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
Best Brains
Other · independent · est. —
Best Brains is a supplemental education franchise offering after-school programs in math, English, abacus, and coding for school-age children. A franchisee operates a learning center where teachers run small-group classes on a recurring weekly schedule, selling monthly enrollment to parents.
Best Brains net unit count grew +63.7% from 2023–2025 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 & strong
Distress
Enough units and history to judge, and the record is good: growing or stable units with clean exits by the standards of its disclosed record. The standout in the record: the system is growing.
Exit rate · latest year
0.6%
fiscal 2025, per Item 20
Cost to open
$50K–$134K
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
Too few resolved
4 loans exist; too few resolved to rate
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
2023–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 1 of 162 franchised outlets left the system — a 0.6% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 118 | 124 | 164 |
| Opened | 7 | 43 | 39 |
| Transfers | 2 | 6 | 6 |
| Terminations | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Outlets at end | 124 | 164 | 203 |
| Net change | +6 | +40 | +39 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 4 SBA-backed loans to Best Brains franchisees since 2015. Most are still open, so there is not yet a resolved cohort large enough to rate.
—
1 resolved · too thin to rate
—
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
—
default rate × loss severity
$104,275
what recent franchisees borrowed
—
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
0 vs 2
distinct banks — pulling back
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO BEST BRAINS BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $15K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $50K–$134K (Item 7). The franchisor publishes no earnings claim (Item 19) — ask current and former franchisees for real numbers.
To open (Item 7)
$50K–$134K
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$15K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
14%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — this brand discloses no Item 19 earnings; validate with current & former owners.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$140K
14% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$1.4M
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 Best Brains with an independent CPAModeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
The public record puts this brand toward the middle of the systems we score — but the evidence is thin, so treat it as a range, not a number.
Risk percentile (range)
27–51 / 100
Directional
Modeled SBA charge-off
11.2%
Observed SBA charge-off
no resolved cohort
Top drivers: Investment ceiling (log) (raises) · Net unit growth (lowers) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers) · Item 3 litigation (log) (raises). Thin loan history — treat this as a range, not a number. 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 Best Brains. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Best Brains's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →Best Brains franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of Best Brains franchises closed last year?
In Best Brains's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 1 of 162 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 0.6%. 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 Best Brains franchise cost?
Per Best Brains's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $15K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $50K–$134K (Item 7).
What royalty does Best Brains charge?
Best Brains charges an ongoing royalty of 14.0% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2026 FDD.
Does Best Brains disclose earnings (Item 19)?
No — Best Brains's 2026 FDD makes no financial performance representation in Item 19. That is legal and common, but it means the franchisor publishes no earnings claim; ask current franchisees for real numbers.