Verified — real FDD extraction
SBA-eligible · directory code S1518 since 2017
SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School
Education & Children · independent · est. —
SafeSplash and Swimtastic are swim school brands offering swimming lessons for children and adults, from beginner water safety through stroke development. A franchisee operates a swim facility, either a dedicated pool build-out or leased pool space, employing instructors and selling lesson programs to families.
SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School net unit count grew +412.5% from 2014–2016 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
Too new to judge
Distress
This system grew to 104 franchised units from a base of 13 — the record looks clean because very few units have been exposed for very long, not because many have survived. Median SBA time-to-default is about 61 months; this system has not lived through that window at scale. Judge the disclosures, not a verdict.
Exit rate · latest year
8.5%
vs 6.9% across 20 education & children systems
Cost to open
$396K–$866K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
0.0%
16 loans resolved — directional only
Market density · Ohio
Typical density
-5% thinner than the national average
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
2014–2016
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2016, 5 of 59 franchised outlets left the system — a 8.5% annualized exit rate, vs 6.9% across 20 education & children systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 24 | 24 | 81 |
| Opened | 6 | 45 | 50 |
| Transfers | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 8 | 5 |
| Outlets at end | 24 | 81 | 123 |
| Net change | 0 | +57 | +42 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 50 SBA-backed loans to SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School franchisees since 2017. Only 16 have resolved so far — too thin for a reliable default rate, but 0 of them charged off.
—
16 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$1,519,907
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
12 vs 11
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO SAFESPLASH SWIM SCHOOL OR SWIMTASTIC SWIM SCHOOL BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
the Huntington National Bank
19.1% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 10.1% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
65.3%
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 50 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School 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.
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 $396K–$866K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$396K–$866K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$50K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
7%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$70K
7% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$700K
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 SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School with an independent CPAModeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks safer than 81% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
19 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
8.5%
Observed SBA charge-off
0.0%
Top drivers: Net unit growth (lowers) · Share financed by high-loss lenders (lowers) · System size (log units) (raises) · Item 3 litigation (log) (raises). 15+ resolved loans stand behind this estimate. 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 SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
9 questions to ask a SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School 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 SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School has actually disclosed — each one carries the number it came from, so you can tell whether the answer squares with the record.
- 01
SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School’s own Item 20 shows 5 of 59 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2016 — about 8.5%. 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 · FY2016
- 02
2 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2016. 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 · FY2016
- 03
Item 7 says the low end to open is $396K, but the average recent SBA loan to a SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School franchisee was $1.5M. What did you actually spend to open, all in?
Lenders size loans to real project costs. A large gap between the disclosed floor and what banks actually fund is the most common way buyers get underfunded.
FDD Item 7 vs SBA approvals FY2020+
- 04
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
- 05
SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School 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 · 2017
- 06
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
- 07
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
- 08
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
- 09
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 SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School’s numbers move — a new filing, a rising exit rate, a distress signal. Unsubscribe in one click.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
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.
SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School franchises closed last year?
In SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2016), 5 of 59 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 8.5% — compared with 6.9% across 20 education & children 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 SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School franchise cost?
Per SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School's 2017 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $50K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $396K–$866K (Item 7).
What royalty does SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School charge?
SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School charges an ongoing royalty of 7.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2017 FDD.
Does SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — SafeSplash Swim School OR Swimtastic Swim School makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2017 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.