Lawn Care Franchises

[LawnMower38]

:confused: Is anyone here an owner of a lawn care franchise?
I have been looking at the lawn care industry and wanted to get some feedback.
I have visited http://www.franchisemarketplace.com they have 4 different lawn care franchise brands. Wanted to know if anyone has information on Lawn Doctor Franchise or Natural Lawn of America?
Do they offer good franchise support in the US? Please provide me with feedback on these concepts.
Thanks!:usflag:

[Sandgropher]

I see Jims mowing every day ( the worlds biggest mowing franchese) the people that leave that i have spoken to say the biggest problem is the ongoing fees and the fact you do not own the business, or have any say in how it is run and its not your name on the trailer, no control over advertising etc.... the plus is you come under a brand awareness company and you are trading under that awareness etc trainings nothing you can get training from any business you buy.......

Whats the best way to get into this industry ? in my view buy a small to medium size company and build it up over time, by buying a medium size company you should be able to cope and learn at youir own pace......

Whats the worst way to start ? depends on your area but i would say starting from scratch it can take for ever to build it up and you are most likely to fail before you get there.......any way $60-$ 100 thousands a lot of money you could have your own business for a lot less ...any way good luck in whatever way you decide to go.......Oh and by the way a lot of people commit to a franchese and then find out they do not like the industry:cry:

[Az Gardener]

Do a search on franchises and I'm sure you will find lots of info. just earlier this week there was a thread "Jims leaves usa" that evolved into a franchise discussion. or you can click on mine or sangophers name in the corner then go to previous posts to get to it.

[Brendan Smith]

do a search on "us lawns" also

[lawnmaniac883]

Search Brickman as well.

[Freddy_Kruger]

the biggest problem is the ongoing fees and the fact you do not own the business, or have any say in how it is run and its not your name on the trailer, no control over advertising etc....
Cikey! thats it in a nutshell. Franchises suck. (thats how I put it)

[out4now]

Make ya a smokin deal, give me only 15 thousand of your hard earned bucks and I will tell you the same things they will. This is a bargin considering they will charge you about 30 thousand and up, examples include, buy a new truck, waste more and more money to learn stuff that any junior college could teach you or you could obtain at your leisure for FREE on Lawnsite.com ;) oppps...think I gave away too much already, I take cash only. Seriously the real winners are the guys strating the franchises. You go belly up they don't care. The pressure is really on you, I admit I had even considered sellling franchises at one point because its more profitable to be the backbone of the network and not have to deal with repalcing employees, dealing direct with PITAs and so forth. Junked it htough due to the prevailing attitude towards franchises you have already read.

[LawnMower38]

Thanks for your feedback. I will take your advice into consideration as I make this business decision. I will keep on checking for additional replies.
Thanks!

[topsites]

Seriously the real winners are the guys strating the franchises. You go belly up they don't care. The pressure is really on you, I admit I had even considered sellling franchises at one point because its more profitable to be the backbone of the network and not have to deal with repalcing employees, dealing direct with PITAs and so forth. Junked it htough due to the prevailing attitude towards franchises you have already read.

You said it best right there: You go belly up, they don't care!
I've even watched it happen to people, kinda sad and funny at the same time.

[General Landscaping]

Why buy somebody else's name; when this biz is one of the easiest to start on your own?

This site will get you farther than any franchise help..... for free.

[stuie]

Email me at ;

bek and77 stu 77@bigpond.77com.au

(remove all the gaps and all the numbers for email to work!)

Tried to email you but you dont have sufficent posts up for me to do it

[Freddy_Kruger]

Why buy somebody else's name; when this biz is one of the easiest to start on your own?

This site will get you farther than any franchise help..... for free.Starting a business for the first time is intimidating and you have no Idea how to even begin that's why you have so many ppl on this site asking how to get customers they don't even know about the Idea of flyers. My first attempt at business like 20 years ago was to get in the yellow pages and wait for the business to flow in... NOPE< lol.

When You buy a franchise they give you the customers (or get you the customers) its like getting a job, a guaranteed income. You don't have to worry about your bills because generally, in a service franchise, you're making more money than you did working in the industry as an employee. That was my experience.

I am entrepreneur minded though and franchisees are employees and your fortunes are given and taken away by whims of the president. He sells another franchise ooops give the new guy all the easy work to get him going.

[General Landscaping]

When You buy a franchise they give you the customers (or get you the customers) its like getting a job, a guaranteed income. You don't have to worry about your bills because generally, in a service franchise, you're making more money than you did working in the industry as an employee. That was my experience.

.
IMO
The better path would be to build a part time and bank your franchise costs to buy out someone elses' routes when you feel ready. IMO

(I'm not a fan of "the man"...... unless it's me)

[bullethead]

If you don't have a business background, a franchise can be a viable option. It can get you up the learning curve and on your way to making real money much quicker. Put a dollar value on your time, then think of how much time it is going to take you figure out all of the various items related to starting and running a successful business. I spent many hours simply looking for ways to drive down my door hanger printing costs. I spent many more evaluating scheduling software. Spent more evaluating insurance proposals and costs. The lists goes on and on. If the franchise offers a comprehensive package that is well thought out AND priced fairly. It can be a good tradeoff. One way or another you are going to pay - it's just that most people will not assign a value to their time and look at what it's really costing them to figure all of this out when they could have been out generating revenue.

The rub I have with so many franchises is the initial fees typically are too high relative to what is provided and the ongoing fees/profit sharing are too high of a percentage of earnings.