Independent franchise research

What franchise ownership actually costs.

Franchise brochures show you the upside. Franchise Disclosure Documents show you the rest — if you know where to look. We read the filings, model the unit economics, and publish what the numbers say, brand by brand. No broker commissions, no franchisor sign-off, no sales pitch.

Brands we cover

Each brand gets its own research library — FDD and Item 19 analysis, realistic owner earnings, total capital required, financing routes, and the risks that don’t appear in the pitch deck.

Fitness & Wellness

Infrared fitness

Hotworx

A ~$400K investment with a payback period measured in years, not months. We model what an owner actually takes home on $330K of revenue, what the FDD leaves out, and where the downside sits.

55 research pages
2026 FDD analysed

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Education & Child Care

Early education & child care

Primrose Schools

A $743K–$1.53M build where 45 cents of every revenue dollar goes to payroll and the fee stack reaches 13% of gross. We model Item 19 by quartile, the real cost of the real estate, and the licensing exposure.

525 open schools
2025 FDD analysed

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After-school music education

School of Rock

A $425K–$705K investment where company-owned schools outperform franchised by 38% and the only disclosed NOI belongs to corporate. We break down the fee stack, the revenue gap, and what it means for your underwriting.

254 franchised schools
2025 FDD analysed

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How we work

The same process for every brand, so the numbers stay comparable.

01

Start with the filings

Franchise Disclosure Documents are public and legally binding. Item 7 gives the investment range, Item 19 gives the financial performance representation. We start there, not with marketing material.

02

Model the unit economics

Average gross sales is not owner income. We build the model down to royalties, rent, labour, and debt service to show what actually reaches the owner — and how long it takes to earn the investment back.

03

Publish the downside too

Brokers are paid on closings, so the risks rarely get equal airtime. We publish the failure cases, the litigation patterns, and the costs that surface in year three.