There are several things you can do: you can play Challenge Mode which is basically the same as franchise but offline. But it requires conservation points as well.
You could also play Sandbox, there you have an unlimited amount of money and cc and you don't need to research, etc. You basically can do everything you want from begin.
In franchise there are sometime animals to buy for money, I think they are from Frontier Zoo. You just have to refresh the market very often and see if you're lucky. Use the filter to list only animals to buy for money. After a while you get cc for trading animals of your own breeding, greeting other players who come to visit your zoo and everyday there is a bonus of 100 cc.
But for what you described you should try Challenge Mode or Sandbox.