000–$94,000 as a screening range and replace every broad assumption with CMIT-specific records before making a decision. The most useful evidence is the franchisor's written Item 19 substantiation, followed by consistent profit-and-loss data from mature one-outlet franchisees with similar territory size, service mix, staffing model, and owner role.
Verification list
- Request written substantiation for the 2025 Item 19 tables, including the definition of each population, all exclusions, and reconciliation of Item 19 and Item 20 franchisee counts.
- Ask mature one-outlet operators for Gross Revenue, GPS Revenue, gross profit by service category, technician labor, sales and administrative payroll, required marketing, technology, insurance, occupancy, bad debt, and owner compensation.
- Separate manager compensation from distributions. Determine whether the owner is the Managing Owner, the Operating Principal, both, or neither.
- Compare at least three full calendar years where available, rather than annualizing a strong month or using a partial launch year.
- Model debt principal and interest from the buyer's actual financing proposal, then review tax consequences with qualified legal and tax advisers.
- Confirm the current royalty, MDF, local-marketing, technology, software, and minimum-payment terms in the final franchise agreement and any state addendum.
Decision synthesis
What is the strongest defensible CMIT Solutions earnings range?
The strongest defensible range is approximately $48,000–$94,000 in estimated annual pre-tax manager-run owner earnings for one mature U.S. territory, with a base analytical point around $69,000. It is scenario-based, not official owner-profit disclosure. The most important driver is Gross Revenue combined with service mix and labor efficiency. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the missing complete operating-expense and owner-compensation statement for the 74 one-outlet franchisees. Before relying on the range, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, reconcile the disclosed populations, and compare the model with franchisee profit-and-loss statements that separate manager pay, owner labor, debt service, distributions, and personal taxes.