Startup Sentiment Among Franchise Seekers Stays On Uptrend Despite Market Volatility

By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights

May 7, 2025 – Startup sentiment among entrepreneurs exploring franchise ownership in April was a bit less sanguine than the record set in March, but remains in an upward trend despite market volatility tied to tariff negotiations. Surveys in the last week of April 2025 showed 71.4% of persons exploring ownership agree or strongly agreed that “now is a good time for startup”, following the 84.5% record set in March. In the same survey, 73.2% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”

In late April 2025, 71.4% of respondents agreed that “now is a good time” to proceed with their franchise or business startups, correlating with a leap in business applications.

This business startup sentiment observation correlates with the surge in business applications we noted last month. These two indicators, however, contrast with a dip of 8% in consumer sentiment in April reported by University of Michigan and the fifth consecutive month of decline in consumer sentiment reported by the Conference Board. So while consumers are less optimistic about the next few months, individuals taking steps toward business ownership are mostly undeterred.

One hypothesis from these diverging data points is that franchise development budgets should be maintained at a level to achieve desired results through business cycles, not modulated by consumer sentiment.

Of this month’s respondents, 42.6% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months. Further, 57.1% of entrepreneurs surveyed say they are “more or much more likely to launch their startups than three months ago.”

73.2% 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, 73.2% of respondents see conditions no worse – staying the same or getting better in three months. On the other hand, over one fourth of respondents (26.8%) see conditions getting “worse or much worse” in three months, the highest for this measure since December 2021 during the pandemic.
Access to funding: 70.4% 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 46.4% of respondents. After eight months at third place among concerns, and a dip to fourth in February, “political changes” remained in third place among concerns in April.
Current Employment: Of the franchise-seeking survey respondents, 44.6% are currently employed full-time, dropping from February’s 53.7% and below the record 61.7% in June 2024. Another 14.3% of respondents were current business owners seeking an additional or replacement business. Freelancers and consultants were 19.6%, and coincidentally part-timers at 19.6% and 1.8% were active military..
Age Cohorts: Gen-X remains the largest share, at 59.6% of respondents, down from the record 63.9% seen in June 2024. Boomers had a strong showing at 23.1%, Gen-Y or the Millennial age cohort followed at 15.4% of respondents. Gen-Z were 1.9% of respondents, below the 3.9% average for 2024. Less than 1% were from the “Silent Generation”, born before 1946
“Political changes” returned to third place after “funding” and “economic climate” among factors with the biggest impact on their startups in the next six months.

In summary, startup sentiment remains resilient, though concerns about financing, business conditions and political changes in the near term are rising.

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 April 23-30, 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 Tuesday, May 6th, 2025.