The below snippet came our way and we wanted to share about a key ingredient to franchise ownership - consumer confidence. At the end of the day, as a candidate to invest in a franchise business model you are a consumer of that brand's identity, systems, marketing, and territorial acquisition. You want to have confidence. A part of that is knowing that you're not crazy as you plan and conduct due diligence. It seems that many entrepreneurs are maintaining a positive outset to franchise business startups heading into the halfway point of 2025. Read on below and link through...

By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights

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. In the same survey, 73.2% of respondents see conditions for business and franchise startups “the same or better in three months.”

In late April 2025, 71.4% of respondents agreed that "now is a good time" to proceed with their franchise or business startups, correlating with a leap in business applications.

This business startup sentiment observation correlates with the surge in business applications we noted last month. These two indicators, however, contrast with a dip of 8% in consumer sentiment in April reported by University of Michigan and the fifth consecutive month of decline in consumer sentiment reported by the Conference Board. So while consumers are less optimistic about the next few months, individuals taking steps toward business ownership are mostly undeterred.

One hypothesis from these diverging data points is that franchise development budgets should be maintained at a level to achieve desired results through business cycles, not modulated by consumer sentiment

Of this month’s respondents, 42.6% of entrepreneurs planned their startups within the next three months. Further, 57.1% of entrepreneurs surveyed say they are “more or much more likely to launch their startups than three months ago.”