Your right of course, the public aren't daft and we know how the soft franchises work, but in the end we all brand shop don't we ? A guy in his shed at home could have designed and built the most advanced, cost effective diagnostic tool in the world and stuck his name on it ( 'Tarquin diagnostics' for example ) but you wouldn't buy it co's its unknown. You would need some confidence in the product first, like a few million other customers who have already bought one. ( ...I know what your thinking !! LOL ).
I wouldn't go with a brand name to sell my ability, I've been doing that on my own for years. It's an image thing, and unfortunately image matters.