CertaPro Painters franchise unit economics

How much does a CertaPro Painters franchise make?

The average CertaPro Painters unit reported $2,102,015 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $1,294,333. The brand’s disclosure document puts EBITDA plus owner’s associate compensation at 9.3% of revenue. Fees come off the top first, at about 9.4% 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.

Where the revenue sits

Revenue by quarter of named franchisees, 2025

All 291 figures are as the brand reported it individually; the quarters, shares and ranges here are marked *, ranked by gross sales.

The top 73 franchisees take 59.6% of system revenue. That is $364,564,754 of $611,686,254 *. The bottom 73 take 6.3%. Put in time: a bottom-quarter franchisee's entire year of billing equals 5.5 weeks at a top-quarter one. This is a brand where the same trade, the same brand and the same playbook produce nine-fold outcomes.

The median is $1,294,333 and the average is $2,102,015, a gap of $807,682. That gap is what happens when 25 franchisees bill over $5m and 30 bill under $500,000. Only 93 of 291 reach the average, so the average describes about a third of the system. The median is the figure to plan against.

106 franchisees, 36.4%, bill under $1m. Nine bill under $250,000. Opening costs $171,000 to $320,500. An owner selling $529,076 spends a third to two-thirds of a year's revenue, with 54% of that revenue going straight back out as direct cost.

Average revenue by time in production, 2025

As the brand reported it.

The mature top third averages $4,734,863 against $590,692 in the bottom third, eight times. A gap of $4,144,171 among franchisees who have all been trading at least 25 months. Years in business account for little of it. The middle third sells $1,393,534, closer to the bottom than the top.

Year-two franchisees average $853,219, below the year-one average of $923,585. That rests on 4 and 3 businesses, so treat it as anecdote. It does show that the first two years land near $850,000 to $925,000, above the $450,000 required in year two and within reach of the $500,000 year-three one.

The mature median is $1,278,657 while the mature average is $2,228,563. Half the mature system bills under $1.28m. An owner comparing their own figure against the headline $2,102,015 average is measuring against the top third of the brand.

Franchised outlets, 2023 to 2025

As the brand reported it; every row reconciles exactly.

That is 22 openings against 53 departures across three years. The system ran 330 franchised outlets at the start of 2023 and 299 at the end of 2025, down 9.4%. 2025 had the most openings of the three years, at 15, and the second-highest for departures at 19, so the shrinkage slowed to 4 outlets.

63 outlets changed hands in three years on a base of roughly 300. That is more than one in five. A seller who uses the franchisor to find a buyer pays a Listing and Referral Fee of the greater of $50,000 or 9% of the purchase price. A seller who finds their own buyer pays a $25,000 transfer fee. On a business selling at one times the $1,294,333 median, that is the difference between $116,490 and $25,000.

93 franchisees hold 227 of the 425 territories, 2.4 each. The revenue table counts franchisees, so a $2.1m average franchisee may be covering two or three territories. Revenue per territory across the whole system works out at $1,439,262 *, which is the figure to use when sizing what one piece of ground should produce.

Top performers

What separates the top CertaPro Painters performers

Top performers

How far apart the locations are

CertaPro Painters reports its locations in performance groups, from the highest-selling to the lowest. The group-by-group figures are in the tables on the Model and Finance tabs.

Fees and what it costs to open

What the fees come to at each size

Ours, built from the filed rates and applied to filed revenue figures.

The effective royalty falls from 6.00% to 4.48% across the reported range. Crossing $2.5m cuts the marginal rate to 5%, crossing $5m cuts it to 4%. The largest franchisee keeps $239,635 a year that a flat 6% would take, close to the entire $269,721 profit line of the average panel business *. Across all 291, the tiering leaves $2,613,733 with franchisees.

The advertising fund drops from 3% to 2% above $2.5m, and that money stays local. The 8% local advertising requirement includes the national fund. A larger owner sends one point less to the fund and spends one point more on their own market, $24,940 of redirected budget at the top-quarter average *. Scale here buys control of the marketing spend as much as a cheaper rate.

Below $2.5m the total lands at 9.4% of gross sales, whatever the size. That is $49,949 at the bottom-quarter average and $197,018 at the system average. The rate only starts moving once a franchisee is billing more than the third quarter of the system does. For three quarters of the network, franchise fees cost a flat 9.4% plus software users.

The software is charged per person, at $90 a month each. A business running an office manager, two estimators and a production manager pays $4,320 a year before the owner's own license. That is a cost that rises with headcount, so it lands hardest on a franchisee building capacity ahead of the work.

Cost to open under each operating model

As the brand reported it, reordered here by size.

The employee model costs $74,500 more at the top of the range. That is $320,500 against $246,000. Vehicles are $30,000 of that, working cash $22,500, equipment $12,000, insurance $5,000 and licences $5,000. In four states that choice is effectively made for the owner, so a California build starts $32,250 to $74,500 above a subcontractor build elsewhere.

$82,500 of the low column goes to the franchisor before opening. That is $65,000 of franchise fee, $10,000 of commercial services fee and $7,500 of technology setup, 48% of the $171,000 entry. The veteran discount takes it to $69,500, and buying an existing business takes it to $15,000 plus whatever the seller charges for the business itself.

Working capital (cash to run the business day to day) runs three to six months at $19,500 to $75,000. Against a year-one average of $923,585, the $75,000 figure is 4.2 weeks of revenue and the $52,500 figure is 3.0 weeks *. On a trade where crews are paid weekly and commercial customers settle on terms, that is the line to plan generously.

The $45,000 advertising line covers the first three months. The contract requires 12% of gross sales across the whole first year. At the year-one average of $923,585 that is $110,830, so a further $65,830 falls due over the remaining nine months *. The investment table shows the opening burst; the contract sets the rest, and the requirement drops to 8% only from year two.

The build is 0.13 to 0.25 times the median franchisee's revenue. That is $171,000 to $320,500 against $1,294,333. That is low for a business this size. There is no shop, no fit-out and no stock. The capital goes into fee, marketing and working cash. That also means the barrier to entry protecting an established owner is low.

Profit and loss

Profit and loss for reporting franchisees, 2025

Dollar figures, the 45.9% gross profit share and the 9.3% profit share are as the brand reported it; the remaining share column is marked *.

Direct cost takes 54.1% of revenue, leaving 45.9%. That line covers paint, materials and the crews who apply them, whether they are subcontractors or employees. At the median the same line takes 53.0%. One point of gross margin is worth $29,035 at the panel average, which is 10.8% of the whole profit *. Estimating discipline is the single highest-leverage habit in this model.

The profit line is 9.3% of revenue, and it still includes the owner's associate compensation. That is $269,721 on $2,903,461. At the median it is 7.0%, $142,921 on $2,053,934. Half this panel is running a business that bills over $2m and keeps under $143,000 before the owner's own pay is settled.

Marketing costs 8.2% of sales, against the 8% the agreement requires. That is $239,509 against $232,277 *. This line is a requirement: an owner looking to cut costs has to find them in the 26.3% of overhead or in the 54.1% of direct cost. Marketing spend stays at the requirement because the franchisor audits it twice a year and bills the shortfall into the advertising fund.

Brand fees show at 4.3% of revenue. That is $125,085 on $2,903,461. The current schedule charges 6% royalty on the first $2.5m plus a 0.35% technology fee. This panel’s median revenue of $2,053,934 sits entirely inside that first tier. Some existing franchisees still pay legacy royalty and advertising rates under earlier agreements. Those legacy rates are the likeliest reason for the gap, so a new CertaPro Painters owner should model the current schedule.

Overheads take 26.3% of revenue outside marketing and brand fees. That is $762,404. On a business with almost no fixed plant (a small office, a leased vehicle or four, and software) that is people: estimators, production managers and office staff. It is also the line that separates the $4.7m mature third from the $590,692 one. The estimating and crew capacity for $4.7m of work has to be paid for before the sales arrive.

The target to clear

Minimum royalty and sales requirement by contract year

The brand reported the minimum royalty figures and the sales requirements, in Section 2.3 of the agreement and in the territory performance criteria respectively. The implied-sales column is marked *, dividing each minimum by the 6% first-tier royalty rate.

Every minimum royalty figure is exactly 6% of the sales requirement beside it. All fourteen of them are. $51,000 is 6% of $850,000; $39,000 is 6% of $650,000; $15,000 is 6% of $250,000. The minimum royalty and the sales requirement are the same obligation written twice. Reach the sales figure and the minimum never applies. Miss it and the royalty arrives as though the sales had happened.

A year-seven owner billing $600,000 pays $51,000 against $36,000. An effective royalty of 8.5%, and $15,000 of cash against revenue the year failed to produce, 9.1 days of billing at that size *. The same owner is also in breach of the territory performance criteria, so the money and the territory are at risk on the same number.

82 of the 291 reporting franchisees, 28.2%, bill under $850,000. Of those, 48 bill under $650,000, 30 under $500,000 and 9 under $250,000 *. Those counts include franchisees in their early years, for whom the hurdle is lower. For everyone past year six, $850,000 of gross sales with $500,000 of it residential is the line to clear each calendar year.

The residential minimum holds at $500,000 through years seven and eight while total sales rise to $850,000. That permits the commercial share to grow: a year-eight owner may reach $850,000 with $500,000 residential and $350,000 commercial, or with $850,000 residential. From year nine the residential figure moves to $600,000. Commercial work counts toward the total hurdle and the residential one is measured separately. So the two minimums have to be planned as two separate books of business.

Residential and commercial share of volume

As the brand reported it, covering all franchisees active at any time during each year, including partial years.

Commercial work reached 45% of system volume in 2025, up from 42% in 2023. That is three points in two years. Territory exclusivity covers residential services alone, so every certified franchisee in the system may sell commercial work inside anyone else's ground. The franchisor and any third party may also sell commercial work there, with no compensation to the territory holder.

Commercial certification costs $10,000 and is due at signing. The fee is payable before an owner may perform commercial work at all, alongside completion of Commercial Services Level One Training. Until then, commercial jobs inside the owner's own territory are available to certified franchisees elsewhere. Buying an existing business that already holds the licence transfers it at no extra cost.

National accounts sit outside the territory altogether. The franchisor holds the exclusive right to negotiate with any business operating across more than one franchisee's ground. CertaPro Painters may offer the work to the territory holder, to another franchisee, to a third party or keep it, with no compensation to the territory holder either way. Program Services work operates on the same basis for franchisees outside a given program.

Questions we get asked

Questions owners ask.