How Much Does an Uptown Cheapskate Franchise Owner Make?

It measures store income before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and owner compensation. That is the FDD’s exact definition for the November 2024–October 2025 reporting period. It is an official financial performance measure, but it is not personal salary, owner draw, distributions, after-tax income or free cash flow.

The distinction matters because Item 19 says Labor includes employee wages, payroll taxes and benefits, while excluding compensation received by the owner. A manager-run store should normally carry the manager’s pay inside Labor. An owner-operated store may show a higher reported “Net Income” because the owner’s labor is not charged as compensation. Item 19 does not separate those two ownership patterns.

• Gross Sales All store and online revenue, excluding sales or use tax. It is revenue, not earnings.
• Gross Profit Gross Sales minus Cost of Goods Sold, including inventory shrinkage and markdowns. It still precedes labor, occupancy, marketing and other operating costs.
• Net Income The FDD-defined result before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and owner compensation.
• Owner take-home pay Not disclosed. Personal taxes, financing, distributions, retained cash and owner-specific compensation decisions remain outside Item 19.

Source: 2026 Uptown Cheapskate FDD, Item 19, pp. 49–51. For the federal framework governing Item 19 claims, see the FTC’s Consumer’s Guide to Buying a Franchise and the FTC’s FDD deep-dive guidance.

Median Net Income rose from $116,776 in the fourth Gross Sales quartile to $419,534 in the first quartile. These are official FDD results for sales-ranked cohorts, not probabilities, forecasts or guaranteed performance tiers. The central all-store median was $210,724.

The quartile-median span is a more defensible planning frame than the full individual-store range because it reduces the influence of one unusually weak or strong location. It still is not a predicted range for a specific site.

An actively working owner may receive part of the reported Net Income as compensation for labor, while a manager-run owner may view more of the result as residual business profit. This accounting effect is official and important, but its dollar amount is uncertain because Item 19 does not disclose separate owner-operated and manager-run results.

Item 15 requires an individual owner—or a person owning at least 10% of an entity franchisee—to supervise the store full-time for the first six months. After that period, the store may be managed on-site by the owner or a trained manager, although the franchisor recommends owner management. The official Uptown Cheapskate franchise process also describes a willingness to commit full-time, and the brand’s training and support overview emphasizes hands-on store operations.

• Owner-operated store Owner compensation is excluded from the Item 19 Labor line. The reported Net Income can therefore include both residual operating economics and the economic value of work performed by the owner.
• Manager-run store A non-owner manager’s wages, payroll taxes and benefits should be included in Labor. The remaining Net Income is closer to residual business profit, but still precedes interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and owner compensation.
• What cannot be quantified The FDD does not identify the number of stores in each operating model, manager compensation by store, owner hours or owner distributions. No evidence-supported passive-income adjustment can be calculated.

Source: 2026 Uptown Cheapskate FDD, Items 15 and 19, pp. 44–45 and 49–53.

Inventory cost, labor and facility expense are the largest disclosed deductions, while the franchise agreement adds recurring royalty, marketing and technology obligations. The Item 19 P&L already includes reported operating expenses, so these fees should not be subtracted a second time from the official Net Income result.

For all 115 franchised locations, average Gross Sales were $1,405,704. Average Cost of Goods Sold was $510,596, leaving $895,108 of Gross Profit. Average Total Expenses were $667,749, including $306,109 of Labor and $162,642 of Facility cost, producing average Net Income of $227,359. These are averages; they should not be combined with the median figures as though they describe one store.

The $364,015–$682,215 initial investment in Item 7 is a startup capital requirement, not a recurring annual expense. It should not be subtracted from one year of Gross Sales or Net Income. Depreciation, replacement capital and remodel cash needs still matter, but Item 19’s Net Income definition excludes depreciation and amortization.

What about debt service?

Debt service is separate and can materially reduce owner cash flow. The official Net Income excludes interest, and it does not deduct financing principal. Item 10 says BaseCamp may, at its discretion, offer loans at 15%–20% annual interest for 12, 24 or 36 months. Its example—$25,000 at 18% for 24 months—requires $1,248.10 monthly principal-and-interest payments, or $14,977.20 over twelve months. That example is not a standard financing assumption and is not deducted from the published earnings range.

Source: 2026 Uptown Cheapskate FDD, Items 6, 7, 10 and 19, pp. 6–15, 21 and 51. The brand’s current U.S. operating model and support materials are available on the official Uptown Cheapskate franchise website.

Substantial uncertainty remains even though the evidence quality is high. The FDD gives strong historical unit economics, but it does not predict a new location, separate owner roles or show the cash consequences of each buyer’s lease, financing and tax structure.

Item 19 began with 157 U.S. stores operating during the measurement period and included 129: 115 franchised and 14 company-owned. Twenty-eight stores were excluded—23 open less than 12 months, four without complete financial reports and one that ceased operations. The earnings answer in this article uses only the 115 franchised locations and does not blend in company-owned economics.

• Maturity bias Stores open less than 12 months were excluded, so the results are not a first-year earnings estimate.
• Survivorship and reporting One store that ceased operations and four stores with incomplete reports were excluded. Their absence may make the included cohort look stronger than a complete-startup population.
• Owner-role mix The FDD does not identify how many stores were owner-operated, manager-run or multi-unit managed.
• Site economics Facility expense averaged 11.6% of Gross Sales, but the quartile tables ranged from 9.1% in the first sales quartile to 16.7% in the fourth. Lease quality can materially change earnings.
• Observed tails Individual franchised-store Net Income ranged from a $79,045 loss to $1,076,696. The quartile-median band is useful for planning, but neither tail can be ignored.

Verify the exact Item 19 cohort, owner-role accounting and location-specific cost structure. The official figures are decision-useful only when the buyer understands which costs and labor arrangements match the proposed store.

• Request Item 19 written substantiation. Reconcile Gross Sales, Labor, Facility, Marketing, owner compensation and the Net Income definition for the 115 franchised units.
• Interview franchisees in every sales quartile. Ask whether the owner works in the store, whether a general manager is included in payroll and how many weekly owner hours are required.
• Separate mature-store economics from ramp-up. Ask new and recently opened franchisees about the first 12–24 months because stores open less than one year were excluded from Item 19.
• Stress-test rent and labor locally. Compare the proposed lease, common-area charges, wage rates, benefits and staffing plan with the FDD’s Facility and Labor percentages.
• Build a cash-flow bridge. Start with the FDD-defined Net Income, then model interest, principal, capital expenditures, inventory growth, owner payroll, distributions and working-capital needs separately.
• Do not calculate personal take-home from Item 19 alone. Entity structure, state and local taxes, deductions and household circumstances require individualized tax advice.

The FTC recommends evaluating Item 19 alongside Item 20, the franchise agreement, financial statements and franchisee interviews. See the FTC’s guidance on considering, calculating and consulting.