The Top Three Sources of Franchise Funding According to Today’s Prospects
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
June 24, 2026 – Since our last review of expected business startup funding sources, many of the smaller categories changed by a few percentage points. But while maintaining their rank order, two of the top three sources – personal savings and SBA loans – dropped in the range of ten percentage points each.
Franchise prospects consistently rank “personal savings” as the top source for funding for their business launches, as cited by 35.9% of respondents in April and May 2026 surveys, though 10.2% below the ranking in our last review in summer 2026. Similarly, those prospects planning to take advantage of Small Business Administration loans at 34.1% were 9.8% below the prior 2025 surveys.
Respondents including “banks or other providers” in their top three sources were 27.9%, very close to the 28.7% in the June-July 2025 survey.
Retirement savings ranked fourth at 16.3%, growing the most at 2.9% from our last review, with “cash value insurance policies” ranked next to last at 4.7%, but up 2.7%.
Franchise prospects continue to rank “personal savings” the top source for funding for their business launches.
Funding remains a top concern of aspiring franchisees, though only 58.7% cited it as a key startup concern in the recent May 2026 Small Business Startup Sentiment survey. This was the lowest reading since September 2024 (53.1%). Only 21.7% of survey respondents think that financing will be “harder or much harder” to obtain three months from now.
The “other” option was chosen by 10.9% of respondents. The top “other” sources cited were as varied as “gifts”, “children”, and “cash out refinance” among many more.
These results are according to surveys of aspiring business owners conducted by FranchiseInsights.com in April and May 2026. The total percentages above add up to more than 100% since respondents were instructed to choose their top three sources.
FranchiseInsights.com conducts a monthly “mystery shopping survey” as well as the Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ (SSI) of individuals who have recently inquired about businesses for sale
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, June 23rd, 2026.