Editorial Standards and Corrections

Independence

• No franchisor, franchise broker, business seller or lender pays us to appear here.
• We don't sell leads, and we don't pass your details to anyone selling you a business.
• No one can pay to change a number, a Risk Meter score or the order of a list.
• If we ever earn a referral fee, the link says so, and the terms are the same for every company. See how we make money.

Fair to every path

We cover starting a business, buying a franchise and buying an existing business. We aren't for or against any of them. When a franchise gives you something real, such as a known brand, training or a tested system, we say so. When starting on your own costs less, we say that too, and we show the numbers either way.

How we source numbers

• Every number has a source, a confidence tier and the date we last checked it. Tap the info button next to any figure to see them.
• We prefer primary sources: government data, a franchisor's own disclosure document, and sellers' published prices. A figure backed only by our weakest tier of source says why in a note.
• We never invent, round or estimate a number to fill a gap. If we don't have a sourced figure, the page says “Data coming soon” and leaves it out of totals.
• Totals, comparisons, forecasts and risk scores are calculated in code from the line items, never typed by hand.

The full method and every source we use are on Sources & Methodology, and the risk formula is on How We Score Risk.

How numbers get checked

• A new number starts as “pending”. It's marked verified only after our founder has opened the source and confirmed the figure.
• If a verified number changes in any way, including its source or note, it goes back to pending automatically until it's checked again.
• A page joins search engines only when every number on it is verified. Pages with pending numbers are labeled and kept out of search.
• We recheck figures at least once a year and won't publish one older than that.

How we use AI

We use AI tools to help find sources, gather published prices and draft pages. AI never has the final say on a number: each one links to a source a person can open, and none is marked verified until our founder has checked it against that source.

What we won't do

• Publish testimonials, star ratings or “most popular” badges.
• Use countdown timers or other pressure to buy.
• Promise results. Forecasts are estimates to plan with, not predictions.
• Give financial, legal or tax advice. Talk to a professional before you commit money.

Corrections

If you think a number is wrong, out of date or doesn't match its source, write to contact email coming soon. Tell us the page and the figure, and a link to a better source if you have one.

• We recheck the figure against its source and any source you send.
• If we got it wrong, we fix the number, its source and its date. Totals and Risk Meter scores recalculate from the corrected figure.
• If we can't confirm the figure either way, we take it down and show “Data coming soon” until we can.
• Franchisors and sellers are welcome to send corrections too. We change a number only when a source supports the change.