Business models / Clothing Boutique / Own a franchise

A clothing boutique franchise, or your own?

Three franchise brands run a clothing boutique. Here they are beside the independent version of the same business, with each brand’s fees as it publishes them and worked out in dollars. A brand can bring customers an independent has to earn one by one. The question is whether it brings in more than it costs.

Typical for a clothing boutique: $150k to $600k in sales, and the owner keeps 18% to 24% after paying for its own marketing. Change either to your own numbers.

How the two sides are counted

  • Sales. A brand’s name brings customers an independent wins one at a time, so each brand is worked out at the sales it reports where we have them, and at yours where we don’t.
  • Marketing. On your own you pay for all of it, about 3% of sales here (the SBA’s usual range for ongoing marketing). The ad fund does part of that job, so it is counted once, not twice.
  • Survival. New franchised businesses were about 5 to 6 points more likely to make it through their first two years in Census data, and about half of all new businesses close within five years. It is not in the dollars; each brand’s details give the sources.

Your own clothing boutique and each brand, side by side

The independent version

Your own clothing boutique

Built and run under your own name

Cost to open
$74k to $349k
Annual sales
$300ktypical
Franchise fee
None
Royalty + ad fund
Noneall marketing is yours
$63,000
The owner keeps in a year, after about $9k of marketing
Taking new owners

Pro Image Sports

Licensed sports apparel stores

Total investment
$110k to $606k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$30k
Royalty + ad fund
5% of sales
$48k
The owner keeps in a year at $300k in sales (your sales), after $15k to the brand
$15k less a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Apricot Lane Boutique

Women's fashion boutiques

Total investment
$169k to $360k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$40k
Royalty + ad fund
6% + 1% of sales
$45k
The owner keeps in a year at $300k in sales (your sales), after $21k to the brand
$18k less a year than on your own
Taking new owners

Mainstream Boutique

Women's fashion boutiques

Total investment
$198k to $361k
Avg. annual sales
Ask the brand
Franchise fee
$20k
Royalty + ad fund
8% + 1% of sales
$39k
The owner keeps in a year at $300k in sales (your sales), after $27k to the brand
$24k less a year than on your own

Before you sign: what to read in the disclosure document

Every franchisor must give you its Franchise Disclosure Document at least 14 days before you sign or pay. These are the parts that answer the questions above.

  • Items 5 to 7, the fees and the investment. The franchise fee, every other fee (technology, training, transfer, renewal), and the full opening budget, including working capital.
  • Item 19, what owners earn. Whether the brand states owner sales or earnings at all, and for which units. Put its figures in the boxes above in place of the typical ones.
  • Item 20, units opened, closed and sold. How many owners left in each of the last three years, and a list of current and former owners you can call.
  • Item 12, the territory. Whether you get a protected area, and what the brand can open or sell inside it.
  • Item 21, the franchisor’s own finances. Whether the company behind the brand is in good health.

smbnest is a self-assessment tool, not individualized advice. Fees are as each brand publishes them on its franchising page and in its disclosure document, reviewed in the month shown, and change; the figures in dollars are worked out at the sales you enter and are not a forecast. We never take a cut of your deal or a fee from a franchisor. Before you sign, speak with a franchise attorney and a qualified financial adviser, and call owners from the disclosure document.