Franchise Net Worth Requirement Calculator

Franchisors screen buyers on financial strength because an undercapitalized owner is the one most likely to run out of cash before the unit stabilizes. Most systems that publish a bar set two: net worth, everything you own minus everything you owe, and liquid capital, the cash you can deploy for the opening and the first lean months.

What the calculator computes

For each brand, the tool compares your net worth with the brand’s published net-worth minimum and your liquid capital with its published liquid minimum, then shows one of four results: meets both, short on liquid, short on net worth, or short on both. Inputs are clamped (net worth $0 to $50,000,000, liquid capital $0 to $20,000,000). The tool does not estimate a requirement from an investment figure, apply any lender rule, or define what counts as liquid.

A worked example

Using the defaults, $600,000 net worth and $200,000 liquid capital, the buyer meets the published minimums of Dunn Brothers ($500,000 / $100,000), Playa Bowls ($500,000 / $150,000) and Robeks ($375,000 / $149,000). They clear Scooter’s $500,000 net-worth figure but are $50,000 short of its $250,000 liquid figure, and fall short of Pokeworks, Qdoba, Wingstop and Whataburger on both.

Being just over a minimum leaves nothing spare. The same cash usually has to cover the lender’s equity injection and your reserve, so ask each franchisor whether its liquid figure is a threshold you must show or money that must remain after closing.

The minimums don’t follow the investment

It’s tempting to estimate a brand’s requirement from its investment range. The brands that publish their figures show why that fails. Each states one flat number, and the gap between the minimum and the build cost varies widely:

• Robeks: $375,000 net worth against an FDD Item 7 range of $299,050 to $538,500.
• Pokeworks: $750,000 net worth against $270,435 to $599,661.
• Wingstop: $5 million net worth against $310,400 to $1,048,500, plus multi-unit restaurant experience.

Pokeworks and Wingstop cost about the same to open, and Wingstop’s net-worth bar is more than six times higher. The investment range tells you what a unit costs. Only the brand tells you who it will sell to, so get the figure from the brand rather than estimating it.

Net worth, liquid capital, and the lender’s equity rule are three different tests

You can clear a net-worth bar with home equity and a retirement balance and still be short on cash, and the two figures answer different questions. Ask the franchisor for its written definition of “liquid” before you count anything, because we found no common standard. A lender applies a third test. The SBA’s rulebook,SOP 50 10(version 8 effective June 1, 2025; version 8.1 effective October 1, 2026), requires an equity injection of at least 10 percent of total project costs for a start-up and for an initial acquisition. Among the sources it lists are cash that is not borrowed and cash from a personal loan repayable from a source other than the business’s cash flow. A credit line the store will repay is not among the listed sources, so it could count toward a franchisor’s liquid figure (if that franchisor allows it) and still not count as SBA equity.

The higher test governs. At the top of Dunn Brothers’ published range, the SBA 10 percent minimum is $79,896, below its $100,000 liquid figure. At the low end of Scooter’s end cap, the 10 percent is $65,890, far below its $250,000. In both cases the franchisor’s bar, not the SBA’s minimum, is the larger number, and a lender may still ask for more than the minimum. Ourdown payment calculator breaks the equity injection down by loan program.

How to use the tool

Enter the high end of the brand’s Item 7 range, not the low end. Item 7 is a low-high estimate (16 CFR 436.5(g), on Cornell LII) and includes “additional funds” for only an initial period that the rule says is at least three months or a reasonable period for the industry. Then replace the tool’s bands with the brand’s own published net worth and liquid figures, and compare those with yours. If your liquid capital is the gap, our guide tofranchise financing options and theaffordability calculator can help you plan the fund.