CONFIRMED the disclosure document, read against the operations manual
Item 10 of the Bricks & Minifigs disclosure document is two sentences long and contains three denials: the company provides no direct or indirect financing, does not assist in providing financing, and guarantees no notes or obligations. The company’s own records now answer two of the three. Its audited financial statements carry a $45,000 seller-financing note, documented on the disclosure page. And its own operations manual, in the chapter on financing, says the franchise “has developed relationships with many quality providers” for owners who need money. The denial is in the government filing. The description of the assistance is in the company’s own rulebook, dated five months and twenty-five days earlier.
Item 10 is the section of a franchise disclosure document that federal rule reserves for financing. BAM Franchising’s 2025 edition, issued March 31, 2025, disposes of it in full as follows:
“We do not provide direct or indirect financing and do not assist in providing financing for you. We do not guarantee any notes or financial obligations.”
The sentence was not always categorical. As the year-by-year captures on the disclosure page show, the 2012 edition said the company “may assist franchisees in obtaining financing in the future,” and the 2014 edition said that neither the company nor its affiliate “currently offers, directly or indirectly, any financing arrangements.” From 2018 onward the wording flips to the flat denial quoted above. The word “assist” entered the company’s Item 10 in 2012 and was written out of it by 2018.
Section 5.9 of the company’s operations manual, titled Investment and Financing (Section 5b, page 49), addresses the owner who needs money after opening:
“However life is always changing, and circumstances may require additional investment into your business, or an infusion of cash to help get you through tough times, or help you get to the next level in your operations. The franchise has developed relationships with many quality providers that may be available and/or fit your needs…”
The same section, discussing debt, records what the company has watched happen to its own owners:
“We have seen unfortunate situations where a store owner borrows too much to pay back, and puts themselves into too much debt which can and does lead to financial harm for not only the business, but also themselves personally.”
So the manual, in the company’s own words: owners hit tough times, the franchise maintains relationships with financing providers for their needs, and the company has watched owners borrow their way into personal financial harm. The filing, in the company’s own words: it does not assist in providing financing. Both cannot be the whole story, and they are published by the same company.
The manual’s edition stamp is V.10.6.24, dated October 6, 2024. The disclosure document repeating the categorical denial was issued March 31, 2025, one hundred seventy-six days later. Whoever signed the 2025 filing re-filed “do not assist in providing financing” after the company’s own operations manual had described the financing-provider relationships in writing. This is the same pattern the record already shows on the other half of the sentence: the 2023 edition repeated “no direct or indirect financing” fifty-seven days after the company signed the $45,000 seller-financing note and Security Agreement its own audited statements and verified complaint describe, as documented on the disclosure page.
The manual does not name the “many quality providers.” But the company’s own onboarding deck, left publicly reachable and covered in the approved vendor list, names a funding firm alongside the real-estate firm, neither disclosed in the FDD. And the manual’s onboarding chapter, Section 4, shows the routing mechanism as ordinary practice: new owners are “connected to” the company’s designated vendors at each step. Related material is on the disclosure and the connection board.
In fairness. A franchisor may lawfully refer owners to lenders it knows, and “developed relationships” could describe informal referrals rather than arrangements with terms; Item 10’s regulatory office concerns the terms of financing offered directly or indirectly. The observation here is textual and narrow: the filed sentence says the company does “not assist in providing financing,” and the company’s own manual, in its own financing section, says the franchise developed and maintains provider relationships for owners’ financing needs. Whether maintained lender relationships offered to owners in need are “assistance” is a question a reader can weigh with both sentences in view. The claims and figures on the disclosure page are unadjudicated, BAM Franchising has not responded to these points, and nothing here is a finding of law.
Primary sources. Item 10 quotations are from the Bricks & Minifigs 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document (issued March 31, 2025), a public government filing, with earlier editions reproduced year by year at the disclosure page. Manual quotations are from the Bricks & Minifigs Franchisee Training & Operations Manual, edition V.10.6.24, Section 5.9, published at bamopsmanual.com. Every allegation referenced elsewhere on this site remains unadjudicated and every person and entity retains the presumption of innocence.
The BAM Map is independent reporting on matters of public concern. Nothing here is a finding of any person’s guilt; the criminal charges referenced are unadjudicated and every defendant is presumed innocent. Sources are linked so readers can check the record. · Home · Map · The law · Bodycam