For a full-time Jet-Black reporting business, an independent 2025 scenario estimates roughly $15,000 to $95,000 in pre-tax, pre-financing owner earnings when a paid general manager runs the operation. When the owner performs the manager role, the modeled owner-operator benefit is about $81,000 to $152,000, but part of that amount compensates the owner for labor rather than representing passive business profit.
This range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Jet-Black International, Inc. It combines identified FDD facts with separately identified wage and modeling assumptions. Actual results can differ materially by territory count, location, operating season, sales mix, labor, insurance, repairs, marketing, financing, owner involvement, weather, and execution.
Legal franchisor: Jet-Black International, Inc. FDD: issued April 29, 2026. Item 19 period: calendar year 2025. Applicable population: 36 full-time franchised Jet-Black-only reporting businesses operating 93 territories, plus a separate adjusted income statement for one Minnesota company-owned Jet-Black Business. The FDD is cited in plain text because no matching public copy was verified on a franchise-controlled domain. Data and official web sources were checked July 19, 2026.
What does Jet-Black’s 2026 FDD actually report?
Officially, Item 19 reports Gross Revenues for franchised businesses and an Adjusted Income Statement for one company-owned business; it does not report franchisee owner salary, distributions, or net take-home pay. The most decision-useful franchised figure is the 2025 median Gross Revenues of $426,511 per reporting business for the Jet-Black-only cohort. That is revenue before operating costs, not owner earnings.
Jet-Black-only full-time reporting businesses in calendar 2025.
Only 12 of 36 reporting businesses, or 33%, equaled or exceeded the average.
The result is per reporting business, not per territory and not necessarily per single-unit owner.
$244,102 divided by $822,184 for one company-owned business after adding stated franchise expenses.
The percentage declines as job price rises; annual minimums also apply by territory and tenure.
The average is $107,548 above the median, and only one-third of the cohort reached the average. Item 19 also shows a wide Jet-Black-only range of $134,355 to $2,333,409. Those facts indicate a skewed distribution and make the median a more defensible central revenue anchor than the average. They do not reveal the typical owner’s profit.
Which outlets are represented?
The official 2025 sales cohort covers mature, full-time franchised businesses, but it is not a one-territory sample. The 36 Jet-Black-only reporting businesses operated 93 territories and had a full operating season, defined for the Item 19 cohort as April through October, with complete required financial and weekly sales statements.
| Item 19 element | Official value | Interpretation for earnings analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Jet-Black-only reporting businesses | 36 | Full-time franchised businesses; mixed Jet-Black/Yellow Dawg businesses are excluded from this table. |
| Territories operated by cohort | 93 | Per-business sales cannot be converted to per-territory sales without unsupported ownership assumptions. |
| Median Gross Revenues | $426,511 | Best central revenue anchor available for the modeled reporting-business scenario. |
| Average Gross Revenues | $534,059 | Higher than the median because larger businesses influence the mean. |
| Equaled or exceeded average | 12 of 36 | The average was not achieved by most reporting businesses. |
| Excluded from the broader Jet-Black population | 8 businesses | Four new, one temporarily inactive, and three not fully staffed or operational; mixed-brand operators are handled separately. |
FDD citations: 2026 Jet-Black Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, pp. 35–46; Item 20, pp. 46–54.
What annual owner-earnings range follows from the strongest evidence?
The modeled range is $81,000 to $152,000 for an owner-operator benefit and $15,000 to $95,000 for manager-run owner earnings. These are pre-tax, pre-interest, pre-depreciation, pre-capital-expenditure, and pre-debt-service figures for a modeled full-time reporting business. They are not per-territory results and are not probabilities.
How were Conservative, Base, and Upside scenarios built?
The revenue anchors are 80%, 100%, and 120% of the official $426,511 median because Item 19 does not publish quartiles for the Jet-Black-only cohort. The 80% and 120% spread is an editorial assumption. The margin anchor is the 29.7% company-operated adjusted EBITDA proxy, calculated as $244,102 divided by $822,184. The Base margin is reduced by 3 percentage points and the Conservative margin by 6 percentage points to recognize omitted payroll taxes and other normal-cost friction. The Upside scenario uses the unadjusted proxy and therefore should not be treated as a typical outcome.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor | Owner-operator benefit | Manager-run owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Conservative 80% of median; 23.7% margin |
$341,000 | $81,000 | $15,000 |
|
Base Median; 26.7% margin |
$427,000 | $114,000 | $53,000 |
|
Upside 120% of median; 29.7% margin |
$512,000 | $152,000 | $95,000 |
Annual modeled dollars per full-time reporting business, rounded to the nearest $1,000
Interpretation: replacing the owner’s management labor reduces the modeled residual by about $57,000 to $66,000. Source: 2026 FDD Item 19 revenue and adjusted income-statement data; BLS May 2025 General and Operations Managers wage benchmark; IRS 2026 employer FICA rates; editorial scenario assumptions stated above.
How does active owner involvement change the result?
Active involvement adds the economic value of the manager work the owner performs, but that increment is compensation for labor, not passive profit. Item 15 says an owner is not required to participate, but a non-participating owner must employ a trained General Manager. Item 19’s company-operated income statement assumes the franchisee acts as manager and includes no manager salary.
What manager cost is used in the scenario?
The modeled replacement-manager cost is approximately $56,930 to $65,688. The model applies the BLS May 2025 national median wage of $50.85 per hour for General and Operations Managers to 26–30 weeks at 40 hours per week, then adds the 7.65% employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes. This is a national benchmark, not a local quote, and it excludes recruiting costs, benefits, state unemployment tax, overtime, and off-season work.
The Base scenario produces about $114,000 of owner-operator benefit. After a modeled 28-week manager replacement cost of about $61,000, the manager-run residual is about $53,000. The $61,000 difference should be understood primarily as the market value of management labor performed by the owner.
- Estimated owner-operator benefit
- Residual operating benefit before interest, depreciation, capital expenditures, debt service, and personal income taxes, with no paid general manager because the owner performs that role.
- Estimated manager-run owner earnings
- Owner-operator benefit less a modeled paid General Manager wage and employer FICA cost. It remains before financing, capital expenditures, and personal income taxes.
- After-tax take-home pay
- Not estimated. It depends on entity structure, state and local tax, deductions, owner compensation method, and individual circumstances.
FDD citations: 2026 Jet-Black Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 15, pp. 30–31; Item 19, pp. 42–46.
How does the Base scenario move from revenue to owner benefit?
The Base scenario starts with the official $426,511 median Gross Revenues and ends with $113,833 of estimated owner-operator benefit. The intervening cost ratios are scaled from the company-owned Item 19 income statement, including stated franchise fees, plus a separate 3-percentage-point modeled cost adjustment.
Modeled dollars; all bars reconcile to the $426,511 revenue anchor
Interpretation: the Base scenario retains 26.7% of modeled revenue before manager compensation, financing, depreciation, capital expenditures, and personal taxes. The subcontractor pass-through and cost mix are proxy ratios from one Minnesota company-owned business; an individual franchisee’s service mix may differ. Source: 2026 FDD Item 19, pp. 42–46, plus the stated 3-point scenario adjustment.
Which recurring franchise obligations are already reflected?
The company proxy includes $55,534 of Continuing Fees and a $650 Technology Fee, and its marketing expense is $63,817. Item 6 separately requires Jet-Black Businesses to spend at least $20,000 per territory annually on approved local advertising and sets Continuing Fees at 1% to 8% of Gross Revenues per job, subject to annual minimums. The scenario does not subtract those obligations a second time because they are already represented in the proxy cost ratios.
Item 10 permits qualified buyers to finance up to $35,000 at 9% for up to 60 months. Fully drawing that note would require approximately $727 per month, or $8,719 per year. That payment is shown separately because debt principal is notan operating expense, and the scenario excludes both interest and principal from the earnings figures.
FDD citations: 2026 Jet-Black Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 6, pp. 6–14; Item 10, pp. 20–21; Item 19, pp. 42–46.
What could move actual Jet-Black owner earnings outside the range?
The largest uncertainty is whether one company-owned Minnesota cost structure is representative of a buyer’s territory mix, labor market, climate, and operating model. The revenue evidence is broader than the cost evidence: sales come from 36 franchised reporting businesses, while the detailed expense and EBITDA proxy comes from one company-owned business.
- Territory structure: the sales table is per reporting business, and those businesses collectively operated 93 territories. A one-territory buyer should not assume the $426,511 median is a single-territory result.
- Season and weather: the reporting cohort completed a full April-through-October season. Rain, temperature, winter length, and storm timing can affect production days and demand.
- Service mix: residential sealcoating, commercial work, repairs, striping, paving, and subcontracted non-core services can carry different job sizes and margins.
- Labor and payroll burden: the Item 19 corporate statement says field and office payroll exclude payroll taxes. The scenario adds a margin cushion, but actual employer taxes, overtime, benefits, and workers’ compensation vary.
- Equipment and capital expenditure: EBITDA excludes depreciation and does not reserve cash for future truck, trailer, tank, or equipment replacement.
- Owner time: manager-run economics depend on local wages and the number of weeks required. Owner-operator economics depend on how much management, selling, estimating, and oversight the owner personally performs.
- Cohort exclusions: new, temporarily inactive, and not-fully-operational businesses were excluded from the full-time reporting cohort, so the result is not a start-up-year estimate.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this earnings range?
A buyer should verify the exact territory count behind comparable businesses, obtain Item 19 substantiation, and rebuild the model with local costs. The FTC’s franchise buyer guidance emphasizes that Gross Sales do not show profit, averages can be distorted by high performers, and company-operated outlets may have different costs.
- Request the written substantiation for the 2026 FDD Item 19 financial performance representation and reconcile the Jet-Black-only cohort to the figures shown in the document.
- Ask current and former franchisees how many territories produced their revenue, how long they had operated, and whether they were owner-operated or manager-run.
- Obtain local quotes for a General Manager, field labor, payroll taxes, insurance, fuel, storage, repairs, direct mail, digital advertising, and required products.
- Separate recurring operating expenses from startup investment, loan principal, vehicle purchases, and equipment-replacement reserves.
- Ask how much of reported Gross Revenues came from subcontracted non-core work and what markup was retained after subcontractor payments.
- Model a weak-weather season and a slower sales ramp rather than assuming a new operation immediately resembles the mature full-time cohort.
What is the strongest defensible earnings takeaway?
The strongest defensible range is approximately $15,000 to $95,000 in manager-run pre-tax, pre-financing owner earnings, or $81,000 to $152,000 in owner-operator benefit, for a modeled full-time Jet-Black reporting business. The range is scenario-based, not an official franchisee profit disclosure. The most important driver is the combination of Gross Revenues and owner involvement. The largest unresolved uncertainty is whether the single company-operated cost proxy matches the buyer’s territory count, labor market, weather pattern, and service mix. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, territory-level context, and actual cost structures through detailed franchisee interviews and written local estimates.