Tutoring franchise vs your own agency: the real numbers

What you actually buy in a franchise

Education franchises in Australia range from centre-based programs with proprietary worksheets to in-home tutoring networks that are essentially a brand plus a booking platform. What you typically get: an established name, a curriculum or method, a launch playbook, group marketing, software, and a territory. What you typically pay: an initial franchise fee (commonly $30,000–$80,000 for tutoring, more for centres with fit-out), ongoing royalties of 8–15% of gross revenue (or a fixed monthly fee), a marketing levy of 1–4%, software fees, mandatory training, and renewal or transfer fees when you sell. Fit-out for a centre adds $50,000–$150,000.

Read the disclosure document for the franchisor’s obligations, not just yours. In tutoring, ‘territory’ often means marketing exclusivity, not customer exclusivity, and ‘curriculum’ may be licensed only while you remain a franchisee – meaning the day you exit, you cannot use the very thing you paid to learn.

Five-year cost comparison

Control, exit and the fine print

The Franchising Code – your protections if you do sign

Franchising in Australia is regulated by the Franchising Code of Conduct, a mandatory industry code under the Competition and Consumer Act, remade with effect from 1 April 2025. Key protections: the franchisor must give you a disclosure document, the franchise agreement and the Code’s information statement at least 14 days before you sign or pay non-refundable money; you have a 14-day cooling-off period after entering the agreement; the franchisor must maintain a profile on the Franchise Disclosure Register; marketing funds must be accounted for annually; and there are rules on early termination compensation and on restraint clauses when the franchisor declines to renew. Get the documents reviewed by a franchise lawyer and speak to at least three current and two former franchisees – the disclosure document must list them.

Who should franchise anyway

• You have capital but no time to build systems, and you value a proven playbook over margin.
• You are buying into a brand with genuine consumer recognition in your suburb – check the search volume, don’t take the pitch deck’s word.
• You want a centre with proprietary curriculum and are comfortable that it is never yours.
• Otherwise: a properly built owned agency gives you the systems a franchise would, once, for a fraction of the lifetime cost – and the option to sell it later without asking permission.