Independent franchise research
What franchise ownership actually costs.
Franchise brochures show you the upside. Franchise Disclosure Documents show you the rest — if you know where to look. We read the filings, model the unit economics, and publish what the numbers say, brand by brand. No broker commissions, no franchisor sign-off, no sales pitch.
Brands we cover
Each brand gets its own research library — FDD and Item 19 analysis, realistic owner earnings, total capital required, financing routes, and the risks that don’t appear in the pitch deck.
Fitness & Wellness
Infrared fitness
Hotworx
A ~$400K investment with a payback period measured in years, not months. We model what an owner actually takes home on $330K of revenue, what the FDD leaves out, and where the downside sits.
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Boutique fitness & reformer Pilates
Club Pilates
$984K average revenue across 849 studios (2024, per the 2025 FDD), a 1.9× quartile spread, ~12% combined fee load — and a $17M FTC settlement against the parent. Both pictures, one resource.
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Education & Child Care
Early education & child care
Primrose Schools
A $743K–$1.53M build where 45 cents of every revenue dollar goes to payroll and the fee stack reaches 13% of gross. We model Item 19 by quartile, the real cost of the real estate, and the licensing exposure.
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After-school music education
School of Rock
A $425K–$705K investment where company-owned schools outperform franchised by 38% and the only disclosed NOI belongs to corporate. We break down the fee stack, the revenue gap, and what it means for your underwriting.
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Early education & child care
Kiddie Academy
A $405K–$915K investment with an unusually transparent FDD: ramping academies average $1.62M vs $2.19M at maturity, a 35% gap. The 9% fee load is lighter than Primrose or School of Rock, but territory protection is conditional.
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Early education & child care
The Goddard School
Three investment paths — build-to-suit lease at $1.0M–$1.5M, retrofit at $1.7M–$5.0M, land purchase at $5.5M–$8.9M. An 11%+ fee load with a $700/month curriculum fee, and Item 19 data that needs careful reading.
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Supplemental education
Kumon
A ~$2,000 franchise fee, a per-student royalty at ~$38/month instead of a percentage of revenue, no Item 19 disclosure, and a 5-year agreement term — the structural opposite of every childcare franchise on this site.
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Latest articles
The 12% Waterfall: What Club Pilates’ Fee Load Actually Leaves You After Revenue, and Why the Median Matters More Than the Average
Club Pilates takes ~12% of gross revenue in fees. Build the full waterfall from $969K median revenue to owner cash flow at each FDD quartile — and see where it breaks.
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The Instructor Bottleneck: Why the Reformer Boom’s Supply-Side Constraint Is Your Biggest Club Pilates Operating Risk
Labor is 35% of studio revenue, and every reformer brand is recruiting from the same certified instructor pool. The supply-side risk nobody covers.
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The Change-of-Control Question: What Xponential’s Sale Process Means for the Franchise Agreement You’re About to Sign
Xponential hired Jefferies to explore a sale. What happens to your 10-year franchise agreement if the parent changes hands — and five questions for your attorney.
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The Building Code Blindside: What Your Fire Marshal, Electrical Inspector, and ADA Auditor Will Say About Your Infrared Studio
You budgeted $350,000 for your Hotworx studio. Then the inspectors arrived. The $26K-$75K compliance cost stack nobody models.
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The Due Diligence Budget Nobody Publishes: What Investigating a Hotworx Franchise Actually Costs
Every franchise article starts with the Item 7 range. None mention the $8K-$15K you should spend investigating before you commit. This is that budget.
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The Technology Fee Ratchet: What the Franchise Agreement Actually Says About Hotworx’s Right to Raise Your Tech Costs
The $695 flat royalty hasn't changed. The technology stack has tripled. What the franchise agreement says about Hotworx's right to raise your tech costs.
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