Perspire Sauna Studio franchise unit economics
Perspire Sauna Studio franchisees run a 1,600–2,000 sq ft studio of seven to ten private infrared sauna rooms, selling monthly memberships for sauna sessions, red-light therapy, halotherapy and contrast showers. Studios open the full year billed between $227,660 and $887,832, averaging $504,519.
- Primary source
- Sweat Equity Group, 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; Item 20 for the location count
- Population
- 70 of 92 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.
A sauna room bills $844 a week in Perspire's bottom quartile and $1,939 in its top, same rooms, same equipment package. The system averages $504,519. Fees run 11.0% of sales at the top and 13.6% at the bottom. And the build-out landed anywhere from $268,043 to $649,916, because the landlord allowances franchisees negotiated in 2025 ranged from $43,300 to $230,000.
- Landlord build-out allowances ran from $43,300 to $230,000. Franchisees who opened in 2025 got both. Same brand, same build spec, $186,700 of difference in what you write a check for.
- A sauna room bills $844 a week in the bottom quartile and $1,939 in the top. Same rooms, same equipment package, 2.3 times the revenue.
- The system averages $504,519. The top quartile starts at $632,944, the second at $516,695, the third at $383,296.
- Fees take 13.6% of revenue at the bottom and 11.0% at the top. 9% of sales plus $14,160 a year that lands whatever you bill.
- Studio two costs $53,240 less than studio one. That is the franchise fee back. Construction, equipment, rent and the $50,000 of working capital all repeat in full.
How much does a Perspire Sauna Studio franchise make?
The 2026 FDD for Perspire Sauna Studio does not publish unit revenue in a form that answers this directly. What it does publish is set out below, starting with Studios (end 2025): 95; Average revenue: $504,519; Total investment: $523,437–$1,147,477.
Sales
What the studios bill.
| quartile | Studios | Average | Median | Highest | Lowest | Met or beat the average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 25% | 18 | $705,823 | $687,605 | $887,832 | $632,944 | 7 (39%) |
| 2nd 25% | 17 | $567,080 | $563,008 | $625,191 | $516,695 | 7 (41%) |
| 3rd 25% | 17 | $437,801 | $440,137 | $483,039 | $383,296 | 9 (53%) |
| Bottom 25% | 18 | $307,142 | $308,295 | $382,004 | $227,660 | 9 (50%) |
| System average | 70 | $504,519 | n/a | $887,832 | $227,660 | n/a |
quartile figures as the brand reported it, covering 67 franchised and 3 affiliate studios.
A top-quarter studio bills 2.3 times what a bottom-quarter studio bills. $705,823 against $307,142, on the same equipment package and a comparable footprint of 1,600 to 2,000 square feet. Raising prices moves a studio a few points. Getting from $307,142 to $705,823 is traffic and retention, which is why the membership program sits at the center of this model.
Two thirds of the system falls below the average. The two lower quartiles cover 35 studios billing $437,801 and $307,142. A studio benchmarking itself against $504,519 without knowing its quartile learns very little. The quartile boundaries are the useful marks. The $632,944 minimum of the top quartile is the one worth aiming at.
What a sauna room produces.
The equipment package is specified plainly: the low end assumes six PC3 saunas plus one ADA-compliant PCA sauna, the high end nine PC3 plus one PCA. So a studio holds seven to ten rooms, and the room is the unit of capacity here the way a chair is in a salon.
| quartile | Annual revenue | Per room per week, 7 rooms | Per room per week, 10 rooms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 25% | $705,823 | $1,939 | $1,357 |
| 2nd 25% | $567,080 | $1,558 | $1,091 |
| 3rd 25% | $437,801 | $1,203 | $842 |
| Bottom 25% | $307,142 | $844 | $591 |
Ours, dividing each disclosed quartile average by seven and by ten rooms and then by 52 weeks.
This is the number to run your schedule against. A room either earns or sits, and the rooms cost the same either way.
Building ten rooms. Ten rooms at bottom-quarter revenue means every room earning $591 a week; seven rooms at the same revenue means $844. The equipment package runs $56,974 for seven saunas up to $121,453 for ten. The extra rooms raise your rent, your cleaning time and your staffing all year. Size the room count to the traffic you can prove.
Top performers
What separates the top Perspire Sauna Studio performers
Perspire Sauna Studio splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $705,823 a year. The worst averaged $307,142. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 2.3× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
- Capacity, fixed at build.Locations run 1,600 to 2,000 square feet. capacity is 70 studio floor multiplied by hours multiplied by how full they run. What you can sell is set by the build, and the build does not change after opening.
- What you spend to open.Opening costs $523,437 to $1,147,477, a 2.2× 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 9.0% 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.70 of 92 locations are behind these figures. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, as are locations under the brand’s current size standard, 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.
Build cost
What franchisees got from their landlords.
| Low | High | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross construction cost | $498,043 | $693,216 | $195,173 |
| TI allowance from landlord | $230,000 | $43,300 | $186,700 |
| Net building work | $268,043 | $649,916 | $381,873 |
Gross costs, TI allowances and net figures all as the brand reported it, reflecting what franchisees actually spent building second-generation space in 2025.
The allowance moved the number as much as the construction bid did. Gross construction costs ranged $195,173 between the cheapest and dearest build. Landlord allowances ranged $186,700. Most operators put their effort into the contractor bid and take whatever allowance the lease offers. On these figures that leaves as much money on the table as overpaying a builder would. The allowance is also settled before you spend anything.
The best landlord allowance ran to $230,000. That studio ended up at $268,043 net on a $498,043 build. The worst got $43,300 on a bigger build and landed at $649,916. Roughly $382,000 separates them on one line item, against a franchise fee of $50,000. If you are opening a second or third studio, this is where the money is.
The whole build.
| Line | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Building work, net of TI | $268,043 | $649,916 |
| Initial equipment package (7 to 10 saunas, halotherapy, chillers) | $56,974 | $121,453 |
| Initial franchise fee | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Additional funds, three months | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Pre-sale marketing and grand opening | $20,000 | $36,162 |
| Audio, TVs, speakers, security cameras | $18,197 | $25,977 |
| Signage | $15,235 | $34,089 |
| Technology fee through three months post-opening | $11,085 | $11,085 |
| Shipping and sauna install | $10,480 | $20,132 |
| Three months' rent and deposits | $5,946 | $57,000 |
| Everything else | $17,477 | $91,663 |
| Total | $523,437 | $1,147,477 |
Individual lines as the brand reported it; the "everything else" row is marked. Collecting office equipment and computers, permits, opening inventory, insurance, digital signage, professional and organization costs, travel and the new store opening kit.
Under 12% of the build goes to the brand. $61,235 of a $523,437 low-end investment, and $61,385 of a $1,147,477 high end. The rest goes to a contractor, a landlord, a sauna manufacturer and a sign shop. Every one of those is a negotiation you run yourself, which is why two studios in the same system can open $624,040 apart.
Cash to run the business day to day is fixed at $50,000 regardless of size. It covers six to eight employees over the first three months, two of them full-time, and sits outside owner draw and debt service. On a build that can reach $1.1 million, three months of runway is the thinnest part of the plan.
The second studio saves you the franchise fee. (Items 5 and 6)
| Low | High | |
|---|---|---|
| Development fee for two additional studios | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| First studio | $523,437 | $1,147,477 |
| Second studio | $470,197 | $1,097,477 |
| Third studio | $470,194 | $1,097,477 |
| Total | $1,520,311 | $3,392,431 |
As the brand reported it.
Studio two costs $53,240 less than studio one, and the saving is the franchise fee. Construction, equipment, rent and working capital all repeat in full. Whatever economics a second studio brings arrive on the operating side (shared management, shared marketing, a known playbook). Plan the capital accordingly.
Fees and the network
What the fees come to.
| quartile | Revenue | 9% of sales | Fixed fees | Total | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 25% | $705,823 | $63,524 | $14,160 | $77,684 | 11.0% |
| 2nd 25% | $567,080 | $51,037 | $14,160 | $65,197 | 11.5% |
| 3rd 25% | $437,801 | $39,402 | $14,160 | $53,562 | 12.2% |
| Bottom 25% | $307,142 | $27,643 | $14,160 | $41,803 | 13.6% |
Ours, applying the disclosed rates to each disclosed quartile average.
The fixed fees cost a bottom-quarter studio two and a half points more of its revenue than a top-quarter one. $14,160 is 4.6% of $307,142 and 2.0% of $705,823, the same invoice, twice the weight. On its own that sounds small; sitting on top of 9% of sales, it means the lowest-selling studios in the system have the heaviest percentage load in the year they can least afford it.
Three rates can move on notice. The brand fund can go to 3%, the technology fee can rise 25% a year, and a cooperative can be established requiring $500 to $2,000. At the top of all three, a bottom-quarter studio's load moves toward 17% of revenue. Build that headroom into a multi-unit plan.
The network, and what the revenue tables leave out.
| Year | Franchised | Company-owned | Total at year end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 45 | 6 | 51 | +21 |
| 2024 | 65 | 6 | 72 | +21 |
| 2025 | 92 | 3 | 95 | +23 |
As the brand reported it.
The quartiles describe 70 studios; 95 were open at the end of the year. Twenty-five opened during 2025 and sit outside every revenue figure, the newest ones, by definition. So a studio in its opening year is left measuring itself against studios well past its own stage.
Item 19 describes the 70 studios as those "operating at the end of 2025", while Item 20 counts 95 outlets at that date.
The closure record is unusually clean. One ceased operation across three years, against 71 openings. Two non-renewals in Texas in 2024 and six transfers over three years complete the picture. For a system that added 23 studios in a single year, that is a network holding together. It is a fair thing to weigh against the wide revenue range above.
Questions we get asked
Does Perspire disclose profitability?
Revenue only. Average, median, high and low sales by quartile for all 70 studios open the full year, the 67 franchised ones and the three affiliate studios separately, and zero cost lines anywhere. The only cost anchors are the $50,000 of additional funds budgeted for a first three months covering six to eight employees. A fee schedule worth 9% of sales plus $14,160 a year.
What should I measure my studio against?
Your quartile boundary. The system average works out to $504,519, but the marks that matter are the minimum of each quartile. $632,944 gets you into the top 25%, $516,695 into the second, $383,296 into the third. Weekly, the top quartile averages $13,574 and the bottom $5,907. Add revenue per sauna room per week and you have a metric that survives a change in room count.
How much should I push on the tenant improvement allowance?
As hard as you push on the construction bid. Allowances on real 2025 builds ran $43,300 to $230,000, a $186,700 range against a $195,173 range in gross construction cost. The two levers are the same size, and the allowance is settled before you commit capital. Retail vacancy sat at 4.4% in mid-2026 with asking rents easing, so allowances take work in this market, a reason to start the conversation earlier.
Is a second studio cheaper to open?
By $53,240 at the low end, which is essentially the initial franchise fee credited through the development agreement. Construction, equipment, rent and the $50,000 of working capital all repeat at full price. The real return on a second studio comes from spreading management and marketing across two locations, so build the case on operating leverage.
Who does bookkeeping for a Perspire Sauna Studio franchise?
Memberships bill monthly ahead of the sessions, so part of your balance is service you still owe. The royalty and brand fund are calculated on Gross Revenues that include single-use, package and membership fees, retail. Gift cards. So the definition of that number reaches your cash directly. The tenant improvement allowance needs correct treatment at build time, since it changes both your depreciable basis and your rent expense over the lease term. Track revenue per sauna room per week alongside the monthly close. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
- No revenue figures. The filing makes no financial performance representation, so there is no disclosed sales number for any location.
- 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 Perspire Sauna 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 Perspire Sauna 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.
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