Pause Studio Franchise Cost & 2025 FDD Data
53/100
Second tier
53 this brand56 Personal Care & Beauty medianlikely 47–59: narrower with more SBA loans (high confidence)
Higher is better · an editorial assessment, not investment advice
#1,545 of 3,068 graded brands
Why a B: Helped by legal record and transparency. Held back by unit economics and scale. See all six factors
- Total investment
- $881K – $1.5M
- Avg gross sales
- $1.5M
- 5 outlets reporting; not profit
- SBA charge-off
- Under 10 loans (9)
Data from the FDD filing + SBA 7(a) records. Analysis by FranchiseVerdict · Methodology · Website · Report an error · Franchisor? Claim this listing
FranchiseVerdict summary · 2025 FDD
Per the 2025 FDD, a Pause Studio franchise requires a total initial investment of $881K – $1.5M, including a $60K franchise fee. Once open, the ongoing royalty is 7.0%. Per the 2025 FDD, average gross sales were $1.5M (5 outlets reporting; gross sales, not profit). Verdict grade: B (Second tier), an editorial assessment, not investment advice.
Sources: 2025 FDD · What one unit could make and lose →
Sources, dates and evidence
FDD issued: · Last cited check: · Staleness risk: medium (issued 12 to 24 months ago; a newer filing is likely on file)
Evidence for the headline figures: 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 scored7 of 8 headline figures on this page cite a page of the filing; the rest are marked “Not cited” beside the figure.
Overview
Quick verdict · vs Personal Care & Beauty median
Top edge: green = better than the Personal Care & Beauty median by more than 10%, red = worse by more than 10%, gray = within 10% or no benchmark. Source: FDD filings + SBA 7(a).
Data from public FDD filings and SBA records. Methodology
Bottom line
- RETURNSAverage gross sales of $1.5M/year (outlet median $1.6M; company-owned outlets only - not franchisee performance; 5 outlets reporting; gross sales, not profit).
- GROWTHIn the latest Item 20 year, the number of franchised outlets grew by 3 (3 opened, 0 closed).
AT STAKEOne unit at the Item 7 midpoint: $156K a year in payments on assumed SBA 7(a)-style terms.You put in about $242K of your own cash and personally guarantee a $966K loan. Assumptions are labeled in Sales; not investment advice.See what one unit could make and lose
Things to check before you sign (2)
- The franchisor keeps the right to compete inside your territory (Item 12, territory).
- You waive a jury trial in disputes with the franchisor (Item 17, renewal, termination and disputes).
Checked and clear: no auditor doubt that the franchisor can keep operating, no net loss of franchised outlets in the latest Item 20 years, no lawsuit naming the franchisor in Item 3, no rule that the owner must run it personally and the full filing on file, and an Item 19 average from 5 units. Not on file here, so ask: SBA charge-off rate against the category median and supplier rebates.
What to do next
Step 1: Read the FDD itself.
Free: the franchisor must give it to you at least 14 days before you sign or pay. Or look it up in a state registry (Wisconsin, Minnesota, California). What to read first.
Step 2: Talk to current and former owners.
Free: Item 20 of the FDD lists every current owner and those who left last year, most with a phone number. Questions to ask.
Step 3: Talk to an SBA lender.
Free: the SBA's Lender Match. Ask what you would personally guarantee and what the monthly payment would be. If you plan to use retirement savings, ask a CPA about the rules for that first.
Step 4: Have a franchise attorney review the FDD and agreement.
Free: your state bar's lawyer referral service can name franchise lawyers, and many offer a short first consultation. Bring the checks listed above.
Research steps, not investment or legal advice.
Can you afford it, and what does the money buy?
Entry cost (the Item 7 midpoint) is 2.7× the Personal Care & Beauty median ($447K).
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 5–7 (fees and startup costs)
Do you qualify? The filing states no minimum net worth or liquid capital. Ask Pause Franchisor Inc. (Item 1: 13353 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066) and your lender what they require, and keep living costs for the first year outside the deal.
Full Item 7 breakdown16 line items
Initial investment breakdown
| Line item | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Franchise Fee | $60K | $60K | |
| Leasehold Improvements | $410K | $670K | |
| Project Management, Architecture & Engineering | $45K | $55K | |
| Equipment | $170K | $382K | |
| Furniture and Fixtures | $20K | $25K | |
| Rent (3 months) | $32.1K | $66K | |
| Security Deposit | $32.1K | $66K | |
| Signage | $10K | $18K | |
| Startup Supplies | $10K | $20K | |
| Insurance Deposits and Premiums | $1.4K | $1.9K | |
| Business Licenses and Permits | $7.5K | $15K | |
| Professional Fees | $15K | $25K | |
| Training Expenses | $1K | $5K | |
| Grand Opening Marketing | $40K | $40K | |
| Audio Video/Information Technology/Security | $6.5K | $16K | |
| Additional Funds (3 months) | $20K | $70K | |
| Total initial investment | $881K | $1.5M |
Line items extracted from FDD Item 7. Ranges reflect the franchisor's stated low and high per line. The total row is the total as printed in Item 7. Actual costs may fall outside this range depending on market and build-out scope.
Item 6 · what you pay once you are open
Ongoing fees
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Royalty | 7.0% of gross revenues |
| Marketing / ad fundBrand-wide marketing pool. 1% of Gross Revenue per month; may increase up to 2% of Gross Revenue with 3 months notice | 1.0% of gross revenues |
| Technology fee$800/month Technology Fee for POS system (currently Zenoti) and other software/platforms; subject to increases | $800/month |
| Transfer fee | $10,000 |
| Renewal fee | $10,000 |
| Total fee loadnear the Personal Care & Beauty median of 8.0% | 8.0% of sales |
What do units actually make?
Average gross sales are 3.0× the Personal Care & Beauty median ($519K).
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 19 (sales and earnings)
Items 6 (other fees), 7 (startup costs) and 19 (sales and earnings) · assumptions labeled
What you could make and lose: one unit
What one Pause Studio unit would ask of you, from the filing's Item 7 total and labeled assumptions.
Average gross sales are $1.5M (FDD p.68), and the royalty and ad fund take about $123K of that a year (Item 6). This brand's Item 19 does not print cost lines. Enter your own from a lease quote, a payroll plan and calls with current owners. So this box does not estimate a profit. To cover the loan payment alone, one unit has to clear $156K a year after its food, labor, rent and other costs and the franchisor's fees.
How these figures are worked out
- Loan (assumption): 80% of the $1.2M Item 7 midpoint is a $966K loan, paid over 10 years at 10.5%: $156K a year. SBA 7(a)-style terms on a long-term rate; your lender sets yours.
What you put at risk
Your own cash in: about $242K Assumption (the part the loan does not cover of the $1.2M Item 7 midpoint), plus whatever anything Item 7 leaves out (its notes say what). The loan is $966K.
Personal guarantee. SBA 7(a) loans require a personal guarantee from anyone who owns 20% or more of the business. If the unit cannot pay, the lender can collect from you personally, which can include your savings and your home. The worst case is losing the cash you put in and still owing the rest of the loan.
Gross sales are not profit, and none of these figures is take-home pay until tax and every operating cost are paid. The assumptions are ours, not the filing's. Not investment advice.
Returns modelOne unit · several units · editable
One unit
One unit: what is left after the loan payment
Gross sales, minus the franchisor's fees and the operating costs, is the unit's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Minus an assumed loan payment, that is what is left for you, before tax. Gross sales are not profit.
This brand's Item 19 does not print cost lines. Enter your own from a lease quote, a payroll plan and calls with current owners. Invested capital is the Item 7 total, which already includes its working-capital (additional funds) line.
Returns model · one unit
What would one Pause Studio unit leave you each year after the loan payment?
Item 19 reports $1,542,375 per unit. Company-owned outlets only - not franchisee performance.
Gross sales, not profit: the costs below decide what is left.
Item 6, as stored, a year. A fixed fee, so it comes off EBITDA as dollars, not a share of sales.
This brand's Item 19 does not print cost lines. Enter your own from a lease quote, a payroll plan and calls with current owners.
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.
Item 7 midpoint of $881K to $1.5M
Item 7's $20K to $70K additional funds are already in the total
Left after the loan payment · per year
The unit's EBITDA minus the assumed loan payment. Before tax, depreciation and any cost your inputs leave out (insurance, accounting and legal, licenses, technology fees): not take-home pay.
Gross sales are not profit. Neither the filing nor a stated assumption on this page supplies direct costs, labor, rent / occupancy and other operating costs. Enter your own (a lease quote, owner calls) and the model runs on it.
Loan of $966K at 10.5% over 10 years, an assumption, not a quote. Return and payback are before tax, depreciation and the costs above. The loan usually needs your personal guarantee.
Buying several existing units? The acquisition scenario
Buying several units
What buying a few existing units could return
Prices an existing operator of a few units off the single-unit EBITDA above, after shared services, and finances it with an SBA 7(a) loan, a conventional loan and a seller note. It shows the yearly return on your cash (IRR), whether year-1 earnings cover the loan payments (DSCR) and how the price is paid for. It starts at 5 units; every deal term is an assumption you can change, and none is from the FDD.
Not modelled yet
Gross sales are not profit. Neither the filing nor a stated assumption on this page supplies direct costs, labor, rent / occupancy and other operating costs. Enter your own (a lease quote, owner calls) and the model runs on it.
This scenario starts from a per-unit EBITDA. Fill in the operating costs in the one-unit model above and it runs on that figure, or take it to the full ROI workbench, where the multi-unit and acquisition models accept your own per-unit economics.
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 · filed by Pause Franchisor Inc.
Financial performance
- Range (low → high)
- $1.3M→$1.8MSource: 2025 FDD, page 68
- Cohort dispersion (min → max)
Percentile ranks within Personal Care & Beauty
Each rank is among the Personal Care & Beauty brands that report that figure (the count is under each bar).
vs Personal Care & Beauty medians
How Pause Studio compares
Category median of published Personal Care & Beauty 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.
Who are you contracting with?
Pause Franchisor Inc., owned by Pause Holdings, Inc.
Item 1 (the franchisor) · who you're contracting with
The franchisor
Corporate structure & franchisor financials
- Legal entity
- Pause Franchisor Inc.
- Parent company
- Pause Holdings, Inc.
- FDD Item 1, page 11 of the 2025 FDD
- CEO title
- CEO
- John Klein
- Incorporated in
- DE
- HQ
- 13353 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066
- Auditor
- Reese CPA LLC
- Audited financials
- Franchisor revenue
- $226K
- latest fiscal year in the 2025 FDD; $753K the year before
Overview
About
Athletic recovery, relaxation and wellness studio offering flotation therapy, vitamin infusion therapy, cold plunge/contrast therapy, sauna therapy, compression therapy, NAD+ therapy, LED light therapy, and optional cryogenic therapy
- CEO
- John Klein
- Franchised outlets in
- 3 states and territories
- Item 20 Table 3, at year end
Is the system healthy?
+3 franchised outlets over the two years to 2024 (0 to 3).
Source: FDD 2025 · Item 20 (outlets opened, closed and transferred)
Item 20 (outlet counts) · unit dynamics
The growth chart
- Company-owned
- 5
- Corporate units in the system
- % franchised
- 38%
- vs corporate-owned
Last fiscal year · Item 20 rates and pipeline
- Reacquired
- 0
- Franchisor bought back
Item 20 · franchised units at year end
Franchised units rose from 0 in 2022 to 3 in 2024
Axis does not start at zero.
Source and method
Item 20 (outlet counts) Table 3 · franchised outlets at year end
Where current outlets are
Franchised outlets at year end by state, as the filing's Item 20 Table 3 counts them. Not a list of where the franchisor may sell new units.
Current outlets (count on the tile) · 3 statesNo current outlet
3 franchised outlets at year end in 3 states (Item 20 Table 3).
Government records
SBA loan data
Aggregated from SBA loan disclosures. This brand has only 9 7(a) loans on file; statistical reliability is limited below 10 loans.
- Loans on file
- 9
- SBA 7(a) loans matched to this brand, incl. those still being repaid
- Loan volume
- $11.2M
- Average loan
- $1.2M
- loan volume divided by loans
- Charge-off rate
- Under 10 loans (9)
- Insufficient SBA coverage: 9 loans, rate hidden below 10
- Paid in full
- Under 10 loans (9)
- Recent-loan charge-off
- Under 10 loans (9)
- Lenders
- 7
Cumulative: every 7(a) loan matched to this brand in the SBA’s FOIA files, approved FY1991 onward. Historical lending data, not predictive of future performance. How SBA charge-off rates are calculated
Explore lender portfolios on Bank Reports or regional data on State Reports.
What are the risks?
Main risk in the grade: scale, then unit economics. The reasons are below.
Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA · FDD Items 3, 21
Verdict grade + FDD Items 3 (litigation), 4 (bankruptcy), 8 (required suppliers), 16 (what you may sell), 21 (audited financials)
Risk and legal
Grade B: Second tier, 53/100 (category median 56); the full grade is at the top of the page.
How the grade is built
Why a B, factor by factor
- Financial health NeutralAudited financials; no going-concern doubt
- Unit economics Weighs on itAvg gross sales $1.5M on a $1.2M investment midpoint, 1.3x (gross sales, not profit)
- Unit growth Neutral+3 franchised outlets over the two years to 2024 (0 to 3); growth is not graded below a 10-outlet starting base; turnover 0.0%
- Scale Weighs on it, weakest dimension3 franchised units, +5 company-owned (8 in all); franchising since 2022
- Legal HelpsNo litigation naming the franchisor in Item 3
- Transparency HelpsItem 19 discloses financial performance; audited financials; no franchisor financial figures on file
From the six scored dimensions, an editorial assessment, not investment advice. How the score is built
Bankruptcy (Item 4)
None disclosed
Audited financials (Item 21)
Yes · Reese CPA LLC
Supplier relationship · Items 8 & 16
Ask what the franchisor earns on the supplies it sells you or the rebates it takes (Item 8).
- Franchisor sells you products: Yes
- Must buy proprietary products: Yes
- Restricted to system-approved products: Yes
What are you signing up for?
Ongoing fees run about 8.0% of sales (royalty + ad fund), before your own operating costs.
Source: FDD 2025 · Items 11, 12, 17
FDD Items 12 (territory), 15 (owner participation) and 17 (renewal, termination and disputes)
Contract and territory detail
| Allowed renewals | 1 |
|---|---|
| Protected territory | Yes |
| Exclusive territory | No |
| Territory radius | 3 mi |
| Territory population | 100,000 |
| Online sales rights | Reserved by franchisor |
| Franchisor can compete | Yes |
| Who runs it (Item 15) | Owner-operator not required |
| Non-compete (years) | 2 years |
| Non-compete (miles) | 15 mi |
| Right of first refusal | Yes |
| Transfer requires consent | Yes |
| Termination notice | 30 days |
| Mandatory arbitration | Yes |
| Arbitration location | Los Angeles County, California |
| Jury trial waiver | Yes |
| Governing law | DE |
Items 10 (financing), 11 (training and support)
Training and operations
- On-the-job training
- 50 hrs
- Ongoing training
- Required
- Time to open
- 9–12 mo
- From signing to launch (FDD p.40)
- Site selection
- Franchisee selects with franchisor approval; affiliate Accelerator Inc. is preferred Approved Supplier for real estate brokerage
- Franchisor financing
- Not offered
- Item 10
- POS system
- Zenoti
- Operating tech stack
Items 5 (initial fees) & 11 (training and support)
Franchisor support
Item 20 (outlet counts) · call current owners
Franchisee contacts
Who can you call before you sign?
26 current outlets listed
Each record has a phone number and state. No franchisee names or cities. 26 records. From the filing's Item 20 (the outlet list); the FDD itself is the free source. Our list holds 26 current outlets; Item 20's table counts 3 franchised at year end.
For your own due-diligence calls only. Not for telemarketing, marketing lists, or automated or prerecorded calls or texts.
The list is not offered for this brand yet. The FDD's Item 20 exhibit lists the owners.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to open a Pause Studio franchise?
Per the 2025 FDD, the total investment to open a Pause Studio franchise ranges from $881K to $1.5M, with an initial franchise fee of $60K. This is the Item 7 total in the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD): the startup costs the franchisor lists, such as build-out, equipment, inventory and working capital. It usually leaves out buying land or a building; Item 7's notes say what is excluded.
What do Pause Studio franchise owners earn?
According to Item 19 of the Pause Studio FDD, average gross sales were $1.5M (5 outlets reporting; gross sales, not profit). The median is $1.6M. Company-owned outlets only - not franchisee performance. What an owner keeps depends on location, operating costs and management.
Who owns Pause Studio?
Pause Studio is franchised by Pause Franchisor Inc. Its parent company is Pause Holdings, Inc.. Source: FDD Item 1, 2025 filing.
What is Item 19 in the Pause Studio 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 Pause Studio FDD and qualifies whose outlets they describe.
What is Pause Studio's franchise failure rate?
There is no published franchise failure rate, and Pause Studio has too few resolved SBA 7(a) loans on file (fewer than 10) to show an SBA charge-off rate that would mean anything. The SBA charge-off rate is the share of a brand's resolved SBA 7(a) loans to its franchisees that the SBA wrote off, including purchased guarantees. Resolved means paid in full or charged off; active loans are excluded because their outcome is not yet known. It is a lending outcome, not a count of closed businesses. Review the turnover and closure figures in Item 20 of the FDD and speak with current and former franchisees.
How many Pause Studio franchise locations are there?
Per the 2025 FDD, Pause Studio has 3 franchised units and 5 company-owned (8 in all). In the latest year, the number of franchised outlets grew by 3 (3 opened, 0 closed).
Is Pause Studio a good franchise to buy?
FranchiseVerdict gives Pause Studio a B Verdict grade (Second tier) with a verdict score of 53 out of 100 (higher is better), an editorial assessment, not investment advice. Helped by legal record (no litigation naming the franchisor in Item 3) and transparency. Held back by unit economics (avg gross sales $1.5M on a $1.2M investment midpoint, 1.3x: gross sales, not profit) and scale (3 franchised units, +5 company-owned: 8 in all). The “Why a B” section on this page lists all six dimensions and any adjustment. Speak with current franchisees before making any investment decision.
Other Personal Care & Beauty franchises
Similar investment first, then by grade
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.