Pause Studio franchise unit economics
Pause Studio franchisees run a recovery studio selling cryotherapy, compression, float, infrared sauna and IV drips on membership. Across ten franchised studios open the full year the average was $714,330 of revenue, against $1,226,959 at the high end and $419,952 at the low.
- Primary source
- Pause Franchisor Inc., 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
- Items read
- Items 5 and 6 for fees; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure
- Population
- 10 of 14 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.
The studios doing $1.7 million charge about what you will. They run twice the appointments. Franchised studios charge a little more per membership than the affiliate-owned ones and still bill less than half as much. Because they fill 132 memberships a month against 292. Filling the book is what closes that gap. One thing to settle first: the structure that lets you sell IV drips at all is under active review in Congress and in several states.
- Eight more visits a day moves you from the bottom tier to the middle. $175,326 a year is 244 single visits a month at the $60 ticket, or 83 memberships.
- The $1.7 million studios charge what you charge. They run 292 memberships and 916 single visits a month against your 132 and 438.
- Walk-in traffic is what lifts a studio above its membership base. Single visits are 48% of revenue at the highest-selling studios and 37% at franchised ones.
- $51,600 a year lands whether you bill $1.7 million or $470,000. The $800 technology fee and $3,500 local marketing minimum are 7.2% of revenue at the average and 11.0% at the bottom tier.
- The ownership structure behind IV therapy is being rewritten. A federal bill introduced in September 2026 would bar management companies from controlling a medical practice, and several states moved first.
How much does a Pause Studio franchise make?
The average Pause Studio unit reported $714,330 of revenue in the 2026 FDD. 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 8% 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
Volume is the lever.
| Sales channel | Affiliate ticket | Franchised ticket | Affiliate per month | Franchised per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Membership | $164 | $175 | 292 | 132 |
| Package | $270 | $263 | 95 | 60 |
| Single service | $77 | $60 | 916 | 438 |
Tickets are channel revenue divided by transactions in that channel.
You charge more in two of the three channels and still earn less than half, because you run a little over half the appointments. That is the entire gap. What moves your number is how tightly the book is filled, how well the rooms are used, and whether clients rebook before they leave.
Measure yourself against the franchised tiers.
The $1.7 million affiliate figure comes from five studios in greater Los Angeles, most of them open for years. The franchised system went from zero in early 2024 to fourteen studios by the end of 2025 across ten states or more. So a franchised studio comparing itself to that number is comparing against age and market density as much as against operating skill.
The tiers below are the honest benchmark. Find yours, then work on the tier above: the distance between them is appointments. Appointments come from booking density, room utilization and rebooking at checkout.
What the tier gap is worth in appointments. Bottom tier to middle is $175,326 a year, 244 single visits a month, about eight a day at the $60 ticket, or 83 memberships. Middle to top is nineteen a day. Eight more people a day is a different conversation from a $175,000 gap, and it is the same one. Ours, from the disclosed tickets.
| Group | Studios | Average | Median | High | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliate-owned | 5 | $1,720,983 | $1,678,443 | $2,044,913 | $1,278,144 |
| Franchised, top 30% | 3 | $1,051,798 | $1,064,056 | $1,226,959 | $864,380 |
| Franchised, middle 40% | 4 | $644,841 | $629,595 | $785,743 | $534,432 |
| Franchised, bottom 30% | 3 | $469,515 | $467,282 | $521,311 | $419,952 |
| All franchised *Averan calculation | 10 | $714,330 | n/a | $1,226,959 | $419,952 |
Tier figures as disclosed; the all-franchised average is marked *, weighting the tiers by studio count.
Top performers
What separates the top Pause Studio performers
Pause Studio splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $1,051,798 a year. The worst averaged $469,515. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 2.2× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
- Territory, and how much of it is real.This model sells from a territory rather than a building. Two owners with the same brand and different ground are running different businesses, and density decides how much driving sits between jobs.
- What you spend to open.Opening costs $755,663 to $1,084,566, a 1.4× 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
- Members, the operating driver.This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book.Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix.Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites.Fees run about 8.0% 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.10 of 14 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, no median, no attainment figure. The brand’s own locations are the only margin signal in the document, and they are run by the people who wrote the playbook.
Where sales come from
Walk-in traffic is what lifts a studio above its membership base.
| Channel | Affiliate-owned | Franchised |
|---|---|---|
| Single service | 48% | 37% |
| Membership | 31% | 37% |
| Package | 14% | 15% |
| Other, gift card and retail | 8% | 11% |
As disclosed.
The highest-selling studios take nearly half their revenue from single visits, people walking in on top of the members. Your membership base sets your minimum and covers your fixed costs. What lifts you above it is traffic, which means visibility, location and local marketing.
IV therapy has the revenue and the cost.
| Modality | Affiliate-owned | Franchised |
|---|---|---|
| Vitamin IV drip | 39% | 27% |
| Contrast therapy | 19% | 22% |
| Sauna | 14% | 9% |
| Float | 6% | 8% |
| LED light therapy | 5% | 8% |
| Cryotherapy | 3% | 7% |
| Vitamin shot | 2% | 2% |
| Package sales tied to multiple modalities | 4% | 5% |
| Other | 9% | 12% |
As disclosed, across membership, package and single-service channels combined.
Be careful comparing your revenue to another studio’s before you know the mix. A sauna session costs almost zero to deliver. An IV bag costs real money and, in most states, needs clinical staff. Two studios at identical revenue can run very different shares kept. If you plan to close a revenue gap by pushing IV, remember you keep less of each of those dollars than of a sauna dollar.
The affiliate studios run through a professional corporation under a management services agreement, and their figures combine both entities. Your own arrangement, and your state's rules, will change the economics.
What the money side covers
Eight percent of revenue plus $4,300 a month.
| Fee | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 7% of Sales | Percentage, paid monthly |
| Advertising Fund Contribution | 1% of Sales | Percentage, paid weekly |
| Local marketing minimum | $3,500 per month | Flat minimum spend |
| Technology Fee | $800 per month | Flat |
As the brand reported it.
The 8% scales with you. The $4,300 a month holds flat, $51,600 a year whether you bill $1.7 million or $470,000. Is 7.2% of revenue at the franchised average and 11.0% at the bottom tier. All in, a bottom-tier studio commits about 19% of revenue before paying for a single bag, staff hour or square foot, against roughly 15% at the average. Those percentages are marked *.
Plan around the flat portion. It is what makes your slow months expensive, and it is why volume matters as much as it does here.
One thing to know when you look at the affiliate figures: those locations are exempt from the local marketing minimum and the technology fee. They each spent more than $3,500 a month on local marketing anyway.
Questions we get asked
Why do the affiliate studios earn so much more?
They run about twice the appointments, 292 memberships and 916 single visits a month against 132 and 438. Prices are close, and in two of three channels the franchised studio actually charges more. Those studios are also older and all of them sit in greater Los Angeles, so age and market account for a good deal of it.
How much revenue should I plan on?
Against your own tier. The top 30% of franchised studios average $1,051,798, the middle 40% $644,841 and the bottom 30% $469,515. Find where you sit, then look at the gap to the tier above and convert it into appointments. At roughly $175 a membership and $60 a single visit, you can work out how many more of each a week closes it. That number is usually smaller than the revenue gap makes it feel.
Does Pause disclose whether a studio is profitable?
Revenue and the activity behind it, with every cost line withheld. What that leaves you is the activity data, tickets and transaction counts by channel. Is enough to benchmark your own booking volume against the system, while margin stays your own question.
What does the fee load actually cost?
Royalty of 7% and the 1% advertising fund scale with your sales. The $800 technology fee and the $3,500 local marketing minimum hold flat at $51,600 a year. Is 7.2% of revenue at the franchised average and 11.0% at the bottom tier. All in, about 19% of revenue at the bottom tier before any clinical, labor or rent cost.
Who does bookkeeping for a Pause Studio franchise?
Three kinds of money have to be kept apart from day one. Memberships bill in advance and become revenue as the month is served. Packages are harder, a block of sessions paid up front is service you owe, drawn down visit by visit, sitting on your balance sheet until used or expired. Gift cards are a third, with their own rules by state.
Two things are specific to Pause. IV therapy has real consumable cost, so track it separately and you will know which modality is actually paying you. And if you run through a professional corporation, record the money moving between the two entities so the clinical and non-clinical sides stay clean, that structure exists for regulatory reasons, and loose books undermine it. Set your accounts up by channel and by modality the way the franchisor reports, and you can compare yourself to the system without rebuilding your numbers every quarter. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
- No median. Only an average is published, which a few large locations can lift on their own.
- No profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
- No cost lines. Wages, rent and cost of goods are not broken out, so margin cannot be rebuilt from the document.
- No attainment figure. The filing does not say how many locations reached the average it publishes.
Questions worth putting to Pause Studio
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 Pause Studio 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.
Launch the diagnostic →Run these numbers against your own studio.
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