Estimated pre-tax owner earnings for one manager-run, traditional inline Mrs. Fields Store. The base scenario is about $21,100. An active owner who replaces a full-time manager may realize an estimated owner-operator benefit of $74,800–$125,400, but most of that difference compensates the owner for labor performed rather than representing passive business profit.
This range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Mrs. Fields Franchising, LLC. It combines 2026 FDD facts with a separately identified IRS industry-margin benchmark and BLS manager-wage assumption. Actual results can differ materially because of location, format, sales, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, seasonality, and execution.
Legal franchisor: Mrs. Fields Franchising, LLC. FDD: issued June 11, 2026. Item 19 status: official Gross Revenue only; no unit expenses, operating profit, net income, owner compensation, or cash flow. Population used: 61 traditional inline franchised Stores open for all of calendar 2025. Benchmarks: IRS Tax Year 2022 corporate data for Food Services and Drinking Places and May 2025 BLS Food Service Manager wages. Checked: July 22, 2026.
The 2026 FDD supplies same-brand revenue distributions and recurring fees, but not owner earnings. The scenario therefore anchors revenue to Item 19 and uses an official external margin proxy rather than presenting a franchisor-reported profit figure.
Confidence is limited because the owner-earnings result depends materially on a broad IRS industry margin rather than Mrs. Fields unit-level expenses.
What does the Mrs. Fields FDD actually disclose?
Officially, Item 19 discloses Gross Revenue, not owner earnings. For calendar 2025, the strongest same-format population is 61 traditional inline franchised Stores. Their median Gross Revenue was $349,974, their average was $379,386, and their observed range was $85,561 to $870,824. These figures do not deduct food, payroll, rent, franchise fees, utilities, insurance, depreciation, interest, or any other operating cost.
The Item 19 data set contained 67 traditional locations: 61 inline Stores and 6 Kiosks. It excluded 6 outlets that opened during 2025 and 25 nontraditional outlets, including seasonal, part-time, gas-station, and add-on locations. Mrs. Fields states that all 98 system outlets at year-end 2025 were franchised. Source: 2026 Mrs. Fields Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, pp. 32–35.
| Item 19 population | Outlets | Average Gross Revenue | Median Gross Revenue | Observed range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional inline Stores | 61 | $379,386 | $349,974 | $85,561–$870,824 |
| Traditional Kiosks | 6 | $368,807 | $323,071 | $214,055–$731,286 |
A $349,974 median is a sales measure. The FDD expressly says its Item 19 numbers do not reflect Store expenses and therefore do not show gross profit or net profit. The FTC likewise cautions that gross sales can look strong while an outlet loses money after overhead and rent.
Why is the kiosk result not blended into the main estimate?
The kiosk evidence is official but too thin for a combined earnings range. The 2025 kiosk population contains only 6 outlets, with quartiles of only 1 or 2 locations each. Kiosks also have different footprints, occupancy structures, and staffing needs. This article therefore keeps kiosk sales visible but limits the owner-earnings scenario to the 61-store inline cohort.
How is the annual owner-earnings range calculated?
The estimate multiplies three official Item 19 revenue anchors by a 6.03% IRS net-income benchmark with a ±3-percentage-point sensitivity. The revenue anchors are the bottom-quartile median, total median, and top-quartile median for traditional inline Stores. The result is estimated residual business profit for a manager-run unit, before personal income taxes and financing principal payments.
The IRS benchmark comes from Tax Year 2022 Table 5.1 for active corporations in Food Services and Drinking Places: $35.281 billion of net income divided by $585.275 billion of business receipts equals 6.028%. The low and high margins, 3.028% and 9.028%, are analytical sensitivity assumptions, not Mrs. Fields disclosures. The IRS aggregate includes reported interest and depreciation deductions and includes compensation of officers and wages among business deductions.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor | Margin used | Calculation | Estimated owner earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $178,810 | 3.028% | $178,810 × 3.028% | $5,400 |
| Base | $349,974 | 6.028% | $349,974 × 6.028% | $21,100 |
| Upside | $620,002 | 9.028% | $620,002 × 9.028% | $56,000 |
The model uses actual FDD revenue-distribution points and a separately sourced industry-margin sensitivity.
Interpretation: Revenue position and operating margin compound each other; this is why the range is wide. Sources: 2026 Mrs. Fields FDD, Item 19, pp. 33–34; IRS Publication 16, Tax Year 2022, Table 5.1. Values are rounded to the nearest $100.
- Estimated pre-tax owner earnings means cash-like residual business profit after normal operating expenses reflected in the IRS proxy, before personal income taxes and financing principal payments.
- Interest and depreciation are embedded in the IRS aggregate margin; they are not added back in this model. Capital expenditures are not modeled separately.
- Royalty and Brand Fund fees are not subtracted again because the IRS margin is treated as an all-in industry net-income proxy. Double-charging those fees would understate the result.
- Scenario labels are analytical. The bottom-quartile, total, and top-quartile medians are revenue anchors, not probabilities or promises.
How does active owner involvement change the result?
Active ownership can materially raise total owner benefit because the owner may replace a paid full-time manager. The 2026 FDD recommends direct owner participation and requires either the owner or a full-time on-premises manager to manage the Store. Item 7 also excludes a store-manager salary from its three-month Additional Funds estimate because it assumes the franchisee will manage the Store.
The May 2025 BLS national median wage for Food Service Managers was $33.36 per hour. Annualized at 2,080 hours, that equals $69,389, rounded to $69,400. Adding this labor value to the manager-run residual produces an estimated owner-operator benefit of $74,800 to $125,400. This is not pure business profit: it combines residual operating profit with compensation for full-time work.
Each row begins with estimated residual business profit and ends after adding the annualized BLS manager-labor value.
Interpretation: The owner-role difference is labor compensation, not a change in the underlying Store's sales. Sources: 2026 Mrs. Fields FDD, Item 15, pp. 26–27 and Item 7, p. 11; BLS May 2025 national OEWS table for Food Service Managers. Wage value is annualized from the median hourly rate.
The practical trade-off is time versus residual profit. A manager-run Store may provide less owner cash but require less direct labor. An owner-operated Store may provide greater total economic benefit, but the owner is effectively buying a job plus a business and may still need supervisory coverage, payroll taxes, or additional management support.
What can move actual earnings away from the estimate?
Occupancy, labor efficiency, food cost, and sales volume are the largest unresolved drivers. The result is uncertain because the FDD does not disclose a Store-level cost structure. The recurring obligations that are disclosed include a 6% royalty and 3% Brand Fund contribution on Gross Revenue; a technology fee is currently zero but may later rise to the greater of $100 per month or 1% of Gross Revenue.
How much does Item 20 add to the risk picture?
Item 20 adds operating-history context, not a profit measure. The system moved from 113 franchised outlets at the start of 2025 to 98 at year-end: 5 outlets opened and 20 ceased operations for other reasons. That net decline does not prove why any outlet closed or whether a particular Store was profitable, but it increases the importance of reviewing former-franchisee experiences and location-level economics.
- Gross Revenue: the FDD-defined sales base used for Item 19, royalties, and Brand Fund contributions; it is not owner income.
- Manager-run owner earnings: estimated residual business profit after the operating-cost structure embedded in the IRS proxy, before personal taxes and financing principal.
- Owner-operator benefit: manager-run residual plus the market value of full-time manager labor performed by the owner.
- Debt service: financing principal is excluded. The IRS margin contains aggregate interest expense, but a buyer's actual loan structure can materially change cash available to the owner.
- Personal taxes: excluded because federal, state, entity, deduction, and owner circumstances vary.
What should a prospective owner verify before relying on this range?
A buyer should replace the industry proxy with Mrs. Fields-specific operating statements whenever possible. The scenario is decision-useful only as a screening range. The most important next evidence is written Item 19 substantiation and actual franchisee profit-and-loss data for comparable inline Stores in similar occupancy and wage markets.
- Request Item 19 substantiation: confirm the 61 inline Stores, reporting method, Gross Revenue records, exclusions, and whether any amendments changed the June 11, 2026 disclosure.
- Interview current franchisees: ask for food and packaging cost, hourly labor, manager pay, rent and common-area charges, utilities, repairs, insurance, delivery commissions, waste, and local marketing as percentages of Gross Revenue.
- Interview former franchisees: ask why outlets ceased operating, whether sales or occupancy was the main issue, and how much owner labor was required.
- Match the format and market: compare only traditional inline Stores with similar mall or shopping-center traffic, lease economics, hours, and wage rates.
- Separate business profit from compensation: identify what the owner is paid for management work, what remains as residual profit, and what cash is retained for equipment replacement and working capital.
- Model financing separately: obtain lender terms and subtract actual annual principal and interest from operating cash flow rather than using a generic debt assumption.
What is the strongest defensible earnings conclusion?
The strongest defensible manager-run estimate is approximately $5,400 to $56,000 in annual pre-tax owner earnings for one traditional inline Store, with a base scenario near $21,100. It is scenario-based, not an official Mrs. Fields profit disclosure. Active owner management can lift total owner-operator benefit to roughly $74,800 to $125,400, but the added value is primarily compensation for full-time labor.
The most important earnings driver is the combination of Gross Revenue and local operating margin. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of same-brand Store-level expense and profit data. Before making a decision, a buyer should verify the 2026 Item 19 substantiation, obtain comparable franchisee profit-and-loss statements, and test manager-run and owner-operated economics under the actual lease, wage, and financing terms for the proposed location.
FDD citations: 2026 Mrs. Fields Franchise Disclosure Document, Items 6, 7, 15, 19, and 20, pp. 5–11, 26–27, and 32–39. No public franchise-controlled copy of the matching 2026 FDD was verified, so the FDD citations are intentionally unlinked.