That is the central modeled range for pre-tax, manager-run owner earnings from one mature Wireless Zone retail Store. The central scenario is about $111,000. When an active owner replaces the paid general manager, estimated owner-operator benefit rises to roughly $60,000-$285,000, with a central scenario near $163,000; the difference represents compensation for the owner's labor, not additional passive business profit.
The range is an independent analytical scenario, not a financial performance representation made by Wireless Zone LLC. It combines 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document facts - including 2025 Gross Revenue, Gross Profit, the royalty schedule, rent guidance, recurring system fees, and owner-participation rules - with a Bureau of Labor Statistics manager-wage benchmark and clearly identified operating-cost assumptions. Actual results can differ materially by location, Store format, sales mix, labor, occupancy, financing, owner involvement, provider compensation, inventory loss, and execution.
- Legal franchisor
- Wireless Zone LLC, a Connecticut limited liability company and a subsidiary within Round Room.
- Current disclosure reviewed
- 2026 Wireless Zone Franchise Disclosure Document, issued March 31, 2026.
- Item 19 evidence
- 2025 Gross Revenue and Gross Profit by quintile for 727 franchised Stores open for the full calendar year; no Store-level net income or owner compensation.
- Owner-role benchmark
- May 2025 U.S. mean annual wage of $52,830 for first-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers.
- Official brand context
- Wireless Zone franchise information describes a Verizon-authorized wireless retail model.
- Date checked
- July 21, 2026.
How much may a Wireless Zone owner earn annually?
A reasonable central scenario range is about $10,000 to $230,000 per Store for a manager-run owner, before personal income tax and debt service. An owner working full time in place of a general manager has an estimated owner-operator benefit of about $60,000 to $285,000. These are scenario outputs, not official Wireless Zone earnings figures.
The range is anchored to the second, third, and fourth Gross Profit quintiles in Item 19 - the middle 60% of full-year reporting Stores. It is not a probability interval, a guaranteed floor, or a claim that every mature Store falls inside it. The lowest quintile includes Stores with much lower Gross Profit, so operating losses remain possible after rent, payroll, royalties, and debt service.
| Scenario and FDD anchor | Median Gross Revenue | Manager-run owner earnings | Owner-operator benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Conservative Fourth Gross Profit quintile median |
$1,270,110 | $8,000 | $61,000 |
|
Base Third Gross Profit quintile median |
$1,628,709 | $111,000 | $163,000 |
|
Upside Second Gross Profit quintile median |
$2,143,599 | $232,000 | $284,000 |
Scenario outputs are rounded to the nearest $1,000. “Owner-operator benefit” equals residual manager-run earnings plus the $52,830 manager-wage value because the owner performs that job. It is not passive profit and does not include a separate owner salary.
The base scenario starts with $1.63 million of official Item 19 Gross Revenue and $519,479 of official Item 19 Gross Profit. Neither amount is owner income. Item 19 explicitly states that operating expenses, freight, inventory loss, royalties, and other costs still must be deducted to reach net income or profit.
What does the 2026 Item 19 actually measure?
Item 19 officially reports Gross Revenue, Gross Profit, Gross Margin, and net activations and upgrades for 2025 franchised Stores; it does not report Operating Profit, EBITDA, Net Income, owner salary, distributions, or cash flow. The strongest evidence therefore measures Store sales and a source-defined Gross Profit before major operating costs, not annual owner earnings.
Third-quintile median 2025 Gross Revenue for a full-year franchised Store.
Third-quintile median; still before royalty and normal Store operating expenses.
Franchised Stores operating for the entire 12 months ended December 31, 2025.
Modeled from the progressive monthly royalty tiers using annual Gross Profit divided evenly by 12.
May 2025 BLS mean annual wage for retail sales supervisors/managers.
Median 2025 Gross Profit by Item 19 quintile; quintiles are ranked by Gross Profit.
Interpretation: official Gross Profit differs by nearly fourfold between the top- and bottom-quintile medians. That spread is the clearest same-brand evidence that one clean owner-income number would be misleading.
Source: 2026 Wireless Zone Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, annual 2025 quintile table, pp. 47-48. Gross Profit is not owner earnings.
Which Stores are included?
The annual table covers 727 franchised Stores open for the complete 12-month period ended December 31, 2025. Wireless Zone LLC reported 792 franchised Stores at year-end, excluded 67 Stores that opened during 2025 without operating the full year, and separately noted 21 Stores that permanently closed during 2025. The cohort therefore emphasizes full-year survivors and does not show first-year ramp-up or the results of closed Stores.
Item 19 groups the reporting Stores into quintiles by Gross Profit. It does not separate kiosk, mall, in-line, cart, or strip-center formats, even though Item 7 describes multiple location types and a typical Store size of 1,100 to 2,500 square feet. Format-level earnings cannot be isolated from the disclosure.
Why is Gross Profit still not business profit?
Wireless Zone defines Gross Profit as Gross Revenue less “Allowable Cost,” a contractual cost measure used in the royalty calculation. The Franchise Agreement says Allowable Cost does not include labor, rent, administrative overhead, depreciation, taxes, or other operating costs. Item 19 also warns that freight, inventory loss, royalties, and other expenses still may need to be deducted. The label therefore cannot be silently renamed owner earnings.
The FTC consumer guide to Item 19 explains that franchisor sales or earnings claims must have a reasonable factual basis and that buyers should evaluate the source, population, assumptions, and limitations. Wireless Zone states that written substantiation for its Item 19 representation is available to prospective franchisees on reasonable request.
How is the estimate built from Gross Profit?
The model deducts a progressive royalty, occupancy, a general manager in the manager-run case, listed recurring system fees, and an explicit allowance for remaining Store operating costs from the appropriate Item 19 median Gross Profit. The result is an estimated pre-tax operating cash benefit before debt service, personal taxes, depreciation, capital expenditures, and owner draws.
Estimated pre-tax owner earnings means cash remaining after modeled normal unit-level operating expenses and recurring franchise fees, but before personal income tax, financing interest and principal, depreciation, capital expenditures, and owner distributions. The owner-operator case removes the paid manager wage and labels the resulting amount owner-operator benefit because it includes the value of work performed by the owner.
What does the base-case bridge look like?
The base case begins with the third-quintile medians for 2025: $1,628,709 of Gross Revenue and $519,479 of Gross Profit. After the modeled deductions below, the manager-run estimate is approximately $110,588, rounded to $111,000.
| Base-case bridge | Amount | Evidence treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Item 19 Gross Revenue | $1,628,709 | Official third-quintile median |
| Less: FDD-defined Allowable Cost | ($1,109,230) | Derived: Gross Revenue minus Gross Profit |
| Item 19 Gross Profit | $519,479 | Official third-quintile median |
| Modeled WZ LLC royalty | ($98,322) | Derived from Exhibit 1 tiers; 18.9% effective rate |
| Occupancy | ($80,000) | Scenario assumption inside Item 7 annual rent range |
| Other Store operating costs | ($171,428) | Scenario allowance: 33% of Gross Profit |
| General manager wage | ($52,830) | May 2025 BLS retail-manager mean wage |
| Listed recurring systems and giving contribution | ($6,311) | Item 6 midpoint plus $0.25 per median transaction |
| Estimated manager-run owner earnings | $110,588 | Independent scenario; before debt and personal tax |
How is the royalty calculated?
The 2026 Franchise Agreement uses monthly Gross Profit tiers: 22% on the first $5,000, then progressively lower rates, reaching 9% on Gross Profit above $100,000 per month. The base model divides annual Gross Profit evenly over 12 months and applies the tier schedule, producing an 18.9% effective rate. This is a reproducible approximation, not the actual royalty for any Store, because monthly seasonality, performance incentives, compliance status, and possible threshold adjustments can change the amount.
Which recurring fees are explicitly included?
The listed systems allowance covers the current software license and point-of-sale program fee, technology and support, digital video and radio, automated messaging, ReBiz traffic-counting service, and the mandatory $0.25 Round Room Gives contribution per activation or upgrade. The scenarios use high, midpoint, and low values from the disclosed ranges. Variable program fees, optional services, extraordinary charges, transfer or renewal fees, and startup expenditures are not treated as ordinary annual costs.
- Conservative: fourth-quintile median Gross Profit; $110,000 occupancy; 35% of Gross Profit for other operating costs; high end of listed recurring system fees.
- Base: third-quintile median Gross Profit; $80,000 occupancy; 33% of Gross Profit for other operating costs; midpoint listed recurring system fees.
- Upside: second-quintile median Gross Profit; $55,000 occupancy; 31% of Gross Profit for other operating costs; low end of listed recurring system fees.
- Manager-run: includes a $52,830 general-manager wage benchmark. Employer payroll taxes and benefits are included conceptually within the broader operating-cost allowance, not added as a separate line.
- Excluded from all three: financing interest and principal, depreciation, capital expenditures and remodels, personal income tax, owner draws, and the Item 7 startup investment.
How does owner involvement change the result?
Owner involvement changes compensation more than it changes the underlying Store economics. Item 15 permits a manager-run Store, but if no qualifying owner devotes at least 40 hours per week, the franchisee must designate an approved general manager. When the owner personally fills that full-time role, the model adds the market value of the avoided manager wage and calls the result owner-operator benefit.
The $52,830 gap in each scenario represents the modeled value of the general-manager labor performed by an active owner.
Interpretation: replacing the paid manager increases cash available to the owner, but the increment compensates a full-time operating role. A manager-run Store is not necessarily passive: Item 15 still permits required owner meetings and training.
Sources: 2026 Wireless Zone Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 15, pp. 38-39; BLS Retail Trade occupational wage data, May 2025. Scenario values rounded to the nearest $1,000.
The central owner-operator figure of about $163,000 contains two economically different components: approximately $111,000 of modeled residual Store earnings and $52,830 of labor value. Treating the full amount as passive profit would overstate the return generated by the business itself.
Which assumptions can move earnings the most?
The largest uncertainty is the operating-expense structure below Gross Profit. Wireless Zone Item 19 does not disclose payroll, occupancy, local promotion, merchant fees, insurance, utilities, freight, inventory loss, or Store-level net income. A small change in these costs can move estimated owner earnings sharply because the conservative scenario has little residual margin.
The assumptions also do not move independently. A high-traffic site may support more sales while carrying higher rent, longer opening hours, and a larger staffing plan. A lower-volume site may have cheaper occupancy but insufficient contribution to absorb fixed costs. Active ownership can reduce payroll only when the owner has the time and skill to perform the operating role without weakening sales management. For those reasons, the three cases should not be read as simple percentage changes around a forecast. They are internally consistent combinations designed to test economic resilience. For a specific site, replace each assumption with signed lease terms, a weekly staffing schedule, local wage rates, expected transaction mix, monthly seasonality, shrink history, merchant costs, insurance quotes, and vendor invoices, then rerun the bridge month by month. An annual result can look acceptable while the business still experiences cash shortages when inventory purchases peak, commissions arrive later, or chargebacks occur before other receipts are collected. The practical test is whether normal operations can fund payroll, inventory, rent, and required payments throughout the year without repeated unplanned cash injections.
- Gross Profit level
- The FDD's quintile medians range from $260,390 to $974,349. This is the dominant same-brand driver.
- Payroll model
- Sales staffing, commissions, scheduling, employer taxes, and benefits are not disclosed. The $52,830 manager wage is only a national retail benchmark.
- Occupancy
- Item 7 estimates annual rent of $16,500 to $162,500 before some common-area charges and taxes; the scenario rent assumptions sit inside that broad range.
- Royalty timing
- The royalty is calculated monthly. Dividing annual Gross Profit evenly by 12 may overstate or understate the actual effective rate when sales are seasonal.
- Provider economics
- Gross Revenue includes commissions and residuals, while provider schedules, chargebacks, customer mix, and program terms can change.
- Financing
- Interest and principal are outside the operating estimate. A highly financed acquisition can produce substantially less cash available to the owner.
Why not apply a generic retail profit margin?
A broad retail margin would create false precision. The Census Bureau classifies establishments selling wireless plans as carrier agents under NAICS 517122, Agents for Wireless Telecommunications Services, while Wireless Zone Stores also sell devices and accessories like a retailer. This hybrid commission-and-merchandise model does not align cleanly with one public industry average.
The Census Annual Integrated Economic Survey provides authoritative revenue and expense data, and IRS Statistics of Income reports receipts, deductions, and net income by industry. Neither public source isolates franchised Verizon-authorized stores with the same Gross Profit definition, royalty model, ownership structure, and full-year cohort. They were therefore used to assess comparability, not to overwrite the same-brand Item 19 data or impose an all-in profit margin.
Confidence is limited because revenue and Gross Profit are strong same-brand FDD facts, but the owner-earnings result depends materially on a modeled operating-cost allowance, rent assumptions, and a national manager-wage benchmark. The range is useful for screening and sensitivity analysis, not for underwriting a particular location.
What should a buyer verify before relying on the range?
A buyer should replace every scenario assumption with location-specific evidence before treating the range as a financing or personal-income plan. The most useful evidence is Store-level documentation and comparable franchisee experience, not a wider generic industry average.
- Request the written substantiation supporting 2026 FDD Item 19, including definitions, source records, and the exact treatment of chargebacks, freight, inventory loss, and Gross Profit.
- Ask for the proposed site's or acquisition target's trailing 24 to 36 months of monthly Gross Revenue, Gross Profit, payroll, rent, common-area charges, merchant fees, inventory adjustments, royalties, and owner compensation.
- Confirm the current royalty thresholds, any CPI adjustment, performance incentives, and the effect of monthly seasonality on the effective rate.
- Interview franchisees in the same Store format, market type, sales-volume band, and owner-role model. Separate owner salary from distributions and retained business cash.
- Ask current and former franchisees listed in Item 20 about manager staffing, sales commissions, turnover, inventory shrink, chargebacks, local advertising, and required technology costs.
- Model debt interest and principal separately using the buyer's actual financed amount, rate, term, and collateral structure. Do not deduct the Item 7 startup investment from one year's sales.
- Have a franchise attorney and accountant reconcile the Franchise Agreement's Gross Profit and royalty definitions to the target Store's general ledger and tax returns.
What is the strongest defensible earnings view?
The strongest defensible central range is about $10,000 to $230,000 of annual manager-run pre-tax owner earnings per mature Store, or about $60,000 to $285,000 of owner-operator benefit when the owner replaces the general manager. Both ranges are independent scenarios anchored to 2025 Item 19 Gross Profit, not official net-income disclosures.
The most important driver is the Store's Gross Profit position within the disclosed quintile distribution. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the full expense structure below Gross Profit, especially payroll, occupancy, freight, inventory loss, and local operating overhead. Before proceeding, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, obtain Store-level monthly records, and interview comparable franchisees about actual manager-run profit and the labor hours embedded in owner compensation.
FDD citations used in this article: 2026 Wireless Zone Franchise Disclosure Document, Items 6, 7, 15, 19, and 20; Franchise Agreement Exhibit 1. No public official copy of the matching FDD was identified, so the FDD citations are intentionally unlinked.