Financing Concerns Lowest In A Year Among Aspiring Franchisees

By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights

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.

The next most frequently-cited concern in the August survey was ‘economic climate’, indicated by only 37.1% of respondents.

In the August Startup Sentiment survey, 62.9% of respondents cited ‘funding or access to credit’ as their biggest concern, the lowest since the record low September 2024.

The percentage of entrepreneurs planning their startups within the coming year stood at 83.9%. Of this month’s respondents, 46.8% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months, down from the recent high of 64.3% in the April 2025 survey. Further, 69.4% plan their launches within the next six months.

In the August 2025 Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ survey, 61.3% of respondents said they are “more or much more likely to launch their startups than three months ago,” near the 63.1% for the same measure in the prior month.

Surveys in the last week of August 2025 showed 62.9% of persons exploring ownership agree or strongly agreed that “now is a good time for startup”, down from the 84.5% record set in March 2025. In this month’s survey, 83.9% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”

Upbeat business startup sentiment correlates with the surge in business applications we have noted in recent months. Measures of consumer confidence also improved in August, with the Conference Board survey showing a modest increase.

Boomers were 25% of respondents, ahead of Millennials at 23.2%, though Gen-X was the most prevalent age cohort at 44.6%.

Survey highlights:

Future business conditions: Despite the uncertainty of tariff effects and policy changes ahead, 83.9% of respondents see conditions no worse – staying the same or getting better – in three months. Similarly, only 16.1% of respondents see conditions getting “worse or much worse” in three months.
Access to funding: 62.9% of entrepreneurs were concerned about finding adequate funding (the top concern), and those who see funding “harder or much harder” to obtain in the next three months rose to 27.4% of respondents. “Stock market” rose to the third most cited concern.
Current Employment: Of these survey respondents, 48.4% are currently employed full-time, below the record 61.7% for this survey in June 2024. Another 14.5% of respondents were current business owners seeking an additional or replacement business. Freelancers and consultants were 19.4%, part-timers were 17.7%, and less than 1% were active military.
Age Cohorts: Gen-X remains the largest share, at 44.6% of respondents, compared to the record 63.9% seen in June 2024. Boomers had a strong showing again this month at 25%, ahead of the 23.2% Gen-Y (Millennials) who are the largest cohort in the adult population, but not at the peak age for business ownership. Gen-Z had a strong showing at 5.4%, and the “Silent Generation” was under 2% of respondents.

The FranchiseInsights.com Small Business Startup Sentiment Index™ (SSI) is based on a monthly survdey of individuals who have recently inquired about businesses or franchises for sale on the Franchise Ventures lead generation platform. This survey was conducted August 22-31, 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, September 2nd, 2025.