Multi-Unit Owner of i9 Sports and Mosquito Squad Franchises Explains Why He Admires the Brands’ Low Investment Costs

After many years of feeling unfulfilled by his corporate sales job, Steve Cox made a career pivot 15 years ago and decided to become a business owner. He started looking into available opportunities and discovered i9 Sports, the country’s largest youth sports league franchise with 144 units and more than two million players in hundreds of regions. 

It was a relatively new brand at the time and he was a novice entrepreneur, but he decided to take a “leap of faith,” partly because of their attractively low investment costs. The franchise fee for i9 Sports was about $35,000 (and has not changed much), with a total expected investment of about $70,000. 

“I didn't have a tremendous amount of capital when we started 15 years ago, so it was definitely a leap of faith,” Cox explained. “I definitely wouldn't look at money as a limitation. You can always get funding, and there are these companies out there where you can start for under six figures.”

Cox has been busy building his franchisee portfolio since signing with i9 Sports. He now owns two units of the sports league business in major Ohio cities, Columbus and Cincinnati. Two years ago, he invested in another low-cost franchise: Mosquito Squad, the 225-unit pest control service company. Cox bought out two units from a prior franchisee and acquired a third shortly after, all in the Columbus metro.

The investment process for Mosquito Squad was very similar, and the company’s low starting costs were a great selling point for Cox. With a franchise fee of $40,000, he estimates he put about $70,000 all in. 

“Mosquito Squad is also not capital intensive to begin with, and it is a business where you can be cash positive fairly quickly,” Cox said.

Regarding profits and investment return, he has seen a great deal of payoff, especially with i9 Sports, as he’s been in business with them for 15 years. The league has been cashflow positive from its very first season. 

“After that initial investment of $70,000, we did not have to add any money back in the business; it has been self-sustaining since that time,” Cox said. “Last year we did a little over $1.6 million. Because you don't have a ton of initial outlay, you can make 25–30% or even higher on net margins, which is very high for franchise units.”

Besides their low investment costs and minimal overhead, Cox enjoys being in business with both companies for a few different reasons. 

“Each franchisor has its strengths,” he said. “i9 sports is awesome on the marketing side, sales side and with technology. Where Mosquito Squad shines is on the operation side of the business — on teaching you how to run things and what path to take to not make mistakes.”