Sanford Rose franchise unit economics
Sanford Rose franchisees run an executive search office trading as Dimensional Search, working by phone and email with zero regard to geography. The royalty is 7.5% of cash actually collected. The territory is a quarter-mile circle, about 126 acres, and exists to give the office a name. The system went from zero to 103 offices in three years.
- Primary source
- Sanford Rose Associates International, 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
- the locations the filing reports on
- 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 royalty here is charged on cash collected, 7.5% of what actually arrives. The territory is a circle of a quarter of a mile, about 126 acres, and it exists to give the office a name. The system went from zero offices to 103 in three years.
- The royalty follows the cash. 7.5% of cash receipts, payable when the money is collected, so a placement fee that goes unpaid has zero royalty.
- The territory is about 126 acres. A quarter-mile circle *, and the business is conducted by phone and email anywhere in the world.
- A split placement costs double the royalty without a form. 7.5% of the whole fee against 7.5% of your share, $1,125 on a $30,000 fee split in half *.
- The fee is 84.7% of the low total investment. $88,000 of $103,900 *, everything else comes to $15,900 to $43,600 *.
- One hundred and seven offices opened in three years against four exits. Zero to 103 franchised, and 53 more are projected.
How much does a Sanford Rose franchise make?
The 2026 FDD for Sanford Rose does not publish unit revenue in a form that answers this directly. What it does publish is set out below, starting with Royalty: 7.5% of cash receipts; Franchise fee: $88,000; Territory: About 126 acres; Franchised offices, end 2025: 103.
Top performers
What separates the top Sanford Rose performers
Sanford Rose publishes no revenue figures, so neither the average nor the spread between locations is disclosed.
Decided before you open
- 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 $103,900 to $131,600, a 1.3× 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
- Placements, the operating driver.This model bills on placements. The fee is earned when someone is hired and lost again if they leave inside the guarantee, so a placement that does not stick costs the firm twice. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking.A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites.Fees run about 7.5% 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.
Context you underwrite around
- What the disclosure leaves out.Item 19 publishes no profit or cost data for franchised locations, no median, no performance bands, no attainment figure. Anything below the sales line has to come from the franchisor or from owners you call.
- What the rest of the category shows.Across the 4 Staffing brands in this library that do publish bands, the top group sells 7.3× the bottom at the typical brand, and a median 31% of locations reach their own average *. Assume a spread of that order here until the franchisor shows you otherwise.
Cash
You pay on the money that arrives.
| Item | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Royalty rate | 7.5% of cash receipts, paid when collected |
| Refunds to clients | Deducted |
| Shares paid to other offices in the network | Deducted |
| Contract staffing salaries, wages and benefits | Deducted |
| Taxes of every kind | Kept in the base |
| Split with an outside firm, form filed | 7.5% of your share |
| Split with an outside firm, form unfiled | 7.5% of the entire fee |
Every term is as the brand reported it and the split comparison applies the stated rates to a fee shared with a firm outside the network, marked *.
Charging on collections. A written-off placement fee costs the office its revenue and costs the brand its royalty. That aligns the two sides in a way percentage-of-billings models do zero to encourage.
Filing the split partner form halves the royalty on that placement. $1,125 against $2,250 on a $30,000 fee split evenly *, administration with a price attached.
Contract staffing wages comes out of the base. Salaries, wages expenses and benefits are all deductible, so a search office that also places contractors keeps the pass-through out of the royalty.
Insurance proceeds for lost business are inside the base. Capped so the royalty on them stays at or below the prior year’s total, a detail worth knowing before a claim.
Every $100,000 collected costs $7,500. *, a simple number to run a month against.
A quarter-mile circle
The map matters less here than anywhere in this library.
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Size | A circle of about a quarter-mile radius around the office |
| Area * | About 0.20 square miles, or 126 acres |
| What it protects | Another Dimensional Search office inside the circle |
| What it leaves open | Offices elsewhere doing business inside your circle |
| Where you may sell | Anywhere in the world, through any channel |
Every term is as the brand reported it and the area applies the quarter-mile radius to a circle, marked *.
The territory exists to give the office an unique identity. And the density and scope of it will often make little difference to the volume of business.
Other offices may work inside your circle without compensating you. Because consultants trade by phone and email, so the protection is naming.
Relocation needs notice. And your office must sit a required distance from any other franchisee’s, so the circle moves with you.
You may sell anywhere, through any channel. Which makes reach a function of desk capacity, the reverse of every location business in this library.
Rights to additional franchises are absent. So a second office is a separate conversation.
What it costs to open
Eighty-eight thousand dollars and a desk.
| Item | Low | High | Share of the low total * |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franchise fee | $88,000 | $88,000 | 84.7% |
| Additional funds, six months | $12,000 | $27,600 | 11.5% |
| Recruiting and marketing tools | $1,800 | $3,600 | 1.7% |
| Insurance and licenses | $1,500 | $2,000 | 1.4% |
| Furnishings and computer | $0 | $5,000 | 0% |
| Total | $103,900 | $131,600 | n/a |
Every figure is as the brand reported it and the share column divides each line by the filed low total, marked *.
Everything outside the fee costs $15,900 to $43,600. *, so this is a license purchase.
Cash to run the business day to day covers six months at $2,000 to $4,600 a month. *, a longer runway than most, on a far smaller monthly figure.
An existing computer, phone and furniture may be used. Which is why those lines start at zero, a genuine home or shared-office model.
The fee is paid as $8,800 at signing and $79,200 within 30 days. With zero financing offered directly or indirectly.
Three states require the fee to be deferred until you open. Illinois attributing the requirement to the brand’s financial condition and Hawaii to the financial statements, worth reading before committing.
The network of locations
Zero to a hundred and three.
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminated | Ceased, other | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 2024 | 7 | 35 | 1 | 0 | 41 |
| 2025 | 41 | 65 | 2 | 1 | 103 |
| Three years | n/a | 107 | 3 | 1 | n/a |
Every figure is as the brand reported it, with zero company-owned offices in any year and the single 2025 closure being a franchisee moving to an affiliated brand.
Sixty-five offices opened in 2025 alone. Against three terminations across the whole period, the fastest build-up of any brand in this library.
Zero offices changed hands in three years. So a resale market has yet to form, and the only way in is a new agreement.
Fifty-three more offices are projected. Which would take the system past 150, on a model where offices compete with each other for the same placements.
The single closure was a move to an affiliated brand. So members leaving has yet to appear in any meaningful form.
The cost estimates rest on the affiliates’ search experience since 2000. Which is the operating history standing behind an $88,000 fee.
Questions we get asked
Questions an owner asks.
What does the brand take?
7.5% of cash receipts, payable when you collect. Refunds, shares paid to other offices in the network, and contract staffing salaries, wages and benefits all come out of the base; taxes stay in it.
Why does charging on cash matter?
Because a placement fee that stays uncollected has zero royalty. In a business where clients occasionally fail to pay and candidates occasionally fall out, that shifts real risk off the office.
What happens on a split placement?
If you split with a firm outside the network and file the split partner form, you pay 7.5% of your share. Without the form you pay 7.5% of the entire fee, on our reading, $2,250 against $1,125 on a $30,000 fee split evenly.
How big is the territory?
A circle of about a quarter-mile radius around your office, roughly 126 acres on our reading. It stops another Dimensional Search office opening inside it, but offices elsewhere may do business there, and you may sell anywhere in the world through any channel.
What does it cost to open?
$103,900 to $131,600, of which $88,000 is the franchise fee, 84.7% of the low total on our reading. The fee is $8,800 at signing and $79,200 within 30 days, with zero financing available.
What is the working capital assumption?
$12,000 to $27,600 covering six months, which is $2,000 to $4,600 a month on our reading. It is small because the model is a desk, a phone and subscriptions.
Anything unusual in the state addenda?
Yes. Hawaii, Illinois and at least one other state require the franchise fee to be deferred until the brand has completed its pre-opening obligations and you are open. Illinois attributes that requirement to the brand's financial condition.
Which two numbers should run monthly?
Cash collected against invoices raised, because the royalty follows the cash and so does your own income. Placements in progress. Because a search desk is a pipeline business and the pipeline is the only forward indicator.
- 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 range. The filing does not show the highest and lowest locations, so the spread inside the system is unknown.
- No attainment figure. The filing does not say how many locations reached the average it publishes.
- No ramp. The filing does not show how a new location builds up, so the first-year curve has to be assumed.
Questions worth putting to Sanford Rose
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 did the highest and lowest locations sell last year, and what explains the gap?
- 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 Sanford Rose 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 →How much of what you billed actually arrived?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast. Reporting, built around a royalty charged on collections, a split form worth half the royalty on a shared placement. A territory that has zero bearing on your market.
Request the reviewthe franchise library, all 243 brands · how franchise unit economics work · running the books across several locations · what Averan does for franchise owners
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.
- I run several locations. Which ones actually make money?Location-level contribution, and what it takes to see it.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?What a financial performance representation does and does not tell you.