Our research approach

Make the source understandable without changing what it says.

Coverage

Small Business Meridian covers two complementary research layers: 100 small business startup and acquisition blueprints across 14 sectors, and 168 franchise brand profiles backed by regulatory FDD disclosures.

Small business blueprints vs. FDD disclosures

Franchise profiles draw on Franchise Disclosure Documents (Items 5, 6, 7, 19 and 20), state regulatory filings and official company publications, preserving exact reporting periods and populations. Small business model blueprints combine SBA lending benchmarks, U.S. Census NAICS industry ratios, national trade association operating surveys, platform rate cards and aggregated FDD category benchmarks to model independent startup vs. acquisition vs. franchise paths.

Missing and conflicting figures

A dash means a figure is unavailable for this comparison, not zero and not necessarily undisclosed. Conflicting or incompatible figures are withheld from headline comparisons. Sales are never described as owner income.

Local presence versus availability

Location pages describe captured official locator listings. They do not establish current franchise ownership, development territory availability or resale inventory. We do not infer one from another.

Publication and privacy

Public pages contain selected summaries. Original research documents, franchisee contact exhibits and personal workspace information remain private. Source links lead to publicly accessible publications where available.

Freshness

Research snapshot: . Dates beside figures identify their own periods; they are not current operating guarantees. We update summaries as reviewed source releases become available.