October 15, 2025 – Boomers are retiring in droves, and Gen-X and Gen-Y (Millennials) are the largest cohorts among franchise buyers. One thing they all have in common is the desire to control their own destinies through business ownership.
October 8 2025 – Almost 71% of franchise prospects responding to a monthly sentiment survey see business conditions “about the same” in three months, with another 9.8% seeing them “better” or “much better.”
October 1, 2025 – For the first time, we look at the results by self-reported gender in desired characteristics to discover any differences which might inform both the franchise development sales process and targeted recruitment.
September 24, 2025 – Consistent with over five years of survey data on characteristics that make franchises attractive to individuals, “low cost of entry” and “higher earnings potential” have consistently been ranked most important by individuals seeking business ownership.
September 17, 2025 – While the rankings of many of the categories of expected business startup funding changed over the past year, the top three – personal savings, SBA loans, and banks or other loan providers remained in the same order among the top three.
September 10, 2025 – Over the summer of 2025, only 35-46% of individuals submitting inquiries to franchises said they were contacted by all of the franchises they indicated interest in within seven days, as reported by the FranchiseInsights.com “mystery shopping” surveys from June to August 2025.
August 6, 2025 – Just under 63% of franchise seekers responding to the FranchiseInsights.com August Startup Sentiment survey cited ‘funding or access to credit’ as their greatest concern in launching their startups, the lowest for that measure since September 2024. This is consistent with the expectation of lower rates by consumers in the University of Michigan confidence survey.
August 27, 2025 – After perusing among hundreds of options across multiple categories on franchise directory websites, most individuals narrow their focus and ultimately inquire about only one or two concepts. This franchise buyer behavior has been consistent over more than five years of customer journey analysis of websites and mobile apps.
August 20, 2025 – In the July 2025 Startup Sentiment survey, Grit, or “persistence towards a goal despite obstacles” was cited by 58.5% of respondents. In this survey of individuals seeking franchises, 55.4% also attested to their “willingness to follow a proven system”, an essential ingredient for succeeding at franchise ownership.
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights August 27, 2025 – After perusing among hundreds of options across multiple categories on franchise directory websites, most individuals narrow their focus and ultimately inquire about only one or two concepts. This franchise buyer behavior has been consistent over five years of customer journey analysis of websites and mobile …
August 12, 2025 — Since we last wrote about the potential impact of Google’s AI mode on franchise lead generation, Alphabet reported earnings for the second quarter of 2025, and shared key metrics to dispel the notion that generative AI was displacing traditional search.
August 6, 2025 – Owners of current businesses were almost 28% of franchise seekers responding to the FranchiseInsights.com July Startup Sentiment survey, beating the previous record of 25.5% July 2021, and following a strong showing last month at 23.9%. The types of businesses owned ranged from import/export, to car repair, restaurants and accounting services.
July 30, 2025 – According to a 2020 study by Pew Research, only 19% of Americans will take a call from a number they are unfamiliar with. In April 2021, Apple launched its “block unknown callers” feature, followed by “live voice mail” in September 2023, which allows recipients to screen unknown calls without picking up.
July 23, 2025 — Most prospects who request information on franchise portal websites become a referral visit to the franchisor’s website afterward. In our most recent surveys from February to June 2025, about 64.3% of portal lead submitters made post-inquiry visits to the corresponding franchise development websites of their interest.
July 16, 2025 — With AI-induced changes to consumer behavior and the search marketing ecosystem, alternate channels of lead referrals become even more essential and valuable. Referred visits to your franchise development website yield informed prospects who demonstrate clear intent – they are aware of your offering, and want to learn more.
July 9, 2025 – For three months, the percentage of entrepreneurs planning their startups within the coming year has reached or exceeded 87%, continuing an uptrend seen since 2023. Of this month’s respondents, 49.3% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months, down from a recent high of 64.3% in the April survey.
July 2, 2025 – Individuals submitting inquiries about franchises were mostly satisfied with their experiences, according to franchise prospect surveys over the five months ending in June 2025. Almost half (44.4%) said they were either “satisfied “or “very satisfied”, and only 22.2% said they were “unsatisfied or very unsatisfied.”
June 25, 2025 – In the span of surveying aspiring franchise owners for over five years, data show that about 15-20% of prospects already own at least one business. That percentage has varied month to month over this time span, but consistently represents a significant slice of aspiring candidates for franchise expansion.
June 18, 2025 — Interest in franchise ownership spans all adult ages, but the most likely cohort for taking the leap is around middle age. Self-reported demographics of prospective franchise owners from January through April 2025 show that the most popular ages for exploring business ownership range from the mid-40s up to 60.
June 11, 2025 — Almost exactly a year since we wrote about the introduction of AI Overviews and generative AI to franchise search, Google introduced AI Mode, its generative AI offering to the search experience in browsers and the Gemini app which began rolling out to all U.S. desktop and mobile users on May 20, 2025.
June 4, 2025 – Entrepreneurs seeking business ownership are more inclined to take action today than they were just a month ago. In the May 2025 Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ survey, 75.9% of respondents said they are “more or much more likely to launch their startups than three months ago,” compared with 57.1% for the same measure in the prior month.
May 29, 2025 – Individuals seeking business ownership preferred the option to “buy a franchise” over acquiring an existing business by a wide margin in the April 2025 Startup Sentiment survey. While over 61% indicated interest in the franchise purchase option, only 39.5% were interested in buying an existing business for sale.
May 20, 2025 — With the growth of chatbots and AI-enabled research, the pathways that lead to discovery of your franchise are certainly changing. Since Google’s launch of AI Overviews just over a year ago, search queries have grown by almost 50%, yet click-throughs have dropped by 30%.
May 13, 2025 – Business news is bustling with headlines about tariff negotiations, the disruption and opportunities presented by AI, antitrust claims and remedies potentially impacting Google, and content freedom vs. moderation on many platforms, and a pending outright ban of TikTok in the U.S. along with separate actions TikTok brought by several states. Meanwhile, franchisors must navigate these waters to successfully grow their systems.
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.
April 30, 2025 – Franchise development teams are largely maintaining or increasing their expansion plans in 2024-2025. They have responded to changes in the lead generation ecosystem by aggressively diversifying their paid sources, in the face of rising cost per lead, to achieve growth goals and complement organic growth.
April 30, 2025 – Looking back at usage rates of the top franchise development lead generation channels from 2022-2025, franchisors have diversified their sources in response to many changes in the ecosystem.
April 30, 2025 – In a year-over-year analysis of franchise lead generation, interest in franchises shifted to a number of border and coastal states, particularly California, New Jersey and Michigan according to new data from FranchiseInsights.com.
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 …
April 9, 2025 – Most systems responding to the 2025 Franchise Development Lead Generation Survey anticipated increased spending in 2025, to which higher costs per lead were a factor for most sources. In 2025, 87% of franchisors expect to employ Google paid advertising (including YouTube), up from 82.5% in 2024, despite 24.6% of them reporting that lead costs increased somewhat, and 7.3% significantly.
March 26, 2025 – When asked about advertising plans for 2025, 100% of franchise development teams already using the major franchise lead generation sources expected to increase their spending somewhat or significantly in 2025.
This is following a difficult 2024 where, despite challenging business conditions and the distractions of an election year, more than 58% of franchisors surveyed either stuck to their growth plans (50.0%) or increased them. Franchises increasing their expansion plans (8.3%) included all tiers of system sizes, and 98% of them increased their spending in 2024 across the four largest third-party advertising platforms.
March 19, 2025 – When asked about advertising plans for 2025 in our annual Franchise Lead Sources Survey, over 95% of franchise development teams already using either Google, Meta, LinkedIn or TikTok expected to increase their spending somewhat or significantly in 2025.
March 12, 2025 – When asked about how business conditions impacted their expansion plans in 2024, 58% of franchise development teams said they stuck to their plans, or even expanded beyond expectations.
March 5, 2025 – More individuals leaving full-time jobs bodes well for franchise development in 2025. Surveys in the last week of February showed 63.4% of aspiring business owners either agreed or strongly agreed that “now is a good time to start a business,” with optimism about conditions now and in the near future. In the same survey, 81.5% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
February 25, 2025 – Retail sales dropped 0.9% in January 2025, the largest drop since March 2023, given that much of the country was covered with snow and the Palisades fires raged from January 7-31. If your franchise development team noticed a marked decrease in lead generation and prospect responsiveness in January, weather across the U.S. and fires in California were key among the reasons.
February 12, 2025 – The rising trend in near-term intentions to start businesses bodes well for franchise development in 2025. In late December surveys, 63.4% of aspiring business owners either agreed or strongly agreed that “now is a good time to start a business,” showing optimism about conditions now and in the near future. In the same survey, 90.0% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
February 5, 2025 – Franchise development faces reduced competition from employers for the best candidates. Return-to-work mandates, cost-cutting, and increasing automation by employers are compelling more individuals to conclude that now is the time to buy a franchise and move forward on the path of “being my own boss”, the leading motivator for business ownership.
January 29, 2025 – Franchise prospects want to know who is calling before accepting a call. More than thirty-seven percent (37.2%) of respondents indicated that they preferred to be emailed first as an initial contact by a franchise they have expressed interest in, according to the recent December 2024 Franchise Insights Mystery Shopping survey.
January 23, 2024 – Since we last reported on the motivations of aspiring franchise owners in August 2024, interest rates have eased, and a contentious election was resolved. But the primary driver for those seeking business ownership has not changed.
January 14, 2025 – If your franchise sales team is noticing a decrease in lead generation in recent days, they are not alone. Despite a great start to the year, California is experiencing a significant drop in inquiries – down 21.3% through January 13, according to proprietary data from the Franchise Ventures lead generation platform of franchise investment inquiries in the United States.
January 7, 2025 – The rising trend in near-term intentions to start businesses bodes well for franchise development in 2025. In late December surveys, a record 93% share of respondents plan their business startups within 12 Months.
January 1, 2025 – Monthly surveys of buyers actively seeking franchises and businesses for sale have shown an increasing inclination to start businesses in the ensuing twelve months when asked about their time frames. In late December 2024, a record 93.0% said they planned their business startups for within the next twelve months, in continuation of an upward trend since the beginning of 2023.
December 18, 2024 – In almost five years of surveying for characteristics that make franchises attractive, “low cost of entry” and “higher earnings potential” have consistently been ranked most important by individuals seeking business ownership. ‘Extensive training and support’ edged out “ability to work from home’ in the November survey.
December 11, 2024 — While the rankings of many of the categories of expected business startup funding changed over the past year, the top three – personal savings, SBA loans, and banks or other loan providers remained the same.
December 3, 2024 – While funding is perennially the biggest concern, 41% of respondents think financing will be easier in three months. Now 68.9% of aspiring business owners surveyed either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” showing optimism about conditions now and ahead. In the November 2024 survey, 86.9% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
November 26, 2024 – Initial contact attempts by franchisors to inquiring prospects rose substantially over the last six months as reported by the latest FranchiseInsights.com “mystery shopping” surveys from June to November 2024. In November 2024, over 60% respondents reported that they were contacted by all of the franchises they inquired about.
November 20, 2024 – In a year-over-year analysis, interest in franchises migrated eastward and selectively southward according to new data from FranchiseInsights.com. By comparing quarterly shares by state of inquiries about franchises for the third quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2024, there was a continuation of the shift in the mix of where aspiring franchisees were expecting to locate franchises
November 13, 2024 — Almost 57% of franchise prospects in recent surveys attested to their “willingness to follow a proven system”, an essential ingredient for succeeding at franchise ownership. Grit, or “persistence towards a goal despite obstacles” was cited by over half (53.2%) of respondents, followed by “team leadership experience” at almost 40%.
November 6, 2024 – Now 75% of aspiring business owners surveyed either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” showing optimism about conditions now and ahead, the highest percentage in more than three years. In the October 2024 survey, 90.7% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
October 30, 2024 – One consistent observation on franchise buyer behavior over almost five years of website journey analysis is how quickly researchers parse among many options to narrow their focus to a few for further inquiry. Most prospects only focus on a single concept when requesting information about franchises, despite the thousands of offerings across dozens of categories in the franchise directories of the Franchise Ventures lead generation platform.
October 23, 2024 – Both political parties have discovered the effectiveness of blanketing mobile phones with fundraising texts. According to YouMail, which offers call and text-blocking apps, political texts alone may be approaching one billion per week in October 2024. How do legitimate franchise representatives get through to sales prospects who want to hear from them?
October 16, 2024 –We routinely ask prospects why they visited franchisor site(s) after submitting an inquiry at a franchise directory website, or portal, to gain insight into this behavior. The overwhelming response, at 49.4%, was “I was very interested and just wanted to learn more.” Another 34.2% wanted to “prepare before having a conversation” with franchise representatives.
October 9, 2024 — Inbound inquiries to your franchise development website yield more informed prospects who demonstrate intent – they are aware of you, and want to learn more. How can you get more of these referred visitors?
October 2, 2024 – Fully two-thirds (65.6%) of aspiring business owners surveyed either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” with optimism about conditions ahead. In the September 2024 survey, 92.7% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
September 25, 2024 – Persons inquiring about franchises were mostly satisfied with their experiences, according to recent franchise prospect surveys over the five months ending in September 2024. Almost half (43.5%) said they were either “satisfied “or “very satisfied”, and only 19.2% said they were “unsatisfied or very unsatisfied.”
September 18, 2024 – Data from over five years of surveying aspiring franchise owners shows that about 15-20% already own at least one business. The percentage has varied month-to-month over this time span, which includes the pandemic-affected years, but consistently represents a significant slice of aspiring candidates for franchise development.
September 10, 2024 – Individuals interested in business ownership preferred the option to “buy a franchise” over acquiring an existing business by a significant margin in the August business buyer survey. While almost 60% indicated interest in the franchise purchase option, only 42.3% were interested in buying an existing business for sale.
September 4, 2024 – Almost 63% of aspiring business owners surveyed either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” with optimism about conditions ahead. In the August 2024 survey, 93.3% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months”, the highest reading since September 2021.
August 28, 2024 — Only about seven percent of aspiring franchise owners are already “very familiar” with the franchises they inquire about on franchise portals, and another 19% are “already somewhat familiar” with them, according to recent surveys of interested franchise seekers on the FranchiseVentures lead generation platform in July 2024.
August 21, 2024 – Like most individuals, franchise prospects want to know who is calling before accepting a call. Thirty-six percent of respondents indicated that they prefer to be emailed on initial contact by a franchise they have expressed interest in, according to fresh data in the recent July 2024 Franchise Insights Mystery Shopping survey.
August 14, 2024 – What motivates franchise seekers? Since we last reported on the motivations of aspiring franchise owners at the end of 2023, wars in Europe and the Middle East have continued, and concerns about political change have risen among individuals wanting to own their own businesses. But the primary drivers for business ownership have changed little.
August 7, 2024 – About 58% of aspiring business owners either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” with optimism about conditions ahead. In the July 2024 survey, 79.5% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months” and those seeing the conditions “better or much better” rose to a five-month high at 31.5%
July 31, 2024 — As in prior surveys, “low cost of entry” and “higher earnings potential” were ranked most important by individuals seeking business ownership. But control over working conditions – including “flexibility of work schedule” and “ability to work from home” were the two next most important characteristics.
July 24, 2024 — With persistently higher interest rates and tighter credit, aspiring franchise owners look to diverse sources for financing their startups, especially from their own sources of capital, including personal savings, retirement funds, and home equity.
July 17, 2024 – After two successive months of higher prospect initial contact attempts, rates dipped as reported by the latest FranchiseInsights.com “mystery shopping” survey in June 2024. More than half of respondents say they were contacted by all of the franchises they inquired about in April and May, at 50% and 57.1% in April and May, respectively.
July 10, 2024 – Over 59% of aspiring business owners either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” with optimism about conditions ahead. In the June 2024 survey, over 82.7% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
July 2, 2024 — In our June 2024 survey, almost two-thirds (66.3%) of respondents claimed “willingness to follow a proven system”, an essential characteristic for succeeding at franchise ownership. Grit, or “persistence towards a goal despite obstacles” was cited by over half of respondents (50.6%) of respondents, followed closely by “team leadership experience” at 47%.
June 26, 2024 – In a year-over-year analysis, interest in franchises shifted to the south and east according to new data from FranchiseInsights.com. By comparing quarterly shares by state for the first quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, there was a continuation of the shift in the mix of where aspiring franchisees were expecting to locate franchises.
June 19, 2024 – Franchise buyer behavior has changed in many ways in the four years since the global pandemic began. One aspect, however, has stayed the same: most prospects still only focus on a single concept when requesting information about franchises, despite the thousands of offerings across dozens of categories in the franchise directories of the FranchiseVentures lead generation platform.
June 12, 2024 — Most prospects who request information on franchise portal sites end up visiting the franchisor’s website afterward. Why does this happen? To answer this question, we surveyed prospects who submitted an inquiry on a franchise portal and then visited the franchisor’s website.
June 5, 2024 – Almost 58% of aspiring business owners either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” with optimism about conditions ahead, though trending down slightly since January. In the May survey, over 88% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
May 29, 2024 — Cost per lead is often a key decision factor when evaluating franchise directory websites (portals), assuming quality standards are met. But leads submitted at franchise directory websites also result in substantial referral visits to franchisor websites, in addition to being a significant source of leads submitted at development websites…
May 22, 2024 – “AI Overviews” have arrived for Google search results, after months of testing. Announced at Google’s I/O conference May 14, the experience will become available for most searchers over the next few months. The impact on Google’s $200 billion advertising is unknown, but presumably they would have thoroughly tested the impact on paid search revenues.
May 15, 2024 – Persons inquiring about franchises were mostly satisfied with their experiences, according to recent mystery shopping surveys over the six months ending in April 2024. Over half (50.9%) said they were either “satisfied “or “very satisfied”, and only 17.4% said they were “unsatisfied or very unsatisfied.”
May 8, 2024 – From over four years of surveying aspiring franchise owners, data show that between 15-26% already own at least one business. The percentage varied over the pandemic years and exhibits some seasonality, but consistently represents a significant slice of aspiring franchisees.
May 1, 2024 – With 88% of franchise seekers planning their business startups within twelve months, it is no surprise that 63% either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business.” In the April survey, over 77% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
April 24, 2024 – In four months of survey data from January to April 2024, only 14.4% of respondents are “very likely,” and another 15.4% say they are “likely” to take a cold call from you. The traditional “call first” approach will likely lead to your frustration with about one third of franchise leads, and reduce the chances of more productive conversations with informed prospects.
April 17, 2024 — About ten percent of aspiring franchise owners are already “very familiar” with the franchises they inquire about on franchise portals, and another 19% are “already somewhat familiar” with them, according to recent surveys of interested franchise seekers on the FranchiseVentures lead generation platform in the three months ending March 2024.
April 10, 2024 – Franchise developers have been swimming upstream against a tide of employers clinging to full-time workers since the post-pandemic return to work. Over the last year, fewer aspiring franchise owners were leaving full-time jobs. In our March 2024 Small Business Startup Sentiment survey, franchise seekers who say they are leaving full-time jobs reached a four year low at 36.9%, as U.S. employers shed full-time workers.
April 2, 2024 – Over 61% of aspiring business owners either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” with optimism about conditions ahead. In the March survey, a record 89.3% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”
March 27, 2024 – Most franchise prospects (42.4%) prefer to be emailed on initial contact by a franchise they have expressed interested in according to fresh data in the March 2024 Franchise Insights Mystery Shopping survey. Another 30.6% indicated a desire for a phone call for the initial contact. This order preference is consistent with prior monthly “mystery shopping” surveys, including when we last shared franchise prospect contact preferences data.
The optimal order for following up with franchise prospects is about playing the odds. Segments of the pool of franchise leads prefer one of the nine permutations of three contact methods (email, voice and text), but to have the highest expectations of fruitful contact, especially given the 24/7 nature of lead flow, it pays to listen to what prospects want overall.
March 20, 2024 — While “low cost of entry” and “higher earnings potential” were ranked most important by individuals seeking business ownership, more individual and nuanced drivers appear below the surface.
March 13, 2023 – In a February 2024 survey, aspiring business owners preferred the option to “buy a franchise” over buying an existing business by more than a two-to-one margin. While 65.3% indicated interest in the franchise purchase option, only 31.6% indicated an interest in buying an existing business for sale.
March 6, 2024 – Over 63% of aspiring business owners either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” on an upward trend beginning a year ago. In the February 2024 survey, 87.4% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.” A record 62.1% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months, and 75.8% within the next six months.
February 28, 2024 – When asked about advertising plans for 2024,about a third of franchise development teams expected to increase their spending somewhat or significantly at Google, Meta or LinkedIn. This is following 2023 wherein, despite tumultuous business conditions and shocking news headlines, more than 58% of franchisors surveyed either stuck to their growth plans (50.0%) or increased them.
February 21, 2024 – Despite sagging consumer confidence, tighter credit and labor, and a volatile year in the financial markets, most franchise systems either stuck to their growth plans and ad budgets for 2023 according to a December survey by FranchiseInsights.com. But the adjustments to expansion plans varied significantly by the size or maturity of the franchise system.
February 14, 2024 – Signs from a number of metrics (time spent, monthly active users) and media reports are that we may have reached “peak” social media as measured by postings, monthly active users and time spent. The Wall Street Journal posits in a recent article that users are doing a lot more lurking than posting these days and foresees more of the same in this election year, along with mounting concerns about privacy.
February 7, 2024 – Prepare for launch! January startup sentiment data show 84.5% of aspiring franchisees plan their launches in the next twelve months, the highest percentage seen since December of 2023. The first of our Predictions for Franchise Development and Lead Generation for 2024 is looking very much on target.
January 31, 2024 – The most reliable options for franchisors to directly acquire prospects in recent years – email and text marketing, paid search and social media – are all undergoing significant change, as are the dominant mobile and desktop platforms offered by Google and Apple (and a few others hardly worth mentioning).
January 24, 2024 – In our last article, we highlighted some of the headwinds facing advertisers who generate franchise leads from Google. Traffic exclusivity from Apple, antitrust and regulatory court proceedings threaten Google in 2024, along with greater competition by other players like Microsoft who aim to use artificial intelligence to get a bigger piece of the search marketing pie.
January 17, 2024 – One of the most reliable pathways to filling the franchise sales funnel is under siege in 2024. Not only has it fallen to second place behind Microsoft in consumer “mindshare” regarding AI, it faces potentially disruptive regulatory threats, while committing unforced errors of its own in the name of privacy.
January 10, 2024 – Signs are that we may have reached “peak” social media as measured by posting activating and consumer surveys. The Wall Street Journal posits in a recent article that users are doing a lot more lurking than posting these days and foresees more of the same in an election year along, with mounting concerns about privacy.
January 3, 2024 – In the latest startup sentiment data, 84.5% of aspiring franchisees plan their startups in the next twelve months, the highest percentage seen since December of 2023.
December 28, 2023 – From a review of web traffic to content viewed over the past year, we developed a “Top Ten” list of the most popular topics among our insights in 2023 based on the readership of articles by category.
December 20, 2023 – Since we last reported on the motivations of aspiring franchise owners in July, war has broken out in the Middle East, mortgage rates topped 8% and stock markets plummeted, among other shocks. But by the time of our November Small Business Sentiment survey, optimism about startups rose to the highest in fifteen months.
December 13, 2023 — As interest rates rose and lending standards tightened, small businesses and future franchise owners have been looking to unconventional sources to finance their growth plans. From available credit card balances to retirement accounts and crowdfunding, entrepreneurs are finding ways to move forward.
December 6, 2023 – More than two-thirds of survey respondents (67.2%) either agree or strongly agree that “now is a good time to start a business,” the highest for that measure of startup sentiment since the 69.2% reading in August 2022. Now 83.6% of respondents see conditions for business startups “the same or better in three months.”
November 29, 2023 – Prospect initial contact rates are up, as reported by the latest FranchiseInsights.com survey in October 2023. Almost 52% percent of respondents say they were contacted by all of the franchises they inquired about, up from 46.2% in June when we last reported this data. Aside from the efforts of franchise sales teams, what could be driving this improvement?
November 22, 2023 — Most franchise inquirers believe they demonstrate three important characteristics for succeeding at business ownership. Grit, or “persistence towards a goal despite obstacles” was cited by 53.0% of respondents in the October 2023 Startup Sentiment survey by Franchise Insights.