How Much Does a Creative Colors Franchise Owner Make?

Item 19 measures annual gross revenue, not owner earnings. The 2026 FDD reports revenue for mobile operations that were open for the full calendar year ended December 31, 2025. It states that the figures are gross sales only and include no operating expenses. Therefore, the franchisor does not disclose business profit, EBITDA, net income, owner compensation, or cash flow.

Why is the published single-van median not used directly?

The article uses a derived U.S.-only median of $118,626 because the official 23-owner summary includes one Canadian business. Recalculating the individual 2025 results for the 22 U.S. single-mobile-unit owners produces a $130,013 average, a $118,626 median, and an observed range from $37,405 to $275,940. This is a same-FDD calculation, but it is not a separately reported franchisor statistic.

How broad is the reported population?

The FDD gives broad system revenue visibility but not a clean profit cohort. Item 19 describes 67 franchised locations and two company stores operating for the full 2025 calendar year, with owners sometimes holding multiple territories and sharing mobile units. The single-mobile-unit subset is the most compatible population for a one-unit owner estimate. Item 20 separately shows U.S. franchised outlets declining from 69 to 66 during 2025, with two nonrenewals and one cessation for another reason.

The model applies an 8.8% to 14.8% all-in net-income margin to the observed low, derived U.S. median, and observed high single-unit revenue. The central 11.8% margin comes from IRS Statistics of Income data for automotive body shops. The conservative and upside margins are explicit three-percentage-point sensitivities, not IRS-published quartiles.

What exactly is included in “owner-operator benefit”?

It is pre-tax cash-generating capacity that includes compensation for the owner's work, not pure passive business profit. IRS Schedule C statistics do not deduct a sole proprietor's salary. The benchmark therefore mixes residual business income with the economic value of labor performed by the owner. The estimate is before personal income taxes and financing principal payments.

• Interest and depreciation: reflected only to the extent they are included in the IRS industry aggregate.
• Capital expenditures: not modeled as current cash outlays beyond the benchmark's depreciation treatment.
• Franchise fees: not subtracted a second time because the IRS margin is an all-in net-income measure; the inability to isolate franchise charges inside the benchmark is a major limitation.
• Personal taxes and financing principal: excluded. No after-tax take-home amount is estimated.

At the $118,626 U.S. single-unit median, the core disclosed charges equal about $11,433, or 9.6% of sales. That consists of the 7.5% royalty, 1% marketing contribution, $750 annual technology fee, and $600 annual business-listing fee. This is not a complete expense budget and is shown for decision context rather than deducted again from the all-in IRS margin.

Which recurring costs are not in that $11,433 figure?

Conditional and operating-input costs are excluded from the chart. Beginning on the second anniversary, the FDD requires proprietary-product purchases equal to 2% of gross sales or $1,500 per mobile unit, whichever is lower. National-account sales can carry an administrative fee of up to 5%. Vehicle lease payments, insurance, employee compensation, fuel, supplies, conference attendance, and other operating costs also sit outside the four-charge total.

Active owner operation is economically different from manager-run ownership because the scenario benefit includes the owner's labor. Item 15 requires the owner or a fully trained manager to devote full time and best efforts to the business and recommends that an individual franchisee serve as the fully trained manager. The model therefore should not be described as passive income.

What happens if a paid manager replaces the owner?

Manager-run residual profit falls dollar-for-dollar with the manager's total compensation cost. The formula is: manager-run pre-tax owner earnings = owner-operator benefit minus manager wages, payroll taxes, benefits, and related employment cost. Because local compensation and duties vary, no unsupported national manager salary is inserted.

The largest uncertainty is the absence of same-brand operating expenses and owner-hours data. The official revenue distribution is useful, but the IRS benchmark covers a broader automotive-body-shop population and cannot isolate mobile operations, franchise fees, Creative Colors International's nonautomotive services, or the mix of owner labor and employee labor.

Why is the evidence confidence limited?

Confidence is LIMITED because the estimate relies materially on an external government margin proxy. Census NAICS 811121 is directionally relevant because it includes repairing or customizing automotive vehicle and trailer interiors. However, Creative Colors International also serves furniture, marine, aviation, hospitality, healthcare, and other commercial or residential surfaces, so the benchmark is not a perfect business-format match.

• Revenue extremes are observations, not probabilities. The $37,405 and $275,940 anchors are actual low and high U.S. single-unit results, not “likely” outcomes or quartiles.
• Survivorship and eligibility matter. Item 19 includes businesses operating for the full calendar year and excludes two locations that did not renew during 2025.
• Territory and tenure differ. The owner-level table spans markets, business ages, and customer mixes that are not standardized.
• Debt can materially reduce cash available. Financing principal is excluded, and vehicle or acquisition financing will vary by buyer.
• Taxes are personal. Entity choice, state, deductions, and household circumstances prevent a credible after-tax estimate.

A buyer should replace the proxy margin with current, same-brand operating records whenever possible. The FDD says written substantiation for Item 19 is available on reasonable request, and Item 20 provides current and former franchisee contacts. The most useful interviews reconcile revenue to owner cash flow rather than asking only whether an owner is “doing well.”

• Request Item 19 substantiation and confirm the 2025 revenue assigned to single-mobile-unit U.S. owners.
• Ask several comparable owners for materials, technician payroll, vehicle, insurance, fuel, royalty, marketing, technology, and national-account expenses as percentages of sales.
• Separate hours spent performing repairs from hours spent selling, scheduling, supervising, billing, and collecting receivables.
• Ask whether the owner takes a W-2 wage, draw, distribution, or no formal compensation, and reconcile those amounts to business profit.
• Verify whether a manager is full time, what the total payroll burden is, and whether the owner still performs sales or administrative work.
• Review low-sales months against the royalty and marketing minimums, not just the stated percentage rates.
• Separate vehicle principal payments and other debt service from unit-level operating performance.
• Confirm closures, nonrenewals, transfers, and early-stage results with Item 20 contacts rather than relying only on surviving full-year operators.