A start-up is your completely owned business which you establish from scratch. On the other hand, when you take a brand’s franchise business, you get the license to use the brand’s name, technology, products and processes for an upfront fee and then a periodic royalty. Detailed differences are highlighted in below table:   Start-upFranchise Business You have to do full research, investment and execution on own for business location, product selection, raw materials vendor selection, customer segmentation and targeting, marketing and technology.Complete end to end support by the franchisor brand on everything. You don’t have to do research or investment in product, and technology. You have to do investment and R&D to keep your product & technology updated, which might reduce your ROI significantly if business scale is small.All the work to keep product & technology updated is done by the brand. You have to create your own brand value by making huge investments in branding & marketing.You can reap the fruits of national presence & recognition of brand without making huge investments. You can make your own business processes.You have to follow brand guidelines & processes.