Tutoring and learning centers franchise finance
The median brand here reports average revenue of $380,327 a unit. Percentage fees at the median brand come to 12.8% of sales. The median cost to open runs $133,708 to $226,890.
Tutoring and learning centers franchises at a glance
- Averan Franchise compares ten tutoring and learning centers franchise brands, each from its own 2026 FDD.
- The cost to open a tutoring and learning centers franchise runs from $49,968 at Eye Level Learning Center to $503,681 at Brain Balance.
- Brain Balance reports the highest average sales of these brands, at $682,933, and Best in Class Education Center the lowest, at $223,624.
- Franchise fees take 10% to 16% of sales across the seven brands where Averan Franchise works out the figure.
These figures come from each brand's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, as the brand reported them, and were read by Averan Advisors.
Find a tutoring and learning centers brand
This guide covers ten brands, each from its own 2026 FDD. Open one, or pick two and compare them.
All 10 brands
The brands in this group
Each brand has its own page on how its locations make money, with every figure set out against the brand’s disclosure document it comes from.
- Best in Class Education Center Sales for 27 centers · Four expense lines, including rent and marketing, for 19 centers
- Brain Balance Revenue by group · A $72,000 minimum advertising charge that beats its own 9% rate until $800,000 of sales
- C2 Education Centers 16 locations · No Item 19; fixed charges set against a revenue minimum
- Eye Level Learning Center 121 locations · No Item 19, royalty per subject-student
- Huntington Learning Center $83,460 of dollar minimums arrive whatever the center bills
- JEI Learning Center 44 locations · No Item 19, tiered royalty per subject
- Kumon No financial performance representation
- LearningRx income statement by thirds with attainment, plus charges/collections/profit ranges · Three programs a month is the whole business
- Mathnasium Full profit line published for 914 centers
- Sylvan Learning The minimums decide it for the bottom half
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | $380,327 | 6 of 10 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | $326,428 | 5 of 10 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | $43,500 | 10 of 10 | |
| Royalty | 8.8% | 8 of 10 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | 2% | 8 of 10 | |
| Fees paid to the brand | 12.8% | 7 of 10 | Royalty, brand fund and other fees paid to the brand or its affiliates, as a share of average sales |
| Cost to open, low | $133,708 | 10 of 10 | |
| Cost to open, high | $226,890 | 10 of 10 | |
| Profit margin | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 10 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | 20.6% | 3 of 10 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | 12.8% | 3 of 10 | |
| Unit growth over each FDD’s Item 20 period (2025, or 2023 to 2025) | 0% | 10 of 10 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost over each FDD’s Item 20 period (2025, or 2023 to 2025) | 4.2% | 9 of 10 | 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 tutoring and learning centers are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
Six of the ten brands here sell a place for a child. Filling a fixed building is the constraint: occupancy runs 12.8% of sales at the middle brand, and the rent does not move when the week is quiet. Wages run 20.6% of sales at the middle brand.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a place held week after week. At one of them the model is different: the customer buys a recurring account billed monthly, which asks something else of the owner. A location at the middle brand sells $380,327 a year; the top group sells $744,194. The offer is the same at both ends of that range, so the difference is volume.
Who the customer is, and how often they come back
This is a retention business. The money is made in the second year of a customer, not the first month, so the number that decides the year is how many stay. A median 40% of locations reach their own brand’s average, so most of the system is below the number the brand advertises, and the gap usually comes from low demand. Effort is usually not the cause. The top group sells $744,194 against $156,356 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $49,968 to $503,681 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 1.9 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs wages 20.6%, occupancy 12.8%, franchise fees 12.8% of sales. The percentage changes little between them; the dollars change a lot.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in tutoring and learning centers
Across the tutoring and learning centers brands that publish both figures, the median top group of locations sells $744,194 a year and the median bottom group sells $156,356. Across these brands, a median of 40% of locations reach their own brand’s average.
Decided before you open
- Opening cost against sales.The top group sells $744,194 a year against a build that tops out at $503,681, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $1.48 for every dollar it cost to open.
- Rent as a share of sales.Occupancy runs 12.8% of sales at the middle brand, which on median sales of $380,327 is $48,682 of rent a year. That same $48,682 is 6.5% of sales at the top group and 31.1% at the bottom. Top-group locations put more sales through the same square footage, with longer earning hours, a second daypart, and a site picked for traffic.
Live operating levers
- Six of the ten brands here sell a place for a child.
Business model attribute
- Service
- A place for a child, paid by the month or term
- Unit economics
- Places filled times the fee for each place
- Wages by brand.Wages run 20.6% of sales at the middle brand and 19.9% to 35.6% across the three that disclose it. The levers are scheduling against booked demand hour by hour, sales per paid hour, and keeping part of pay variable. On the top group’s $744,194 of sales, a point of wages is $7,442 a year; on the bottom group’s $156,356 it is $1,564.
- Cost of goods by brand.Products and materials take 37.7% of sales at Mathnasium, the one brand that discloses it. The levers on this line are buying on the brand program, holding the price list instead of discounting to close, and counting waste weekly.
- Profit margin.Two brands publish a profit line, and they keep 21.4% to 30.4% of sales. The cost lines above move by a few points between the highest-selling and lowest-selling locations while sales move by multiples.
- Fees as a share of sales.Fees run a median 12.8% of sales across seven brands, from 10.0% to 16.0%. Where a minimum applies, lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. At $744,194 the fees cost $95,629 a year; at $156,356 they cost $20,092.
Context you underwrite around
- First-year build-up.One of ten filings in this group shows how a new location builds up. The others do not show it.
- Brands without sales bands.Four brands publish only an average, with no sales bands.
Operating levers
What each brand’s top performers actually work on
These are the levers each brand's filing supports. Each brand has up to five, read from its own 2026 FDD. Filter by type of business, or open a brand for the figures underneath.
10 brands
Best in Class Education Center
Tutoring and learning centers
- Wages. Wages take 19.9% of sales. The levers are staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission.
- Occupancy cost. Rent and building costs take 17.6% of sales here. The rent is fixed when the lease is signed, so this share falls only as sales per square foot rise.
- Enrollment. The license sets the number of places. Track how many are filled, the price of each, and how long families stay.
- Fees and the minimum. Fees run about 16.0% of sales. A minimum fee also applies, so lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum.
Brain Balance
Tutoring and learning centers
- Enrollment. The license sets the number of places. Track how many are filled, the price of each, and how long families stay.
- Fees and the minimum. Fees run about 10.0% of sales. A minimum fee also applies, so lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum.
- Cash needed in the first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up: the month sales cover costs, and how much cash you fund before then.
C2 Education Centers
Tutoring and learning centers
- Fees and the minimum. Fees run about 10.0% of sales. A minimum fee also applies, so lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum.
- Service and retail mix. Retail sales and the share of customers on higher service tiers raise revenue per hour without adding hours or rooms.
Eye Level Learning Center
Tutoring and learning centers
- Fees and the minimum. The brand’s charges are set dollar amounts, so they take a larger share of sales at lower-selling locations.
- Enrollment. The license sets the number of places. Track how many are filled, the price of each, and how long families stay.
Huntington Learning Center
Tutoring and learning centers
- Accounts. Accounts bill year after year. Track how many you keep as well as how many you win.
- Fees and the minimum. Fees run about 15.8% of sales. A minimum fee also applies, so lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum.
JEI Learning Center
Tutoring and learning centers
- Fees and the minimum. The brand’s charges are set dollar amounts, so they take a larger share of sales at lower-selling locations.
- Enrollment. The license sets the number of places. Track how many are filled, the price of each, and how long families stay.
Kumon
Tutoring and learning centers
- Enrollment. The license sets the number of places. Track how many are filled, the price of each, and how long families stay.
- Service and retail mix. Retail sales and the share of customers on higher service tiers raise revenue per hour without adding hours or rooms.
LearningRx
Tutoring and learning centers
- Wages. Wages take 35.6% of sales, against 21.4% kept at the end. The levers are staff productivity, scheduling against demand hour by hour, and the balance of base pay to commission.
- Occupancy cost. Rent and building costs take 12.2% of sales here. The rent is fixed when the lease is signed, so this share falls only as sales per square foot rise.
- Sales depend on customers. The owner works on how many customers are won, how many are lost, and what each spends in a year.
- Fees and the minimum. Fees run about 12.8% of sales. A minimum fee also applies, so lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum.
Mathnasium
Tutoring and learning centers
- Products and materials. Products and materials take 37.7% of sales, against 30.4% kept at the end. The levers are buying terms, price discipline and waste.
- Occupancy cost. Rent and building costs take 12.8% of sales here. The rent is fixed when the lease is signed, so this share falls only as sales per square foot rise.
- Enrollment. The license sets the number of places. Track how many are filled, the price of each, and how long families stay.
- Fees and the minimum. Fees run about 12.0% of sales. A minimum fee also applies, so lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum.
Sylvan Learning
Tutoring and learning centers
- Sales depend on student hours. Families buy hours in blocks, so the owner works on how many hours are delivered each week and how long a family keeps buying them.
- Fees and the minimum. Fees run about 16.0% of sales. A minimum fee also applies, so lower-selling locations pay a higher effective rate. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum.
Tutoring and learning centers cost lines as a share of sales
Three of the ten tutoring and learning centers brands in Averan Franchise disclose what their locations spend on wages, rent and space, or cost of goods. Each figure is a share of the average location's sales, from the brand's 2026 FDD. Rent and space covers rent and the other costs of the premises.
| Brand | Wages | Rent and space | Cost of goods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best in Class Education Center | 19.9% | 17.6% | Not disclosed |
| LearningRx | 35.6% | 12.2% | Not disclosed |
| Mathnasium | 20.6% | 12.8% | 37.7% |
How fast new tutoring and learning centers locations build sales
The pages for three of the ten tutoring and learning centers brands in Averan Franchise show how a new location's sales build after opening, by month or by years open, in dollars from each brand's FDD. The months before sales cover costs are the ones to plan cash for, and the minimum fee calculator shows what the fees cost during them.
Common questions
How much does a tutoring and learning centers franchise cost to open?
Among the ten tutoring and learning centers brands in Averan Franchise that publish it, the cost to open runs from $49,968 at Eye Level Learning Center to $503,681 at Brain Balance, according to their 2026 FDDs.
Which tutoring and learning centers franchise costs the least to open?
Eye Level Learning Center has the lowest starting cost of the tutoring and learning centers brands in Averan Franchise, at $49,968 to $133,200.
Which tutoring and learning centers franchise has the highest average sales?
Brain Balance reports the highest average sales of the tutoring and learning centers brands in Averan Franchise, at $682,933 in its 2026 FDD.
What do tutoring and learning centers franchise fees cost as a share of sales?
Across the seven tutoring and learning centers brands where Averan Franchise works out the figure, franchise fees take 10% to 16% of sales.
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?It works out the sales level where a minimum fee stops applying.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?It builds a 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?It shows how to tell whether payroll is rising or revenue is falling.
- What should I be looking at every week?It lists the handful of numbers that move before the P&L does.
- Do I need a bookkeeper, a controller, or a CFO?It explains what each role owns and when the next hire pays for itself.
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Numbers Check 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 →What share of your revenue is staff?
We review your unit economics and cash forecast and build your reporting around wages measured against enrollment week by week, occupancy cost against the hours a room is actually used. The reporting also sets a second-location gate on cash.
Talk to AveranWhere 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.