FRANCHISE·WATCH·DESK

Loan record only — SBA data verified, FDD not yet in our corpus

Color Me Mine

Other · independent · est. —

Color Me Mine is a paint-your-own-pottery studio franchise. Franchisees operate a retail studio where walk-in customers, birthday parties, and groups paint ceramic pieces that the studio then glazes and fires.

New to franchising? Start here

A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.

Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:

  • Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
  • Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
  • Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).

The verdict

Not enough disclosure

Distress

0
STABLE

No verified FDD extraction to judge from. Any figures shown are labelled sample data or independent federal records.

SBA loan defaults

13.0%

vs 14.8% avg across rated brands

Behind the verdict

the record, factor by factor · Item 20

No score available.

Systemwide units

Insufficient trend data.

What this page is — and isn'tno FDD on file

We hold no Franchise Disclosure Document for Color Me Mine, so this page carries no exit rate, fees, investment range, or Item 19 earnings claim. What it does carry is the federal loan record: every SBA 7(a) and 504 loan made to a Color Me Mine franchisee since 1991 and how each one ended. That is an independent, sourced measure of how the brand's owner-operators actually fared — and for most brands it is the only outcome data that exists publicly.

Brands enter the index this way when they don't register in the states we crawl. We add the filing when we obtain it — see methodology for how coverage is built and what each evidence level means.

The lender's view

SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present

Banks have made 84 SBA-backed loans to Color Me Mine franchisees since 1997. Of the 54 that have resolved, 13.0% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.

Charge-off rate

13.0%

7 of 54 resolved defaulted

Loss given default

54.9%

avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $

Expected loss

7.1%

default rate × loss severity

Avg. loan · FY2020+

$232,966

what recent franchisees borrowed

Median time to default

57 mo

approval → charge-off, defaulted loans

Lenders · FY21+ vs FY16–20

9 vs 7

distinct banks still lending

Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)

20'9833'0314'05

SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO COLOR ME MINE BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL

The owner's side of the deal

FDD × federal loan record

Who finances it

Readycap Lending, Llc

16.9% of this brand's loans

That lender charges off 31.5% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.

Who buys it

62.5%

first-time franchise owners

The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.

Does experience help here?

Not enough resolved loans to split

Computed from 84 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to Color Me Mine franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.

Distress signals

news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits

No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for Color Me Mine. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.

Before you sign anythingfree · 30 min · no commission

A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Color Me Mine's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.

Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →
Color Me Mine franchise: SBA loan defaults & failure rate (2026) · Franchise Watch Desk