How To Start A Lawn Care Franchise
Don’t try to do it on your own -
Starting a business is complicated. Owning a lawn care franchise provides the chance to start a thriving business, taking complete ownership and responsibility, with a significantly reduced risk factor — overhead is minimized, a company brand is already established and employees are easier to find. Starting a lawn service business is no exception to the rule. Any time you can leverage the name and experience of an established business, you increase your chances for success.
A “ground floor” opportunity -
In the past, most homeowners could have a world-class lawn only on a do-it-yourself basis, purchasing the products through retail stores and making the applications themselves. As a result, many homeowners, although they would prefer a world-class lawn, have had to settle for something less. Either they didn’t care for all of the labor that is associated with maintaining their lawn or they believed that premium lawn care services were too expensive.
A closer look at the market -
Today, there are 10.5 million single-family households in America, spending more than billion annually on lawn services. Although the do-it-yourselfer market is made up of more households than the lawn service market, lawn service revenue is three times greater than the total do-it-yourselfer revenue each year.
Who are these lawn service customers? Many are people who simply have no interest or desire to do their own lawn work. To them, caring for the lawn is a chore.
Many lawn service households today are families with very active lives and busy schedules-often both parents are working, so their time for lawn work is limited. Another segment of lawn service customers comes from single parent families and senior citizens who do not feel capable of, or comfortable, doing the work themselves.
Collectively they make up a diverse market, yet there’s a common thread shared by them all. They have the desire for-and the disposable income to pay for a professional lawn service.
The premium lawn service market -
Today, the lawn service industry cares for the lawns of 10.5 million single family households in the United States. Although this represents 15% of American households, it accounts for 75% of the total lawn care dollars spent. In other words, the lawn service industry is three times larger than the do-it-yourselfer market. And as new home construction continues to expand, lawn service revenues are growing at a healthy rate.
Serving a definite purpose -
The multi-billion dollar lawn service industry is highly fragmented, however, without a clearly identified, premium service company. Many larger lawn service providers are price oriented and build their business around high volume and high production. They are unable to give their customers the individual attention they would like, and they are unable to concern themselves with quality. The smaller independent services are without strong brand identification and struggle to compete as they are forced to use inferior products to remain competitive.
As a result, there is a vast market of homeowners who are unable to find a service that meets their needs. Those needs include the use of top quality, branded lawn products, applied by true professionals, in programs that can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual lawn, with applications made on time, and with the technical support to solve virtually any lawn problems that may arise.
Many reasons, one conclusion-they want a lush, green lawn -
Lawn care service customers come from a broad demographic range. There are some who would rather spend their spare time fishing or playing golf than caring for their lawn. There are families with two working parents who don’t have the time to do lawn work. There are retirees and women who head single parent homes who are not comfortable doing it themselves. And there are folks who just don’t know what to do or when to do it, so they need help.
Yet despite their many differences, these are all homeowners who recognize that a thick, green lawn enhances the beauty of their home and improves the quality of their family’s hours together-not to mention the value that it adds to their home. So, simply put, they want the best.
Starting out -
During in-depth training sessions, most lawn service companies will take you through every step of running your new lawn care business. From the day you make the decision to open a lawn service franchise, you can typically count on the full support of the parent company. Investigate to make sure the training process includes all of the materials and “know how” you need, supplied from professionals who know the lawn business inside and out. A good company to franchise with realizes that its success depends on your
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