How Does the Jet-Black Franchise Work?

A Jet-Black® Business sells Sealcoat Products and Services for asphalt installation and maintenance. The authorized scope includes driveway and parking-lot sealcoating, crackfilling, patchwork, oil-spot treatment, power washing, grass edging, commercial sweeping, pavement maintenance, construction and reconstruction, plus other approved related products and services. The official consumer site separates the main demand paths into residential driveway services and commercial parking-lot services.

The transaction is a quoted field project rather than a storefront sale. Work is performed at the property, so estimating accuracy, travel routing, surface condition, weather and access affect whether an inquiry can move into production. The contract leaves final price and terms with the local operator, while the required catalog and service standards remain centrally defined.

The FDD does not publish a universal daily dispatch script, but the Franchise Agreement defines the Estimator and General Manager roles, requires customer tracking in STARS, and sets payment and reporting deadlines. The official site provides separate residential quote intake and commercial quote intake.

Operationally, the cycle has two linked queues. The front-office queue turns inquiries into written scopes and accepted work; the field queue turns accepted work into prepared, completed and paid jobs. In colder or wetter markets, the FDD states that effective application depends on mild temperatures and clean, dry surfaces, so production timing can diverge from the pace of incoming demand.

Personal owner participation is not required. If the owner does not operate the Business, a trained General Manager must manage it; the Franchise Agreement also requires a General Manager on duty to supervise employees and business operations. Jet-Black defines the General Manager broadly across administration, customer relations, operations, marketing, recordkeeping, staffing, training, inventory and equipment maintenance.

A manager-run structure therefore changes who performs the daily functions, not who carries the contractual obligation. The local entity still bears responsibility for payroll, training, conduct, records, taxes, insurance and compliance. It must also maintain enough competent personnel to provide efficient service, but the disclosure does not prescribe a fixed crew size or a standard division between office and field work.

The contract places operating scale behind an asset rule: after the first partial calendar year, the franchisee must own and actively operate at least one approved truck-and-trailer system for every $200,000 of prior-year Gross Revenue. This is an equipment-capacity requirement, not an earnings statement; failure can permit territory reduction or termination.

Each Jet-Black Territory is an exclusive, zip-code-defined area containing at least 20,000 Qualified Residences, meaning single-family residences with household incomes of at least $100,000. Jet-Black may not place another Jet-Black® Business inside it without written permission. A franchisee may serve an unassigned area outside the Territory, but Jet-Black can revoke that permission and require customer transition within 30 days.

The boundary therefore governs where local solicitation and acceptance may occur, but it does not guarantee every inquiry arising from that geography. Practical routing depends on the approved map, nearby operators, reserved distribution rights and any account policy then in effect. Relocation also requires written consent, so the protected area is a contractual operating unit rather than a freely movable service radius.

Across the three reported years, total Jet-Black Territories increased from 101 at the start of 2023 to 120 at the end of 2025. The year-end franchised count moved from 103 in 2023 to 114 in 2024 and 117 in 2025, while company-owned Territories declined from six at year-end 2023 to three at year-end 2024 and remained at three in 2025.

• Request the current Standard Operating Manual sections covering jobsite standards, STARS, commercial work, subcontracting, marketing and approved vendors; the FDD publishes only the table of contents.
• Confirm the proposed Territory’s zip codes, Qualified Residence count, current neighboring operators and the process for handling leads or customers outside the protected area.
• Identify which Sealcoat Products and Services are currently mandatory, which are optional, and which optional services require Jet-Black or another approved provider.
• Confirm the current approved-supplier list, product-delivery route, trailer specification, required inventory level and equipment additions triggered by the number of Territories or operating volume.
• Map the intended owner, General Manager, Estimator, office and field-crew functions against the contract; the FDD does not prescribe a standard headcount, wage structure or shift model.
• Review the current STARS functionality, Customer Data agreement, cybersecurity duties, reporting deadlines, payment-processing arrangement and authorized digital-marketing accounts.

Primary contractual evidence: 2026 Jet-Black FDD, Items 1, 6, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16 and 20; Franchise Agreement Articles 1, 2, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 14. Supplemental operating context: official franchise FAQs and the official participating-location service page.