Zerorez franchise unit economics
Zerorez franchisees run a van-based residential cleaning business (carpet, tile, upholstery and hard surfaces) using an alkaline water solution, inside an Operating Territory of up to 60,000 households. Across 43 franchisees with at least a year of history the 2025 average was $1,428,301 of sales against a median of $890,136, and the contribution margin ran 38.6% before royalty, technology, labor, vehicles and owner pay. A van bills $15,717 a month.
- Primary source
- ZEROREZ Franchising Systems, Inc., 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
- Items read
- Items 5 and 6 for fees; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure; Item 20 for the location count
- Population
- 43 of 60 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 van here bills $15,717 a month, and the average franchisee runs about eight of them. What comes back after products and advertising is 38.6% of revenue, and royalty, technology and brand fund take 9.25 points of that before a single wage, lease or insurance premium is paid. The minimum royalty is the revenue target in disguise: $1,500 a month from year four is exactly 6% of the $300,000 the agreement requires you to bill.
- The minimum royalty equals 6% of the development obligation at every stage. $250, $500, $1,000 and $1,500 a month against required annual revenue of $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 and $300,000 *, so the minimum charges you as though you hit the target whatever you actually bill.
- Contribution margin of 38.6% arrives before franchise fees come to 9.25%. Leaving 29.3% on the average franchisee and 16.3% at the median *, and labor, vans, insurance, rent and owner pay all still come out of that.
- Advertising runs 19% of revenue on average and 24.8% at the median. $270,778 and $220,488 *, against a contractual minimum of 15%, so the median franchisee spends a tenth of revenue above the requirement.
- A van returns its own hardware in 16 to 18 months. $188,604 of annual revenue against $99,144 to $110,624 of vehicle and equipment, at the filed 38.6% margin *, which is the real gate on adding the next one.
- The median franchisee bills 62.3% of the average and 14 of 43 reach it. $890,136 against $1,428,301 *, because the highest-selling franchisees bills $12,914,633, nine times the average on its own.
How much does a Zerorez franchise make?
The average Zerorez unit reported $1,428,301 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $890,136. 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 9.2% 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 Zerorez performers
Zerorez splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $12,914,633 a year. The worst averaged $31,163. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $890,136. The average was $1,428,301. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 414.4× 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.capacity is 7 vans 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.
- Territory, and how much of it is real.This model sells from a territory rather than a building, quoted at 60,000 households. 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 $218,718 to $410,698, a 1.9× 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 42.5% of sales. Buying terms, price discipline and waste are where this is won, and each of them compounds at volume.
- Customers, the operating driver.This model bills on customers. The owner works on how many customers are won, how many are lost, and what each spends in a year. 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 9.2% 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.43 of 60 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. Anything below the sales line has to come from the franchisor or from owners you call.
Down to what is left
Thirty-eight cents come back, and the fees take nine of them.
| Line | Share of revenue | Average | Median | High | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross revenues | 100% | $1,428,301 | $890,136 | $12,914,633 | $31,163 |
| Cost of goods sold | 42.5% | $606,835 | $442,085 | $6,075,499 | $15,667 |
| Gross profit | 57.5% | $821,466 | $448,051 | $6,839,134 | $15,496 |
| Advertising and marketing | 19% | $270,778 | $220,488 | $1,919,463 | $26,414 |
| Contribution margin | 38.6% | $550,688 | $227,563 | $4,919,671 | $(10,918) |
Every dollar figure and percentage is as the brand reported it for the 2025 fiscal year. The median, high and low columns describe the franchisee holding that rank on revenue instead of the median of each line.
Contribution margin stops well short of profit. Royalty, technology fee and brand fund take 9.25% of revenue and sit below this table, along with wages, vehicles, insurance, rent and owner pay. So the 38.6% is a gross figure with most of the cost base still to come.
After the brand, the average franchisee keeps 29.3% and the median 16.3%. $418,570 against $145,225 *, and that is the pool every wage and every van payment competes for.
The median franchisee’s products cost 49.7% of revenue against the average franchisee’s 42.5%. $442,085 on $890,136 *, 7.2 points of gross profit, worth $63,897 a year at median revenue.
Advertising takes 24.8% of the median franchisee’s revenue and 14.9% of the highest-selling one’s. *, ten points of revenue, and the clearest sign that customer acquisition gets cheaper per dollar as a territory matures.
The lowest-selling franchisees spent $26,414 on advertising to bill $31,163. 84.8% of revenue *, which is how a contribution margin lands at minus $10,918 and why this line deserves a monthly review.
The van as the unit
Everything scales one van at a time.
| Franchisee | Sales | Vans implied * | Contribution margin | Margin a van * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highest-selling | $12,914,633 | 68.5 | $4,919,671 | $71,846 |
| Average | $1,428,301 | 7.6 | $550,688 | $72,717 |
| Median | $890,136 | 4.7 | $227,563 | $48,217 |
| Lowest-selling | $31,163 | 0.2 | $(10,918) | $(66,078) |
Revenue and contribution margin are as the brand reported it and the van counts divide each figure by the filed $188,604 of annual revenue a van, marked *.
A van bills $15,717 a month and $188,604 a year. The system averaged eight vans in January 2025 and eight in December, a change of zero across the year. So in 2025 this system grew revenue a van.
A van costs $99,144 to $110,624 in vehicle and equipment. $82,165 to $92,145 for the mobile unit and $16,979 to $18,479 for the equipment package, against $72,801 of contribution a year at the filed margin. So the hardware returns itself in 16.3 to 18.2 months *.
The average and the highest-selling franchisees earn almost the same margin a van. $72,722 against $71,846 *, so scale here buys more vans, which is an useful thing to know before adding the ninth.
The median franchisee earns $48,217 a van against the average’s $72,717. A gap of $24,500 *, worth $115,633 a year across the median fleet of 4.7 vans, and it sits almost entirely in the product and advertising lines.
An entry build of $218,718 to $410,698 covers one van. 15.3% to 28.8% of what the average franchisee bills in a year *, of which $90,000 to $241,500 is working capital for the first twelve months, excluding owner draw.
The minimum is the target
The minimum royalty is the revenue target, priced at six percent.
| Stage | Minimum royalty a month | Annual revenue required | Revenue where 6% overtakes the minimum * |
|---|---|---|---|
| Months 4–15 | $250 | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Months 16–27 | $500 | $100,000 | $100,000 |
| Months 28–39 | $1,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 |
| Month 40 onward | $1,500 | $300,000 | $300,000 |
The minimum royalty and revenue requirement are as the brand reported it for a traditional market. The crossover column divides the yearly minimum by the 6% royalty rate, marked *.
Each minimum is exactly 6% of the revenue the agreement obliges you to reach. $1,500 a month is $18,000 a year, and $18,000 at 6% is $300,000 *. The same match holds at all four stages, so the minimum and the target are one number written twice.
Two schedules for the same minimum sit in the same document. The fee table tops the minimum out at $750 a month from month 28. Schedule A of the franchise agreement puts a traditional market at $1,000 from month 28 and $1,500 from month 40, a difference of $9,000 a year from year four. Worth settling in writing before signing.
Franchise fees take 9.25% of gross sales. 6% royalty, 2.25% technology and 1% brand fund, $132,118 a year on the average franchisee and $82,338 at the median *.
That 9.25% has room to reach 12.5%. Technology may rise to 3.5% and the brand fund to 3%, worth $46,420 a year on the average franchisee at today’s revenue *, which is a third of what the fees cost now.
Local advertising of 15% of gross sales sits outside the fee table. It appears with the advertising obligations, so 24.25% of revenue is committed before a technician is paid. The average franchisee’s actual 19% of advertising takes that to 28.25% *.
Territory and the system
Sixty households to a dollar, and a system that grows by two or three a year.
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminated | Reacquired | Ceased, other | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 53 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 55 |
| 2024 | 55 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 57 |
| 2025 | 57 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 60 |
Every column is as the brand reported it and each year's arithmetic returns the filed closing count exactly.
A territory of 60,000 households costs $30,000, and half that size costs half the money. 50 cents a household either way *, and the revenue requirement of $300,000 works out at $5.00 a household a year.
The average franchisee bills $23.81 a household and the median $14.84. On a full 60,000-household territory *, against the $5.00 the agreement requires, so the obligation sits well below where a working territory lands.
The system added seven franchised outlets across three years. 53 to 60, with 21 openings against 14 departures, six terminations, two reacquisitions and six closures for other reasons.
Twelve of the 60 franchisees reported figures the brand declined to use. 20% of the system, alongside five in their first year, so the 43 in the revenue table represent 71.7% of the franchisees operating *.
Selling inside the system costs $7,500 and selling outside it costs $30,000. A premium of $22,500 for an outside buyer, worth pricing into an exit long before the exit.
Rolling an existing $1,000,000 cleaning business in waives the whole $30,000 fee. The trade is paying royalty from the first month, which on $1,000,000 of revenue is $15,000 *, so the waiver is worth about $15,000 net, and more at lower revenue.
Questions we get asked
Questions an owner asks.
What does a Zerorez franchisee bill?
Across 43 franchisees with at least a year of history, the 2025 average was $1,428,301 of gross revenues and the median $890,136. The highest-selling billed $12,914,633 and the lowest-selling $31,163. Fourteen of the 43 reached the average and 21 reached the median.
What comes back after costs?
Products cost 42.5% of revenue and advertising 19%, leaving a contribution margin of 38.6%, $550,688 on average and $227,563 at the median. That figure arrives before royalty, technology fee, brand fund, wages, vehicles, insurance, rent and owner pay, so treat it as a gross profit.
What does the brand take?
6% of gross sales in royalty in a traditional market, or $750 a month flat in a market of 30,000 households or fewer. On top of that a 2.25% technology fee, which may rise to 3.5%, and a 1% brand fund contribution, which may rise to 3%. Together 9.25% today with room to reach 12.5%.
What has to be spent on local advertising?
At least 15% of gross sales every month, set by the advertising obligations. Filed spending averaged 19% of revenue and ran 24.8% at the median franchisee, so most of the system spends above the minimum. Cooperative contributions count toward it.
What is the minimum royalty?
$250 a month from the fourth full month, $500 from the sixteenth, $1,000 from the twenty-eighth and $1,500 from the fortieth in a traditional market. Each of those is exactly 6% of the annual revenue the agreement requires at that stage, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 and $300,000. The fee table shows a single schedule topping out at $750, which conflicts with the agreement's own Schedule A.
What does a van produce?
$15,717 of sales a month, $188,604 a year. The system averaged eight vans a franchisee in both January and December 2025. A van costs $99,144 to $110,624 in vehicle and equipment and returns that in 16 to 18 months of contribution at the filed margin, on our reading.
What does a territory cost?
$30,000 for up to 60,000 households, or $15,000 for a Hometown Market of up to 30,000, 50 cents a household either way. Territory rights cover residential customers; commercial work, and work outside the territory, is held on a non-exclusive basis. Boundaries stay fixed whatever the population does.
Which two numbers should run monthly?
Revenue a van against $15,717, because that is the lever the whole model turns on. And advertising as a share of revenue against 19%, because at the median franchisee it reaches 24.8% and is the second-largest cost line in the business.
- No profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
Questions worth putting to Zerorez
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 Zerorez 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 →What is each van actually earning?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast. Reporting, built around $15,717 a van a month, the 9.25% the fees take before labor. The 15% minimum advertising charge that most of this system runs above.
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
Zerorez reads against the rest of the carpet and floor care group: AdvantaClean · Chem-Dry · Garage Force · Garage Living · Oxi Fresh · PremierGarage. The carpet and floor care guide compares all of them on the same figures.
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.