Cost of Starting a Marketing Business

What does it really cost (and is a franchise smarter)?

The Dream vs. The Reality

Setting up a marketing business seems straightforward: build a brand, win a few clients and enjoy the freedom of running things your way.

But the reality? Whether you’re looking at how to set up a marketing agency or a freelance consultancy, the process is often far more expensive, time-consuming, and stressful than people expect.

We regularly meet freelance marketers who’ve spent thousands trying to make it work on their own – only to end up with something unscalable, inconsistent, or unsustainable.

What People Think They’ll Spend

Many start out believing a laptop, a Canva subscription, and a few LinkedIn posts will be enough to launch their business.

But when you look at what’s actually needed to set up a marketing business properly, the real costs (and wasted time) quickly mount up.

The Real Cost of Going It Alone

Branding (logo, brand toolkit): £500–£1,000+ – DIY often leads to costly rebrands later
Website (domain, hosting, build): £2,000–£4,000+ – Or endless hours DIY on Wix/WordPress
CRM / Email tools: £1,500–£2,500 per year + £1,500+ setup – HubSpot, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign etc.
Proposal templates & sales process: £500–£800+ – Usually cobbled together and inconsistent
Legal setup (contracts, T&Cs, insurance): £1,000–£1,500+ – Essential, but often overlooked
Portfolio & case studies: £0–£1,000+ – Takes time to build credibility
Content & lead generation tools: £1,500-£2,500+ – SEO tools, scheduling platforms, landing pages
Training & mentoring: £1,000–£5,000+ – Courses, masterminds, coaches

Total (first year): £7,000–£16,000+
And that’s before you invest in marketing, build an infrastructure to scale, or pay yourself.

And then there’s the Time Cost

Think about how much time goes into setting up a marketing agency from scratch:

45-80+ hours every month on admin, tech setup, proposals, content and lead generation
That’s an average of 750 hours a year spent on everything except billable client work.

For most new businesses, the first year is spent just getting to “ready”.

The activ Alternative

At activ, we’ve done all the groundwork so you don’t have to waste months figuring out how to set up a marketing agency on your own.

It’s a complete marketing business in a box, with long-term sustainability, not a shortcut.

And you might be surprised at how affordable the upfront franchise fee is!

From Our CEO

“People often assume franchising is the more expensive option because of the upfront fees. But when you compare that with the time, cost, and stress of doing it all yourself, it’s almost always cheaper to join a franchise. We’ve kept our entry fee as low as possible so talented marketers and career changers, can stop winging it and build something sustainable from the start.”

Katie Bullon, CEO of activ Marketing

What's your next move?

If you’re thinking about setting up a marketing business or researching how to set up a marketing agency, pause and think beyond just cost:

Think about time
Think about structure
Think about scalability

You could easily spend £10-15k+ in the first year, building a business that still doesn’t work.

Or you could use that same budget to step into the UK’s £19.1bn franchise industry and join an award-winning model that already works.

Franchising is a proven route to scale. According to The BFA, Franchises in the UK have a commercial failure rate of less than 1%, compared with around 50% for independent start-ups.