Handyman and home repair franchise finance
Averan read the 2026 FDDs of three handyman and home repair brands.
The median cost to open runs $132,200 to $215,000.
Find a handyman and home repair brand
3 brands in this guide, each from its own 2026 FDD. Open one, or pick two and compare them.
The brands in this group
Each brand has its own business model breakdown, with every figure set out against the brand’s disclosure document it comes from.
- Ace Handyman Servicesquartile · Single territory against multi-territory groups by quartile
- Mr. Handymanunits_owned · Sales per unit falls as units are added
- TruBlue Revenue quartiles for 42 franchises plus a separate first-full-calendar-year cohort, against a four-rung fee rebate ladder and a flat advertising floor
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | |
| Royalty | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | |
| Percentage fees, all in | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | Royalty, funds and local marketing set as a share of sales |
| Cost to open, low | $132,200 | 3 of 3 | |
| Cost to open, high | $215,000 | 3 of 3 | |
| Profit margin | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 3 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 3 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 3 | |
| Unit growth, 2025 | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost, 2025 | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 3 | Terminated, non-renewed, reacquired and ceased, ÷ opening units; transfers excluded |
Each figure is the median of the brands that disclose it, and the Brands column counts them.
How we calculated this
Revenue is each brand's own reported figure on its own unit basis, so the median describes the group and no single brand. Growth and customers lost are our calculations from each brand's outlet table. Where fewer than three brands disclose a figure, no benchmark is shown.
The model
The business model the top performers in handyman and home repair are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
1 of the 3 brands here sell one job at a time.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a quoted job, usually once. At 1 of them the model is different: the customer buys small jobs done on a visit, which asks something else of the owner. A location at the middle brand sells $605,834 a year; the top group sells $3,104,121. The offer is the same at both ends of that range, so the difference is volume rather than product.
Who the customer is, and how often they come back
This is an acquisition business. Each job is won again, so lead flow, the close rate and what the average job is worth decide the year. A median 33% of locations reach their own brand’s average, so most of the system is below the number the brand advertises, and the gap is usually a demand gap rather than an effort gap. The top group sells $3,104,121 against $210,972 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $73,050 to $226,000 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 1.4 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs franchise fees 12.8% of sales.
Also disclosed across this group: $438,095, $773,574, 14.9, 25.8.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in handyman and home repair
At the typical handyman and home repair brand, the best group of locations sells $3,104,121 a year. The worst group sells $210,972. That is $2,893,149 more a year, 14.7 times over, for the same brand on the same agreement. Across these brands, a median of 33% of locations reach their own brand’s average. The average describes the top of a system, not the middle. 2 of the 3 brands here publish bands; the rest disclose no spread at all.
Decided before you open
- What it costs to open.Opening costs run $73,050 to $226,000 across the group, and the top of a single brand’s range is typically 1.4 times its bottom. The top group sells $3,104,121 a year against a build that tops out at $226,000, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $13.74 for every dollar it cost to open. That build is recovered inside a year or two of sales at that end of the system.
- What a location sells.Average sales run $605,834 at the middle brand and $3,104,121 at the top group. Format and site decide most of that before an owner does anything, which is why the same operator produces different results in different trade areas.
Live operating levers
- What the brand charges. The line that works backwards.Fees run a median 12.8% of sales across 2 brands, from 8.5% to 17.0%. Where a minimum sits underneath the percentage, the weakest location pays the highest effective rate, so the fee line costs most exactly where it can least be afforded. The top performers clear the minimum early and stop thinking about it. At $3,104,121 the fees cost $396,241 a year; at $210,972 they cost $26,931. The percentage is the same and the burden is not.
- No brand here prices its cost lines.Not one of these 3 filings publishes wages, rent or cost of sales, so the operating gap between the top and the bottom cannot be read from the documents. The sales figures are all you are given, and everything that turns those sales into earnings has to come from owners you call. Ask three at each end of the system for wages as a share of sales, rent as a share of sales, and what is left at the end.
Context you underwrite around
- How many brands show a ramp.1 of 3 filings in this group show how a new location builds up. For the rest the first year has to be assumed, and the assumption is usually wrong in the same direction.
- What is not banded.1 brands publish no bands at all, so their spread is unknown rather than narrow. Read a single average as the upper-middle of a distribution you cannot see.
Operating levers
What each brand’s top performers actually work on
The levers the filing supports, brand by brand. Three to five each, read from that brand’s own 2026 FDD. Filter by type of business, or open a brand for the figures underneath.
3 brands
Ace Handyman Services
Handyman and home repair
- What you can change after opening. This filing prices none of the operating lines. Across the Home Services brands in this library that do disclose them, the largest is the cost of what you sell at a median 43.8% of sales *
Mr. Handyman
Handyman and home repair
- Jobs, the operating driver. This model bills on jobs. Every job is won again, so the owner works on how many quotes turn into work and what the average job is worth when it does. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 17.0% 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.
TruBlue
Handyman and home repair
- Work orders, the operating driver. This model bills on work orders. A technician completes a set number of work orders in a day, so the owner works on how many and what each one is worth. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 8.5% 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.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?Usually it is a revenue problem wearing a payroll costume.
- Revenue was the highest it has been. Why did profit not move?Where the extra revenue went, line by line.
- At what point do spreadsheets stop coping?What changes at around ten units, and why lenders care.
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.
Launch the diagnostic →How many jobs did you run last week?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast. Reporting, built around job count, a minimum fee your brand imposes. A chart of accounts mapped to the benchmark you are being measured against.
Request the reviewWhere these figures come from
Every figure here comes from the brands' 2026 FDDs and is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brands. The medians, growth and customers lost figures are our own calculations. The figures describe past performance at other businesses. They are not a projection of your results. This page is an educational summary and is not an offer to sell a franchise or financial, legal or tax advice. All trademarks belong to their owners. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.