Starting Out- Franchise,Licensee or go it alone

[lightsaber]

We are a landscape lighting only company starting holiday lighting this year. Looking for advice or experience. We are contemplating joining a franchise or becoming a licenssee of another outfit. Other option is using training and supplies from a manufacturer and going it alone. The training packet we received from the manufactuer was pretty nice but I wonder if becoming a licensee of an existing installation company who offers training, marketing materials and links off their website would be better and worth it. Anywhere from 1500-4000k.
Thanks for any input.