BoeFly Franchise Index Shows Franchisor Confidence Holds Steady

Overall franchisor confidence in the ability to hit franchise growth goals is notably stable, said BoeFly CEO Mike Rozman, and it’s a healthy sign as that confidence typically tends to wane in the back half of the year.

Just over 56 percent of respondents surveyed for BoeFly’s Franchise Growth Confidence Index said they were confident their brand will meet its franchise growth goals this year. That’s steady from the second quarter of 2026 and in line with the index from Q3 of 2025, but a marked jump from the same period in 2024, when only 33.3 percent of franchisors felt they’d reach their development goals for the year.

BoeFly conducted its survey of nearly 700 franchisor chief executive, chief financial and chief development officers September 3-14, with respondents coming from several industries including automotive, education, fitness, health and beauty, home services, restaurants and retail.

New York-based BoeFly helps franchisors qualify their franchisee applicants, and the firm also connects those candidates with lending options.

Concern over interest rates and inflation, meanwhile, is easing as the percentage of franchisors who cited each as having a negative impact on their brand’s growth plans remained below 50 percent for the first time since early 2023. That could be, however, due in part to the timing of the survey, which concluded just two days before the Federal Reserve approved its first interest rate hike since July 2023, increasing its key rate by a quarter percentage point, or 25 basis points.

“It’s very possible if that headline came out during the survey, we would have seen an impact there. We’ll see in the next quarter how that affects it,” said Rozman. “I have talked to some operators who indicate … when prime is moving up another 25 basis points, that might start to put a chill on things.”

For the third quarter, just 34.2 percent of survey respondents said current interest rate levels negatively impacted their brand’s growth plans, while only 31.9 percent said inflation was having a negative impact.

“It’ll be very telling, post Fed move, what those numbers are for the next period,” said Rozman. “In a lot of cases, it’s the perception of what is occurring.

“Then also on the real estate side, the interest rates will have an impact on the buildout costs and the perception around those buildout costs. So conceivably, if interest rates were to continue to rise, then you know it’s certainly going to have an impact on how the franchise community is thinking about it.”

Delays in obtaining financing, meanwhile, don’t appear to be having a negative impact on franchise development goals, as just 26 percent of franchisors agreed with that statement. That’s encouraging, said Rozman, but added some lenders have tightened their credit box. Emerging and startup brands are more likely to experience this friction, he noted.

Turning to artificial intelligence and automation in the franchise sales process, the survey results indicate there’s “not a lot of excitement around impacting the development cycle through AI tools.” Just 25.7 percent of respondents said those tech tools are having a significant impact.