These are two business opportunity types that can be one and the same, but for the purpose of how to start a youth sports business, let’s address each of them differently.
There are monumental differences between start-up businesses and franchised businesses. With a franchised brand, there is no recreating the wheel. You invest in an established, recognizable brand, with full systems in place for operations, marketing, training, design, branding, technology, and most importantly, cost-effectiveness. A good brand will also provide experienced, willing guidance and support from their team.
With a start-up, you will create your own systems and design for your business. That means figuring out the cost of overhead and ROI on your own, finding vendors to create signage and design your space, understanding digital and local marketing, learning best practices for human resources, deciding your initial inventory, and so much more. If you are someone who always dreamed of your name up in lights on the sign in front of your business, a start-up may be for you, but there are definite advantages to starting a business via a franchised brand.