How Much Does a Fish Window Cleaning Services Franchise Owner Make?

The official evidence measures Total Revenue, not owner earnings. For 2025, the FDD defines Total Revenue as the total revenues derived in and from the operation of the Business or Businesses in each subgroup. It does not provide the labor, office, vehicle, insurance, supply, royalty, marketing, technology, interest or owner-compensation deductions needed to convert revenue into profit. The FDD also states that the financial factors reported do not include all expenses a franchisee will incur. This is an official revenue disclosure for franchised outlets, not an official profit disclosure.

The 2025 reporting population contained 254 franchised outlets that operated for the full 12 months. That equals 92.4% of the 275 franchised outlets open at year-end. The FDD excluded 21 year-end outlets that had not operated for the full year, seven outlets that permanently closed during 2025 and the one affiliate-owned operation. Two signed franchise agreements had not opened by December 31, 2025. These exclusions matter because a full-year surviving cohort can look stronger than a start-up or closure-inclusive population. The figures are per reporting franchised outlet, not per owner or portfolio; the disclosure does not provide a multi-unit owner earnings measure. Source: 2026 FDD, Item 19, pp. 43–48; Item 20, pp. 48–57.

The official range is wide. The top 10% subgroup ran from $986,500 to $2,814,785 of Total Revenue, while the bottom 50% ran from $61,872 to $422,197. Ten of 254 outlets, or 4%, met or exceeded the top-10% average revenue; 49 outlets, or 19%, met or exceeded the top-half average. These percentages describe historical thresholds, not the chance a new buyer will reach them.

The estimate multiplies three 2025 FDD revenue anchors by a broad owner-benefit margin proxy, then subtracts a manager-wage proxy for the manager-run view. The revenue inputs are official or derived from the current FDD; the margin and manager deductions are estimates.

The base margin is derived from the IRS 2023 nonfarm sole proprietorship table for Administrative and Support Services: $24.229 billion of net income less deficit divided by $114.423 billion of business receipts, or 21.2%. The conservative and upside margins are 18.2% and 24.2%, a transparent sensitivity of three percentage points below and above the benchmark. The IRS nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics cover Schedule C businesses, not Fish Window Cleaning franchisees, and owner wages are not separately deducted in a sole proprietorship. The ratio is therefore closer to owner-operator benefit than to passive business profit.

The manager deduction uses the May 2023 annual mean wage of $89,540 for General and Operations Managers in BLS NAICS 561700 Services to Buildings and Dwellings. The model uses the industry-specific figure rather than a less comparable all-industry manager wage. It assumes the IRS margin represents an actively managed sole proprietorship without a separate general manager. IRS data do not identify management staffing, so that assumption can either overstate or understate the role adjustment. The model also omits manager payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting cost and bonus compensation, which can overstate the manager-run residual.

Fish Window Cleaning requires a progressive royalty, a Brand Building Fee, a weekly Technology Fee and monthly local marketing. These are official FDD obligations; the annual totals below are derived estimates. The royalty is 8% while year-to-date Gross Sales are at or below $500,000, 7% after $500,000 through $900,000, 6% after $900,000 through $1.2 million and 5% above $1.2 million. The Brand Building Fee is 1% of the greater of weekly Gross Sales or the applicable minimum standard, and the Technology Fee is $100 per week.

Monthly local marketing is $1,500 for a Small Package, $2,500 for a Standard Package and $3,500 for an Executive Package, or $18,000, $30,000 and $42,000 per year. The chart pairs those package amounts with the conservative, base and upside cases only to show scale; Item 19 does not identify which Package produced each revenue band. Local marketing may include approved sales commissions, van payments, networking dues and other activities, so it can overlap with operating categories on a franchisee’s profit-and-loss statement.

The scenario model does not subtract this chart’s commitments a second time from the IRS net-income margin. The IRS ratio is an all-in sector result, and its “other deductions” may contain fees that are not separately visible. Double-counting would be misleading. The tradeoff is lower comparability: most IRS sole proprietors are not Fish Window Cleaning franchisees, and their required fee structures may be different. A buyer should replace the broad margin with actual Fish franchisee profit-and-loss statements.

The operating model begins as an actively managed business, not a passive-income arrangement. The 2026 FDD says an individual franchisee must directly perform or supervise the operation unless the franchisor consents otherwise, and an entity must operate under an actively involved principal owner. Item 15 permits a designated manager under Schedule J, subject to training and operating conditions. The official Fish Window Cleaning franchise FAQ says owners are required to be full-time while getting started and may step back over time to manage through an operations manager. The owner-role conclusion is official; the dollar effect is estimated.

• Estimated pre-tax owner earnings: cash available after normal unit-level operating expenses and recurring franchise obligations, before personal income taxes and before financing principal payments.
• Owner-operator benefit: residual operating return plus the economic value of labor the owner performs in place of a paid manager.
• Manager-run residual: modeled owner-operator benefit less the BLS manager wage proxy; payroll burden, benefits and bonuses are not included.
• Debt treatment: Item 10 states that the franchisor does not offer or guarantee financing. No buyer-specific debt schedule is modeled. The IRS net-income benchmark includes aggregate business interest deductions, but loan principal is excluded from this analysis.
• Tax treatment: all figures are pre-tax. Personal income tax depends on entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions and owner circumstances.

Sales volume and the owner’s labor choice are the largest modeled drivers, but labor productivity is likely the most important unresolved operating variable. Window cleaning is service-intensive, and Item 19 does not disclose technician wages, payroll burden, crew utilization, route density, rework, workers’ compensation or manager staffing. The direction of these risks is clear; their exact Fish-specific dollar effect is uncertain.

• Revenue cohort: Item 19 combines Small, Standard and Executive Package Territories. Territory populations are approximately 75,000, 200,000 and 400,000 people, but the FDD does not publish revenue or margin by Package.
• Maturity and survivor selection: only full-year 2025 outlets are included. Newer outlets and seven closures are absent from the revenue table.
• Customer mix: the FDD reports 2025 average revenue of $372 per residential window cleaning and $84 per commercial window cleaning. It also reports a $1,070 average annual scheduled price for a commercial route job, but that route figure is scheduled price, not necessarily revenue received.
• Office and vehicle structure: the FDD requires an office outside the home and at least one compliant vehicle. Item 7 estimates office rent of $1,500 to $2,000 per month, but location-specific occupancy and fleet costs can vary materially.
• Margin proxy: the IRS ratio covers a broad Administrative and Support Services sector. The Census Bureau classifies window cleaning in NAICS 561720 Janitorial Services, but the available IRS table is not specific to Fish, franchising or that six-digit industry.
• Manager cost: the BLS wage is a national industry mean from May 2023. Local wage markets, experience, incentives, payroll taxes and benefits can raise or lower the replacement cost.

A buyer should treat the scenario as a screening range and replace its broad assumptions with written same-brand evidence. The Federal Trade Commission’s franchise guide explains that Item 19 claims must have a reasonable basis and that prospects should request written substantiation and evaluate the source, assumptions and limitations. The verification steps below are decision requirements, not optional refinements.

• Request the written substantiation supporting the 2025 Item 19 Total Revenue tables, including the outlet list, package type, territory count, opening date and treatment of transfers or multiple territories.
• Ask for anonymized 2025 profit-and-loss statements for owner-operated and manager-run franchised outlets at revenue levels near $254,000, $531,000 and $1.307 million.
• Reconcile royalty, Brand Building Fee, Technology Fee and Monthly Marketing Requirement to the P&L. Confirm whether sales commissions, van payments or networking dues are already included in local marketing.
• Interview current franchisees in each Package and ask about owner hours, manager pay, technician payroll burden, crew utilization, office rent, vehicle count, insurance, seasonality, bad debt and capital replacements.
• Contact former franchisees and owners of transferred outlets listed in Item 20 to understand whether low revenue, labor constraints, owner absence, debt or territory economics contributed to the change.
• Model financing separately using the buyer’s actual loan amount, rate and term. Keep principal payments outside operating earnings and do not convert the result into after-tax take-home pay.

The strongest defensible conclusion is that a manager-run Fish Window Cleaning business may produce roughly −$43,000 to $226,000 of annual pre-tax owner earnings across the selected 2025 FDD revenue scenarios, with a base estimate near $23,000. An active owner-operator may realize approximately $46,000 to $316,000 of owner-operator benefit, with a base near $112,000, but a material part of that amount compensates the owner for full-time management work.

This conclusion is scenario-based, not official. The most important earnings driver is the combination of revenue scale and labor productivity. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of same-brand expense and owner-compensation data in Item 19. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify the Item 19 substantiation, obtain package- and maturity-matched franchisee P&Ls, and test the manager-run and owner-operated assumptions in interviews with current and former franchisees.