How Much Does a FirstLight HomeCare Franchise Owner Make?

The defensible answer is a wide scenario range, not an official salary figure. A manager-run territory is estimated at approximately −$16,000, $84,000, or $213,000 across the three modeled cases. An actively involved owner who performs the manager role has estimated owner-operator benefit of approximately $106,000, $207,000, or $335,000.

The estimate is pre-tax and before all debt service. It excludes personal income taxes, financing interest and principal, depreciation, major capital expenditures, and owner-specific distributions. Retained cash, owner draw, salary, and taxable income can therefore differ from the operating result shown here.

Item 19 officially measures Gross Revenue and selected operating rates, not owner compensation, Operating Profit, EBITDA, Net Income, or cash flow. The reporting period is the 12 months ended December 31, 2025, and all reported outlets are franchised territories; Item 20 lists no company-owned territories for 2023 through 2025 (2026 FDD, Item 20, p. 53).

The strongest central revenue anchor is the $1,195,408.76 median Gross Revenue for 194 territories operating 13 months or longer. The corresponding average was $1,545,696.96. The gap between average and median, together with the reported $11.25 million high, indicates right-skewed revenue: a small number of very large territories can lift the average above what the median territory generated. The official franchise site separately presents the same rounded FirstLight Gross Revenue figures.

Source: 2026 FDD, Item 19, p. 52. Gross Revenue is the calendar-2025 revenue on which the franchisee pays royalties. Figures are per franchised territory, not per owner or multi-territory portfolio.

Which territories were excluded?

The population excludes material groups that could perform differently from the included territories. Of 284 territories operating on December 31, 2025, Item 19 excluded 52 opened during 2025, 33 not following the required two-full-time-person model, and five with inaccurate revenue reporting. It also omitted six territories that closed during 2025 even though each had operated more than 12 months.

• Revenue sample194 Item 19 Territories, or 68.3% of the 284 territories operating at year-end.
• Operating-rate sample145 Designated Territories using the currently designated CMS, or 74.7% of the Item 19 revenue sample.
• Result limitationThe FDD states that some businesses achieved the reported figures, individual results may differ, and no assurance is provided.

The estimate subtracts loaded caregiver compensation, recurring franchise and marketing obligations, fixed technology costs, other operating overhead, and—only for the manager-run case—a paid manager wage. The result is an independent operating scenario, not a franchisor-reported profit figure.

What assumptions create the range?

The spread reflects explicit revenue, caregiver-cost, and overhead sensitivities rather than a claimed probability distribution. The three scenarios are analytical cases; they are not FDD quartiles and should not be read as worst, expected, or best outcomes.

• Revenue80%, 100%, and 120% of the $1,195,408.76 Item 19 median: $956,327, $1,195,409, and $1,434,491.
• Loaded caregiver compensation65.24%, 62.24%, and 59.24% of revenue. The Base ratio applies the BLS service-occupation compensation-to-wage relationship to the FDD's $18.06 median caregiver pay rate, then divides by the $37.78 median bill rate. The outer cases are ±3 percentage points.
• Sales-based obligations and minimumsRoyalty plus the National Advertising Fund equals 6% of the greater of scenario revenue or the annualized month-82+ Minimum Performance Standard of $965,952; local marketing is the greater of 2% of revenue or $18,000 annually. Because the exact age of a modeled 13+ month territory is unknown, applying the mature floor is a conservative scenario assumption. The FDD tests the minimum monthly, so annualizing it is an approximation and seasonal revenue could produce a different fee total. It changes the lower-revenue result by about $578 versus a flat 8%; the central and upper cases remain at 8.00%. The FDD permits the national fund rate to rise to 2%, which would reduce modeled earnings by another 1% of the applicable revenue base.
• Fixed recurring costs$5,496 annually: $2,340 basic operating platform, $2,400 CMS minimum, and a $756 survey-cost proxy based on the FDD's 33 median billed clients. Actual active-client counts and fees may differ.
• Other operating overhead15%, 12%, and 9% of revenue, excluding direct caregiver compensation, sales-based franchise obligations, fixed technology costs, and manager wage. It represents office and administrative payroll, manager payroll burden, recruiting, insurance, occupancy, professional fees, supplies, and other local expenses.
• Manager wage$122,844.80, calculated as the BLS March 2026 private-industry management, business, and financial wage rate of $59.06 per hour multiplied by 2,080 hours. It is a broad national wage proxy, not a FirstLight-reported manager cost.

The official FirstLight investment page also identifies a 5% royalty on collected revenues. The model follows the fuller FDD treatment, including minimum-performance provisions and recurring advertising obligations.

The bill-rate-to-caregiver-cost spread is the largest modeled driver. The FDD reports a median $37.78 hourly bill rate and $18.06 caregiver wage for 145 Designated Territories. After applying the BLS service-occupation benefit load, estimated direct caregiver compensation is about $23.51 per billed hour, leaving approximately $14.27 before every non-caregiver expense.

Owner involvement can change the measured benefit by roughly the cost of a full-time manager, but it does not create that value without labor. Item 15 says the system is based on active direct engagement and is not an absentee-owner model. The territory must be supervised by the owner or an approved, trained, full-time manager.

Is FirstLight Home Care a passive-income franchise?

The current FDD does not support describing it as passive. It expressly calls the model active direct engagement, strongly recommends personal participation, requires direct on-premises supervision by the owner or a trained full-time manager, and requires at least two full-time equivalents at opening, including the manager.

A semi-absentee or multi-territory owner may need additional management layers. A one-territory manager wage cannot simply be multiplied or shared across a portfolio without evidence about span of control, territory maturity, administrative staffing, and local operations.

The range is wide because the FDD discloses revenue and operating rates but omits the expense ledger needed to calculate actual territory profit. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the combined cost of caregiver labor, nonbillable time, office staffing, recruiting, insurance, and local overhead for a comparable mature territory.

• Billable utilizationCaregiver hours paid but not billed, overtime, travel, cancellations, training, and scheduling gaps can compress the hourly spread.
• Local wage and pricing powerThe national median bill and pay rates conceal substantial state and metropolitan differences.
• Payer and service mixPrivate-pay companion care, institutional staffing, skilled services, and collection timing may carry different rates, compliance costs, and margins.
• Administrative structureThe FDD's two-full-time-person model is a minimum operating structure, not a complete mature-territory staffing budget.
• FDD exclusionsNew territories, noncompliant staffing models, inaccurate reporters, and six closures are not reflected in the central Item 19 result.
• Debt serviceLoan interest and principal are excluded. Financing can materially reduce cash available for owner draws even when operating earnings are positive.

The BLS benchmark is also broad. BLS compensation data measures national employer costs by occupational group, not the exact payroll structure of a FirstLight territory. That mismatch is the primary reason the evidence-confidence rating is LIMITED.

A buyer should replace each scenario assumption with territory-level evidence from the franchisor's written substantiation and franchisee interviews. The FTC Franchise Rule requires a disclosure document with 23 items and provides the framework for substantiated financial performance representations; it does not turn Gross Revenue into a profit guarantee.

• Request Item 19 substantiationAsk for the written basis supporting the 2025 Gross Revenue and operating-rate tables, including how territories and revenue records were tested.
• Interview comparable franchiseesPrioritize territories with similar age, state labor rules, payer mix, bill rates, and owner involvement. Ask separately about owner salary, distributions, retained cash, manager pay, and debt service.
• Reconcile payrollObtain caregiver wages, employer taxes, benefits, workers' compensation, overtime, travel, training, recruiting, and nonbillable hours as separate lines.
• Reconcile recurring feesConfirm current royalty minimums, National Advertising Fund rate, local marketing requirement, CMS client counts, survey tiers, technology seats, and any regional cooperative.
• Test owner-role realismDetermine whether the owner can actually perform the approved full-time manager role and what office functions still require paid staff.
• Keep financing separateModel the actual loan amount, rate, term, fees, and working-capital needs after establishing operating earnings.

A reasonable evidence-led range is approximately −$16,000 to $213,000 in annual manager-run pre-tax owner earnings, with a central case near $84,000. For an owner who replaces the paid manager, estimated owner-operator benefit is approximately $106,000 to $335,000, with a central case near $207,000; part of that amount compensates the owner for full-time management labor.

These figures are scenario-based, not official Item 19 profit results. The strongest same-brand evidence is the 2026 FDD's median Gross Revenue and hourly operating data for 2025. The most important earnings driver is loaded caregiver compensation relative to bill rates. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the territory's complete non-caregiver expense structure. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify the Item 19 substantiation, obtain comparable territory expense statements where owners are willing to share them, and separate manager compensation, debt service, owner draws, and taxable income.