FRANCHISE·WATCH·DESK

Verified — real FDD extraction

Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender

PHENIX SALON SUITES

Beauty & Personal Care · independent · est. —

Phenix Salon Suites operates salon-suite facilities that lease private, fully equipped studios to independent beauty professionals such as hairstylists, estheticians, and nail techs. A franchisee builds out a large suite location and acts as landlord and manager, collecting weekly rents from tenant professionals rather than serving salon customers directly.

PHENIX SALON SUITES net unit count grew +11.5% from 20232025 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 & strong

Distress

0
STABLE

Enough units and history to judge, and the record is good: growing or stable units with clean exits by the standards of its disclosed record. The standout in the record: owner turnover is low.

Exit rate · latest year

1.1%

vs 5.4% across 21 beauty & personal care systems

Cost to open

$923K–$2.3M

Item 7 total investment range

SBA loan defaults

Too few resolved

3 loans exist; too few resolved to rate

Behind the verdict

the record, factor by factor · Item 20

hi-1.0.0
Net unit growth35%

3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1

Strong
Exit quality25%

terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3

Strong
Transfer / churn15%

transfers vs. base · Table 3

Strong
Promise-keeping10%

actual vs. projected openings · Table 5

Strong
Transparency15%

Item 19 disclosure + completeness

Strong

Systemwide units

2023–2025

+11.5%
375202339920244182025

Survival record

FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year

In fiscal 2025, 4 of 367 franchised outlets left the system — a 1.1% annualized exit rate, vs 5.4% across 21 beauty & personal care systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.

Show the outlet tables
Status (FTC)202320242025
Outlets at start338375399
Opened372517
Transfers639
Terminations000
Non-renewals000
Reacquired by franchisor21211
Ceased — other reasons124
Outlets at end375399418
Net change+37+24+19

The lender's view

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

Banks have made 3 SBA-backed loans to PHENIX SALON SUITES franchisees since 2014. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.

Charge-off rate

3 resolved · too thin to rate

Loss given default

avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $

Expected loss

default rate × loss severity

Avg. loan · FY2020+

$710,500

what recent franchisees borrowed

Median time to default

approval → charge-off, defaulted loans

Lenders · FY21+ vs FY16–20

0 vs 2

distinct banks — pulling back

Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)

SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO PHENIX SALON SUITES 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 $53K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $923K–$2.3M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.

To open (Item 7)

$923K–$2.3M

all-in investment range

Franchise fee (Item 5)

$53K

upfront, one-time

Royalty (Item 6)

of sales, ongoing

If a unit does this in annual sales…$1M/yr

Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.

Royalty you'd pay / yr

$0

0% of sales, before profit

Over a 10-yr term

$0

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 PHENIX SALON SUITES with an independent CPA

Modeled risk

FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record

Lower risk

The public record puts this brand toward the safer end of the systems we score — but the evidence is thin, so treat it as a range, not a number.

Risk percentile (range)

8–32 / 100

Directional

Modeled SBA charge-off

8.7%

Observed SBA charge-off

no resolved cohort

Top drivers: Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · System size (log units) (lowers) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers) · Net unit growth (raises). 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 PHENIX SALON SUITES. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.

8 questions to ask a PHENIX SALON SUITES franchisee

Built from this brand's own disclosures · take it to your validation calls

The franchisor will give you a list of owners to call. Most buyers ask whether they like it. These are the questions built from what PHENIX SALON SUITES has actually disclosed — each one carries the number it came from, so you can tell whether the answer squares with the record.

  1. 01

    PHENIX SALON SUITES’ own Item 20 shows 4 of 367 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2025 — about 1.1%. Do you know any of those owners, and do you know why they left?

    A franchisor will call these “transitions.” An owner three doors down usually knows whether they sold at a profit or handed the keys back.

    FDD Item 20 · FY2025

  2. 02

    9 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2025. When you look at those, were they people cashing out a good business — or getting out of a bad one?

    Transfers count as neutral in every ranking. They are the single easiest place to hide distress.

    FDD Item 20 · FY2025

  3. 03

    PHENIX SALON SUITES makes an earnings claim in Item 19. Does your unit look like that number — and do you know which units they included to build it?

    Item 19 is legal to build from a flattering subset. Ask whether they excluded new units, closed units, or company stores.

    FDD Item 19 · 2026

  4. 04

    How many months did it take to cover your own costs, and how much cash did you burn getting there?

    Ramp-to-breakeven working capital is the most underestimated line in any franchise purchase, and the most common reason otherwise-good units fail.

    Not disclosed in any FDD — ask an owner

  5. 05

    Item 3 discloses 1 legal matter. Do you know what those were about, and were any brought by franchisees?

    Franchisee-brought suits over territory, fees or support tell you how the franchisor behaves when there's a disagreement.

    FDD Item 3 · 2026

  6. 06

    What does the franchisor charge for that you didn't expect — required tech fees, mandatory remodels, approved-supplier pricing?

    Required spending appears across Items 6, 8 and 11 rather than in one place, so buyers routinely miss the total.

    FDD Items 6, 8, 11

  7. 07

    If your agreement came up for renewal tomorrow at current terms, would you sign again?

    The single most predictive question you can ask. A hesitation is the answer.

    Ask every owner you speak to

  8. 08

    Who else should I call — including someone who left?

    The franchisor's list is curated by definition. Former franchisees are where the unflattering truth lives, and current owners usually know how to reach them.

    Ask every owner you speak to

Want this as a checklist you can take to the calls?

I'll email you the printable version, and tell you if PHENIX SALON SUITES’ numbers move — a new filing, a rising exit rate, a distress signal. Unsubscribe in one click.

Before you sign anythingfree · 30 min · no commission

A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing PHENIX SALON SUITES's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.

Don Drummond, CPA — Virginia #43775 · what I charge

Book a free 30-minute call →
Own or owned a PHENIX SALON SUITES?no appointment · read by a person

This page is what buyers see before they call you for validation. If the record above is wrong — or right in a way the numbers can't show — say so. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.

PHENIX SALON SUITES franchise questions, answered from the filings

What percentage of PHENIX SALON SUITES franchises closed last year?

In PHENIX SALON SUITES's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 4 of 367 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 1.1% — compared with 5.4% across 21 beauty & personal 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 PHENIX SALON SUITES franchise cost?

Per PHENIX SALON SUITES's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $53K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $923K–$2.3M (Item 7).

Does PHENIX SALON SUITES disclose earnings (Item 19)?

Yes — PHENIX SALON SUITES makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2026 FDD, reporting a median unit volume of $400K. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.