Franchise Business Plan Template: Free Word + PDF Built From Your FDD

Yes: this page has a free franchise business plan template, a Word file with a PDF copy, built for a franchisee opening one franchised unit. Every number you enter comes from your Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) and your own research.

• Franchise business plan template (Word .docx, about 57 KB)
• Franchise business plan template (PDF, 19 pages, about 504 KB)

The form asks for your first name and email address, and says: “Your download starts right away. We'll also add you to our free business-plan newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime.”

Yes: the two files above are one fill-in plan for a single franchised unit. The form also says: “Free sample: check all information before you use it. Provided as is, without support.”

The usual sections, plus four things the franchise brings: the FDD as a source, a territory you may not control, fees on top of your costs, and an opening date tied to the franchisor's steps. The file covers them in the crosswalk, 3.1, 5.4 and 5.2.

The SBA's traditional plan sections are executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service or product line, marketing and sales, funding request and financial projections (SBA: Plan your business, last modified 2026-10-19, read 2026-10-23). The template keeps that order, expands service or product line into operations, and adds risks (9) and a due-diligence appendix (10).

Each Item feeds a fixed part of the plan, because every FDD answers the same Items in the same order. The rule tells franchisors to “Respond fully to each disclosure Item” and, “If a disclosure Item is not applicable, respond negatively” (16 CFR 436.6(c), eCFR, current as of 2026-10-21, read 2026-10-23). So a table built on Item numbers works for any franchise.

The rows that feed a worksheet, with Item names as 16 CFR 436.5 prints them:

FDD Item	Where it goes in the plan
Cover page (Item 7 total, Item 5 amount, issuance date)	One-page summary
Item 5: Initial Fees	Sections 7 and 8.1
Item 6: Other Fees	Sections 5.4 and 8.3
Item 7: Estimated Initial Investment	Section 8.1
Item 10: Financing	Sections 7 and 8.1
Item 11: Franchisor's Assistance, Advertising, Computer Systems, and Training	Sections 5.2, 4 (training) and 6
Item 12: Territory	Section 3.1
Item 15: Obligation to Participate in the Actual Operation of the Franchise Business	Section 4
Item 19: Financial Performance Representations	Section 8.2
Item 20: Outlets and Franchisee Information	Sections 3.3 and 5.5

The file has a row for all 23 Items; the other 14 rows point mostly to the company description, operations, risks or the appendix checklist.

Copy Item 7's rows into the uses side of a sources-and-uses table, add your own figures, and show who funds each. Item 7 is titled “YOUR ESTIMATED INITIAL INVESTMENT”, and the file's rows follow the rule's list (16 CFR 436.5(g)(1), eCFR, current as of 2026-10-21, read 2026-10-23):

Item 7 row	Workbook cell
A. The initial franchise fee	B73
B. Training expenses	B72
C. Real property, whether purchased or leased	by hand
D. Equipment, fixtures, other fixed assets, construction, remodeling, leasehold improvements, and decorating costs	B62, B63, B64
E. Inventory to begin operating	B67
F. Security deposits, utility deposits, business licenses, and other prepaid expenses	B68, B69
Other specific required payments, by name	B73 or by hand
Additional funds— [your FDD's initial period]	B74

Where a cost isn't fixed, the rule says: “If the amount is unknown, use a low-high range based on the franchisor's current experience.” (16 CFR 436.5(g)(2)). The file's columns: FDD low, FDD high, your figure, its basis, paid to whom, refundable? and funded by, all blank.

If the franchisor or an affiliate finances part of the cost, Item 7's footnote gives “the amount that it will finance, the required down payment, the annual interest rate, rate factors, and the estimated loan repayments” (16 CFR 436.5(g)(7)(ii)), and Item 10 gives “the terms of each financing arrangement, including leases and installment contracts” (16 CFR 436.5(j)(1)). That becomes a franchisor-financing source beside owner equity, lender loan and other; the last line is total sources − total uses.

A box headed “Rows Item 7 does not cover” adds: “Ask your accountant and lender what else to include, such as your own living costs while the unit ramps up and any loan fees.”

For section 7, the SBA says: “Specify whether you want debt or equity, the terms you’d like applied, and the length of time your request will cover.” (SBA: Plan your business, read 2026-10-23).

List each Item 6 fee as a row, copy its amount or formula from your FDD, and mark it fixed per month, percent of sales or per event. That mark decides where it goes.

Item 6 is the “OTHER FEES” table: type of fee, amount, due date and remarks. The rule's examples of fee types are “royalties, and fees for lease negotiations, construction, remodeling, additional training or assistance, advertising, advertising cooperatives, purchasing cooperatives, audits, accounting, inventory, transfers, and renewals” (16 CFR 436.5(f)(1), eCFR, current as of 2026-10-21, read 2026-10-23). The file has a row for each, three blank rows, and columns for the base, how it enters your projections, and the workbook cell.

The rule accepts a percentage of gross sales “if the franchisor defines the term” (16 CFR 436.5(f), footnote 3). The file's box: “If your FDD charges a fee as a percentage, copy how it defines the base. It may not match what you call sales.”

In the workbook, percentage fees go to cells B93 and B94, fixed monthly fees to B85 or B89, anything else by hand. The workbook “has one variable cost line, Other variable costs, % of sales, so a royalty and other percentage fees must be added together by hand.”

Then your revenue rests on your own evidence: local research, calls with franchisees and, if you are buying an existing outlet, its records. Item 19 tells you which case you are in, and the revenue sheet (8.2) starts by asking you to tick one.

The rule sets Item 19's opening: “The FTC's Franchise Rule permits a franchisor to provide information about the actual or potential financial performance of its franchised and/or franchisor-owned outlets, if there is a reasonable basis for the information, and if the information is included in the disclosure document.” (16 CFR 436.5(s)(1), eCFR, current as of 2026-10-21, read 2026-10-23).

Case	What the rule has the FDD say
Item 19 includes a representation	“A clear and conspicuous admonition that a new franchisee's individual financial results may differ from the result stated in the financial performance representation.” (16 CFR 436.5(s)(3)(iv)). The file: the franchisor's disclosure, not your forecast.
Item 19 says it makes none	“We do not make any representations about a franchisee's future financial performance or the past financial performance of company-owned or franchised outlets.” (16 CFR 436.5(s)(2))
Buying an existing outlet	The rule lets a franchisor give “the actual records of an existing outlet you are considering buying” (16 CFR 436.5(s)(1)). The file: use them as that outlet's history, not as a forecast.

Then name your drivers, such as customers per day, jobs per week or sale per customer, each with your figure, its source and your location adjustment. To check your evidence, test your local market research.

The file's line under that table: “Label this as your estimate. Do not present a system average or another outlet's results as your forecast.”

Copy both from your FDD in its own words: territory from Item 12, time to opening from Item 11. The template supplies no size or duration.

The territory table (3.1) has six points: a specific location or one the franchisor still has to approve; the minimum territory; exclusive or not; conditions to keep it; other channels the franchisor reserves, such as the Internet; and relocation and additional-unit rights. If the territory is not exclusive, the FDD says: “You will not receive an exclusive territory.” (16 CFR 436.5(l)(5)(i), eCFR, current as of 2026-10-21, read 2026-10-23).

For the opening date, Item 11 must give “the typical length of time between the earlier of the signing of the franchise agreement or the first payment of consideration for the franchise and the opening of the franchisee's business” and the factors that may affect it (16 CFR 436.5(k)(2)). The file has a line for your FDD's figure and tick lines for the rule's seven factors, from lease and financing to delayed installation.

The timeline (5.2) has 12 steps, from “FDD received” to “Opening”. Step two, the earliest date to sign or pay, comes from the franchisor's duty to furnish its disclosure document “at least 14 calendar-days before the prospective franchisee signs a binding agreement with, or makes any payment to, the franchisor or an affiliate” (16 CFR 436.2(a)).

Ask about their opening, costs, fees and support, and log how each answer changes your plan.

Item 20 must list “the names of all current franchisees and the address and telephone number of each of their outlets” (16 CFR 436.5(t)(4), eCFR, current as of 2026-10-21, read 2026-10-23), or may list only your state's outlets, adding nearby states until at least 100 are listed, and contacts for each franchisee whose outlet was terminated, canceled, not renewed or otherwise ceased to do business in the most recently completed fiscal year (16 CFR 436.5(t)(5)). If franchisees signed confidentiality clauses, the FDD's statement includes: “You may wish to speak with current and former franchisees, but be aware that not all such franchisees will be able to communicate with you.” (16 CFR 436.5(t)(7)).

The file's questions:

• How long did it take from signing to opening, and what delayed it?
• Did your initial investment fall inside the Item 7 range, and which rows ran over?
• Which Item 6 fees do you actually pay?
• What did the franchisor's training and opening support include?
• How do the required suppliers' prices compare with what you could find yourself?
• How did your first year's sales and costs compare with what you had planned?
• Has territory overlap been an issue?
• What would you do differently?
• For former franchisees: why did you leave?

A call log sits under them. The file's warning: “What a franchisee tells you is their experience, not a forecast for your unit. Keep their names and numbers in your own files, not in a plan you send out.”

Compare your annual loan payments with the cash your projection shows is available for them. The file's debt-service check (8.4):

Line	What goes here
a	Annual loan payments, all loans including franchisor financing
b	Cash available for debt service, from your projection
c	Coverage = b ÷ a

The file's line: “Ask your lender what coverage it looks for. This template states no minimum.” The workbook's Key Ratios tab shows annual debt service (B14) and the coverage ratios (B15, B16).

The SBA says to match your projections “to your funding requests” (SBA: Plan your business, read 2026-10-23). For year one by month, see the monthly cash flow format.

On SBA financing, sba.gov's Plan your business page, last modified 2026-10-19, read 2026-10-23, says: “To see if any particular franchise is eligible for SBA financial assistance, you can search the SBA Franchise Directory.” The same page says: “Placement of a franchise brand in the Directory is not an endorsement or approval of the brand and does not ensure the success of the business.” The template says nothing about any brand. Ask your lender.

• SBA — Plan your business, last modified 2026-10-19, read 2026-10-23
• FTC Franchise Rule, 16 CFR §§ 436.2, 436.3, 436.5, 436.6 and 436.8 (title 16, part 436), eCFR, current as of 2026-10-21, read 2026-10-23

Example numbers come from the template file and are made up.