Entrepreneurs Believe Now is a Much Better Time for Their Franchise Startups
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
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.”
In February 77.8% of respondents said they are “more or much more likely” to proceed with their startups than three months ago.”
Of this month’s respondents, 57.4% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months. Further, 77.8% of entrepreneurs surveyed say they are “more or much more likely to launch their startups than three months ago.”
FranchiseInsights.com compiles a monthly Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ (SSI) of individuals who have recently inquired about franchises or businesses for sale.
81.5% believed business conditions will be the same or better three months out.
Additional highlights:
- Future business conditions: Despite the uncertainty of lots of economic and policy changes ahead, 81.5% of respondents see conditions no worse – staying the same or getting better in three months. This month less than two in ten respondents (18.5) see conditions getting worse or much worse in three months.
- 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 29.6% of respondents. After eight months at third place among concerns, “political changes” remained at fourth place in February, followed by “tax law changes” in fifth place.
- Current Employment: Of the franchise-seeking survey respondents, 53.7% are currently employed full-time, higher than January’s 53.3% and inching closer to the record 61.7% in June 2024. Another 9.3% of respondents were current business owners seeking an additional or replacement business. Freelancers and consultants were 20.4%, followed by part-timers at 16.7%.
- Age Cohorts: Gen-X remains the largest share, at 50% of respondents, down from the record 63.9% seen in June 2024. Gen-Y or the Millennial age cohort followed at 30.8% of respondents. Boomers had a strong showing at 17.3%, and Gen-Z were 1.9% of respondents, below the 3.9% average in 2024.
57.4% of aspiring franchisees anticipate their startups within the next three months.
The Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ 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.
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, March 4th, 2025.