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
Schooley Mitchell
Business Services · independent · est. —
Schooley Mitchell is a business-services consultancy that helps companies reduce expenses in areas like telecom, merchant payment processing, shipping, and utilities by auditing their bills and negotiating savings. Owners earn fees based on the savings they find for clients. A franchisee runs a cost-reduction consulting practice, analyzing client expenses and recommending savings.
Schooley Mitchell net unit count grew +18.6% from 2022–2024 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: too many owners are failing outright rather than selling.
Exit rate · latest year
9.2%
vs 8.1% across 28 business services systems
Cost to open
$71K–$81K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
37.5%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Market density · Texas
Typical density
-2% 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
2022–2024
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2024, 21 of 229 franchised outlets left the system — a 9.2% annualized exit rate, vs 8.1% across 28 business services systems. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 192 | 221 | 230 |
| Opened | 49 | 44 | 53 |
| Transfers | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 20 | 35 | 21 |
| Outlets at end | 221 | 230 | 262 |
| Net change | +29 | +9 | +32 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 69 SBA-backed loans to Schooley Mitchell franchisees since 2003. Of the 32 that have resolved, 37.5% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 570 rated brands.
37.5%
12 of 32 resolved defaulted
76.6%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
28.7%
default rate × loss severity
$132,244
what recent franchisees borrowed
42 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
8 vs 3
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 SCHOOLEY MITCHELL BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
United Midwest Savings Bank National Association
69.6% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 34.8% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
100.0%
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 69 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to Schooley Mitchell 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 $68K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $71K–$81K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$71K–$81K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$68K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
8%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$80K
8% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$800K
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 Schooley Mitchell with an independent CPAModeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks riskier than 98% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
98 / 100
Loan-corroborated
Modeled SBA charge-off
31.0%
Observed SBA charge-off
37.5%
Top drivers: Share financed by high-loss lenders (raises) · Single-lender dependence (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (raises) · System size (log units) (lowers). 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 Schooley Mitchell. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
9 questions to ask a Schooley Mitchell 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 Schooley Mitchell has actually disclosed — each one carries the number it came from, so you can tell whether the answer squares with the record.
- 01
Schooley Mitchell’s own Item 20 shows 21 of 229 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2024 — about 9.2%. 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 · FY2024
- 02
Of 32 SBA loans to Schooley Mitchell franchisees that have finished, 37.5% were charged off — the borrower didn't repay. Did you finance with an SBA loan, and how close did your first two years come to trouble?
This is the lender's view of failure, from public federal records, and it is independent of anything the franchisor discloses.
SBA 7(a)/504 loan record, FY1991–present
- 03
Item 7 says the low end to open is $71K, but the average recent SBA loan to a Schooley Mitchell franchisee was $132K. 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 8.0% 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
Schooley Mitchell 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 · 2024
- 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?
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A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Schooley Mitchell'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.
Schooley Mitchell franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of Schooley Mitchell franchises closed last year?
In Schooley Mitchell's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2024), 21 of 229 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 9.2% — compared with 8.1% across 28 business services 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 Schooley Mitchell franchise cost?
Per Schooley Mitchell's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $68K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $71K–$81K (Item 7).
What royalty does Schooley Mitchell charge?
Schooley Mitchell charges an ongoing royalty of 8.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does Schooley Mitchell disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — Schooley Mitchell makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2024 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for Schooley Mitchell franchises default?
Across 69 SBA-backed loans to Schooley Mitchell franchisees since 2003, 12 of the 32 that have resolved were charged off — a 37.5% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.