U.S. Lawns franchise unit economics
U.S. Lawns franchisees run commercial landscape maintenance crews across a territory of at least a ten-mile radius, billing property managers and facilities owners on contract. Net profit is 18.7% of gross sales after administrative expenses that already have owner and officer salaries, on the system’s $1,500,018 average that is $280,503, and it holds to within 0.08% against the gross profit line.
- Primary source
- U.S. Lawns, 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
- 165 of 208 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.
Net profit runs 18.7% of gross sales, and the expenses above it already include owner and officer salaries. At the system’s $1,500,018 average that is $280,503, a figure two separate tables agree on to within 0.08%.
- Net profit is 18.7% of gross sales, measured after the owner has been paid.$280,503 at the system average *; the 15.1% administrative line covers owner and officer salaries, owner benefit, rent, insurance and advertising.
- Two independently prepared tables agree to $406.33.8% of $1,500,018 gives $507,006 against a published average gross profit of $507,412 *, 0.08% apart.
- Territories aged one to two years run the best gross profit in the system.36.5% against 33.6% at five years and beyond *, margin arrives first and revenue build-up behind it.
- Half the system pays a flat 6% royalty while the top quartile pays 4.62%.The ladder steps down at $750,000 and $1,500,000 of annual billings *; the third quartile averages $705,036.
- Gross profit runs below zero in two of the three age groups.Lows of −$36,572 at one to two years and −$15,874 at five years and beyond, before a dollar of overhead.
How much does a U.S. Lawns franchise make?
The average U.S. Lawns unit reported $1,500,018 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $943,856. The brand’s disclosure document puts the profit line at 18.7% of revenue. Fees come off the top first, at about 6% 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.
Top performers
What separates the top U.S. Lawns performers
U.S. Lawns splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $3,628,237 a year. The worst averaged $277,298. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $943,856. The average was $1,500,018. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 13.1× 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 $113,000 to $200,000, a 1.8× 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
- Cost of what you sell.Products and materials take 66.2% of sales, against 18.7% kept at the end. Buying terms, price discipline and waste are where this is won, and each of them compounds at volume. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Accounts, the operating driver.This model bills on accounts. An account signed this year still bills next year, so keeping accounts matters more than winning them. 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 6.0% 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.
- The first year.This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Context you underwrite around
- The reporting screen.165 of 208 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.
Age and margin
Costs are covered before the sales arrive.
| Years in operation | Territories * | Average gross sales | Median sales | Average gross profit | Median gross profit | Lowest gross profit | gross profit * |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One to two | 14 | $361,010 | $378,962 | $131,648 | $128,291 | −$36,572 | 36.5% |
| Three to four | 16 | $936,878 | $488,751 | $338,261 | $207,239 | $82,280 | 36.1% |
| Five and beyond | 135 | $1,684,879 | $1,164,435 | $566,428 | $373,318 | −$15,874 | 33.6% |
| All 165 | 165 | $1,500,018 | $943,856 | $507,412 | $309,377 | −$36,572 | 33.8% |
Sales, gross profit, medians and lows are as the brand reported it; the territory counts and margin column are marked *.
A territory aged one to two years runs a 36.5% gross profit; one aged five or more runs 33.6%. *. The youngest group is the most efficient per dollar billed, which reframes the first two years: the question is contract volume.
Revenue multiplies 4.7 times between the youngest and oldest group. $361,010 to $1,684,879. Gross profit multiplies 4.3 times over the same span, $131,648 to $566,428. So the growth is almost entirely volume. A 2.9-point margin cost attached to reaching it.
The lowest gross profit in the mature group sits below zero. −$15,874, among 135 territories trading five years or more. A business running that long and still failing to cover its own direct costs and equipment is a different problem from a slow build-up.
The three-to-four-year group's median is half its average. $488,751 against $936,878, across 16 territories with a $2,762,325 high. That middle group is the most unevenly distributed in the system: five of 16 reach their own average and eleven sit below it.
The mature group's median gross profit is $373,318 against an average of $566,428. A $193,110 gap. Applying the system's 15.1% administrative rate to the median territory's $1,164,435 of sales leaves $217,749 of net profit *, well under the $315,072 the group average implies.
Best to worst, by sales
Thirteen times, top to bottom.
| quartile | Territories | Average gross sales | Median | Lowest | Highest | Reaching their own average | Net profit at 18.7% * |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 41 | $3,628,237 | $2,590,821 | $2,108,641 | $10,677,898 | 32% | $678,480 |
| All 165 | 165 | $1,500,018 | $943,856 | $55,596 | $10,677,898 | 34% | $280,503 |
| Second | 41 | $1,419,322 | $1,394,979 | $965,869 | $2,055,890 | 44% | $265,413 |
| Third | 41 | $705,036 | $722,382 | $462,565 | $943,856 | 59% | $131,842 |
| Fourth | 42 | $277,298 | $283,620 | $55,596 | $462,170 | 57% | $51,855 |
Territory counts, sales, medians, ranges and attainment are as the brand reported it. The net profit column is marked *, applying the published 18.7% net profit rate to each quartile’s own average. So it shows what each level would produce at the system rate instead of what it did produce.
The top quartile averages $3,628,237 and the bottom $277,298. Thirteen times. Both hold territories of at least a ten-mile radius, and the single highest-selling territory billed $10,677,898 against the lowest-selling at $55,596, 192 times across one brand.
The system median is $943,856 against an average of $1,500,018. 63% of it, and only 34% of territories reach the average. A forecast anchored on the published average overshoots the typical territory by $556,162 a year.
Attainment rises as revenue falls: 32%, 44%, 59%, 57%. The first quartile is stretched by a $10,677,898 high against a $2,108,641 low. So its published average describes a handful of very large operations while its median sits at $2,590,821, a million below the mean.
The third quarter's high equals the system median exactly. $943,856. So the midpoint of the entire system sits at the ceiling of its third quartile. The step from third to second is $714,286 of annual billings, the largest gap between adjacent groups here.
At the published rate, the bottom quarter's net profit is $51,855. *. Against a top quarter's $678,480. Since the 15.1% administrative line already contains owner salary, that fourth-quartile figure describes what is left over after an owner has been paid. Makes the distance between the quartiles a question of whether the business supports a second income at all.
What it keeps
Two thirds out, a fifth kept.
| Level | Gross sales | Operational expenses at 66.2% | Gross profit at 33.8% | Administrative at 15.1% | Net profit at 18.7% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highest territory | $10,677,898 | $7,068,768 | $3,609,130 | $1,612,363 | $1,996,767 |
| First quartile average | $3,628,237 | $2,401,893 | $1,226,344 | $547,864 | $678,480 |
| System average | $1,500,018 | $993,012 | $507,006 | $226,503 | $280,503 |
| Second quartile average | $1,419,322 | $939,591 | $479,731 | $214,318 | $265,413 |
| System median | $943,856 | $624,833 | $319,023 | $142,522 | $176,501 |
| Third quartile average | $705,036 | $466,734 | $238,302 | $106,460 | $131,842 |
| Fourth quartile average | $277,298 | $183,571 | $93,727 | $41,872 | $51,855 |
The four percentages are as the brand reported it and add to 100.0% exactly. Every dollar figure is marked *, applying those system-wide rates to each published sales level.
The 18.7% net profit sits below the owner’s own salary. Owner and officer salaries and owner benefit all sit inside the 15.1% administrative line. So this is a return on the business, a distinction worth $226,503 at the system average.
Operational expenses take 66.2% and contain the royalty. $993,012 at the system average *. Labor, materials, equipment, supervisory salaries and the brand's own fee all sit above the gross profit line, so improving the 33.8% means moving crew productivity.
Two separately prepared disclosures land $406 apart. $507,006 from the percentage table against $507,412 from the dollar table *. Two figures assembled from the same franchisee reports by different routes agreeing to eight hundredths of a point is a stronger signal about the quality of this data than either number alone.
At the system median, net profit is $176,501. *, applying the published rate to $943,856. That is the honest middle of this system, against $280,503 at the average, and the average is reached by 34% of territories.
Administrative expenses are 15.1% of sales, which is $41,872 at the fourth quartile. *. Since that line has to have rent, insurance, advertising, interest and the owner's salary, a fourth-quartile territory at $277,298 of billings is running a business that supports a part-time income at best.
Fees and what it costs to open
Six percent, falling to four.
| Level | Gross billings | Royalty | combined rate | Marketing | Technology | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highest territory | $10,677,898 | $449,616 | 4.21% | $7,500 | $3,588 | $460,704 | 4.31% |
| First quartile average | $3,628,237 | $167,629 | 4.62% | $7,500 | $3,588 | $178,717 | 4.93% |
| System average | $1,500,018 | $82,501 | 5.50% | $7,500 | $3,588 | $93,589 | 6.24% |
| Second quartile average | $1,419,322 | $78,466 | 5.53% | $7,500 | $3,588 | $89,554 | 6.31% |
| System median | $943,856 | $54,693 | 5.79% | $7,500 | $3,588 | $65,781 | 6.97% |
| Third quartile average | $705,036 | $42,302 | 6.00% | $7,500 | $3,588 | $53,390 | 7.57% |
| Fourth quartile average | $277,298 | $16,638 | 6.00% | $5,546 | $3,588 | $25,772 | 9.29% |
Ours, applying the published rates to filed sales and treating each level's billings as evenly range across the year.
The royalty ladder steps down at $750,000 and $1,500,000 of annual billings. *. The third and fourth quartiles, averaging $705,036 and $277,298, pay a flat 6.00%. The first quartile pays 4.62% and the highest-selling territory 4.21%. Half the system reaches the lower rates and half stays at the top one.
The marketing contribution caps at $7,500 a year. The lesser of 2% or $625 a month, which becomes fixed above $375,000 of annual billings *. At the top quartile that is 0.21% of sales and at the fourth quartile the 2% applies in full, the cap hands its benefit entirely to the largest territories.
Total franchisor charges run 4.31% at the top and 9.29% at the bottom. *. A five-point swing, built from a stepped royalty, a capped marketing contribution and a flat $3,588 technology charge. All of it sits inside the 66.2% operational expense line.
Work outside the territory has 6% whatever the month looks like. The step-down stays shut for those jobs. For a first-quartile territory blending at 4.62%, a job taken across the line costs 1.38 points more of royalty than the same job inside it *.
The regional account fee takes 1% to 10% of what the account pays. Deducted from amounts owed to the franchisee. Regional accounts are also the one route by which the franchisor may direct work inside a protected territory. So that fee group is worth pinning down before the first such job.
What it costs to open a territory.
| Item | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Additional funds, three months | $40,000 | $100,000 |
| Initial franchise fee | $49,000 | $49,000 |
| Equipment | $4,000 | $16,500 |
| Service vehicle and trailer | $8,000 | $12,500 |
| Tools, supplies and office equipment | $2,500 | $6,000 |
| Real estate | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| Training expenses | $2,500 | $6,000 |
| Grand opening advertising | $4,000 | $4,000 |
| Total | $113,000 | $200,000 |
As the brand reported it, reordered here by size.
Cash to run the business day to day is the largest line, at $40,000 to $100,000. Larger than the franchise fee at the high end. Commercial landscape maintenance bills property managers on contract terms, so crews and equipment run for weeks before the first invoice settles.
Equipment and the vehicle together are $12,000 to $29,000. 11% of the low column and 15% of the high *. Light for a business averaging $1,500,018 of billings, because crews are added as contracts are won.
Grand opening advertising runs for a full year at $1,000 a month. $12,000 in total, of which the investment table shows $4,000. The remaining $8,000 lands during the first year of trading, at the point the youngest group is averaging $361,010 of billings.
An existing franchisee with two years of trading may take half off the next fee. And fees collected in the last fiscal year went as low as $5,000. Territory is priced by opportunity, so the published $49,000 is a ceiling for an existing owner.
Questions we get asked
Questions owners ask.
What should a U.S. Lawns territory be billing?
Across the 165 territories open and continuously operating throughout 2025, average gross sales were $1,500,018 with a median of $943,856, and 34% reached the average. By quartile the averages were $3,628,237 across 41 territories, $1,419,322 across 41, $705,036 across 41 and $277,298 across 42. The highest territory billed $10,677,898 and the lowest $55,596. By age, territories with one to two years averaged $361,010, three to four years $936,878 and five or more years $1,684,879. There were 208 franchised territories at year end and zero company-owned.
What does the business actually keep?
Across all 165 territories: operational expenses 66.2% of gross sales, gross profit 33.8%, administrative expenses 15.1% and net profit 18.7%, 100.0% of the top line accounted for. Administrative covers owner and officer salaries and owner benefit alongside rent, utilities, insurance, advertising, sales expenses, licenses and interest. So the 18.7% sits below the owner’s own pay. At the system average that is $280,503 and at the median $176,501, both marked. And the dollar and percentage views land within $406 of each other.
Does margin improve with age?
The published figures say the opposite. Gross profit is 36.5% for territories aged one to two years, 36.1% at three to four and 33.6% at five or more, all of which are marked *. Revenue does climb sharply ($361,010, $936,878 and $1,684,879) so the older group earns far more gross profit in dollars, $566,428 against $131,648. What changes with age is scale. The lowest gross profit in the youngest group is minus $36,572 and in the mature group minus $15,874. So territories losing money at the direct-cost line exist at both ends of the age range.
What does the brand take?
The royalty is charged on monthly gross billings at 6% up to $62,500, 5% between $62,500 and $125,000. 4% above $125,000, which annualizes to step points of $750,000 and $1,500,000. Work for customers outside the territory has a flat 6%. The marketing contribution is the lesser of 2% of gross billings or $625 a month, so it caps at $7,500 a year. Technology is $299 a month, with a customer relationship management subscription of $250 to $450 a year and accounting software of $215 to $400, both priced by third-party suppliers. A regional account management fee of 1% to 10% of what the account pays is deducted from amounts owed for that work. Renewal costs $5,000 currently. At the system average the combined royalty is 5.50% and total charges are 6.24% of billings, which is marked *.
Who does bookkeeping for a U.S. Lawns franchise?
Three mechanics shape the close. The royalty is a monthly ladder that resets each month. So a seasonal business crossing $62,500 and $125,000 in summer and falling below both in winter pays a different rate every month. The combined annual rate only emerges at year end, and a forecast built on it will misstate every quarter. Second, gross billings count revenue on credit even where it stays uncollected. So the fee base is contracted work while the bank balance is collections. Billing property managers on 30 to 60 day terms, that gap is the working capital the investment table sets aside $40,000 to $100,000 for. Third, the benchmarks (66.2% operational, 15.1% administrative, 18.7% net) put the royalty inside the operational line and the owner’s salary inside the administrative one. So a set of books has to be mapped to that shape deliberately before any comparison means anything. Averan provides bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support for franchise owners and has Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on the team.
Questions worth putting to U.S. Lawns
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 U.S. Lawns 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 →Where does your gross profit sit against 33.8%?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast. Reporting, built around a monthly royalty ladder, billings against collections, and the published benchmark your books need to be mapped to.
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