Questions
What this is, where the numbers come from, and what they cannot tell you. If something here is unclear or looks wrong, say so — that is the message we most want.
What this is
- What does this site actually do?
- Before a franchisor can sell you a franchise, the law requires them to hand over a disclosure document — a few hundred pages covering what it costs, what you owe them every year, how many outlets opened and closed, and whether they have been sued. We read those documents and pull the figures out. Then we put the government’s record of how franchisees who borrowed to buy in actually fared next to them.
- What is an FDD?
- The Franchise Disclosure Document. Twenty-three numbered sections, the same in every one, which is why they can be read the same way. Item 5 is the franchise fee, Item 6 the ongoing fees, Item 7 what it costs to open, Item 19 what outlets earn — if the franchisor chooses to say — and Item 20 how many outlets came and went.
- Are you a broker?
- No. Franchisors pay us nothing, no brand can pay to be listed or to change what its page says, and we do not sell your details to anyone. The only money coming in is from readers.
What it costs
- What do I get for nothing?
- Every brand’s page, the franchise fee, what it costs to open, and the whole loan record — how many franchisees borrowed and how many repaid, brand by brand. No account needed for any of it.
- What does the $49 open?
- What the franchisor disclosed about earning it back. The Item 19 revenue figure, every ongoing fee priced in dollars a year rather than as a percentage, how many franchisees left or were terminated, the territory and renewal terms, what in the record is worth asking about, and a five-year projection you can put your own rent, wages and borrowing into. Once, for every brand we have read — there is no count to spend. The full list.
- Is it a subscription?
- No. One payment, no renewal, nothing to cancel.
- Can I get a refund?
- Within seven days, if you have opened no more than two brands, in full and without explaining yourself. It exists so nobody pays for something that turns out to be wrong, and one full report is enough to tell. Write to our support address from the address on the account.
Where the numbers come from
- Where do the filings come from?
- State franchise registries that publish them. Wisconsin and Minnesota are the two that make documents downloadable, which is why the catalogue leans on those two — it is a limit of what any state publishes, not a choice we made.
- How many brands have you read?
- The catalogue page states the current count on every visit.
- Why is the brand I am looking at missing?
- Most likely nobody filed it in a state that publishes documents, or we have not got to it. A brand with no filing still gets a page if it appears in the loan record, because how its franchisees repaid is worth knowing on its own.
- What is the loan record?
- Every SBA 7(a) loan to a franchisee since 2010 — over ninety thousand of them — published by the federal government. It says who borrowed, and whether the bank was repaid or wrote the debt off. How to read it.
What the numbers cannot tell you
- How accurate is this?
- The figures are read out of the filings by a machine, and every one links to the page it came from so you can check it against the source. We hold a small number of filings that a person has also read line by line to score the machine against; on those it was right 98% of the time. That is a small sample and we would rather say so than round it up. If you find a figure that misstates its document, tell us and we will correct or withdraw it.
- Why does a brand show no revenue figure?
- Because roughly a third of franchisors make no earnings claim at all — the law lets them stay silent — and many that do report by tier or quartile without stating a single average. A blank means the filing does not say. We do not estimate one in its place.
- Does a charged-off loan mean the franchise closed?
- No, and the two get conflated constantly. A charge-off means the lender wrote the debt off. A franchisee can fail while still repaying, and an outlet can close with the loan paid in full.
- How much of the loan record is missing?
- A substantial share of outcomes is withheld by the government. Every rate here is computed over the loans that finished, and says how many that was.
- Why do some brands have no percentage at all?
- Because a handful of loans is not a rate. We show one only where at least twenty have finished — a few hundred brands clear that. Below it the counts are printed instead: one failure in three is three people, not 33% risk.
Before you sign anything
- Is this financial or legal advice?
- No, and we are not licensed to give either. This is a record of what franchisors disclosed and what happened to people who borrowed. What it is worth is your judgement to make, ideally with a franchise attorney who has read the current document.
- Should I rely on this instead of the FDD?
- No. Read the current disclosure document — the franchisor must give it to you — and speak to franchisees who are already operating, including ones who left. This is meant to tell you what to look for and what to ask about, not to replace either.