FRANCHISE·WATCH·DESK

From the filed FDD — automated extraction, check the source

2025 FDD

SBA-eligible · directory code S8108 since 2025

Resting Rainbow

Pet cremation & memorial · parent company: not identified

Resting Rainbow is a pet memorial and cremation service that handles end-of-life arrangements for pets, including cremation and keepsake memorials for grieving owners. It provides families a respectful way to honor deceased pets. A franchisee operates the cremation and memorial business, managing the facility, pickups, and aftercare services.

Resting Rainbow went from 1 → 3 units over 2022–2024 — too small a starting base for a meaningful percentage 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. Most numbers on this page come from that document; others come from federal SBA loan records and labor and census data, each labelled with its source:

  • 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, transferred and left the system, the main basis for our verdict, which rates how strong the disclosed record is, or says when the system is too new, the filing too old, or the disclosure too thin to judge.

Our rating · opinion

Too new to judge

1 franchised unit over 3 disclosed years of Item 20 is too little history for a rating — a young system's record hasn't had time to show how units perform over a full loan term. Judge the disclosures, not a rating.

Exit rate · fiscal 2024

No franchised base

no franchised outlets at the start of the year

Cost to open

$285K–$629K

Item 7 total investment range

SBA loan losses

Too few to rate

0 seasoned resolved loans; 30 needed

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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from Resting Rainbow's public FDD filings (latest: MN 2025, extracted 2026-06-19) and SBA FOIA loan records (through FY2026), extracted by us and possibly containing errors. The rating is our opinion, not investment, legal, or tax advice. Franchisor or owner and see something wrong? Report a correction — we review every request.

What each source says

FDD record · SBA loans · model · auditor

Our answer: Too new to judge

The Item 20 record is too short or too small to rate; the loan record and model are context, not a verdict.

FDD record · Item 20

Too little history

Units went from 1 to 3 (2022–2024).

SBA loans · vs same-year loans

Too few seasoned loans

0 resolved loans approved by FY2020; 30 needed.

Modeled risk

Not scored

Too little evidence for the model.

Auditor opinion · Item 21

Not extracted

We did not extract the audit opinion.

Behind the verdict

the record, factor by factor · Item 20

hi-1.0.0
Net unit growth41%

latest consecutive years · Item 20 Table 1

Fair
Exit quality29%

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

Strong
Transfer / churn18%

transfers vs. base · Table 3

Fair
Promise-keeping12%

actual vs. projected openings · Table 5

Weak
Transparencynot in verdict

Item 19 disclosure + completeness · shown, not counted in the verdict

Strong

Systemwide units

2022–2024

1 → 3 units
120221202332024

Survival record

FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year

The franchisor reported no franchised outlets at the start of fiscal 2024, so there is no franchised exit rate to report; the outlet tables below show what it does operate.

Show the outlet tables ↓
Status (FTC)202220232024
Outlets at start111
Opened001
Transfers000
Terminations000
Non-renewals000
Reacquired by franchisor000
Ceased — other reasons000
Outlets at end113
Net change00+2

The lender's view

SBA 7(a)/504 loan outcomes · compared with franchise loans of the same years

Banks have made 4 SBA-backed loans to Resting Rainbow franchisees since 2025. Only 0 of its loans approved by FY2020 have resolved — fewer than the 30 we need to compare it fairly with other franchise loans, so we don't rate it.

All-time, 0 of 0 resolved loans charged off (—). That raw figure mixes every approval year since 2025 — loans made in 2006–08 failed at several times the rate of loans made in 2010–13 across all franchises — so it is shown as evidence, not as the score. 100% of the brand's loans have not resolved yet.

Loss vs same-year loans

—

0 seasoned resolved · 30 needed

All-time charge-off · raw

—

0 of 0 resolved, every approval year

Loss given default

—

charged-off $ ÷ approved $, defaulted loans

Avg. loan · FY2020+

$558,450

what recent franchisees borrowed

Median time to default

—

shown with 10+ defaults

Lenders · FY21+ vs FY16–20

—

distinct banks lending

Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%) · dashed line = all franchise loans that year

SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO RESTING RAINBOW BY SBA FRANCHISE NAME/CODE · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL · EXPECTED = SAME-YEAR RATE ACROSS ALL SBA FRANCHISE LOANS, LOANS ≥ ~6 YEARS OLD

What it costs — and what it drags

FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty

Buying in means a $54,500 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $285K–$629K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.

To open (Item 7)

$285K–$629K

all-in investment range

Franchise fee (Item 5)

$54,500

upfront, one-time

Royalty (Item 6)

7%

of sales, ongoing

If a unit does this in annual sales…$500K/yr

Starts at a placeholder of $500K — a round figure for the sector, not from Resting Rainbow’s filings. Set your own figure and check it against this brand's Item 19 and what owners tell you.

Royalty you'd pay / yr

$35K

7% of sales, before profit

Over a 10-yr term

$350K

royalties alone, excl. ad fund

This estimate is computed by software from the brand's public filings and any inputs you enter. No CPA prepared it for you and no assurance is provided on it. Actual results will differ, and the differences may be material.

This is not profit. It covers what the FDD fixes: what you put in, and the royalty you owe on sales. Your take-home depends on labor, rent, supplies, and the months to breakeven, none of which the FDD fixes for your unit (some Item 19s include cost data — read it).

Build a real pro-forma for Resting Rainbow with a buyer-paid CPA

How the earnings claim is built

FDD ITEM 19 · BASIS · 2025 FDD

This filing makes an Item 19 earnings claim; we have not yet read how it is built. Open Item 19 and check which units it covers, which it leaves out, and whether it shows costs.

Show the basis ↓

Public records

Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored

We have no verified public-record signals published for Resting Rainbow. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.

7 questions to ask a Resting Rainbow 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 questions come from what Resting Rainbow has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.

  1. 01

    Item 7 says the low end to open is $285K; the average recent SBA loan to Resting Rainbow franchisees was $558K. What did you actually spend to open, all in — and did your loan cover anything beyond the build-out?

    Lenders size loans to the project they finance. If owners say they spent near the loan figure rather than the Item 7 floor, budget from what they spent.

    FDD Item 7 vs SBA approvals FY2020+

  2. 02

    You pay 7.0% royalty on gross sales, plus the ad fund, before any of your own costs. On your actual revenue last year, what did you take home as the owner — not revenue, take-home?

    Royalty is charged on sales, not profit. This is the number the brochure never shows and the one your life actually runs on.

    FDD Item 6

  3. 03

    Resting Rainbow 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 · 2025

  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

    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

  6. 06

    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

  7. 07

    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 Resting Rainbow’s 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 usually paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid only by you, never by a franchisor you're considering — and the job is pressure-testing Resting Rainbow’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 Resting Rainbow — or represent the franchisor?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. Franchisors: send corrections with the page reference and we will review them against the filing and update or annotate the page. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.

Resting Rainbow franchise questions, answered from the filings

How much does a Resting Rainbow franchise cost?

Per Resting Rainbow's 2025 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $54,500 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $285K–$629K (Item 7).

What royalty does Resting Rainbow charge?

Resting Rainbow charges an ongoing royalty of 7.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2025 FDD.

Does Resting Rainbow disclose earnings (Item 19)?

Yes — Resting Rainbow makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2025 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.