FOR PROFESSIONALS ADVISING A BUYER
I don't pay referral fees, and I don't accept them.
That is the entire arrangement, and it is deliberate. Every other money relationship in this industry runs the other way: a franchise broker takes 40 to 50 percent of your client's franchise fee from the franchisor, and SBA lenders pay referral sources up to a point of a closed loan. This desk argues that those incentives quietly shape the advice buyers get. It would be a strange argument to make while invoicing you.
So there is no fee, no split, no reciprocity requirement, and nothing to disclose to your client beyond my name. If I am useful to the people you advise, you will send me work. If I am not, you won't. That is a cleaner test than a fee schedule.
A standing offer, before any of that
Send me the name of any brand a client of yours is weighing. I will send back what the record says — the Item 20 outlet history with transfers and reacquisitions separated out, the SBA loan outcomes for its franchisees, the audit opinion, the litigation history — inside a business day, at no charge, whether or not it ever turns into work for either of us. Forward it to your client with your name on it if that is useful. 1,046 filings across 1,300 brands are already analysed, so most requests are a lookup rather than a favour.
What I do that you don't
Franchise attorneys
YOUYou read the franchise agreement — the term, the transfer and renewal conditions, the covenants, the venue clause, what happens when it goes wrong.
MEI read the money. Whether the Item 19 earnings claim is built from the top third of the system, what Item 20's outlet table shows once transfers and reacquisitions are separated from genuine growth, whether Item 21's auditor has raised substantial doubt, and how this brand's franchisees' SBA loans actually ended. I do not practise law and I do not opine on the agreement.
Business brokers and M&A intermediaries
YOUYou have a seller, a listing and a buyer who needs to get comfortable and financeable before the LOI goes stale.
MEI test the numbers the buyer is being asked to believe: three years of the seller's P&Ls tied out, every add-back examined, what the unit actually clears after the buyer's debt service — against the brand's own filings rather than the broker package. A buyer who understands the deal closes it. A buyer who is guessing walks late, and takes the commission with them. I do not list businesses and I do not represent sellers.
SBA lenders and loan brokers
YOUYou need a borrower whose projections survive credit committee, and a brand you can underwrite without guesswork.
MEI build the package — a three-scenario pro forma with breakeven and sensitivity, ramp-to-breakeven working capital month by month, and the brand's loan history in your own portfolio's terms. And I will tell you when a brand's record does not support the deal, which is worth more to you than one more application. I do not place loans and I take no fee from a lender.
The rules
Who is asking
Don Drummond, CPA — Virginia #43775. Internal audit and controls: SOX programs at XO Communications, governance and risk at Deloitte. Full background and licence number, and the method is public — including the evidence gate that decides which brands are allowed a verdict at all. Prices for the paid work are published, so you always know what you are pointing someone at.
Email me a brand name and I'll send the record back. No form, no sequence, no follow-up you have to unsubscribe from.
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