Verified — real FDD extraction
SBA-eligible · directory code S2426 since 2018
Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model)
Senior Care · independent · est. —
Griswold Home Care is a non-medical home care franchise providing companionship, personal care, and homemaking services to seniors and adults with disabilities; the full employment model means caregivers are employees of the franchise. A franchisee runs an office-based agency that recruits, employs, and schedules caregivers for clients in a defined territory.
Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) net unit count declined -3.8% from 2017–2019 per its FDD Item 20.
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
Proven & steady
Distress
A real track record with an unremarkable region of the ledger: neither the growth nor the exits stand out, for better or worse. The main concern in the record: the system is shrinking.
Exit rate · latest year
2.4%
vs 5.6% across 20 senior care systems
Cost to open
$106K–$133K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
Too few resolved
17 loans exist; too few resolved to rate
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2017–2019
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2019, 2 of 84 franchised outlets left the system — a 2.4% annualized exit rate, vs 5.6% across 20 senior care systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 98 | 105 | 103 |
| Opened | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Transfers | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Outlets at end | 105 | 103 | 101 |
| Net change | +7 | -2 | -2 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 17 SBA-backed loans to Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) franchisees since 2018. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.
—
3 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$312,678
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
4 vs 1
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO GRISWOLD HOME CARE (FULL EMPLOYMENT MODEL) BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $50K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $106K–$133K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$106K–$133K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$50K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
4%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$40K
4% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$400K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) with an independent CPAModeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
The public record puts this brand toward the middle of the systems we score — but the evidence is thin, so treat it as a range, not a number.
Risk percentile (range)
47–71 / 100
Directional
Modeled SBA charge-off
13.9%
Observed SBA charge-off
no resolved cohort
Top drivers: Investment ceiling (log) (raises) · System size (log units) (raises) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers) · Item 3 litigation (log) (lowers). Thin loan history — treat this as a range, not a number. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model). That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model)'s numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) franchises closed last year?
In Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model)'s latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2019), 2 of 84 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 2.4% — compared with 5.6% across 20 senior care systems tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) franchise cost?
Per Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model)'s 2020 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $50K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $106K–$133K (Item 7).
What royalty does Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) charge?
Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) charges an ongoing royalty of 4.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2020 FDD.
Does Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — Griswold Home Care (Full Employment Model) makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2020 FDD, reporting a median unit volume of $757K. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.