Franchise Earnings by Category: Full FDD Breakdown

"How much will I make?" is the first question every prospective franchisee asks. The franchise industry's answer is usually vague: "It depends." But it does not have to be vague. Item 19 of the Franchise Disclosure Document provides actual revenue and sometimes net income data, audited and filed with state regulators.

We aggregated Item 19 data across 1,714 franchise brands that disclose average gross sales and organized it by category. Here is what franchise owners actually earn, broken down by the 19 categories in our database.

Average revenue by franchise category

Revenue tells half the story. Net income tells the rest.

The gap between revenue and net income varies enormously by category. Home services franchises average $423K in net income on $1.53M in revenue — a 28% margin. Full-service restaurants average $300K net on $1.60M revenue — an 19% margin. Retail generates just $164K on $1.05M revenue — a 16% margin.

These margins matter because they determine how much the franchisee actually takes home after paying royalties, rent, labor, supplies, and debt service. A high-revenue category with thin margins (like retail or personal care) can leave owners with less income than a lower-revenue category with thick margins (like home services or senior care).

The capital efficiency gap

The most striking finding is how much more efficiently some categories convert investment into revenue:

• Financial Services: $4.72M revenue / $144K investment = 32.8x
• Real Estate: $2.19M / $393K = 5.6x
• Home Services: $1.53M / $284K = 5.4x
• Senior Care: $1.58M / $416K = 3.8x
• QSR: $1.11M / $970K = 1.1x
• Full-Service Restaurants: $1.60M / $1.46M = 1.1x

Restaurants generate nearly the same revenue as home services but require 4–5x the capital to achieve it. This is the fundamental structural disadvantage of brick-and-mortar food concepts: real estate, equipment, and buildout consume capital that service businesses deploy into people and marketing.

Where the safest money is

If you overlay SBA default rates onto this data, the best risk-adjusted categories become clear:

• Healthcare: $1.30M revenue, $294K net income, only 1.4% SBA default rate. The safest category by default rate with substantial revenue.
• Senior Care: $1.58M revenue, $318K net income, 3.7% default rate. The best senior care franchises combine demographic tailwinds with proven economics.
• Pet Services: $824K revenue, $163K net income, 3.1% default rate. Smaller revenue but very low risk.

The riskiest categories by default rate — full-service restaurants (4.5% among disclosing brands, but 13.7% category-wide) and education (7.8%) — require more careful brand selection. Not all brands within a risky category are risky, and not all brands in a safe category are safe. Brand-level analysis always trumps category averages.

Which categories deliver the best owner take-home?

Revenue grabs headlines, but take-home income is what pays the mortgage. When you rank categories by average net income — what the franchisee keeps after all operating expenses, royalties, and cost of goods — the hierarchy shifts dramatically from the revenue ranking. Recreation leads at $445K average net, but that figure comes on an average investment of $1.87M, yielding roughly a 24% return on capital. Home services delivers $423K net on just $284K invested — a 149% return on capital. That is a 6x difference in capital efficiency for nearly identical take-home income.

Senior care deserves special attention from prospective franchisees. At $318K average net income on $416K investment, the 76% return on capital is strong, and the 3.7% SBA default rate puts it in the safest quartile. Add the demographic tailwind of 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day through 2030, and senior care offers a rare combination of growing demand, proven unit economics, and manageable risk. The category is also less sensitive to economic cycles than discretionary spending categories like recreation or personal care — people need home health aides regardless of GDP growth.

The categories to approach cautiously are those with high revenue but thin margins that leave little room for error. Retail franchises average $1.05M in revenue but only $164K in net income — a 16% margin that can evaporate quickly if foot traffic dips or a competitor opens nearby. Personal care shows a similar pattern at $680K revenue and $182K net. These are not inherently bad investments, but they demand more precise execution because the margin of safety is narrower. One bad quarter can erase a year's profit in a 16% margin business, while a 28% margin category like home services provides a significantly larger cushion for operational setbacks.

The verdict

Franchise earnings vary by 7x across categories, from $680K in personal care to $4.7M in financial services. But raw revenue is not the metric that matters most. Capital efficiency (revenue-to-investment ratio) and net income margin determine what actually ends up in the franchisee's pocket. Home services, senior care, and business services deliver the best combination of returns and risk management. Restaurants deliver brand recognition and social proof but at a significant capital cost.

Browse every category and filter by revenue, investment, and risk score on the franchise screener.

Methodology

Revenue and net income data from Item 19 of each brand's most recent FDD (2024-2025 filings). Category averages weighted equally across brands. SBA data from 7(a) loan records. See our full methodology.

Our take

The most important insight from this data is that the franchises people want to own and the franchises that make the most money are two different lists. QSR and restaurant brands dominate franchise buyer interest because of brand familiarity, but they sit in the bottom half of the capital efficiency ranking. Home services, senior care, and business services — categories most prospective buyers never consider — consistently deliver higher net income relative to investment with lower default rates. If you are choosing a franchise category, start with the net income column and the SBA default column, not the revenue column. A franchise that generates $1.5M in revenue but only returns $164K to the owner after a $600K investment is objectively worse than one that generates $1.5M and returns $423K on a $284K investment. The data is unambiguous on this point, even if the brand name is less exciting.

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