Aspiring Franchisees Are Sanguine about Business Conditions Ahead

By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights

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.”

The percentage of entrepreneurs planning their startups within the coming year stood at 85.4%, the highest in three months. Of this month’s respondents, 48.8% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months, down from the recent high of 64.3% in the April 2025 survey. Further, 7.6% plan their launches within the next six months.

In the September Startup Sentiment survey, 80.5% of respondents see business conditions “about the same” or “better or much better” in the next three months.

In the September 2025 Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ survey, 65.9% of respondents said they are “more or much more likely to launch their startups than three months ago,” the highest since June.

Surveys in the last week of September 2025 showed 43.9% of persons exploring ownership agree or strongly agreed that “now is a good time for startup”, though down significantly from the 84.5% record set in March 2025. Measures of consumer confidence declined in September, with the Conference Board survey trending down over the last several months.

Upbeat business startup sentiment continues to be seen in the surge in business applications that continued in September.

Concerns about “funding or access to credit” approached record lows set in September 2024.

Additional Survey highlights:

Future business conditions: Despite the uncertainty of tariff effects and policy changes ahead, 80.5% of respondents see conditions no worse – staying the same or getting better – in three months. Accordingly, only 19.5% of respondents see conditions getting “worse or much worse” in three months.
Access to funding: 56.1% of entrepreneurs were concerned about finding adequate funding (the top concern), approaching the record low 53.1% seen in September 2024. On the other hand, those who see funding “harder or much harder” to obtain in the next three months rose to 41.5% of respondents. “Political changes” and “regulatory changes” tied for the third most cited concern.
Current Employment: Of these survey respondents, 39.0% are currently employed full-time, below the record 61.7% for this survey in June 2024. Another 17.1% of respondents were current business owners seeking an additional or replacement business. Freelancers and consultants soared to tie full-time workers at 39%, part-timers were 4.9%, and less than 1% were active military.
Age Cohorts: Gen-X remains the largest share, at 43.2% of respondents, compared to the record 63.9% seen in June 2024. Boomers had a strong showing again this month at 32.4%, ahead of the 21.6% Gen-Y (Millennials) who are the largest cohort in the adult population, but not at the peak age for business ownership. Gen-Z and the “Silent Generation” were each under 2% of respondents.

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 September 22-30, 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 Wednesday, October 8th, 2025.