How Much Does a Fastest Labs Franchise Owner Make?

Item 19 reports Gross Revenue distributions, selected expense data, and one affiliate-owned location's operating statement; it does not report franchisee owner earnings. For calendar 2025, the FDD identifies 247 franchised locations and one affiliate-owned location as of December 31. The principal 2025 Reporting Group contains 208 franchised locations that had operated for at least 12 months. Thirty-seven locations opened during 2025 and 19 locations that closed during 2025 were excluded from that group.

The strongest revenue evidence for a stabilized location is Table 3b, covering 79 franchised locations open for three or more years. The table gives averages, medians, highs, lows, and top-, middle-, and bottom-third results. Those are revenue measures, not profit measures.

Source: 2026 Fastest Labs FDD, Item 19, Table 3b, p. 50. Gross Revenue is revenue net of discounts and bad debts. The table does not deduct costs of sales, operating expenses, or other expenses needed to determine net income or profit.

Does the affiliate location's 27% operating-profit figure equal owner earnings?

No. The affiliate-owned location reported $570,450 in Gross Revenue, $326,291 in Gross Profit, and $151,319 in Total Operating Profit for 2025. The 27% figure excludes a $70,926 manager salary, the 7% Royalty Fee, the 2% National Brand Fund, taxes other than payroll tax, interest, depreciation, amortization, certain benefits, and other excluded expenses. The FDD itself says its defined “Adjusted Earnings” is not Net Income.

Item 19 does provide useful operating anchors. The average Cost of Goods Sold ratio was 22.4% among 152 reporting franchised locations. Separate row labels disclose average rent expense of $24,199 and average marketing expense of $14,724, although the Table 5b and Table 5c headings appear internally reversed relative to their row labels. That presentation inconsistency is one reason the model is rated Moderate rather than High confidence.

The three scenarios use official mature-unit revenue medians and a reproducible expense bridge. Conservative uses the bottom-third mature median of $116,642, Base uses the middle-third mature median of $200,150, and Upside uses the top-third mature median of $329,902. These are observed cohort medians, not probabilities and not forecasts.

The model's owner-operator formula

Estimated owner-operator benefit equals scenario Gross Revenue minus direct costs, non-manager payroll, rent, marketing, technology, administration, royalty, and National Brand Fund contributions. No manager salary is deducted because the owner is assumed to perform the management role.

The designated-manager column subtracts the FDD's $70,926 affiliate manager-salary figure from the owner-operator benefit. It does not assign a wage to the approximately 30 hours per week the Managing Owner must still devote under Item 15.

Which expenses are official facts and which are proxies?

Revenue, the Cost of Goods Sold ratio, rent and marketing row values, franchise fees, and the manager salary are FDD facts; payroll and administrative ratios are same-brand affiliate proxies. The model uses the following inputs:

Cost of Goods Sold

22.4% of Gross Revenue, the 2025 average for 152 reporting franchised locations.

Non-manager payroll

17% of Gross Revenue, based on the affiliate location's actual payroll for non-owners and managers. The affiliate employed an average of three full-time non-manager employees, more than the franchisor says it expects at a franchised location.

Rent

$24,199 annually, based on the FDD row labeled “Average Rent Expense” for 152 reporting locations.

Marketing

$14,724 annually, based on the FDD row labeled “Average Marketing Expenses” for 148 reporting locations. It is treated as including the required post-first-year digital marketing spend and is not added a second time.

Technology

$7,788 annually: $2,400 Technology Fee, $1,680 QuickBooks Online, $1,308 Lab Management Software at the stated current rate, and $2,400 Third Party Web Platform Fee.

Other administration

4% of Gross Revenue, based on the affiliate location's Other Administrative Expenses ratio.

Royalty and brand fund

The greater of 7% of Gross Revenue or the applicable minimum royalty from the Item 6 fee table, plus 2% of Gross Revenue for the National Brand Fund.

The model excludes personal income tax, debt principal, interest, depreciation, amortization, capital expenditures, owner benefits, some non-payroll taxes, and unusual costs. Therefore it is not an after-tax take-home estimate and should not be compared directly with an employee salary.

No. Item 15 allows a Designated Manager only with franchisor permission, and the Managing Owner must still remain actively involved, attend training, supervise the business, and devote approximately 30 hours per week. The person responsible for day-to-day supervision must serve full time, including at least 20 hours per week in sales and business-development activity.

The official Fastest Labs franchise FAQ is even more direct: it describes the ideal franchisee as a full-time owner-operator and says the owner must commit to working and growing the business full time. That public description should be read together with the binding FDD and franchise agreement, not as a substitute for them.

The percentage fees alone equal 9% of Gross Revenue, and the minimum royalty can make the effective burden higher at lower sales levels. Item 6 lists a 7% Royalty Fee, a 2% National Brand Fund contribution, required digital marketing, technology and software charges, and other periodic fees.

Why does the minimum royalty matter most in the conservative case?

At $116,642 of annual Gross Revenue, 7% is only about $8,165, below the detailed Item 6 minimum of $17,508 for months 49 through 84. The Conservative and Base models use that tier because the FDD reports an average age of 5.8 years for both mature cohorts; this is an analytical cohort assumption, not the age of every median-performing location. Using the minimum reduces Conservative owner-operator benefit by approximately $9,343 compared with a simple 7% calculation. In the Base case, the minimum adds about $3,498 above 7%. The Upside cohort averages 7.9 years open, but 7% of its revenue exceeds the post-month-84 minimum.

The stated Lab Management Software Fee is currently $109 per month, but the FDD says it may rise to as much as $300 per month during 2026. A move from $109 to $300 would reduce annual owner benefit by another $2,292 if no offsetting cost reduction or price increase occurs.

Yes, but Item 19 supports stronger conclusions about unit age than territory size. Locations open three or more years reported median Gross Revenue of $200,046, compared with $93,911 for locations open less than three years. That gap indicates that ramp-up and sales development can dominate early owner economics.

For mature units, the Mid-Size Territory median was $266,530, Standard Territory median was $200,254, and Large Territory median was $191,246. Those figures should not be interpreted as proof that smaller territories outperform larger ones. The mature Mid-Size sample contained only 10 locations, compared with 29 Standard and 40 Large locations, and the FDD does not control for market quality, owner skill, local competition, or tenure beyond the cohort definition.

The official franchise website describes a typical office as roughly 800 to 1,000 square feet and the current public investment page shows $130,500 to $199,500 for the Standard Territory format. Those figures help define the operating format but do not establish annual earnings. Initial investment is not deducted from one year of revenue in this analysis.

The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of a complete operating statement for the franchised-unit population. Item 19 reports all franchised-unit revenue but only partial franchised expense data. Payroll and administration must be proxied from the affiliate location, while manager compensation is disclosed for that one affiliate location rather than as a franchised-system average.

How complete is the reporting population?

Revenue coverage is broad, but expense coverage is narrower and closures are excluded from the primary reporting group. The 2025 Reporting Group includes 208 franchised locations open at least 12 months. Cost of Goods Sold and the row labeled rent expense cover 152 locations; the row labeled marketing expense covers 148. Item 19 excludes 37 locations opened during 2025 and 19 that closed during 2025.

Item 20 reports 35 franchised openings, 19 terminations, and 28 transfers in 2025, with 243 franchised outlets at year-end. Item 19, however, states that 247 franchised locations existed as of the same date, and its 208-location group plus the stated opening and closing exclusions does not arithmetically reconcile to that total. The FDD does not explain these population differences. They do not prove that a transferred or terminated unit was unprofitable, but they make survivor, selection, and denominator effects relevant. A buyer should request written reconciliation and interview current, transferred, and former franchisees represented in Item 20 and Exhibit E.

Which costs could move the result most?

Sales productivity, labor structure, direct testing costs, rent, and minimum royalty treatment are the dominant variables. A five-percentage-point change in revenue-linked costs changes owner benefit by roughly $5,800 at the Conservative revenue anchor, $10,000 at Base, and $16,500 at Upside. A single full-time manager changes the model by the full $70,926 salary proxy before payroll taxes or benefits.

Financing can further reduce cash available to the owner. This article separates operating earnings from debt service because the FDD does not supply one uniform loan amount, interest rate, amortization term, or financed percentage. Personal income tax is also excluded because it depends on entity choice, state, deductions, and owner circumstances.

The Federal Trade Commission's franchise buying guidance, the FTC Franchise Rule Compliance Guide, and 16 CFR Part 436 provide the regulatory context for Item 19 financial performance representations and pre-sale disclosure.

A buyer should replace every system-level proxy with location-specific evidence before treating the estimate as a budget. The following questions target the assumptions that most directly determine owner earnings.

• Request Item 19 substantiation. Confirm the source records behind Tables 3 and 5, the exact definitions used, and whether your proposed territory resembles the mature bottom, middle, or top third.
• Reconcile the minimum royalty in writing. Ask the franchisor to explain the difference between the Item 6 fee table and Note 2 and identify the schedule incorporated into the agreement you will sign.
• Interview same-format franchisees. Prioritize owners with the same territory size, similar business counts, comparable rent, and at least three years of operation.
• Separate owner labor from business profit. Ask owner-operators how many hours they work, what responsibilities they perform, and what salary would be required to replace them.
• Test the manager structure. Ask Designated-Manager locations for actual salary, payroll taxes, benefits, turnover, and the owner's continuing weekly involvement.
• Build a local expense bridge. Obtain quotes for rent, wages, insurance, testing supplies, software, digital marketing, and required vendors rather than relying only on system averages.
• Include excluded cash demands. Add debt service, working-capital needs, equipment replacement, taxes, convention costs, and any owner benefits to the cash-flow forecast.
• Call transferred and former franchisees. Ask why ownership changed, whether the disclosed revenue covered all operating costs, and what they would change about capitalization or sales execution.

The strongest defensible range is approximately $0 to $110,000 of annual pre-tax owner-operator benefit for a mature single location, with a Base scenario near $45,000. This is scenario-based, not an official owner-earnings disclosure. The Conservative model is slightly negative, so the rounded lower bound should not be read as a guaranteed minimum.

The most important earnings driver is Gross Revenue relative to fixed rent, required marketing, technology charges, and the minimum royalty. Owner involvement is the second decisive factor: paying the FDD's $70,926 manager salary proxy moves the modeled range to roughly a $71,000 loss through a $39,000 profit, while the owner must still contribute substantial management time.

The largest uncertainty is the lack of complete franchised-unit expense and net-income data. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify the exact Item 19 substantiation, reconcile the minimum-royalty schedule, obtain actual payroll and occupancy records from comparable franchisees, and distinguish residual business profit from compensation for the owner's own work.