Average Franchise Revenue by Category

"How much do franchises make?" is the most common question prospective buyers ask — and the most dangerous one to answer with a single number. The overall median across our 124-brand dataset is $1.1M, but that figure blends $200K home cleaning businesses with $3.8M QSR operations. Category context is everything.

What follows is the category-level breakdown from 124 of 170 brands (73%) that disclose Item 19 financial performance data. The brands that don't disclose are not randomly distributed — non-disclosure correlates with weaker unit economics, which means the true all-franchise average is lower than what disclosed data shows. See our Item 19 guide for how to interpret these disclosures.

Revenue by Category

Median is more useful than average here because a single outlier (Culver's at $3.8M in QSR) can distort category means. The spread column shows the gap between the lowest and highest brand in each category — a direct measure of how much your outcome depends on which brand you pick.

The Predictability Problem

A category with high median revenue but massive spread is a different investment proposition than one with moderate revenue and tight clustering. Senior Care has the tightest spread at 110% of median — meaning brand selection within the category changes your revenue outcome relatively little. Home Services has the widest at 637% — picking the wrong brand in this category could mean a 5-10x revenue difference.

This matters for financing. SBA lenders underwrite against projected revenue. In a tight-spread category, the Item 19 average is a reasonable proxy for your likely outcome. In a wide-spread category, underwriting to the average is optimistic — the median or even 25th percentile is a safer assumption for your loan application's cash flow model.

Top 10 Revenue Brands

High revenue does not mean high return. Several of the top-revenue brands require $2M+ in total investment, which means the revenue-to-investment ratio — the metric that actually predicts payback — can be worse than a $400K brand generating $900K.

Why Revenue Alone Is Misleading

Three corrections every buyer should apply to Item 19 revenue data before using it for planning:

• ▸Survivor bias. Item 19 only includes open locations. If a brand closed 15% of its units last year, those (likely lower-revenue) locations are excluded from the average. The real average for all franchisees who invested is lower.
• ▸Margin variance. A QSR franchise at $2M revenue with 5% net margin produces $100K in owner earnings. A home services brand at $800K with 20% margin produces $160K. Revenue ranking and income ranking are different lists.
• ▸Ramp-up exclusion. Many Item 19 disclosures exclude locations open less than 12–24 months. Your first-year revenue will be lower — often 40–60% of the stated average — and your costs will be higher due to pre-opening expenses and inefficiency.

The Practical Takeaway

Use category medians as a baseline for whether your target revenue expectation is realistic. If you need $1M+ in revenue to service your debt and pay yourself, categories with median revenue below $500K are structurally unlikely to work — you would need to pick a top-quartile brand and execute at the top quartile within that brand's system.

Then look at the spread. If two categories have similar medians but one has a 300% spread and the other has a 100% spread, the tighter category gives you a more predictable outcome. That predictability is worth something — especially when you are financing 70-80% of the investment with an SBA loan that requires repayment regardless of your actual revenue. Our health score incorporates both revenue and growth signals to surface this kind of risk.

Revenue Per Square Foot Exposes What Category Averages Hide

Category-level revenue averages treat a 1,200 sq ft salon and a 4,500 sq ft automotive shop as comparable data points because they're both "franchises." Revenue per square foot normalizes for footprint and reveals the actual productivity of the business model. QSR drive-throughs generate $600–$1,200/sq ft — the highest in franchising because the building is small and the throughput is high. Full-service restaurants generate $250–$450/sq ft on larger footprints. Senior care and home services generate effectively infinite revenue per square foot because they operate from small offices or the owner's home. Fitness franchises generate $80–$200/sq ft, which explains why they need high-volume membership models to survive on large (3,000–10,000 sq ft) footprints. The practical test: calculate revenue per square foot for your target franchise, then compare it against the lease rate. A franchise generating $400/sq ft in a market where commercial rent is $35/sq ft has a 11.4x revenue-to-rent ratio — healthy. One generating $150/sq ft at $30/sq ft rent has a 5x ratio — tight enough that a 15% revenue shortfall puts occupancy costs above the 13% threshold where profitability erodes. This ratio is a faster screen than full P&L modeling for eliminating categories that don't work in your specific real estate market.

Category Revenue Cycles That Annual Averages Flatten

Annual revenue averages disguise seasonal cash flow patterns that determine whether you survive your first year. Tax preparation franchises earn 65–75% of annual revenue in January–April, leaving 8 months of near-zero income against ongoing fixed costs (lease, insurance, technology fees, royalties). Tutoring and education franchises see 30–50% revenue drops during summer months. Ice cream and frozen treat franchises earn 55–65% of revenue in May–September. Home services (HVAC, restoration) spike after weather events — a mild winter can drop annual revenue 20–30% with no structural change in the business. The danger: FDD working capital estimates assume even monthly revenue distribution. If your franchise earns $600,000 annually but $400,000 arrives in 4 months, you need enough working capital to cover 8 months of expenses at $15,000–$25,000/month with minimal offsetting revenue — that's $120,000–$200,000, not the $30,000–$50,000 the FDD might suggest. Before committing to a seasonal category, request monthly revenue data from existing franchisees (Item 20 contact list). If the franchisor's Item 19 doesn't break out monthly performance, the franchisees will tell you — and the monthly pattern matters more than the annual total for your cash flow survival.