These are independent estimates for a mature, single-territory U.S. SpringGreen Franchised Business. The first range is estimated pre-tax residual earnings after normal corporate operating deductions; the second is estimated owner-operator benefit when the owner replaces a full-time operations manager. The 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document reports 2025 Gross Sales and Gross Profit Margin, but it does not report Operating Profit, EBITDA, Net Income, Owner Compensation, or cash distributions.
This earnings range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by Spring-Green Lawn Care Corp. It combines identified 2026 FDD facts with a separately identified IRS operating-margin benchmark, a transparent revenue spread, and a BLS manager-wage assumption. Actual results can differ materially by territory size, climate, customer density, service mix, pricing, labor, marketing, vehicle costs, insurance, financing, owner involvement, and execution.
Legal franchisor: Spring-Green Lawn Care Corp., a Delaware corporation and wholly owned subsidiary of Spring-Green Enterprises, Inc. FDD: issued March 30, 2026. Item 19 status: official 2025 Gross Sales, Cost of Sales, Gross Profit Margin, marketing investment, and customer-retention disclosures; no net-profit or owner-compensation disclosure. Applicable offer: a U.S. lawn care, pest control, and related-services business in a territory initially containing up to 60,000 single-family dwelling units. Benchmarks: IRS 2022 corporate tax-return data and BLS May 2023 Landscaping Services wages. Date checked: July 21, 2026.
FDD citations: Spring-Green Lawn Care Corp., 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, cover; Items 1, 6, 7, 15, 19, and 20. No matching public FDD copy was verified on a franchise-controlled website, so FDD citations in this article are intentionally unlinked.
Median single-territory Gross Sales
2025 result for 35 Franchised Businesses operating one territory. Revenue, not owner earnings.
Median Gross Profit Margin
Reported for 62 Franchised Businesses; it excludes franchisee and administrative compensation.
Median local marketing investment
Single-territory 2025 cohort; separate from the 2% Advertising Fund contribution.
IRS aggregate margin anchor
Net income less deficit divided by business receipts for a broad corporate service category.
Operations-manager wage value
BLS annual mean wage for General and Operations Managers in Landscaping Services, May 2023.
What does the 2026 SpringGreen Item 19 actually measure?
Item 19 measures Gross Sales, direct Cost of Sales, Gross Profit Margin, marketing investment, new-services revenue, and customer retention—not annual owner earnings. The strongest owner-income evidence is therefore indirect: official revenue and gross-margin data establish the top of the income statement, while the undisclosed operating-expense layer must be estimated separately.
Table B reports 2025 Gross Sales for 72 Franchised Businesses that operated for at least one full calendar year. Those businesses operated 126 territories and 385 full-time production vehicles. The overall median was $929,227 per Franchised Business; the single-territory median was $608,238; and the multiple-territory median was $1,301,457. The figures are per Franchised Business, not per territory or per owner.
Table A reports a 68.4% average and 68.8% median Gross Profit Margin for 62 Franchised Businesses. The FDD defines Cost of Sales as Material Costs plus Direct Labor Costs. Direct Labor excludes payroll taxes, medical insurance, fringe benefits, franchisee compensation, and administrative or office personnel. Consequently, Gross Profit Margin is far above the amount that can become owner income.
2025 Item 19 average and median Gross Sales per Franchised Business; multiple-territory results are portfolio revenue, not per-territory revenue.
Interpretation: The average exceeds the median in every cohort, indicating that higher-revenue businesses pull the average upward. A buyer should not treat the systemwide average as a typical single-territory result.
Source: Spring-Green Lawn Care Corp., 2026 FDD, Item 19, Table B, pp. 46–49.
At the $608,238 single-territory median, a 68.8% Gross Profit Margin would still leave substantial costs below gross profit: royalty, Advertising Fund contributions, local marketing, technology, management and office payroll, payroll burden, vehicles, fuel, insurance, facilities, professional fees, interest, depreciation, and other operating expenses. The FDD does not disclose the combined amount of those costs.
How was the annual earnings range estimated?
The estimate uses the $608,238 FDD median single-territory Gross Sales figure as its central revenue anchor and applies a 5.1% to 11.1% post-expense margin sensitivity. The central 8.1% margin comes from IRS 2022 corporate tax-return data for “Other administrative and support services,” the closest available minor-industry row that includes landscaping-related businesses but also contains other service types.
The IRS benchmark is calculated as (Net Income − Deficit) ÷ Business Receipts: ($40.140 billion − $8.023 billion) ÷ $398.482 billion = 8.06%. Because the source is a broad corporate category rather than SpringGreen-specific outlet data, the model uses an explicit sensitivity of three percentage points below and above that benchmark. Revenue is modeled at 80%, 100%, and 120% of the FDD median because Item 19 provides no single-territory quartiles.
Benchmark source: IRS Corporation Income Tax Returns Complete Report, Tax Year 2022, Table 1, “Other administrative and support services.” The benchmark is a proxy, not a SpringGreen result.
| Scenario | Revenue anchor | Margin assumption | Manager-run residual | Owner-operator benefit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Conservative 80% of FDD median; benchmark −3 points |
$486,590 | 5.1% | $24,600 | $115,400 |
|
Base FDD median; IRS benchmark |
$608,238 | 8.1% | $49,000 | $139,800 |
|
Upside 120% of FDD median; benchmark +3 points |
$729,886 | 11.1% | $80,700 | $171,500 |
Estimated annual manager-run residual earnings compared with owner-operator benefit, before personal income taxes and financing principal.
Interpretation: Owner involvement changes the economic result primarily by replacing a paid management function. The added amount compensates the owner for full-time labor and should not be described as passive business profit.
Sources: 2026 FDD Item 19 revenue anchor; IRS 2022 corporate margin proxy; BLS May 2023 Landscaping Services wage estimates. Calculations rounded after full-precision inputs.
- Manager-run residual: an accounting-earnings proxy after normal corporate deductions represented in the IRS benchmark. Because the IRS row is aggregated, the exact treatment of manager compensation, officer compensation, interest, and depreciation cannot be isolated.
- Owner-operator benefit: manager-run residual plus $90,760, the BLS annual mean wage for General and Operations Managers in NAICS 561730 Landscaping Services. BLS wage data exclude self-employed workers and do not include employer benefit costs.
- Taxes: personal federal, state, and local income taxes are excluded. The estimate is not after-tax take-home pay.
- Debt and capital: financing principal payments and capital expenditures are excluded; the IRS accounting benchmark may include business interest and depreciation deductions.
- Distributions: business earnings, owner salary, owner draw, retained earnings, and cash distributions are not assumed to be the same amount.
How do SpringGreen fees affect the earnings model?
At the $608,238 single-territory median, the tiered Royalty, 2% Advertising Fund contribution, and 5% local-advertising minimum total about $98,736, or 16.2% of revenue, before technology and other fixed fees. If local marketing equals the 8.0% single-territory median actually reported in Item 19, those three categories rise to about $116,983, or 19.2% of revenue.
The IRS margin is an all-in accounting proxy, so the scenario does not subtract these fees again; doing so would risk double counting expenses already embedded in the benchmark. The fee bridge is shown separately so a buyer can replace the proxy with an outlet-specific operating budget.
| Recurring item | 2026 FDD term | At $608,238 revenue | Earnings-model treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 10% through $250,000; 9% from $250,000 to $500,000; 8% above $500,000 | $56,159 | Material FDD obligation; reflected conceptually within the post-expense margin proxy, not subtracted twice. |
| Advertising Fund | 2% of Gross Sales | $12,165 | Separate from local marketing. |
| Local advertising | 5% of prior-year Gross Sales or $18,500 per territory, whichever is greater | $30,412 minimum | Item 19 single-territory median actual investment was 8.0%, or about $48,659 at the revenue anchor. |
| Technology and license floor | $260 monthly plus individual licenses; at least one $32 monthly Full Office License | $3,504 | Current listed minimum before additional users or future fee adjustments. |
| Call center | $200–$2,000 monthly; required for the first two years, then case by case | $2,400–$24,000 | Early-year cost can make new-business earnings lower than mature-cohort estimates. |
| Other listed fees | $210 education; $20 monthly April–November advisory assessment; $650 national meeting plus expenses when required | At least $1,020 | Excludes travel, optional equipment lease, customer surveys, property-data updates, and contingent charges. |
Source: Spring-Green Lawn Care Corp., 2026 FDD, Item 6, pp. 8–14; Item 11, pp. 26–34; Item 19, Table C, pp. 49–52.
The most important fee-related uncertainty is not the published royalty formula; it is whether total local marketing, manager and office payroll, vehicle expense, insurance, and customer-acquisition costs produce a post-expense margin near 5%, 8%, or 11%. A three-point change in margin at $608,238 of revenue changes annual residual earnings by about $18,247.
Does SpringGreen require the owner to work full time?
No, but the Franchised Business must be under direct full-time supervision by the owner or by a trained and competent operations manager. Item 15 recommends personal owner participation but allows manager-run operation, provided the required manager completes approved training and the franchisor is kept informed of the manager’s identity.
That operating rule creates two economically different outcomes. A manager-run owner receives only the residual business result after paying for management. An owner-operator may retain that residual and also avoid an external manager wage, but the avoided wage is compensation for labor performed. It is not passive income, and it may not be available if the owner lacks the time, licensing, operational skill, or local presence to perform the role effectively.
The official SpringGreen franchise FAQ similarly states that dedicated leadership and active management involvement are generally required unless a full-time approved manager operates the business. Item 15 of the current FDD remains the controlling evidence for the contractual operating structure.
- Gross Sales
- Customer billings under the FDD definition, net of specified discounts, credits, and collected sales-related taxes. It is revenue.
- Gross Profit Margin
- Gross Sales minus Material Costs and Direct Labor Costs. It is not operating profit because many expenses remain below it.
- Manager-run residual earnings
- This article’s accounting-profit proxy after normal corporate deductions, before personal taxes and financing principal.
- Owner-operator benefit
- Residual earnings plus the market wage value of management labor performed by the owner. It combines business return and labor compensation.
- Cash distributions
- Cash actually distributed to an owner after financing, working-capital, tax, and reinvestment decisions. The FDD does not disclose this measure.
Why is the evidence confidence limited?
Confidence is limited because the current FDD does not disclose an operating-profit or owner-compensation measure, and the external margin benchmark is broader than the SpringGreen system. The $608,238 revenue anchor is official and brand-specific; the 5.1% to 11.1% earnings margins are not.
Four limitations matter most. First, the single-territory cohort includes territories with fewer than 120,000 SFDUs, while the current offer initially covers up to 60,000 SFDUs. The FDD separately reports only three businesses with territories of 60,000 SFDUs or fewer, too small a subset for a stable earnings model. Second, Table A’s Gross Profit Margin cohort includes 62 businesses and consolidates multiple territories owned by the same Franchised Business, so it is not the same population as the 35 single-territory businesses in Table B.
Third, 62 of 72 eligible full-year Franchised Businesses supplied sufficient cost data for Table A. The franchisor states that it does not know whether the ten omitted businesses would materially change the gross-margin result. Fourth, the IRS benchmark aggregates corporations across “Other administrative and support services,” including business models with different labor, equipment, franchise-fee, occupancy, and financing structures.
Item 20 provides useful population context rather than earnings proof: 72 independent Franchised Businesses operated 126 franchised territories at December 31, 2025, and the franchised-territory count ended 2025 unchanged at 126. That does not establish profitability, but it confirms the scale and denominator behind Item 19.
The official Item 19 evidence is strongest for mature businesses that completed the entire 2025 calendar year. A new territory may have lower sales, higher customer-acquisition expense, mandatory call-center costs, seasonal ramp-up, vehicle financing, and working-capital needs that are not represented by the mature median.
What should a buyer verify before using this earnings range?
A buyer should replace the broad margin assumption with written, territory-relevant operating evidence before treating any scenario as a budget. The FTC advises prospects to examine the source, sample, assumptions, and limitations of Item 19 claims and to request written substantiation.
Guidance: FTC Consumer’s Guide to Buying a Franchise and FTC guidance on evaluating financial performance representations.
- Request Item 19 written substantiation and ask for the exact 2025 P&L line definitions behind Material Costs, Direct Labor Costs, Gross Profit Margin, and marketing investment.
- Ask the franchisor to identify single-territory businesses with territory size, climate, service mix, and customer density comparable to the proposed market.
- Interview current and former franchisees from Item 20 about manager wages, owner hours, office payroll, vehicle and fuel costs, insurance, bad debt, customer retention, and actual local marketing spend.
- Separate mature operations from first- and second-year results, including call-center charges, ramp-up losses, opening marketing, and seasonal cash needs.
- Build two operating budgets: one with a paid full-time operations manager and one with the owner performing that role. Do not count the same labor twice.
- Model interest and principal using the buyer’s actual financing terms, then keep personal income taxes outside the business earnings calculation.
- Confirm whether equipment leases, property-data updates, additional software users, national meetings, required licenses, and local pesticide or pest-control compliance costs apply in the target state.
What is the strongest defensible annual earnings range?
The strongest defensible published range is approximately $25,000 to $81,000 in estimated manager-run pre-tax residual earnings for a mature single-territory business, with a base scenario near $49,000. An active owner who replaces a full-time operations manager may realize approximately $115,000 to $171,000 in owner-operator benefit, with a base scenario near $140,000; roughly $90,760 of that benefit represents the market value of management labor rather than passive profit.
The result is scenario-based, not an official SpringGreen earnings disclosure. The most important driver is the post-expense operating margin after direct costs, royalty, marketing, management, vehicles, insurance, and administrative overhead. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of same-brand Operating Profit or Net Income data for a comparable single-territory population.
A buyer should rely most heavily on the 2026 FDD’s official revenue and gross-margin definitions, then verify the missing expense layer through Item 19 substantiation, outlet-level records where available, and structured interviews with comparable franchisees. The official U.S. SpringGreen franchise website confirms the current U.S. franchise program, while the brand’s FDD explainer directs prospects to request the latest disclosure document rather than rely on older figures.