One River School Franchise Cost, Revenue & Review 2026
- Investment
- $180K – $568K
- Disclosed sales
- $615K
- gross sales, not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Not SBA-matched
Data from FDD filing
Analysis by FranchiseVerdict Research · Methodology
One River School is an art education franchise offering art and design classes for kids, teens, and adults in studio galleries. Franchisees run the schools, managing instructors, classes, and enrollment.
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2026
A One River School franchise requires a total initial investment of $180K – $568K, including a $45K franchise fee and an ongoing 9.0% royalty[2]. Per the 2025 FDD, average unit revenue was $615K[2]. FranchiseVerdict grade: B (Above average), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Run a live ROI scan →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Data extracted: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium - issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file
Evidence: strong✓ Investment (Item 7)✓ Item 19 status✓ Units and owners (Item 20)✗ SBA loan coverage✓ Litigation (Item 3)✓ Financial statements (Item 21)✓ Franchisor identityhow this is scored8 of 8 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing.
Overview
- Investment
- $180K – $568K
- 52nd pct Business Serv…
- Avg gross sales
- $615K
- 8th pct Business Serv…
- Royalty
- 9.0%
- 40th pct Business Serv…
- Units
- 15
- 21st pct Business Serv…
- SBA charge-off
- N/A
Quick verdict · Business Services · color = vs category peers
Green = favorable by >10% vs Business Services median · No shading = within ±10% · Red = unfavorable by >10% · Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a)
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Not financial advice. Methodology
Bottom line
- COSTTotal investment $180K – $568K including a $45K franchise fee, 9.0% ongoing royalty.
- RETURNSAverage unit revenue of $615K/year (median $616K). Note: this is gross profit, not take-home income.
- RISKVerdict B (Above average), verdict score 49/100 (higher is better).
- GROWTHNegative: net -1 franchised outlets in the latest year (0 opened, 1 closed) (Item 20).
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- One River School Franchising, LLC
- Parent company
- One River School, LLC
- FDD Item 1, page 6 of the 2025 FDD
- CEO title
- Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer
- Agnes Mauro
- Incorporated in
- NJ
- HQ
- 49 North Dean Street, Englewood, New Jersey 07631
- Auditor
- Gene H. Levick & Company
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $237K
- vs $211K prior year
Affiliated brands
- Art Rocks
Other brands the franchisor or its parent operates (Item 1).
Overview
About
- CEO
- Agnes Mauro
- Headquarters
- NJ
- Founded
- 2014
- FDD year
- 2025
- States available
- 3
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost runs 181% above the typical business services franchise.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7
Full Item 7 breakdown13 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franchise Fee | $45K | $45K | |
| Real Estate/Rent | $6K | $19K | |
| Utility Deposits | $500 | $1K | |
| Leasehold Improvements | $50K | $300K | |
| Initial Inventory and Merchandise | $3K | $11K | |
| Insurance | $3K | $5K | |
| Office Equipment and Supplies | $1K | $4K | |
| Training | $2K | $3K | |
| Signage | $8K | $12K | |
| Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment | $25K | $35K | |
| Grand Opening Advertising | $25K | $33K | |
| Legal & Accounting | $2K | $6K | |
| Additional Funds - For Initial 12-Month Period | $10K | $96K | |
| Total initial investment | $180K | $568K |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. Total is the sum of line-item lows / highs — actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 7 · what it costs to open + operate
The Vitals
- Total investment
- $180K – $568K
- Middle of category vs category
- Liquid capital req'd
- $10K – $96K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Franchise fee
- $45K – $45K
- Top 40% of category vs category
- Royalty
- 9.0%
- typical 6–8%
- Ad fund
- 2.0%
- typical 3–5%
- Total fee load
- 11.0%
- vs 9–13% typical
Ongoing fees · Item 6
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 9.0% of gross sales |
| Marketing / ad fund | 2.0% of gross sales |
| Technology fee | $350 |
| Training fee | $2K |
| Transfer fee | $15K |
| Renewal fee | $15K |
| Inventory (initial) | $3K – $11K |
| Total fee load | 11.0% of rev |
What do units actually make?
Average unit sales run 10% below the business services norm.
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19
Single-unit · not modelled
Returns at a glance
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit, and the operating costs that turn one into the other are in no filing. We publish no modelled return for One River School until someone supplies them — yours, in the models below.
—
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
Total invested capital · disclosed
$427K
Item 7 initial investment plus working capital, as filed — the one figure here that needs no assumption.
ROI & LBO modelsSingle-unit · 25-unit portfolio · editable
What one unit earns on your invested capital
Model A · Single-Unit Return
Computes unlevered return on invested capital (ROIC) for a single franchise unit, read against the 30–60% reference band · Yale SOM, Post-MBA Path Exhibit 2 (2023). Below that band a passive index fund likely outperforms; above it the franchisor has pricing power you're subsidizing.
Note: Item 19 revenue is what the franchisor discloses, and it is the top line only — gross sales are not profit. No FDD discloses the operating costs that turn one into the other, so those fields start empty and nothing is modelled until you supply them from your own lease quote, labor market and build-out budget.
Returns model · single-unit ROIC
What would one One River School unit return on the cash you put in?
Illustrative category typicals — not sourced to any filing, survey or sample. Replace them with figures from franchisee validation calls before you rely on the output.
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
Your modelled return on total invested capital, before any debt financing.
—
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
What 25 units return when you use SBA financing
Model B · Return on Equity: Debt-Financed Acquisition
Models a 25-unit portfolio acquisition financed with an SBA 7(a) loan. Shows equity IRR (your return on cash invested), DSCR (how safely the cash flow covers debt service), and the capital stack (SBA + seller + equity breakdown).
This is the “search fund” or “entrepreneurship through acquisition” scenario: you buy an existing multi-unit operator, use leverage to amplify returns, and either operate or hire management. The 25-unit size is the typical minimum for an SBA-backed franchise portfolio acquisition to pencil as a full-time income.
What “return on equity” means here: if you put in $500K of your own cash and the business generates enough EBITDA to pay down debt and grow, your equity IRR is the annual return on that $500K, including the value created when you eventually sell. Target IRR for a search fund is typically 25–35%.
Not modelled yet
An FDD discloses gross sales, not profit. We hold no sourced figure for COGS, labour, rent / occupancy and other operating costs, and will not substitute an assumed one. Enter your own and the model runs on your assumptions.
A 25-unit return is built on a per-unit EBITDA. Fill in the operating costs in Model A above and this model runs on that figure, or take the whole scenario to the full ROI workbench, where the portfolio and LBO models accept your own per-unit economics directly.
These models are for research and scenario planning only. Not investment advice. Actual results depend on your specific location, management, and market conditions. Consult a franchise attorney and accountant before signing any franchise agreement.
Item 19 · Source: 2025 FDD
Financial Performance
- Avg gross sales
- $615K
- Per unit, per year
- Median gross sales
- $616K
Gross sales are revenue before expenses — not profit. Actual owner earnings depend on rent, labor, royalties, marketing fees, and debt service.
- Item 19 type
- gross sales and operating income
- Sample size
- 3 outlets
- vs category median 37 · small
- Range (low → high)
- $520K→$708KCited, not corroborated — printed on page 44 of the 2025 FDD. Nothing else in our record independently restates or re-derives it.
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
- Reporting year
- 2024
- Fiscal year the figures cover
- Source filing
- FDD 2025
- Disclosed in the 2025 filing, covering 2024
- Transparency
- 7 / 10
- vs category median 3 / 10 · above
Compared against 296 Business Services brands
Operator outlook
What the numbers say
Data-driven interpretation of this brand's financial disclosures, fee structure, and system trajectory.
Unit economics
Average unit generates $615K/year in gross sales. Revenue-to-investment ratio: 1.6x.
Fee burden
Total ongoing fee load of 11.0% — above the Business Services median of 9.0%.
Disclosure
Transparency score 7/10 — this franchisor discloses detailed breakdowns (quartiles, segments, or cohort data). Buyers can model unit economics with higher confidence. Sample size of 3 outlets — treat as directional only.
Operator retention
System contracting at -25.0% CAGR over 3 years. Investigate whether closures are franchisor-driven consolidation or franchisee exits.
Source: FDD Item 19 financial performance representations and publicly filed FDD data. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Verify all figures with the franchisor and current franchisees before making any investment decision.
vs Business Services medians
How One River School Compares
Category median of published Business Services brands that report the figure; the middle half spans the 25th to 75th percentile and n counts the brands behind it. Medians are used because a few very large systems pull an average far from the typical brand. Revenue is disclosed gross sales, not profit.
Is the system healthy?
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20
Unit growth
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
- Total units
- 15
- Opened
- 0
- Last reporting year
- Closed
- 1
- Terminated
- 0
- Franchisor ended the franchise (per Item 20)
- Non-renewed
- 0
- Term expired, not renewed (per Item 20)
- Turnover rate
- 6.7%
- Company-owned
- 12
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 20%
- vs corporate-owned
- Net growth (3-yr)
- -25.0%
- Net unit change over 3 years
- 3-yr CAGR
- -25.0%
- Compounded over last 3 years
Last fiscal year · Item 20 exits and transfers
- Terminated
- 0
- Not renewed
- 0
- Transferred
- 0
- Reacquired
- 1
- Franchisor bought back
- Signed, not yet open
- 0
- 0.00 per open outlet · Item 20 Table 5
- Projected new
- 7
- Franchisor's next-year forecast
- Continuity rate
- 75.0%
- Units that stayed open
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 12 · 3 states reported
The Territory Map
FDD Item 12 reports the state count, but the specific list isn't in our current data. The map will appear once we re-extract from the FDD or enough franchisee contacts are available.
3
states with franchisees (per FDD Item 12)
SBA loan performance
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) and 504 loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
What could kill this investment?
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Risk analysis
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 4, 8, 16, 21
Risk & Legal
One River School is a contracting franchise system with severe profitability problems, unit attrition, and undisclosed franchisor stability concerns that create high failure risk for new franchisees.
Litigation (Item 3)
Subject: officers or affiliates. The franchisor is not a named party in these cases.
0 case reference(s): 0 pending, 0 settled.
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Gene H. Levick & Company
Franchisor revenue (Item 21)
Franchisor entity revenue (not unit-level)
Franchisor total revenue of $237,022 for FY ending Dec 31, 2024 stated in Item 8 (of which $27,361 / 11.5% derived from franchisee required purchases). The audited financial statements in Exhibit E did not extract as text (blank/scanned pages), so balance-sheet figures, net income, auditor name, and prior-year revenue are not available from the text.
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Kickbacks from required suppliers: Yes
- Must buy proprietary products: No
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
Score breakdown · what drove the 49 / 100 verdict
- 01MINORSystem shrinkage of 25% YoY (15 units down from 20) indicates franchisee failure or dissatisfaction
- 02MINORProfitability crisis: avg net income of $3,966 on $614,919 revenue = 0.64% net margin (industry standard 10-15%)
- 03MINORNo going concern status suggests franchisor financial instability or viability questions
- 04MINORHigh royalty rate (9%) combined with razor-thin margins creates unsustainable unit economics
- 05MINORWide investment range ($179.5K-$568K) with no clarity on what drives variance or guarantees
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 11.0% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before rent and labor.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12, 15, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
| Initial term | 10 years |
|---|---|
| Renewal term | 10 years |
| Allowed renewalsℹ | 2 |
| Territory type | Exclusive territory |
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Exclusive territoryℹ | Yes |
| Territory radius | 10 mi |
| Territory population | 125,000 |
| Online sales rightsℹ | Restricted |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Hire a manager? | Allowed |
| Owner-operator | Required |
| Non-compete (years)ℹ | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles)ℹ | 30 mi |
| Right of first refusalℹ | Yes |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Termination groundsℹ | 2 |
| Curable defaultsℹ | 3 |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Englewood, New Jersey (within 20 miles) |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | NJ |
| Litigation count | 0 |
View Item 3 litigation summary
0 case reference(s): 0 pending, 0 settled.
Items 10, 11
Training & Operations
- Classroom training
- 36 hrs
- On-the-job training
- 20 hrs
- Training location
- Englewood, New Jersey or franchisee's School
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Time to open
- 6 mo
- From signing to launch
- Site selection
- franchisee with franchisor approval
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- WooCommerce/WordPress/Stripe/HubSpot
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 & 11
Franchisor Support
Technology: WooCommerce/WordPress/Stripe/HubSpot
Item 20 · call current owners
Franchisee Contacts
1 owners to call
Name · phone · city · state. Extracted from FDD Item 20
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to open a One River School franchise?
The total investment to open a One River School franchise ranges from $180K – $568K, with an initial franchise fee of $45K. This includes real estate, equipment, inventory, and working capital as disclosed in their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
What do One River School franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the One River School FDD, the average gross sales per unit is $615K. The median is $616K. Note: this is gross revenue, not profit. Actual owner earnings vary based on location, operating costs, and management.
Who owns One River School?
One River School is franchised by One River School Franchising, LLC. Its parent company is One River School, LLC. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the One River School FDD?
The FDD section where a franchisor may disclose financial performance of its outlets. Disclosure is optional and formats vary; figures are typically gross sales, which is revenue before expenses, not profit. FranchiseVerdict extracts these figures directly from the One River School FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is One River School's franchise failure rate?
SBA 7(a) loan charge-off data is not available for One River School (fewer than 10 loans on file). Charge-off rates are one way to gauge franchise risk, but not all franchise loans go through the SBA program. We recommend reviewing turnover and closure data in the FDD and speaking with current franchisees.
How many One River School franchise locations are there?
As of their most recent FDD filing, One River School has 15 total units in the United States, including 3 franchised units and 12 company-owned units.
Is One River School a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict rates One River School as a B-grade franchise with a verdict score of 49 out of 100 (higher is better). The grade is a deterministic score built from six weighted dimensions — financial health, unit economics, unit growth, scale, legal, and transparency — then calibrated against SBA loan charge-off rates and FDD age. Transparency is one of the six, so a filing that discloses less scores lower on that dimension than one that discloses more. Our rating is based solely on publicly available FDD and government data; we recommend speaking with current franchisees before making any investment decision. This is not investment advice.
Data sourced from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) FOIA records. Not financial advice.
For franchisors
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Data extracted from public FDD filings and SBA 7(a) loan disclosures (FOIA). This information is provided for research purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Verify all figures with the franchisor's current Franchise Disclosure Document before making any investment decision.