For a U.S. MaxLiving Franchise Clinic, the strongest defensible model places the base owner-operator scenario near $178,000 per year. If the clinic instead pays a Head Licensed Practitioner at the national office-of-chiropractors wage benchmark, modeled residual earnings range from about -$9,000 to $436,000, with a base near $100,000.
What does MaxLiving Item 19 actually measure?
Item 19 officially measures Gross Sales and weekly patient visits for qualifying Franchise Clinics; it does not measure owner earnings. For fiscal 2024, the 77-clinic reporting cohort had average Gross Sales of $908,947, median Gross Sales of $678,008, and a reported range from $90,700 to $4,235,940.
The distinction matters because Gross Sales is revenue before payroll, occupancy, insurance, supplies, franchise fees, debt costs, and other clinic expenses. The average also sits well above the median: only 27 of the 77 reporting clinics, or 35%, were at or above the $908,947 average. That skew makes the median the more restrained central revenue anchor for an earnings model.
The 2024 top-20% cohort had median Gross Sales of $1,789,126; the bottom-20% cohort had median Gross Sales of $317,996. The same reporting cohort recorded average weekly patient visits of 319 and median weekly patient visits of 242. These are observed performance measures, not probabilities and not promises. Item 19 says the data came from franchisee operating records, was unaudited, and was not verified under generally accepted accounting principles. See 2025 MaxLiving FDD, Item 19, pp. 39–43.
The official $678,008 median is a clinic revenue figure. Calling it owner income would omit the expense structure that determines whether the owner receives a meaningful residual, merely earns compensation for clinical work, or incurs a loss.
The FTC Franchise Rule Compliance Guide explains the regulatory framework for financial performance representations. The franchisor’s Item 19 disclosure remains the controlling same-brand evidence here.
How is the annual owner-operator estimate calculated?
The estimate is a reproducible independent calculation for a full-year Franchise Clinic: each 2024 Item 19 median sales anchor is multiplied by the 30.247% IRS net-income-less-deficit margin, then reduced by $27,000 of current annual fixed royalty and Marketing Fee obligations.
The IRS benchmark uses Tax Year 2022 Schedule C returns for offices of chiropractors: $3.603 billion of business receipts and $1.090 billion of net income less deficit across 24,786 returns. The resulting 30.247% figure is an aggregate receipts-weighted ratio, not the average or median margin of an individual practice. Because sole-proprietor owner salaries are not deducted as wages, this measure can include both residual business profit and the value of the owner’s labor. It is therefore labeled owner-operator benefit, not passive profit. The calculation treats the IRS ratio as a before-MaxLiving-fee proxy; exact comparability cannot be established.
| Scenario and official revenue anchor | Gross Sales | Owner-operator benefit | Residual after $78,280 practitioner wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative — 2024 bottom-20% median | $317,996 | $69,186 | -$9,094 |
| Base — 2024 all-reporting-clinic median | $678,008 | $178,080 | $99,800 |
| Upside — 2024 top-20% median | $1,789,126 | $514,165 | $435,885 |
The table does not present after-tax take-home pay. The IRS ratio includes Schedule C deductions such as payroll, rent, business interest, and depreciation. Financing principal, personal income taxes, and owner-specific capital expenditures are not modeled. Because depreciation is included but capital spending is not, the result is not a cash-flow forecast.
How does active owner involvement change the result?
Active owner operation can change the modeled annual benefit by roughly the cost of a paid licensed practitioner—$78,280 in this analysis—because the owner-operator result includes labor value that would otherwise become a clinic expense. The estimate applies to a U.S. Franchise Clinic and uses a May 2024 national wage proxy, not a MaxLiving payroll disclosure.
Item 15 requires the clinic to remain under the personal, on-premises supervision of either the owner or a Head Licensed Practitioner. Both must complete required training and be properly and actively licensed, and the clinic may not be operated, managed, directed, or controlled by another person without prior written consent. That structure does not support treating the franchise as inherently passive.
The $78,280 difference is compensation for work performed, not free incremental profit. An owner who provides licensed clinical supervision may capture both operating residual and labor value, while a less active owner must fund qualified on-premises supervision and still comply with MaxLiving’s management restrictions.
Which assumptions can move MaxLiving owner earnings most?
The largest driver is clinic revenue—closely related to patient volume—followed by the owner’s clinical role and the clinic’s actual payroll and occupancy structure. The estimate is uncertain because the FDD supplies the revenue distribution but not the operating expenses of the 77 reporting Franchise Clinics.
- Sales cohort: the modeled owner-operator benefit moves from $69,186 to $514,165 when the revenue anchor moves from the bottom-20% median to the top-20% median. These are historical cohort medians, not predicted outcomes.
- Paid supervision: subtracting the BLS $78,280 wage proxy produces a base residual of $99,800 before employer payroll burden and benefits. A local compensation package could be materially higher or lower.
- Local marketing: Item 6 says local marketing is not currently required, but MaxLiving may require spending up to 1.5% of Gross Sales. At the three sales anchors, that would reduce annual earnings by approximately $4,770, $10,170, or $26,837.
- Industry-proxy mismatch: IRS Schedule C offices of chiropractors include independent practices with different brand fees, staffing, payer mixes, premises, equipment, and accounting choices. The 2022 margin should not be read as a MaxLiving margin.
- Outlet-population context: Item 20 shows 181 combined Franchise Clinic and legacy License Program locations at the start of 2024, 8 openings, 20 terminations, and 169 locations at year-end. Because that table combines current and legacy operating models, it cannot be used as a closure rate for the 77-clinic Item 19 cohort, but it warrants direct franchisee diligence.
- Debt and capital spending: business interest is embedded in the IRS deduction pool, but financing principal is not an operating expense and is excluded. Depreciation is deducted, while future equipment replacement and other capital expenditures are not directly modeled.
The IRS nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics program describes Schedule C receipts, deductions, and net income by industry. The source is official but older than the 2024 MaxLiving sales period, which further limits precision.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this range?
A buyer should treat the $69,000–$514,000 owner-operator range as a screening model and replace every external assumption with clinic-specific evidence. The most useful checks concern the Item 19 substantiation, actual franchisee profit-and-loss statements, owner hours, and paid licensed-practitioner costs. Item 20 also states that no current or former franchisees had signed confidentiality clauses restricting discussion of their experience during the prior three fiscal years.
- Request the written substantiation supporting 2024 Item 19 Gross Sales and weekly patient visits, including how the 77 reporting Franchise Clinics were selected and validated.
- Ask current and former franchisees for full-year revenue, payroll, occupancy, supplies, insurance, marketing, professional fees, depreciation, interest, and owner compensation—not only top-line sales.
- Separate hours spent as a licensed practitioner, on-premises supervisor, and business manager from residual distributions. Confirm whether the owner or a Head Licensed Practitioner fulfills Item 15.
- Confirm the exact new-location Royalty Fee and Marketing Fee, and ask whether the optional local marketing requirement of up to 1.5% of Gross Sales is expected in the proposed territory.
- For an existing clinic purchase, obtain that outlet’s actual records and reconcile them to the franchisor’s Item 19 definitions rather than extrapolating from system averages.
- Model debt principal, working capital, equipment replacement, and personal taxes separately. None is reliably captured by the headline owner-operator range.
What is the strongest defensible annual earnings range?
The strongest defensible range is an independent estimated owner-operator benefit of about $69,000 to $514,000 per year, with a base scenario near $178,000. It is scenario-based, not a MaxLiving Item 19 profit disclosure. A paid Head Licensed Practitioner lowers the modeled base residual to about $100,000, before employer payroll burden and benefits.
The most important earnings driver is Gross Sales and the patient volume that supports it. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of same-brand clinic expense and owner-compensation data. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, obtain clinic-level operating statements, and interview franchisees about owner hours, practitioner payroll, occupancy, financing, capital spending, and distributions.