The Flying Locksmiths
Formerly known as The Franchise Lenders
Bottom line
- Total investment $150K – $400K including a $75K franchise fee, 8.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $714K/year (median $530K).
- Rated MODERATE with a risk score of 55/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 30 loans (below the industry average).
- System contracting at -5.2% CAGR over 3 years. Investigate whether closures are franchisor-driven (consolidation) or franchisee-driven (economics).
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 The Flying Locksmiths unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
22%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 The Flying Locksmiths units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.9%
7.57× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$428K
on $2.1M purchase
Total debt
$1.7M
SBA $1.1M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
The Flying Locksmiths franchisees provide emergency and scheduled locksmith services including residential lock repairs, commercial access control, automotive lockouts, and safe services. Typical daily operations involve responding to service calls, managing customer relationships, handling inventory of locks and tools, and performing field work often outside standard business hours. The business is labor-intensive with significant dependence on local licensing compliance and regulatory adherence.
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 · 30 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.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Declining franchise system with active litigation over fraudulent misrepresentation and undisclosed regulatory burdens, coupled with missing financial disclosures (Item 19), creates moderate-to-high risk for new franchisees.
Score breakdown · what drove the 55 / 100 rating
- 01HIGHActive litigation alleging fraudulent misrepresentation and material non-disclosure of licensing/regulatory requirements
- 02MINORSystem declining at -1.1% YoY with only 93 units — indicates stagnation or contraction
- 03MEDItem 19 (Average Unit Volume) not disclosed — inability to validate $713,997 avg revenue claim or profitability
- 04MINORHigh initial investment ($150K-$400K) with 8% royalty against declining unit count raises sustainability concerns
- 05HIGHGoing Concern status is False, but litigation and unit decline suggest underlying franchise system stress
- 06MINORTerritory protection claims unverified without disclosure of how encroachment disputes are handled (see Black 13 case)
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
85 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
The Flying Locksmiths · FDD (2024) PDF