A U.S. JEI Learning Center may generate roughly $6,000 to $27,000 per year in estimated pre-tax owner earnings under a manager-run structure, with a $15,000 base scenario. An owner who personally performs the required full-time director role may receive an estimated owner-operator benefit of about $86,000 to $106,000, but most of the difference is compensation for the owner’s labor—not passive business profit.
This range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by JEI Learning Centers, LLC. It combines identified facts from the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document with U.S. Census Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and Bureau of Labor Statistics benchmarks plus clearly labeled modeling assumptions. Actual results can differ materially by location, active subjects, tuition, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, and execution.
Legal franchisor: JEI Learning Centers, LLC. FDD: issued April 14, 2026. Item 19 status: no financial performance representation. Operating format: a commercial, brick-and-mortar learning center generally occupying 800 to 1,200 square feet and supervised full time by a trained director. Benchmarks: 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses for NAICS 611691, 2022 IRS corporation returns for Educational Services, and May 2023 BLS wages for Education Administrators, All Other in Other Schools and Instruction. Date checked: July 18, 2026.
Why confidence is limited
The current FDD supplies the center structure, recurring fee schedule, required director role, and outlet counts, but it discloses no JEI sales, operating profit, owner compensation, or expense distribution.
A modeled pre-tax residual, not a franchisor-reported result.
Includes the estimated market value of full-time director labor.
Census receipts per establishment in the selected small-enterprise tutoring cohort.
IRS Educational Services net income divided by business receipts.
Item 20 reports no company-owned outlets in 2023–2025.
What does the 2026 Item 19 actually tell a buyer?
Officially, it does not disclose how much a JEI Learning Center sells or earns. The 2026 FDD states that JEI Learning Centers, LLC does not make representations about future franchisee performance or the past performance of franchised or company-owned outlets. Therefore, no sales average, median, gross profit, operating profit, EBITDA, net income, owner compensation, or cash-flow figure can be labeled an official JEI result. This is the controlling fact from Item 19, pages 50–51.
The Federal Trade Commission’s guide to Item 19 explains that a franchisor is not required to disclose sales or earnings, but any claim it chooses to make must have a reasonable basis and appear in Item 19. Because JEI makes no such representation, the analysis must remain a lower-confidence estimate.
Item 20 reports that franchised outlets declined from 54 at the start of 2023 to 44 at the end of 2025. During 2025, the system recorded no openings, one termination, one non-renewal, and three transfers. These counts do not prove poor economics, but they increase the importance of reviewing closure circumstances and speaking with current and former franchisees. Source: 2026 JEI Learning Centers FDD, Item 20, pages 51–53.
How was the annual earnings range estimated?
The estimate uses a small-enterprise tutoring revenue proxy and a broad Educational Services net-income margin. The FDD defines the operating structure but provides no revenue anchor, so the model selects the closest official U.S. industry evidence and then applies transparent Conservative, Base, and Upside sensitivities.
What revenue proxy is used?
The central proxy is $247,200 of annual receipts per establishment. In the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses data, NAICS 611691—Exam Preparation and Tutoring—reported 4,271 firms, 4,311 establishments, and $1.066 billion of receipts in the $100,000–$499,000 enterprise-receipts cohort. That is close to one establishment per firm and works out to about $247,200 per establishment. It is a benchmark for a small tutoring enterprise, not a JEI average.
The overall NAICS 611691 average was about $806,000 per establishment, but that figure blends small centers with larger multi-establishment enterprises. The model does not use it because the 2026 FDD offers a single retail-center format and does not establish comparability with large tutoring organizations. See the 2022 SUSB annual tables.
What margin proxy is used?
The base margin is 6.2%. IRS Statistics of Income data for 2022 Educational Services corporations reported $4.152 billion of net income less deficit and $67.397 billion of business receipts. Dividing those values produces a 6.16% net-income ratio. The category is much broader than tutoring, so the model treats it as a limited all-in proxy rather than a same-brand fact. See the IRS Corporation Income Tax Returns Complete Report.
The Conservative and Upside revenues are explicit analytical assumptions at 80% and 120% of the $247,200 central proxy. The margin sensitivity is the 6.16% IRS ratio minus or plus 3 percentage points. These spreads are not reported by JEI, Census, or the IRS.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor | Margin | Estimated manager-run earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $198,000 | 3.2% | $6,000 |
| Base | $247,000 | 6.2% | $15,000 |
| Upside | $297,000 | 9.2% | $27,000 |
Annual pre-tax residual per center; values are rounded to the nearest $1,000.
Interpretation: With a thin margin, relatively modest changes in center receipts and operating efficiency produce a wide change in residual owner profit.
Sources: 2022 Census SUSB NAICS 611691 receipts cohort; 2022 IRS Educational Services corporation returns; editorial revenue and margin sensitivities. Not an Item 19 result.
The IRS proxy is net income, not cash flow. Reported interest and depreciation are embedded in the aggregate margin. Financing principal payments and capital expenditures are not deducted through net income, and personal income taxes are excluded. The $85,000–$139,000 Item 7 initial investment is startup capital, not an annual expense, so it is not subtracted from one year of revenue. The FDD does not provide a unit-specific loan structure, so no debt-service case is modeled. Owner compensation is treated inconsistently across entity structures, which is one reason the range cannot be presented as take-home pay. Source: 2026 JEI Learning Centers FDD, Item 7, pages 20–23.
How does the required director role change owner economics?
Active operation changes the economic benefit far more than it changes pure business profit. Item 15 requires every center to be under the direct, full-time, day-to-day supervision of a trained director. A single individual owner must serve as the director; a business entity may appoint another qualified individual. The owner therefore chooses between paying for director labor and supplying that labor personally. Source: 2026 JEI Learning Centers FDD, Item 15, page 42.
Residual business profit
$6K–$27KA paid director is assumed to be included within normal labor expense. The remaining amount is the modeled pre-tax owner residual before debt principal and personal taxes.
Profit plus labor value
$86K–$106KThe owner replaces paid director labor. This estimate adds a $79,300 market wage benchmark to the manager-run residual; it is not passive income.
The $79,300 labor value is the May 2023 annual mean wage for Education Administrators, All Other in the BLS Other Schools and Instruction industry. It is a market benchmark, not a JEI salary requirement or a forecast of actual cash savings. Local wages, hours, payroll taxes, owner qualifications, and the duties split between director and instructors may materially change the value. See the BLS occupation profile for Education Administrators, All Other.
The connecting line represents $79,300 of director labor value, not additional passive profit.
Interpretation: The active owner appears to receive much more economic benefit because the owner is doing a full-time job. Business profit alone remains the left-hand value.
Sources: Scenario residuals above; 2026 FDD Item 15 director requirement; May 2023 BLS annual mean wage of $79,300 for occupation 11-9039 in Other Schools and Instruction.
What do JEI’s recurring fees look like at different enrollment levels?
JEI’s principal royalty is charged per enrolled subject, not as a percentage of sales. The 2026 Item 6 schedule applies a lower per-subject fee as enrollment rises. Because tuition varies by center and the FDD discloses no tuition or sales figure, the effective royalty percentage cannot be calculated responsibly.
The table annualizes the disclosed royalty, the current $1-per-subject monthly Brand Fund contribution, and the $100–$300 monthly cooperative advertising charge. It does not include the $15 enrollment fee, extra workbook usage, shipping, local marketing beyond the cooperative, or contingent charges. The Brand Fund may be increased to $3 per subject with notice.
| Active subjects | Royalty per subject / month | Annual royalty | Annual Brand Fund | Royalty + fund + cooperative range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | $32 | $15,360 | $480 | $17,040–$19,440 |
| 75 | $29 | $26,100 | $900 | $28,200–$30,600 |
| 100 | $28 | $33,600 | $1,200 | $36,000–$38,400 |
| 150 | $27 | $48,600 | $1,800 | $51,600–$54,000 |
New franchisees become subject to a minimum royalty based on 40 subjects after two years of operation, subject to the FDD’s stated exception. At 40 subjects, that royalty annualizes to $15,360 before the Brand Fund and cooperative advertising. The fee table is a due-diligence cross-check; it is not subtracted again from the scenario earnings because the IRS net-income ratio is already an all-in margin after aggregate deductions. Source: 2026 JEI Learning Centers FDD, Item 6, pages 15–20. The official JEI franchise FAQs also confirm that monthly royalty is based on enrolled subjects.
Active subject count affects both sides of the income statement: it drives tuition opportunities and directly drives royalty and Brand Fund expense. The critical unit economics are therefore tuition per subject, subjects per student, retention, instructor hours, and the number of active subjects needed to cover director, rent, and support labor.
What uncertainty should a buyer price into the range?
The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of any same-brand revenue or profit distribution. The scenario can describe a defensible order of magnitude, but it cannot establish what a typical JEI center, a mature center, or a newly opened center actually earns.
- Revenue comparability: the $247,200 anchor is from small U.S. exam-preparation and tutoring enterprises, not JEI franchisees. The FDD does not disclose active subjects, tuition, center age, or receipts.
- Margin comparability: the 6.2% IRS ratio covers the broader Educational Services sector and corporate tax returns. It may not reflect the staffing, occupancy, workbook, and royalty structure of an 800–1,200 square-foot JEI center.
- Owner compensation: the benchmark data mix salaries, officer compensation, and net income across entity types. Actual owner salary, draws, distributions, and retained earnings must be separated in a center-level profit-and-loss statement.
- Director labor: $79,300 is a 2023 industry wage benchmark. A local director may cost materially less or more, and an owner may not capture the full wage amount as cash savings.
- Outlet survivorship: the FDD reports outlet declines and transfers but no performance data for open, closed, transferred, new, or mature centers. Excluding unsuccessful outlets would overstate earnings.
- Financing and taxes: debt principal and personal income taxes are outside the model. Interest and depreciation are embedded only indirectly through the IRS aggregate margin.
The official U.S. JEI franchise page describes the franchising process, while the official center FAQs state that students generally attend once per week per subject and classes typically use a five-to-one student-to-teacher ratio. Those operating facts help identify labor and capacity questions, but they do not supply earnings evidence.
What should be verified before treating the estimate as decision-grade?
A buyer should replace every industry proxy with center-level evidence wherever possible. The FTC advises prospects to request written substantiation for financial claims and to test whether disclosed data match the intended location and operating model.
- Confirm in the final FDD and any amendments that Item 19 still makes no financial performance representation, and document any oral or written sales or earnings statement received from a seller.
- Ask current and former franchisees for three years of annual receipts, active subjects, average tuition per subject, discounts, bad debt, and seasonality.
- Separate director compensation, instructor payroll, payroll taxes, rent, utilities, local marketing, insurance, technology, workbook overages, and all JEI invoices.
- Compare mature centers with centers under two years old; do not combine ramp-up periods with established operations.
- Ask why outlets terminated, did not renew, transferred, or ceased operations in the Item 20 period and whether center economics influenced those events.
- Model manager-run and owner-operated cases separately, including realistic hours, replacement management, and the opportunity cost of the owner’s labor.
- Keep debt principal, capital expenditures, required system modifications, and personal income taxes outside operating profit and analyze them separately.
What is the defensible takeaway?
The strongest defensible range is approximately $6,000 to $27,000 of annual manager-run pre-tax owner earnings per center, or roughly $86,000 to $106,000 of owner-operator benefit when the owner performs the full-time director role. Both ranges are scenario-based, not official JEI results. Enrollment-driven revenue is the most important earnings driver; the absence of any JEI Item 19 sales or profit data is the largest uncertainty. Before relying on the estimate, a buyer should verify Item 19 and its written substantiation, reconcile center-level profit-and-loss statements, and interview current and former franchisees about active subjects, tuition, labor, rent, director compensation, and outlet exits.