April 2025 – Volume 7
Methodology
The results from our latest Franchise Growth Confidence Index — BoeFly’s quarterly survey measuring how certain economic conditions and external factors affect franchisors’ growth — were recently published by Franchise Times. Between February 12 and February 24, 2025, we surveyed nearly 700 franchisor executives to determine if there were any significant changes in franchisor sentiment regarding domestic franchise growth. Participants rated their confidence on a scale of 1 (not confident) to 7 (completely confident) about whether they expect their brand to achieve growth targets this year. Additionally, respondents answered four supplementary questions designed to assess the impact of several conditions on their confidence level.
Results
This quarter, nearly three-quarters (72.7%) of the respondents expressed at least some confidence in meeting their franchise growth goals for this year, showing a substantial increase in optimism compared to the previous quarter.
- 15.2% of franchisors reported being not very confident or not confident at all, a notable shift from last quarter’s significantly lower confidence levels.
- 75.8% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that interest rates have negatively impacted their growth
plans, showing a slight decline from the previous quarter’s 83.3% but still reflecting a significant challenge. - Inflation continues to be a key concern, with 75.8% of franchisors stating it had negatively impacted their growth, though this marks a modest decrease from last quarter’s 83.3%.
- Additionally, 93.9% of franchisors indicated that inflation has forced them to increase cost estimates in Item 7 of their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), a strong signal that rising costs are directly affecting franchise investment requirements.
- Hiring remains a challenge, as only 57.6% of franchisors agreed that their ability to find and hire strong employees has improved over the past year, while 42.4% disagreed or strongly disagreed, indicating that labor market constraints continue to be a pain point for many brands.
