Record Optimism a Tailwind for Franchise Development
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
April 16, 2025 – Franchise development teams should enjoy a new tailwind in prospect optimism. Surveys in the last week of March 2025 showed a record 87.5% of persons exploring ownership agree or strongly agreed that “now is a good time for startup”. In the same survey, 74.1% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
In late March 2025, 87.5% of respondents agreed that “now is a good time” to proceed with their franchise or business startups, correlating with a leap in business applications.
FranchiseInsights.com’s Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ survey, along with the March 2025 surge in business applications as reported by the St. Louis Federal Reserve (chart below), paints a picture of resilient optimism at the top of the funnel for franchise development. These are the highest readings for “high-propensity” applications since July 2020, as entrepreneurs responded to the pandemic with a desire to control their own destinies, and business applications soared.
Of this month’s respondents, 42.6% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months. Further, 63.0% of entrepreneurs surveyed say they are “more or much more likely to launch their startups than three months ago.”
74.1% believe business conditions will be “the same or better” three months out.
Additional highlights:
- Future business conditions: Despite the uncertainty of tariff effects and policy changes ahead, 74.1% of respondents see conditions no worse – staying the same or getting better in three months. On the other hand, over one fourth of respondents (25.9%) see conditions getting “worse or much worse” in three months, the highest for this measure since March 2023.
- Access to funding: 72.2% of entrepreneurs were concerned about finding adequate funding, and those who see funding “harder or much harder” to obtain in the next three months rose to 35.2% of respondents. After eight months at third place among concerns, and a dip to fourth in February, “political changes” returned to third place among concerns in March.
- Current Employment: Of the franchise-seeking survey respondents, 42.6% are currently employed full-time, dropping from February’s 53.7% and below the record 61.7% in June 2024. Another 11.1% of respondents were current business owners seeking an additional or replacement business. Freelancers and consultants were 37.0%, followed by part-timers at 7.4% and 1.9% who were active military..
- Age Cohorts: Gen-X remains the largest share, at 43.1% of respondents, down from the record 63.9% seen in June 2024. Gen-Y or the Millennial age cohort followed at 27.5% of respondents. Boomers had a strong showing at 23.5%, and Gen-Z were 3.9% of respondents, right at the 3.9% average for 2024. Another 2% were from the “Silent Generation”, born before 1946.
“Political concerns” returned to third place, after funding and economic climate.
The FranchiseInsights.com Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ (SSI) is based on a monthly survey of individuals who have recently inquired about businesses or franchises for sale on the Franchise Ventures lead generation platform. This survey was conducted March 27-31, 2025.
Franchise Ventures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.
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Published on Wednesday, April 16th, 2025.