From the filed FDD — automated extraction, check the source
2024 FDD · 1+ year old
SIGNAL 88 SECURITY
Security guard services · parent company: not identified
Signal 88 Security (now branded Signal) provides private security services such as mobile patrols, on-site guards, and property monitoring for residential communities, businesses, and commercial sites. Clients hire it to deter crime and respond to incidents. A franchisee runs a security operation, employing and dispatching patrol officers and managing client accounts.
SIGNAL 88 SECURITY net unit count grew 24.4% over 2021–2023 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
Strong disclosed record
Enough units and history to judge, and the operating record is good. Units grew 24% (2021–2023: 851 → 1,059); the fiscal 2023 exit rate was 3.1%, below the 6.0% median across 48 comparable systems (business services).
Exit rate · fiscal 2023
3.1%
vs 6.0% median across 48 comparable systems (business services)
Cost to open
$127K–$5.1M
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan losses
Too few to rate
18 seasoned resolved loans; 30 needed
Market density · Texas
Typical density
2% thinner than the national average
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Data as of 2026-10-29. Figures come from SIGNAL 88 SECURITY's public FDD filings (latest: MN 2024, extracted 2026-06-18) 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.
Where the sources disagree
FDD record · SBA loans · model · auditor
The model's prediction differs from the operating record; with too few seasoned loans to check either, the verdict follows the disclosed record.
FDD record · Item 20
Strong operating record
Units grew 24% (2021–2023: 851 → 1,059); exit rate 3.1% (fiscal 2023) vs 6.0% median.
SBA loans · vs same-year loans
Too few seasoned loans
18 resolved loans approved by FY2020; 30 needed.
Modeled risk
Elevated
Directional only — too few seasoned loans to check it.
Auditor opinion · Item 21
Not extracted
We did not extract the audit opinion.
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
latest consecutive years · 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 · shown, not counted in the verdict
Systemwide units
2021–2023
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2023, 30 of 963 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 3.1% (fiscal 2023), vs a 6.0% median across 48 comparable systems (business services). An exit is not a failure: this counts terminations, non-renewals and "ceased — other reasons" as reported, and excludes transfers to new owners.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 582 | 851 | 963 |
| Opened | 276 | 126 | 126 |
| Transfers | 56 | 68 | 111 |
| Terminations | 7 | 14 | 30 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Outlets at end | 851 | 963 | 1,059 |
| Net change | +269 | +112 | +96 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan outcomes · compared with franchise loans of the same years
Banks have made 26 SBA-backed loans to SIGNAL 88 SECURITY franchisees since 2015. Only 18 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, 4 of 20 resolved loans charged off (20.0%). That raw figure mixes every approval year since 2015 — 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.
—
18 seasoned resolved · 30 needed
20.0%
4 of 20 resolved, every approval year
—
charged-off $ ÷ approved $, defaulted loans
$111,567
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
shown with 10+ defaults
5 vs 7
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%) · dashed line = all franchise loans that year
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO SIGNAL 88 SECURITY BY SBA FRANCHISE NAME/CODE · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL · EXPECTED = SAME-YEAR RATE ACROSS ALL SBA FRANCHISE LOANS, LOANS ≥ ~6 YEARS OLD
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Celtic Bank Corporation
53.8% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 27.0% of its resolved SBA loans to other franchise brands in the FOIA file, vs 14.8% nationally — a read on that lender's portfolio mix, not a finding about the bank.
Who buys it
92.3%
borrowers with no other franchise SBA loan on record
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators have charged off less often than brands sold mostly to newcomers (see methodology).
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 26 SBA 7(a)/504 loans matched to SIGNAL 88 SECURITY by SBA franchise code in the SBA FOIA file. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. Owner-level splits rely on borrower-name matching and may misclassify. 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 $120,000 franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $127K–$5.1M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$127K–$5.1M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$120,000
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
4%
of sales, ongoing
Starts at a placeholder of $400K — a round figure for the sector, not from SIGNAL 88 SECURITY’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
$16K
4% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$160K
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 SIGNAL 88 SECURITY with a buyer-paid CPAHow the earnings claim is built
FDD ITEM 19 · BASIS · 2024 FDD
The headline figure is Avg. Revenue Per Open and Operating Units (Gross Revenue) for Calendar year 2023. It is not an annual per-outlet figure, so we don't treat it as unit revenue. It shows no costs, so it says nothing about what an owner keeps.
Graded on three things the filing states: coverage (2 points if the figure covers at least 75% of the units it is compared with, 1 point for 50–75%), centre (2 points if it prints both a median and a mean, 1 for one of them), and costs (2 points for costs through a profit line or full cost detail, 1 for some cost items). 5–6 points = More complete, 3–4 = Partial, 0–2 = Limited. The grade describes the disclosure, not the business.
Show the basis ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| What is measured | Avg. Revenue Per Open and Operating Units (Gross Revenue) (revenue; not an annual per-outlet figure) |
| Period | Calendar year 2023 |
| Whose results | Franchised outlets |
| Units included | 191 (total for comparison not stated) |
| Left out | no exclusions stated |
| Average (mean) | printed, but not an annual per-outlet figure |
| Median | printed, but not an annual per-outlet figure |
| Met or beat the average | 67 (35%) |
| Costs shown | None — sales only |
| Where | p. 46 (Item 19 runs pp. 44–50) |
| The filing's words | “a summary of the collective Annual Gross Revenue for all U.S. Franchised Business Units from 2008 through 2023” |
Labor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 9 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $23K in back wages for 65 workers. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
9
Back wages owed
$23K
Employees affected
65
Since 2020
1
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual SIGNAL 88 SECURITY franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not SIGNAL 88 SECURITY itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Cases are matched to the brand by trade name and may include misattributed employers. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2023.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · a prediction from disclosure and loan-file features
The model puts this brand in its elevated band — but this brand has too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score against, so read it as a band, not a number.
Risk percentile
Elevated
Directional · no point estimate
Modeled · vs same-year loans
band only
too few seasoned loans to check
Top drivers: Share financed by high-loss lenders (raises) · System size (log units) (lowers) · Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers). Too few seasoned SBA loans to check the score — read it as a band. A linear scorecard trained on brands' vintage-adjusted SBA loss records; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Public records
Bankruptcy, closure & federal court records · coverage is selective · dockets are not scored
We have no verified public-record signals published for SIGNAL 88 SECURITY. This is not evidence that no events exist. Check PACER, the FDD's Item 3 (litigation) and Item 4 (bankruptcy), and recent news yourself.
8 questions to ask a SIGNAL 88 SECURITY 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 SIGNAL 88 SECURITY has disclosed. Each one carries the number it came from, so you can check the answer against the record.
- 01
SIGNAL 88 SECURITY’s own Item 20 shows 30 of 963 franchised outlets left the system in fiscal 2023 — about 3.1%. 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 · FY2023
- 02
111 units transferred to new owners in fiscal 2023. When you look at those, were they people cashing out a good business — or getting out of a bad one?
Item 20 counts transfers as neutral, but a transfer can be a good sale or a reluctant exit — the filing does not say which.
FDD Item 20 · FY2023
- 03
You pay 4.0% 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
- 04
SIGNAL 88 SECURITY 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
- 05
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
- 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
- 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
- 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?
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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 SIGNAL 88 SECURITY’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. 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.
SIGNAL 88 SECURITY franchise questions, answered from the filings
How many SIGNAL 88 SECURITY franchised outlets left the system last year?
In SIGNAL 88 SECURITY's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2023), 30 of 963 franchised outlets left the system — an exit rate of 3.1% — compared with a 6.0% median across 48 comparable systems (business services) tracked here. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons" as the franchisor reported them; it excludes transfers to new owners. The FDD does not say why each outlet left, and an exit is not the same as a failure.
How much does a SIGNAL 88 SECURITY franchise cost?
Per SIGNAL 88 SECURITY's 2024 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $120,000 (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $127K–$5.1M (Item 7).
What royalty does SIGNAL 88 SECURITY charge?
SIGNAL 88 SECURITY charges an ongoing royalty of 4.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2024 FDD.
Does SIGNAL 88 SECURITY disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — SIGNAL 88 SECURITY makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2024 FDD. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.