Lightbridge Academy franchise unit economics
Lightbridge Academy franchisees run an early-education and childcare center licensed for a fixed number of seats. Across 47 mature franchised centers the average was $2,599,877 of revenue and $381,129 of profit, a 14.7% margin, at 77.3% of licensed capacity.
- Primary source
- Lightbridge Franchise Company, 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
- 47 of 68 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.
You hire teachers for the rooms your license covers and you pay rent on the whole building, however many seats are filled. That is why a Lightbridge center at 93.6% of capacity keeps 21.0% of its revenue and one at 57.0% keeps 4.6%. Filling seats is the job, and from this tax year, the employer tax credit that pays companies to buy those seats is worth more than triple what it was.
- The model starts working in the low-to-mid 70s of occupancy cost. At 93.6% of capacity a center keeps 21.0%; at 74.5% it keeps 9.7%; at 57.0% it keeps 4.6% before debt.
- A point of occupancy cost is worth about $8,000 of profit, and more as you climb. Wages holds at 41% to 49% either way, because staffing follows state ratios against the license.
- A cheaper building leaves a soft enrollment exactly where it was. The bottom quartile pays roughly what the third quartile pays in rent and it costs them 19% of revenue against 12%.
- A soft first center blocks your second one. 65% occupancy cost is the contractual minimum, and the bottom quarter's median center runs 60.6%.
- Employers now get a far larger credit for buying childcare. From 2026 the federal credit rises to 40% of spend and a $500,000 cap, and contracts through an intermediary qualify.
How much does a Lightbridge Academy franchise make?
The average Lightbridge Academy unit reported $2,599,877 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $2,664,063. The brand’s disclosure document puts the profit line at 14.7% of revenue. Fees come off the top first, at about 12% 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
Building costs and margin move together.
| quartile | Centers | Avg occupancy cost | Avg sales | Avg profit | share of sales kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quartile | 12 | 93.6% | $3,409,898 | $715,175 | 21.0% |
| 2nd quartile | 12 | 83.9% | $2,885,173 | $492,109 | 17.1% |
| 3rd quartile | 11 | 74.5% | $2,300,819 | $222,405 | 9.7% |
| 4th quartile | 12 | 57.0% | $1,778,698 | $81,600 | 4.6% |
| All franchised mature | 47 | 77.3% | $2,599,877 | $381,129 | 14.7% |
quartiles are built on sales. The occupancy cost column is the average occupancy cost of the centers in each revenue quartile.
The gap between a full center and a half-full one runs to nearly nine times the money. The lowest-selling center in the system lost $115,363, so the bottom of this range is a live outcome.
What a point of occupancy cost is worth. Climbing from 57.0% to the third quarter's 74.5% is 17.5 points and $140,805 of profit, about $8,000 a point. The next 9.4 points are worth $269,704, roughly $29,000 a point, because staffing and rent are already paid for by then. Ours, from the disclosed dollars.
Your costs follow the license. Your revenue follows the enrollment.
| Line | All 62 | Top | 2nd | 3rd | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building costs (enrollment vs licensed capacity) | 78.0% | 92.6% | 84.1% | 75.4% | 60.0% |
| Wages, including taxes | 45% | 41% | 45% | 47% | 49% |
| Benefits | 2% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 1% |
| Other program expenses | 3% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
| Business insurance | 2% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 2% |
| Professional fees | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% |
| All other expenses | 11% | 11% | 11% | 11% | 12% |
| EBITDAR | 30% | 34% | 30% | 27% | 25% |
| Rent, tax and CAM | 15% | 12% | 14% | 15% | 19% |
| profit | 15% | 22% | 17% | 12% | 5% |
As disclosed, percentages included.
Wages: 41% of revenue at the top, 49% at the bottom. The state sets how many teachers each room needs, and a half-empty infant room still needs a full one. You hire for the license and you get paid for the children who show up.
Rent, tax and CAM: 12% at the top, 19% at the bottom. The lowest-selling centers pay about the same rent in dollars as the ones a tier above them. They just earn $500,000 less to cover it, so rent as a share of revenue is an enrollment number.
So a soft center stays soft however hard you work the cost line. There is very little left to cut. You fix it by filling seats.
Top performers
What separates the top Lightbridge Academy performers
Lightbridge Academy splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $3,409,898 a year. The worst averaged $1,778,698. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 1.9× 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 $834,868 to $1,409,735, a 1.7× 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.
- Lease economics.Occupancy cost ran 15.0% of sales in this filing. The rent does not fall when sales do, so the same lease is a far heavier line at the bottom of the system than at the top. That is how a weak site compounds into a weak profit line.
Live operating levers
- Wages, the dominant line.Wages take 45.0% of sales, against 14.7% kept at the end. Staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission are where this is won. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Occupancy, the line that does not flex.Rent and building costs take 15.0% of sales here. Sales per square foot and the hours the space is earning are the only two ways to move it, because the rent itself is fixed at signing.
- Enrolment, the operating driver.This model bills on enrolment. The licence fixes how many places exist, so what is left is how many are filled, what each is priced at, and how long a family stays. 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 12.0% 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.
Context you underwrite around
- The reporting screen.47 of 68 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.
- Brand-owned locations.The franchisor reports its own locations alongside the franchised ones. Treat them as indicative rather than representative: they are operated by the franchisor, usually mature, and usually few.
Building costs
A center below 65% occupancy cost blocks the next one.
If your first center has been open a year and sits under 65% full, Lightbridge holds back your second one. You get 180 days to fix it, and if you are still short at the end of that they can terminate your agreement. So a soft center costs you the growth plan as well as the earnings, and puts the business you already own at risk.
This happens often enough to take seriously: more than half the bottom quarter of the system already sits under that line. If a second center is in your plan, occupancy cost at the first one is the gate you have to clear. Makes every point of enrollment between now and then worth more than it looks on the P&L.
| quartile | Average | Median | Highest | Lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quartile | 93.6% | 93.7% | 98.4% | 88.3% |
| 2nd quartile | 83.9% | 83.8% | 88.3% | 79.6% |
| 3rd quartile | 74.5% | 74.6% | 79.6% | 68.1% |
| 4th quartile | 57.0% | 60.6% | 67.9% | 32.6% |
| All 47 | 77.3% | 79.6% | 98.4% | 32.6% |
As disclosed.
Centers under eighteen months run well below that.
| Population | Centers | Avg occupancy cost | Avg sales | Bottom-quarter occupancy cost | Bottom-quarter revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mature centers (18+ months) | 62 | 78.0% | $2,640,681 | 60.0% | $1,875,147 |
| All open before 1/1/2025 | 75 | 72.5% | $2,464,153 | 46.6% | $1,502,331 |
Both rows combine franchised and affiliate-owned centers.
What the money side covers
Fees sit inside the disclosed margin.
| Fee | Rate | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty Fee | 7% of Gross Revenues, reduced to 4% in stated circumstances | Percentage of revenue |
| Brand Development Fund | Up to 3% of Gross Revenues | Percentage of revenue |
| Advertising cooperative | Up to 2% of Gross Revenues where one is established | Percentage of revenue |
The franchise agreement, which has further fees and the conditions on the reduced royalty; review it in full.
Royalty and brand fund are already inside these shares kept, they sit in the expense stack. So 14.7% is what a center keeps after Lightbridge is paid. You can put these figures into a budget without adjusting them first.
They are before debt, though. The loan payment on the build-out comes out of that 14.7%, and what is left after it is your return.
Questions we get asked
What occupancy cost does a Lightbridge Academy center need to work?
Break-even sits between the quartiles. At 93.6% full a center keeps 21.0%. At 74.5% it keeps 9.7%. At 57.0% it keeps 4.6%, before the loan payment. The low-to-mid 70s is where the model starts to work, and 65% is the line the franchise agreement itself measures you against.
Why does margin fall so sharply when a center is half full?
Because your two biggest bills follow the building and the license while your revenue follows the children. You staff to state ratios and you pay rent on the whole space regardless. An empty seat still costs you its share of both, so nearly every dollar of tuition you miss comes straight off your profit.
Does Lightbridge disclose profitability?
Yes, and in more detail than most. You get expenses and profit in dollars and as a share of revenue, split by quartile. Franchised centers kept separate from the ones the franchisor's affiliate owns. The shares kept are after franchisor fees and before your loan payment. The data is unaudited.
What can I do to lift occupancy cost?
Start with employers near you. From tax year 2026 the federal credit covers 40% of a company's qualified child care spend against a $500,000 cap. Now reaches spend made through an intermediary or a jointly operated facility. So an employer can contract with your center. Those points of occupancy cost arrive at your highest margin.
Which number should I measure my center against?
Your own occupancy cost quartile. Work out your enrollment against licensed capacity, find the matching row, and compare your wages and occupancy cost percentages to it. Those two lines have the whole difference between a 21.0% margin and a 4.6% one. The system average of $381,129 of profit and median of $327,766 are useful only for knowing roughly where you sit. The quartile rows are where the actions are.
Who does bookkeeping for a Lightbridge Academy franchise?
You collect before you deliver. Tuition is billed in advance, registration fees land before a child starts, and summer camp is often paid months ahead. All of it stays deferred until the care is provided. During presales you can bank real money before serving a single family. If the books treat that as revenue the opening months read far better than they are.
Two things to insist on. Split wages by classroom and age group: at 45% of revenue it decides your year. You can only fix it once you can see which rooms are overstaffed for the children in them. And put occupancy cost, children enrolled against licensed capacity, in the monthly pack next to the P&L. It predicts your margin, and your franchise agreement measures you on it. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
Questions worth putting to Lightbridge Academy
The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.
- Is the profit figure in Item 19 before or after owner pay, and how many locations sit below it?
- 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 Lightbridge Academy 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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