Express Employment Professionals

Franchise fee: $20,000 to $40,000 based on market territory size.

The royalty model is non-standard: Express retains 40% of Gross Margin on temporary/contract staffing and 10% of Gross Receipts on direct hire (permanent placement) fees. The franchisee keeps 60% of Gross Margin and 90% of Direct Hire receipts. There is also an opt-out royalty model: 8% of Total Billings — simpler math, but Express loses the billing administration role under this structure.

Total investment: $30,950 to $391,000. The wide range reflects office size (leased space, build-out), initial marketing, and working capital needs. A downtown metro office with professional buildout is at the top of this range; a suburban market with modest space and minimal renovation is at the low end.

Express Item 19 discloses three tables from FY2023 data:

Table 2 (550 units open 24+ months): average total Sales $5,979,665, median $4,388,963. Franchisee retains 60% of Gross Margin — Express defines gross margin as the spread between what clients pay and what Express pays workers, typically 20–35% of billings for temp staffing. At $5.9M billings with a 25% gross margin, your 60% share is roughly $885,000 — before office overhead, staff salaries, and your own draw.

Table 4 (434 units open 60+ months): average billings climb to $6,421,874, median $4,805,178 — confirming the brand rewards longevity and relationship-building.

Table 1B (new units, 12 months): average billings $1,346,029, median $1,280,915. Year one is a ramp year — revenue is real but profitability depends heavily on overhead management.

Express Employment has held steady at 791 total units from 2022 to 2023 — no net growth, but stable retention. Staffing is a relationship-intensive business: once an office establishes employer relationships in a market, those relationships are sticky and provide recurring revenue. The system's stability at 791 units suggests strong retention among mature franchisees even in a challenging post-pandemic labor market.

Staffing sector dynamics matter here. The US staffing market contracted 11–12% in 2023 from the 2022 peak, which affected all players. A franchisee opening in 2024–2025 is entering at a different point in the cycle than operators who scaled during 2021–2022. Check current market conditions in your target market before committing.

The 40/60 gross margin split means your income is a function of Express's billing and payroll infrastructure — you're dependent on their back-office performance for your revenue receipts. If Express's billing systems have errors or delays, your cash flow suffers. Ask existing franchisees specifically about the accuracy and timeliness of the gross margin remittances.

The opt-out royalty (8% of Total Billings) sounds simpler, but flipping to total-billings-based royalty changes your incentives: you're now paying Express on revenue before margin, which is punitive if your gross margin percentage is low. The standard split structure (40% of gross margin) aligns Express's incentives with yours more naturally — they only make more when your margins are higher.

Staffing is fundamentally a B2B sales operation. If you don't have experience managing a sales team and building employer relationships, the ramp will be slow and expensive. Unlike retail franchise models, there's no built-in walk-in traffic — every client relationship is earned.