Fitness
The Joint Chiropractic Franchise
A membership-based, cash-pay chiropractic clinic franchise that does not accept insurance, positioned around walk-in convenience rather than a traditional appointment-and-insurance model. The Joint Corp. was incorporated in Delaware in March 2010 and began offering Clinic franchises that same year; it also separately franchises Regional Developer rights to recruit and support Clinic franchisees within a territory, though this entry covers only the single-Clinic franchise. Both franchised and company-owned unit counts grew every year of the FDD's three-year window, with company-owned Clinics more than doubling from 64 to 135.
Disclosed in the FDD's litigation section (Item 3)
Item 3 discloses a 2015-filed arbitration by 12 current and former Southern California franchisees alleging breach of contract, wrongful termination, and California Franchise Investment Law violations tied to a group of failed-to-open Clinics; the parties settled in December 2016 with The Joint Corp. paying $800,000 (mostly insurance-funded) plus $100,000 in company stock, and waiving certain transfer fees.
Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from The Joint Chiropractic's own filing.
What it costs to open
From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.
Franchise fee
$39,900
Total to open
$254,250–$520,800
Ongoing royalty
7% of gross sales
What you'd actually spend, over time
The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.
Defaulted to a rough fitness industry average, not a figure from The Joint Chiropractic's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$499,250 – $765,800
Startup investment
$254,250–$520,800
Royalty per year (7%)
$49,000
Total royalty, 5yr
$245,000
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. The Joint Chiropractic's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical fitness profit margin (~15%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.
Defaulted to a general fitness industry benchmark, not a figure from The Joint Chiropractic's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.
At that profit, you'd break even in about
2.4–5.0 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: The Joint Chiropractic is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is The Joint Chiropractic actually growing?
Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:
Locations opened vs. closed, by year
GrowingFrom Item 20 of The Joint Chiropractic's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 515 | 610 | +95 |
| 2022 | 610 | 712 | +102 |
| 2023 | 712 | 800 | +88 |
Most recent year (2023): gained 88 franchised units, ending the year at 800 total.
What you're actually signing up for
The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.
Training & ongoing support (Item 11)
Item 11: a required 3.5-day initial training program in Scottsdale, AZ for the Managing Owner and General Manager, a Clinic Design plan, and ongoing conference attendance (mandatory unless waived, with a registration fee charged even for excused non-attendance).
Territory protection (Item 12)
Item 12: no exclusive territory or development territory of any kind -- The Joint explicitly states franchisees may face competition from other franchisees or company-owned Clinics; a franchisee's actual territory (10,000-25,000 households) is identified only after site approval.
Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)
Item 17: 10-year term, with the right to one additional 10-year successor franchise agreement if the franchisee meets renewal conditions (which may carry materially different terms).
How The Joint Chiropractic compares to other Fitness franchises
Across the 9 fitness franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $512,636–$1,337,041, with royalties averaging around 7.3% of gross sales (based on the 9 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).
$764,577–$1,104,920 · 8% royalty
Pure Barre$445,299–$736,465 · 7% royalty
StretchLab$271,037–$814,192 · 8% royalty
Anytime Fitness$539,329–$905,482 · 8% royalty
Club Pilates$403,289–$1,029,811 · 8% royalty
Burn Boot Camp$291,145–$678,003 · 6% royalty
Planet Fitness$1,282,500–$5,386,000 · 7% royalty
F45 Training$362,300–$857,700 · 7% royalty
Keep going
- The Joint Chiropractic and StretchLab are both fitness franchises; The Joint Chiropractic's total investment starts about $16,787 lower than StretchLab's. StretchLab Franchise
- The Joint Chiropractic and Burn Boot Camp are both fitness franchises; The Joint Chiropractic's total investment starts about $36,895 lower than Burn Boot Camp's. Burn Boot Camp Franchise
Where this came from: The Joint Chiropractic only files a Net Worth/Experience Exemption notice with California DFPI, so this entry is sourced from Minnesota's CARDS registry instead: MN File No. 8591 (the single-Clinic "UNIT" franchise; a separate MN file 8592 covers Regional Developer/area-representative rights and is not used here), Clean FDD issued May 1, 2024, filed 11/25/2024, effective 12/6/2024 -- this is the most recent MN filing carrying a clean (non-redline) copy; a newer 2025 filing exists but is marked/redline only, so this entry's unit-history window (2021-2023) runs a year behind several other entries in this dataset. Item 5: $39,900 initial franchise fee (discounted to $33,900 for veterans, $29,900 for a 2nd-or-later Clinic bought simultaneously, as low as $20,000 under a chiropractor "Path to Ownership" program). Item 6: royalty is the greater of 7% of Gross Sales or $700/month, plus a Brand Fund of up to 3% (currently 2%) and a separate Local Advertising Commitment of the greater of 5% of Gross Sales or $3,000/month -- a notably fee-heavy structure beyond the headline royalty. Item 7 Total (single Clinic): $254,250-$520,800. Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2024-12-06. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.
If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.