This is an estimated pre-tax owner-operator benefit for one mature U.S. Fully Promoted location, not an official earnings claim. The base scenario is about $99,000. If a paid manager replaces the owner’s full-time management labor, a wage-only sensitivity reduces the modeled residual business profit to roughly $24,000–$85,000, with a base of about $52,000.
This range is an independent analytical scenario. It is not an Item 19 financial performance representation by FP Franchising, Inc. It combines 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document facts with a separately identified IRS margin benchmark, an analytical revenue spread, and a BLS manager-wage proxy. Actual results can differ materially because of location, sales mix, product costs, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, local competition, and execution.
- Legal franchisor
- FP Franchising, Inc., a Florida corporation. The FDD states that it has no parent entity.
- Current disclosure
- 2026 Fully Promoted Franchise Disclosure Document, issued March 19, 2026 and amended May 26, 2026.
- Item 19 status
- Official 2025 Gross Sales data, but no disclosed owner compensation, operating profit, EBITDA, net income, or cash flow.
- Applicable population
- 112 U.S. stores open for at least one full year and reporting all 12 months of 2025 sales; 174 U.S. stores existed at year-end.
- External benchmarks
- IRS 2023 nonfarm sole-proprietorship data for “Advertising and related services” and BLS May 2023 wages for First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers.
Median Gross Sales
All 112 mature, fully reporting U.S. stores in the 2025 Item 19 cohort.
Stores represented
64.4% of U.S. stores at year-end; newer and incomplete-reporting stores were excluded.
IRS owner-operated margin proxy
Net income less deficit divided by receipts for 2023 “Advertising and related services” sole proprietorships.
Manager wage proxy
May 2023 BLS national median annual wage; payroll taxes and benefits are not included.
Royalty at median sales
6% of $361,631; shown for fee context and not deducted again from the all-in IRS margin.
Minimum local marketing spend
Separate from the marketing-fund fee and required annually under Item 11.
What does the 2026 Fully Promoted FDD actually disclose?
Officially, the FDD discloses store revenue, not owner earnings. Item 19 reports calendar-year 2025 Gross Sales for mature U.S. stores and defines Gross Sales as revenue from products and services after deducting refunds and credits and excluding sales tax. It does not provide labor expense, product cost, occupancy, operating profit, owner salary, distributions, EBITDA, or net income.
The Item 19 study includes 112 of 174 U.S. stores. Thirty-one stores were excluded because they had not been open for a full calendar year, and another 31 were excluded because they did not properly report all 12 months of 2025 sales. The sales reports were not audited or independently verified for the financial performance representation. Source: 2026 Fully Promoted FDD, Item 19, pp. 35–37.
How much did the median 2025 store sell by outside-sales staffing cohort?
Officially, median 2025 Gross Sales were $232,198 without a full-time outside salesperson, $361,631 for all 112 mature reporting U.S. stores, and $608,743 with at least one full-time outside salesperson. These figures are revenue, not business profit or owner compensation.
Interpretation: the cohort with a full-time outside salesperson had a materially higher median revenue, but Item 19 does not show the salesperson’s cost, causality, or resulting profit. A higher-sales cohort is not automatically a higher-owner-earnings cohort.
Source: 2026 Fully Promoted FDD, Item 19, p. 36. Population: U.S. stores open at least one full year and reporting all 12 months of 2025.
The overall average Gross Sales was $576,721, but the median was $361,631 and only 34.8% of the 112 stores met or exceeded the average. The $4,872,132 highest-sales store makes the average less representative of a typical center than the median. Neither statistic reveals what remained after product costs, payroll, occupancy, marketing, royalties, or other operating expenses.
How is the annual owner-earnings range estimated?
The estimate applies an owner-operated industry margin proxy to three revenue scenarios centered on the official $361,631 median Gross Sales. Because Item 19 provides no quartiles, the conservative and upside revenues are explicit analytical assumptions equal to 80% and 120% of that median. They are not FDD-reported performance bands or probabilities.
What margin is used?
The base margin is a 27.4% external benchmark, not a Fully Promoted margin. IRS 2023 Table 2 reports $13.628 billion of business receipts and $3.732 billion of net income less deficit across 179,434 sole-proprietorship returns classified as “Advertising and related services.” Dividing aggregate net income less deficit by aggregate receipts produces 27.4%. The conservative and upside margins are 3 percentage points below and above that benchmark.
This proxy is directionally relevant to marketing services but not format-perfect: Fully Promoted also sells decorated apparel and promotional merchandise from a physical location. Schedule C net income also includes the economic value of an owner’s labor because a sole proprietor generally does not deduct an owner salary. For that reason, the result is labeled estimated owner-operator benefit, not passive profit.
Estimated annual owner-operator benefit
The independent scenarios produce about $71,000, $99,000, and $132,000 of annual owner-operator benefit. These are pre-tax estimates for one mature U.S. location before personal income tax and financing principal payments.
Interpretation: the range is driven by both revenue and margin sensitivity. It should be read as a transparent planning envelope, not as a forecast of what a buyer is likely to earn.
Formula: scenario revenue × scenario margin. Revenues: 80%, 100%, and 120% of the FDD median. Margins: IRS 27.4% proxy minus 3 points, unchanged, and plus 3 points. Values rounded to the nearest $1,000 after full-precision calculation.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor | Margin assumption | Owner-operator benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $289,000 | 24.4% | $71,000 |
| Base | $362,000 | 27.4% | $99,000 |
| Upside | $434,000 | 30.4% | $132,000 |
- Included: an all-in IRS net-income margin that reflects ordinary Schedule C business deductions in aggregate. The underlying mix of product cost, labor, rent, franchise charges, interest, and depreciation cannot be isolated.
- Not deducted again: royalty, marketing, technology, and other FDD obligations. Doing so would double-count costs already embedded in an all-in net-income margin.
- Excluded from take-home: personal income taxes, financing principal, owner-specific tax elections, and future capital spending. The model does not estimate after-tax income.
How does owner involvement change the result?
Active owner operation can make the owner’s total economic benefit look much larger than manager-run business profit. Item 15 requires an individual owner to directly supervise and manage the location. An entity-owned franchise may instead use a fully trained manager or principal who devotes full-time and best efforts, but the location must remain under direct on-premises supervision. This is not a structurally passive model. Source: 2026 FDD, Item 15, p. 31.
| Scenario | Owner-operator benefit | Less BLS manager wage proxy | Manager-run residual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $71,000 | ($46,730) | $24,000 |
| Base | $99,000 | ($46,730) | $52,000 |
| Upside | $132,000 | ($46,730) | $85,000 |
The $46,730 subtraction is the May 2023 national median wage for BLS occupation 41-1011, First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers. It is a wage-only proxy, not a quote for a Fully Promoted manager. Employer payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting costs, bonuses, and geographic wage differences would reduce manager-run residual profit further. Conversely, a manager may add capacity and sales; the model does not assume either a sales lift or decline.
Which disclosed fees and marketing obligations affect annual economics?
At the $361,631 median-sales anchor, disclosed royalty, required marketing, and recurring system charges total about $53,856–$56,556 a year before ordinary product, payroll, occupancy, insurance, and other operating costs. This is a derived FDD burden analysis, not a separate deduction from the scenario earnings figures.
| Obligation | FDD basis | Annual amount at $361,631 sales |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 6% at this revenue level; $500 monthly minimum | $21,698 |
| Marketing fund | 1% of Gross Revenues or $650 monthly, whichever is greater | $7,800 |
| Direct/local marketing | At least 5% of Gross Revenues annually | $18,082 |
| BMS and website maintenance | $199 monthly | $2,388 |
| Technology fee | $149 monthly | $1,788 |
| Online sourcing and lead generation | $75–$150 monthly plus $100–$250 monthly after year one | $2,100–$4,800 |
Sources: 2026 Fully Promoted FDD, Item 6, pp. 10–12, and Item 11, pp. 22–23. The royalty tiers are subject to annual inflation adjustments under the FDD. The table excludes non-routine charges, taxes on franchise fees where applicable, payment-processing costs, insurance, product purchases, staff compensation, rent, and other operating expenses.
The required local-marketing spend is an operating obligation, not money automatically paid to the franchisor. The marketing-fund fee is separate, and fund spending allocated locally does not count toward the franchisee’s 5% direct/local requirement. Buyers should test both minimums in a location-specific operating budget.
How much confidence should a buyer place in the range?
Confidence is limited because the revenue anchor is same-brand and current, but the profit margin is external and owner-operated. The range is useful for disciplined sensitivity analysis; it is not a substitute for store-level profit-and-loss statements, Item 19 substantiation, or interviews with comparable franchisees.
- Sample selection: 62 of 174 U.S. locations were outside the Item 19 table—31 were too new and 31 did not properly report all 12 months. The 112-store cohort therefore is not the whole system.
- Revenue dispersion: Item 19 ranges from $34,032 to $4,872,132 in Gross Sales. The FDD gives no quartiles or profit distribution, so the 80%/100%/120% revenue spread is editorial.
- Benchmark mismatch: IRS “Advertising and related services” includes many non-franchised and non-retail businesses. It does not isolate decorated apparel, promotional-product resale, or Fully Promoted’s supplier structure.
- Owner labor: the IRS sole-proprietor margin includes compensation for the owner’s work. Subtracting a manager wage helps separate labor value, but the 2023 national BLS proxy is not location-specific and excludes payroll burden.
- Debt and taxes: Item 10 states that the franchisor and its affiliates do not offer financing. Actual loan terms, interest, principal payments, entity structure, and personal taxes are buyer-specific and are not modeled.
Item 20 adds operating context: U.S. franchised outlets increased from 168 to 174 during 2025, with 20 openings, 13 terminations, and one outlet ceasing operations for another reason. There were no company-owned stores to provide a same-brand corporate operating-margin comparison. Source: 2026 FDD, Item 20, pp. 37–44.
What should a buyer verify before relying on any earnings estimate?
A buyer should replace every broad assumption with evidence from comparable Fully Promoted stores. The most useful comparisons are mature U.S. locations with similar sales staffing, market size, production mix, rent, and owner role—not the highest-volume store or a blended system average.
- Request the written substantiation for Item 19 and reconcile the 2025 Gross Sales figures to the exact cohort definitions, exclusions, and monthly reporting process.
- Ask franchisees for product cost, gross margin, payroll, rent, credit-card fees, insurance, local marketing, royalty, technology, repairs, bad debt, and owner compensation as separate lines.
- Compare stores with and without a full-time outside salesperson. Verify the salesperson’s salary, commission, lead-generation expense, ramp time, and incremental gross profit—not only incremental sales.
- Separate owner salary or labor value from distributions and retained business profit. Ask whether reported profit is before or after interest, depreciation, owner perks, and manager compensation.
- Interview current and former franchisees listed in Item 20 about seasonality, customer concentration, working-capital needs, equipment replacement, and the time required from the owner.
- Build a lender-specific cash-flow schedule that subtracts interest and principal separately, then obtain tax advice for the buyer’s entity and jurisdiction.
What is the strongest defensible annual earnings range?
The strongest defensible planning range is approximately $71,000–$132,000 of estimated pre-tax owner-operator benefit per mature U.S. location, with a $99,000 base scenario. It is scenario-based, not official. Using a $46,730 wage-only manager proxy reduces modeled residual business profit to approximately $24,000–$85,000, before employer payroll burden, debt principal, and personal taxes.
The largest earnings driver visible in the FDD is sales productivity: the median store with a full-time outside salesperson reported substantially more Gross Sales than the median store without one, although the FDD does not disclose the added labor cost or profit effect. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the true Fully Promoted store-level operating margin. A buyer should verify that margin through Item 19 substantiation, comparable-store financial statements where available, and structured interviews with current and former franchisees.