The 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document does not report sales, profit, or owner compensation. For an original The Great Frame Up store, the most defensible independent model produces a base result of about $8,100 before personal income taxes and financing principal. A manager-run structure is negative in all three modeled cases after a national retail-supervisor wage is added.
Legal franchisor: Franchise Concepts, Inc., which operates The Great Frame Up as a division and d/b/a. FDD issuance date: April 1, 2026. Item 19 status: no financial performance representation. Population: 52 U.S. franchised outlets and no company-owned outlets at December 31, 2025; Item 20 says the count includes one showroom store. The earnings model therefore applies only to an original retail store and does not combine the showroom or Market Unit Addendum formats.
External benchmarks: IRS Statistics of Income data for 2023 furniture and home furnishing retailer sole proprietorships; May 2025 BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers; and the Census Bureau's 2022 NAICS classification, which places custom picture frame shops in NAICS 449129. Data checked July 16, 2026. The official U.S. franchise information page confirms that its franchise-sales information applies within the United States.
What does The Great Frame Up Item 19 actually disclose?
Official answer: it discloses no sales, gross profit, operating profit, EBITDA, net income, cash flow, or owner compensation for any The Great Frame Up outlet. The statement applies to the franchised system and to company-owned outlets, of which there were none. Source: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, p. 33.
That absence matters. Gross Sales cannot be inferred from startup investment, store size, royalty collections, or the number of outlets. Nor can a salary figure be inferred from a franchisee's ability to manage the store personally. The FTC framework permits a franchisor to omit a financial performance representation; when one is made, the representation and its basis belong in Item 19. The FTC Franchise Rule Compliance Guide provides the governing disclosure context.
Item 20 also limits the available same-brand evidence. The franchised outlet count moved from 56 at the start of 2023 to 52 at the end of 2025. The total table shows one opening and two outlets ceasing operations in 2023, two openings and three cessations in 2024, and no openings with two cessations in 2025. These counts are not profit data, but they are relevant context for uncertainty. Source: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 20, pp. 34–38.
How was the annual owner-earnings range calculated?
Estimated answer: the three cases produce approximately -$8,900, $8,100, and $17,400 of annual pre-tax owner-operator benefit. They are analytical cases, not probabilities, forecasts, or FDD-reported performance bands.
What is the benchmark measuring?
The closest official national benchmark is the IRS Statistics of Income category for furniture and home furnishing retailer sole proprietorships. The Census Bureau classifies custom picture frame shops under NAICS 449129, All Other Home Furnishings Retailers, making that IRS category directionally relevant but broader than custom framing. The Census Bureau NAICS reference and the IRS nonfarm sole-proprietorship tables are the official public sources.
For profitable 2023 returns, the IRS reports $2.768065 billion of business receipts and $276.147 million of net income across 13,205 returns. That equals average receipts of $209,622 and a 9.98% net-income margin. Because Schedule C net income does not deduct compensation for the proprietor's own labor, this is closer to an owner-operator benefit than to passive business profit.
The 2.24% advertising restoration uses the all-return IRS expense ratio because the profitable-return table does not publish detailed expense lines. It is then replaced with the FDD's 2% advertising obligation, while the 6% royalty is added separately. The $700 software allowance is the midpoint of the FDD's $600–$800 annual Lifesaver maintenance range. This cohort substitution is a material limitation and one reason the confidence label is Limited.
| Scenario | Revenue and margin basis | Owner-operator benefit | Manager-run residual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | All-return IRS average receipts of $150,173; adjusted all-return margin of -5.45%; less $700 software. | -$8,900 | -$57,400 |
| Base | Profitable-return average receipts of $209,622; adjusted margin of 4.21%; less $700 software. | $8,100 | -$40,400 |
| Upside | 120% of profitable-return receipts, or $251,547; base margin plus 3 percentage points, or 7.21%; less $700 software. | $17,400 | -$31,100 |
Annual pre-tax result for one original store, rounded to the nearest $100
Interpretation: the evidence does not support a high passive-income assumption. Even the upside case produces modest owner-operator benefit because the modeled 8% sales-based franchise burden materially compresses the external retail net-income benchmark.
Sources: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Items 6 and 19, pp. 6–8 and 33; IRS Statistics of Income, Nonfarm Sole Proprietorships, Tax Year 2023, Tables 1 and 2. Calculations use full-precision inputs and display rounded results.
How does owner involvement change the economics?
Estimated answer: active operation is the difference between a small owner benefit and a materially negative manager-run residual in this model. Item 15 says the owner does not have to supervise personally, but the store must be directly supervised on premises by a trained manager. Source: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 15, p. 29.
The owner-operator figure is not pure business profit. It combines residual business income with compensation for the owner's labor because the IRS sole-proprietorship benchmark does not deduct proprietor wages. To model absentee or manager-run ownership, the analysis subtracts the BLS national median annual wage of $48,520 for First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers, SOC 41-1011. The official BLS OEWS tables are the source.
Owner-operator benefit versus manager-run residual, before personal taxes and financing principal
Interpretation: the $48,520 gap is labor value, not a passive-profit premium. The manager-run residual would be lower after employer payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting costs, or a higher local wage.
Sources: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 15, p. 29; BLS OEWS, May 2025 national annual median wage for SOC 41-1011. BLS wage data exclude self-employed workers.
Which FDD fees most affect annual owner earnings?
Official answer: the largest disclosed recurring burden is the combination of a 6% royalty and a 2% advertising obligation, both measured against Gross Sales. The current advertising policy calls for 1.5% to the marketing fund when the franchisee substantiates at least 0.5% of Gross Sales in local advertising; the total modeled advertising burden remains 2%. Source: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 6, pp. 6–8.
Item 7's $113,682–$233,573 initial investment for an original store is not subtracted from one year of revenue. Startup investment, build-out, opening inventory, and initial working capital are capital and launch requirements, not a single recurring annual operating expense. Item 10 states that the franchisor does not offer direct or indirect financing, so this analysis does not assume a loan structure. Sources: 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Items 7 and 10, pp. 8–12 and 16.
Why is the evidence confidence limited?
Uncertain answer: the range is limited primarily because no same-brand sales or profit distribution exists in Item 19. The IRS benchmark is official, but it measures tax returns for a broad furniture and home furnishing retail category, not mature The Great Frame Up outlets.
- Business form mismatch: IRS Schedule C data cover sole proprietorships. A franchisee operating through an S corporation, partnership, or C corporation may have a different expense and owner-compensation structure.
- Unit mismatch: a tax return is not necessarily one store. The benchmark can include nonemployer and small-scale businesses, while the FDD's original store is an 800–2,000-square-foot retail location.
- Category breadth: furniture and home furnishing retailers include more than custom picture framing, even though Census NAICS 449129 expressly includes custom picture frame shops.
- Selection effect: the base case uses returns with net income. That cohort excludes loss-making returns and therefore cannot be read as a system average or probability of success.
- Period mismatch: the IRS revenue and margin inputs are Tax Year 2023 dollars, the manager wage is May 2025, and the franchise obligations come from the 2026 FDD. The model does not inflate the IRS figures to 2026, so both revenue and operating-cost levels may differ today.
- Owner-role mismatch: the IRS tables do not identify whether each proprietor managed the business personally or employed a manager. The $48,520 subtraction is therefore a staffing sensitivity, not an observed owner-versus-manager performance difference.
- Fee adjustment: detailed advertising expense is available for all returns, not the profitable-only cohort. The model uses that 2.24% ratio as a bridge, then applies the FDD's 6% royalty and 2% advertising obligation.
- Local economics: the FDD's annual rent context spans a very wide range for original stores. Actual wage, occupancy, freight, product cost, discounting, and local demand can overwhelm the modeled margin.
What is included and excluded from the result?
The scenario retains the IRS benchmark population's treatment of normal business deductions, including reported depreciation and interest. It does not model acquisition financing, startup-loan principal, replacement capital expenditures beyond embedded depreciation, personal income taxes, owner distributions, or retained earnings policy. The manager-run comparison subtracts wage only; employer payroll taxes and benefits are excluded. Therefore, the manager-run figures are more favorable than a fully burdened staffing model would be.
What should a buyer verify before relying on any earnings estimate?
Decision answer: verify actual store-level statements from current and former franchisees rather than treating this industry-based range as a substitute for same-brand evidence. Item 20 and Exhibit B provide the franchisee population for that diligence.
- Ask the franchisor whether any written Item 19 supplement or substantiation exists for a specific resale or location. Obtain it in writing before using any sales or profit claim.
- Request three years of Profit and Loss statements from several original-store franchisees, separating Gross Sales, cost of goods, production labor, selling labor, occupancy, royalty, marketing, technology, merchant fees, depreciation, and owner compensation.
- Ask owner-operators how many hours they work and whether reported “income” includes salary, draws, distributions, or unpaid family labor.
- Ask manager-run owners for the fully burdened manager cost, including payroll taxes, benefits, bonuses, recruiting, turnover, and coverage during absences.
- Separate mature original stores from the single showroom format, new outlets, resales, and Market Unit Addendum portfolios. Do not multiply one-store economics across three units without ramp-up and shared-overhead evidence.
- Reconcile local rent, common-area charges, insurance, state payroll costs, delivery, and financing terms against the exact proposed site and capital structure.
- Contact the two 2025 former operators identified in Item 20 and ask what drove cessation, while recognizing that individual outcomes do not establish a systemwide rate.
What is the strongest defensible earnings takeaway?
The strongest defensible range is approximately an $8,900 annual loss to $17,400 of pre-tax owner-operator benefit for one original store, with a modeled base of about $8,100. It is scenario-based, not official. The most important driver is the sales level and operating margin left after the 6% royalty and 2% advertising obligation. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of same-brand revenue and expense data in Item 19.
Owner involvement changes the interpretation more than the headline range: active operation can preserve the value of the owner's labor, while a manager-run structure remains negative in all three cases after only the BLS median manager wage is deducted. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify Item 19 status, request any lawful written substantiation for a specific outlet, and test this model against actual original-store financial statements obtained in franchisee interviews.
FDD citations refer to the 2026 U.S. Franchise Disclosure Document issued by Franchise Concepts, Inc. No public franchisor-hosted copy matching the legal entity, U.S. offer, year, and amendment status was identified, so the FDD citations are provided in plain text rather than linked.