Bottom line
- Total investment $170K – $240K including a $65K franchise fee.
- Average unit revenue of $3.9M/year. Estimated payback in 0.4 years.
- Rated STRONG with a risk score of 54/100.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one Southern Solar unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
171%
Above typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Southern Solar units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
28.7%
3.53× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
2.82×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$10.0M
on $21.4M purchase
Total debt
$11.4M
SBA $5.0M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Southern Solar franchisees design, install, and maintain residential/commercial solar energy systems. Day-to-day operations include site assessments, customer quotations, equipment procurement, installation project management, and post-sale customer service. Franchisees must manage their own sales team, installers, and logistics while paying royalties tied to gross revenue.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 5 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Single-unit franchise system with no earnings disclosure and undisclosed growth creates extreme uncertainty about scalability, profitability, and franchisor viability.
Score breakdown · what drove the 54 / 100 rating
- 01MEDOnly 1 disclosed franchisee unit with unknown growth trajectory — inability to demonstrate system expansion or multi-unit success
- 02MINORNo Item 19 financial performance representations (going_concern: false) — franchisor refuses to disclose typical earnings, making ROI validation impossible
- 03MINORRoyalty structure front-loaded at 5.5% on first $4M in revenue — franchisees must achieve $1.04M+ annual sales just to break even on $65K franchise fee + $170-240K startup in year one
- 04MEDExtremely limited franchisee base (n=1) creates survivorship bias — cannot assess failure rates, churn, or real-world performance variability
- 05MINORTiered royalty scaling ($4M-$8M-$12M thresholds) suggests franchisor expects high-growth units but provides no evidence current franchisee is hitting those milestones
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
5 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Southern Solar · FDD (2022) PDF