This is an estimated owner-operator benefit for one full-year U.S. Code Ninjas Learning Center, not an official profit claim. The base scenario is about $31,200. A wage-only manager-run sensitivity ranges from approximately -$45,300 to $9,900, showing why the owner’s operating role can determine whether any residual business profit remains.
Learning Centers only; revenue is not owner earnings.
Before personal income taxes and financing principal.
Established franchised outlets operating for all of 2025.
8.25% Royalty Fee and 2.0% Marketing Contribution.
$350 monthly Technology Fee plus $350 monthly required agency fee.
2022 aggregate sole-proprietor net income divided by receipts.
What does the Code Ninjas FDD actually measure?
Item 19 measures Gross Sales and active student counts, not owner earnings. For 2025, the median franchised Learning Center generated $217,479 in Gross Sales, while the mean was $237,614. The FDD defines Gross Sales as operating revenue after good-faith customer refunds and sales-tax exclusions. It does not deduct payroll, rent, royalties, advertising, technology, insurance, taxes, repairs, or other operating costs. Source: 2026 Code Ninjas FDD, Item 19, pp. 48–51.
A center at the official $217,479 median has not produced $217,479 for its owner. That figure is the top line. The owner’s economic result appears only after the full operating-cost structure and recurring franchise obligations are applied.
| Official format | 2025 median Gross Sales | Item 19 locations | Sales-based recurring fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning Center | $217,479 | 224 | 8.25% royalty + 2.0% Brand Fund |
| Studio Center | $195,865 | 6 | 12.25% royalty + 2.0% Brand Fund |
The Studio Center result is not merged into the earnings model. Its six-location sample is small, its premises model differs, and its royalty rate is four percentage points higher. Source: 2026 Code Ninjas FDD, Items 1, 6, and 19, pp. 3–4, 7–14, and 48–51.
The Item 19 cohort also has survivorship limits. Fourteen franchised Centers that opened during 2025 were excluded, as were 11 Centers that closed during 2025 after operating for at least 12 months. The 230 represented Centers therefore describe continuing outlets, not every outlet exposed to the year. Item 20 reports 238 franchised outlets at year-end 2025, after 14 openings, three terminations, eight non-renewals, two franchisor reacquisitions, and two other cessations. Source: 2026 Code Ninjas FDD, Items 19 and 20, pp. 49 and 52–58.
How is the owner-earnings range calculated?
The estimate applies an owner-labor-inclusive government margin to official Learning Center revenue anchors, then deducts identifiable franchise-specific fees. It uses lower-quartile, overall, and top-quartile median Gross Sales from Item 19 rather than inventing a sales distribution.
- Conservative: $127,214 lower-quartile median Gross Sales × 25.4% margin, less the 10.25% royalty/Brand Fund burden and $8,400 fixed fees = $10,900.
- Base: $217,479 overall median Gross Sales × 28.4% margin, less the same franchise charges = $31,200.
- Upside: $352,030 top-quartile median Gross Sales × 31.4% margin, less the same franchise charges = $66,200.
- Margin sensitivity: the conservative and upside margins are the IRS benchmark minus and plus three percentage points. They are editorial sensitivity assumptions, not FDD results or probabilities.
- Fee treatment: the model assumes the broad IRS margin does not already contain Code Ninjas-specific royalties and fixed franchisor charges. That assumption is uncertain and is one reason the confidence rating is limited.
The sales anchors are official 2025 Learning Center medians; every earnings value is an independent estimate.
Interpretation: Revenue position is the principal driver, but the estimate remains highly sensitive to the true staffed-center cost structure. Sources: 2026 Code Ninjas FDD, Item 19, pp. 49–51; IRS Sole Proprietorship Returns, Tax Year 2022. Values rounded to the nearest $100.
The 28.4% benchmark equals aggregate net income less deficit divided by business receipts for IRS sole-proprietor Educational services: $4.597 billion divided by $16.161 billion. The IRS measure is broad and includes many businesses that are smaller, home-based, or less labor-intensive than a Code Ninjas Learning Center. It also embeds the proprietor’s own labor because a sole proprietor does not deduct a salary paid to self. That is why the result is labeled owner-operator benefit, not passive business profit. See the IRS nonfarm sole-proprietorship statistics.
- Estimated owner-operator benefit
- Pre-tax economic benefit after modeled operating expenses and disclosed recurring franchise fees, including the value of management labor performed by the owner. Personal income taxes and financing principal are excluded.
- Manager-run residual
- Owner-operator benefit after subtracting a full-time Center Director wage proxy. Employer payroll taxes and benefits are not added, so the displayed residual is comparatively favorable to absentee ownership.
- Interest, depreciation, and capital spending
- The IRS margin includes reported interest and depreciation in aggregate, but no center-specific financing or capital-expenditure schedule is modeled. Debt principal and personal taxes remain outside the estimate.
How does owner involvement change the result?
Active owner operation may be the difference between receiving a modest benefit and producing little or no residual profit. The FDD requires active full-time management by either the Designated Principal or a full-time Center Director. An owner who does not handle daily supervision must employ that director. Source: 2026 Code Ninjas FDD, Item 15, p. 40, and Franchise Agreement §6.1.
The manager-run values subtract the BLS 2024 median annual wage of $56,270; payroll taxes and benefits would reduce them further.
Interpretation: The $56,270 gap is compensation for work, not passive profit. A fully loaded Center Director cost would normally exceed the wage-only figure. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Preschool and Childcare Center Directors, May 2024 median wage.
The owner-operated estimate combines residual operating economics with the market value of labor performed by the owner. It should not be described as passive income. The manager-run sensitivity is not fully loaded because it excludes employer payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting costs, and coverage during director turnover.
Which Code Ninjas fees can move annual earnings?
The largest disclosed recurring burden is percentage-based: 8.25% royalty plus a 2.0% Brand Fund contribution for a Learning Center. At the official $217,479 median Gross Sales, those two charges equal approximately $22,292 per year. The FDD also lists a current $350 monthly Technology Fee and a current $350 monthly mandatory in-house advertising-agency fee, or $8,400 annually before third-party technology and media costs. Source: 2026 Code Ninjas FDD, Item 6, pp. 7–14.
Local advertising is a separate operating requirement. During the first 24 months, a Learning Center must spend $2,000 to $2,500 per month; from month 25 onward, the minimum is 4.0% of Net Sales. The model does not stack that full amount on top of the IRS all-in cost ratio because the government benchmark already includes ordinary advertising and other operating deductions. Whether the Code Ninjas minimum is higher than the advertising embedded in the IRS benchmark is unresolved and could reduce actual owner benefit. Source: 2026 Code Ninjas FDD, Item 11, pp. 28–30.
At the base revenue, an additional four-percentage-point cost not already captured by the IRS benchmark would reduce annual owner benefit by about $8,700. Third-party media placement, third-party technology, local wage rates, and occupancy can create a larger swing.
How much confidence should a buyer place in the range?
Confidence is LIMITED because the strongest same-brand evidence stops at revenue. The FDD does not disclose a center-level profit and loss statement, labor ratio, occupancy ratio, gross margin, EBITDA, net income, owner compensation, or the percentage of outlets earning a profit. The IRS benchmark is authoritative but broad, owner-labor-inclusive, and based on Tax Year 2022 rather than a matched sample of staffed coding-learning centers.
- Largest earnings driver: sustained Gross Sales, which in this model ranges from the lower-quartile median of $127,214 to the top-quartile median of $352,030.
- Largest unresolved cost: the actual combination of instructional labor, Center Director compensation, occupancy, and required local advertising at a specific site.
- Cohort limitation: 2025 openings and 2025 closures are absent from the Item 19 table, so the distribution does not represent ramp-up or closure-year performance.
- Format limitation: Studio Centers are not modeled because the sample has only six outlets and the 12.25% royalty differs materially from the Learning Center rate.
- Debt limitation: Code Ninjas, LLC does not offer or guarantee financing. Debt principal is excluded, and actual interest depends on the buyer’s financing structure. Source: 2026 Code Ninjas FDD, Item 10, p. 26.
- Tax limitation: no after-tax take-home estimate is provided because entity choice, state, deductions, and owner circumstances differ.
The Federal Trade Commission permits financial performance representations when they have a reasonable basis and appear in Item 19, subject to the Franchise Rule. A buyer should distinguish the franchisor’s historical Gross Sales table from this independent scenario and review the FTC Franchise Rule Compliance Guide before relying on an earnings claim.
What should a buyer verify before using this estimate?
A buyer should reconstruct earnings from actual center-level records rather than accept the scenario midpoint as an expected result. The most useful diligence is a consistent set of mature Learning Center profit-and-loss statements, enrollment records, staffing schedules, lease terms, and franchise-fee statements.
- Request the written substantiation supporting Item 19 and confirm how Gross Sales were extracted, adjusted, and assigned to quartiles.
- Ask current franchisees for 2024 and 2025 profit-and-loss statements, separating owner salary, Center Director wages, instructor labor, payroll burden, rent, utilities, local advertising, technology, repairs, and franchise fees.
- Interview owners near the lower-quartile, median, and top-quartile sales levels rather than speaking only with high-volume centers.
- Ask former franchisees and owners of transferred locations about closure, non-renewal, sale, and ramp-up economics reflected in Item 20.
- Determine whether the $350 agency fee counts toward the local advertising minimum and obtain actual third-party media and technology invoices.
- Model owner-operated and Center Director-run schedules separately, including payroll taxes, benefits, turnover, and owner hours.
- Keep startup investment, annual operating earnings, debt service, capital expenditures, and personal taxes in separate underwriting schedules.
What is the most defensible Code Ninjas owner-earnings takeaway?
The strongest defensible annual range is approximately $11,000 to $66,000 of estimated owner-operator benefit for one full-year U.S. Learning Center, with a $31,200 base scenario. It is scenario-based, not an official Code Ninjas profit disclosure. The most important driver is the center’s sustained sales position; the largest unresolved uncertainty is the actual staffed-center cost structure, especially labor, occupancy, and local advertising. Under a wage-only manager-run sensitivity, residual profit ranges from about -$45,300 to $9,900 before benefits, debt principal, and personal taxes. A buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, complete center-level financial statements, and owner-versus-manager economics through current and former franchisee interviews.