BrightStar Care franchise unit economics
BrightStar Care franchisees run a home-care and medical-staffing agency billing skilled and non-skilled hours. Across 207 agencies the average was $2,413,076 of revenue with a median of $1,943,606.
- Primary source
- BrightStar Franchising, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
- Items read
- Items 5 and 6 for fees; Item 7 for cost to open; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure
- Population
- 207 of 396 locations
- Our calculations
- Marked on the page with an asterisk. Method
- Last reviewed
- 26 September 2026
Disclosure-based. Not a forecast, not an offer to sell a franchise, and not advice.
Your revenue is hours billed times rate, and the rate is set by what you sell and who pays for it. The top quartile invoices 5.6 times the bottom quarter. What is left after field staff pay runs from 20.0% to 63.9%. Both levers are yours.
- One extra hour per client per week is about $81,000 a year. The system averages 23.9 hours per client against a high of 102.3, and it costs you zero new referrals.
- Gross profit runs from 20.0% to 63.9% across the system. What you sell and who pays for it decides it, well ahead of what you pay caregivers.
- Measure yourself against the median, at $1,943,606. Only about a third of agencies reach the $2,413,076 average, and a few very large operators create the whole gap.
- You owe royalty the week you invoice, months before the payer settles. 5.25% of net billings, weekly, so the faster you grow, the more cash it takes.
- Your cost of goods is rising while your biggest payer faces cuts. Several states raised caregiver pay in 2026; federal Medicaid reductions arrive in 2027.
How much does a BrightStar Care franchise make?
The average BrightStar Care unit reported $2,413,076 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $1,943,606. The brand’s disclosure document discloses revenue and not profit, so what an owner keeps depends on the cost structure set out below. Fees come off the top first, at about 5.2% of sales across royalty, brand fund and the rest of the stack. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid. The figures for the highest-selling and lowest-selling businesses are below.
How the business works
A real ten-year build-up.
Each row is a year of operation counted from the date an agency could run half the model. So the first-year figure is a genuine first year and the sequence follows the same agencies as they age. Read the median column, that is the agency in the middle.
| Year of operation | Agencies | Average revenue | Median revenue | High | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First year | 207 | $445,035 | $351,598 | $2,013,367 | $27,376 |
| Second year | 196 | $993,361 | $836,638 | $3,661,793 | $164,281 |
| Third year | 189 | $1,236,109 | $1,096,000 | $4,433,481 | $45,141 |
| Fourth year | 178 | $1,471,350 | $1,281,634 | $5,370,051 | $203,101 |
| Fifth year | 172 | $1,672,256 | $1,364,906 | $7,775,668 | $330,575 |
| Sixth year | 164 | $1,842,146 | $1,497,673 | $8,264,101 | $449,335 |
| Seventh year | 156 | $1,969,937 | $1,672,768 | $7,915,742 | $483,288 |
| Eighth year | 146 | $2,116,452 | $1,763,571 | $10,839,910 | $314,368 |
| Ninth year | 142 | $2,198,015 | $1,821,536 | $12,539,974 | $237,468 |
| Tenth year | 134 | $2,340,132 | $1,886,383 | $11,793,328 | $349,159 |
As disclosed.
A few very large agencies pull the average up in every row, which is why two thirds of owners fall short of it. Size your loan against the median instead, it runs about 81% of the average, and you are planning for an outcome half the system actually hits.
The agency count drops as you go down the rows, mostly because an agency that opened in 2019 has yet to reach a tenth year. Still worth asking the franchisor how many of those missing agencies closed.
Three quarters of the system is more predictable than it looks.
| quartile | Agencies | Average revenue | Median revenue | High | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quartile 1 (top 25%) | 52 | $4,770,311 | $3,883,822 | $14,781,044 | $2,900,830 |
| quartile 2 | 51 | $2,405,989 | $2,367,704 | $2,875,457 | $1,962,981 |
| quartile 3 | 52 | $1,622,994 | $1,623,084 | $1,943,606 | $1,326,374 |
| quartile 4 (bottom 25%) | 52 | $852,873 | $878,698 | $1,323,093 | $48,123 |
| All agencies | 207 | $2,413,076 | $1,943,606 | $14,781,044 | $48,123 |
The 5.6× ratio between the top and bottom quartile averages is marked *.
Outside the top quartile, average and median say the same thing. So if you land in the middle of this system your planning number is stable and you can trust it. The system-wide average is the figure pulled up by the largest agencies.
Top performers
What separates the top BrightStar Care performers
BrightStar Care splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $4,770,311 a year. The worst averaged $852,873. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $1,943,606. The average was $2,413,076. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 5.6× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
- What you spend to open.Opening costs $101,464 to $217,486, a 2.1× range inside one brand. The high end usually buys more capacity, so the cheapest build is not always the cheapest route to the top band.
Live operating levers
- Cost of what you sell.Products and materials take 58.0% of sales. Buying terms, price discipline and waste are where this is won, and each of them compounds at volume.
- Billed hours, the operating driver.This model bills on billed hours. The owner pays for every hour worked and bills only the hours a client accepts, so the job is to keep those two close and to protect the gap between the rate charged and the rate paid. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking.A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites.Fees run about 5.2% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year.This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Context you underwrite around
- The reporting screen.207 of 396 locations are behind these figures. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, so the numbers describe locations that cleared that screen, not the system as a whole.
- What the disclosure leaves out.Item 19 publishes no profit or cost data for franchised locations. The brand’s own locations are the only margin signal in the document, and they are run by the people who wrote the playbook.
Margin & mix
The top quartile is a different business.
Two numbers account for most of the gap between a top-quarter agency and a bottom-quarter one, and you control both of them. They are the place to start if you want to move a quartile this year.
| Measure | Average | Median | High | Low | Reached avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gross profit | 42.0% | 41.7% | 63.9% | 20.0% | 95 (47%) |
| Hours billed per client per week | 23.9 | 22.7 | 102.3 | 2.8 | 93 (46%) |
As disclosed.
What an agency sells and who pays for it account for more of that range than caregiver wages do. Skilled nursing prices differently from companion care, and a VA contract differently from a family paying out of pocket. The agencies at the top of that range chose a different mix, and mix is something you decide.
Hours per client is the other lever, and it is the cheaper one. The system average is 23.9 hours per client per week against a high of 102.3. Deepening an existing client costs you zero acquisition spend and zero new intake. It asks your care team to spot the need and your schedulers to fill it. Adding clients grows the same line and costs considerably more to do.
What each lever is worth. One more hour per client each week is 4.2% more sales, about $81,000 a year at the middle agency, and about four points more kept. It needs no new referral. Ours, from the disclosed averages.
Who pays decides how the business runs.
| Line of business | Share | Payer, the insurer or family paying the bill, source | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Care | 51.0% | Self pay, private individual | 42.9% |
| Skilled Services | 38.6% | National Account | 17.7% |
| Companion Care / Child Care | 2.3% | Medicaid | 11.9% |
| Staffing | 8.1% | Veterans Administration | 9.1% |
| Local contract | 8.4% | ||
| Other | 7.1% | ||
| Self pay, business / facility | 1.6% | ||
| Long term care insurance | 1.3% | ||
| Total | 100.0% | Total | 100.0% |
As disclosed.
Most of the money in this system is owed by institutions. That sets both what you can charge and how long you wait to be paid, which is the cash problem covered on the Finance tab.
What the money side covers
Royalty is charged on billings, and most billings are owed by institutions.
Royalty is owed weekly on what is invoiced. Most of the money arrives later, when the payer settles. Growth consumes cash here. Track how long each payer takes to pay. Some contracts fund the wage bill and some delay it.
| Fee | Rate | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty / Continuing Fee | 5.25% of monthly Net Billings | Percentage of billings |
| Royalty on National Accounts | 6.25% | Percentage of the invoice BrightStar sends you |
| Minimum Monthly Royalty Fee | Applies on failure to meet Monthly Performance Standards | minimum |
As the brand reported it.
An agency in the middle produces roughly $816,000 of gross profit a year, before office rent, admin staff, your own pay or royalty. That applies the average margin to the middle sales figure. It is our calculation, and the two figures cover slightly different groups of agencies.
Questions we get asked
How long does a BrightStar Care agency take to build-up?
The middle agency roughly doubles between year one and year two, then settles into single-digit growth from about year five. In dollars: $351,598, $836,638, $1,096,000, $1,281,634 across the first four years, reaching $1,886,383 by year ten. Budget the first two years as the hungry ones, and build your model on the later, flatter growth rate.
Which number should I benchmark my agency against?
The median, at $1,943,606, only about a third of agencies reach the $2,413,076 average, and a few very large operators create the whole gap. Find the quarter an agency sits in, then work on the two figures that separate it from the quarter above. What is left after field staff pay, and hours per client.
Does BrightStar disclose how profitable an agency is?
The document reports one cost line. On average 42.0% is left after field staff pay. Office rent, admin wages, software, local marketing, royalty and your own pay all come out of what remains. Your own P&L is the only place a net number exists. That is an argument for a chart of accounts that lines up with the way the system reports.
Why does who pays the bill matter so much in home care?
It sets both your rate and your timing. Families pay close to the time of service. More private-pay work means money arrives sooner and more is kept. Institutional payers settle on their own schedule, and royalty is charged on billings.
Who does bookkeeping for a BrightStar Care franchise?
This looks like a services business and runs like a receivables business. Record sales by who pays and by service line, and track how long each payer takes to pay. Put field wages in cost of goods with its full burden so the 42.0% benchmark means something.
Record field wages with payroll taxes, benefits, screening, workers compensation, bond and liability included. Then the 42.0% figure becomes something you can measure yourself against. Accrue royalty the day you raise the invoice, and a fast-growing month will read honestly. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
Get that wrong and the P&L says you are profitable while the bank balance says otherwise.
Who owns BrightStar Care, and who runs it?
Peak Rock Capital acquired BrightStar in March 2025. Josh Wall became CEO in July 2026 from Unleashed Brands. Has named memory care, childcare and in-home therapies as expansion lines, which would change the mix you sell. The system reported 420 locations in mid-2026.
Sources: Home Health Care News, July 2026 · PR Newswire, 3 August 2026
- No profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
Questions worth putting to BrightStar Care
The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.
- What do locations at the median spend on wages and rent as a share of sales? The filing reports sales only.
- What separates the highest-selling locations from the lowest: trade area, years open, size, or the owner?
- How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
- At what level of sales do the minimum charges stop applying and the percentage take over?
- How many BrightStar Care locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
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