How we may be compensated

The operator of this site, Mike Millett and Digilu, may receive referral or consulting compensation if you choose to engage a franchise, a broker, or a professional service through an introduction we make, or if you retain us for a deeper evaluation or advisory work. Some franchisors and third parties pay referral fees when a buyer they were introduced to moves forward.

How that does NOT affect the score

Our commitments
  • The Franchise Transparency Score is computed from a fixed, published rubric. Compensation is not an input and cannot move a grade.
  • We do not raise a score for a franchise that pays us, and we do not lower one for a franchise that does not.
  • We do not accept payment to remove, soften, or suppress a finding.
  • The score is reproducible: anyone applying the same rubric to the same disclosures gets the same grade, regardless of who pays whom.
  • Where compensation exists for a specific franchise discussed with you, we will disclose it to you directly.

Why we publish the rubric

The simplest defense against bias is to make the scoring impossible to fudge. That is why the full rubric and weights are published. If a grade ever looked off, you could recompute it yourself from the franchisor's disclosures and the rubric, and you would arrive at the same number.

Our independence

We represent the buyer. We are not a franchise broker presenting a curated shelf of brands that pay us. When we evaluate a franchise, our loyalty is to the person deciding whether to risk their savings on it, not to the franchisor.

Questions about a specific referral?

Ask us directly. We will tell you whether we have any financial relationship with a franchise before you rely on anything we say about it.

Contact the team