6 Franchising Misconceptions Debunked

Franchising is big business in America. The International Franchise Association (IFA) estimates 745,000 franchise establishments in 2017 generating a payroll of $270 billion and an economic output of $711 billion. Franchises provide jobs to 7.9 million people.

One reason for franchising’s popularity is its favorable perception by the public. When polled by the IFA, 76 percent of all voters responded they had a “positive view of neighborhood family-owned franchise businesses,” which they felt were “more likely” to support their local communities. The IFA says the franchise industry has been growing 1.7 to 1.8 percent each of the last several years.

Turf recently contacted Brandon Moxam, vice president of U.S. Lawns, to discuss six of the top misconceptions associated with buying and operating a franchise. U.S. Lawns, founded in 1986 and now numbering more than 250 locations, is the nation’s largest grounds management franchise serving commercial clients.

Myth No. 1: You relinquish ownership of your company.

“There’s the thought that if I join a franchise, I no longer own my business. We often hear that from candidates. That’s false. The franchisee owns their business 100 percent through and through. When you are awarded the opportunity to become a franchise you are operating under an agreement that grants you the right to go to market as that franchise, in our case U.S. Lawns,” Moxam says.

“Additionally, that individual will be obligated to offer some specific services and they may also be required to avoid certain services based on the specific core business of the franchise. This is done to ensure consistency across the board from location to location on the services being offered.

“But that person still has complete ownership of their business and still has complete autonomy over all the decisions that need to be made within the company including hiring and managing employees, determining what prices they want to charge customers and so on.”

Myth No. 2: All you get is a name and a brand, and that’s about it.

“While being part of a well-recognized brand certainly has its benefits, lending credibility in a local market, the branding is just one benefit of joining a franchise like U.S. Lawns. We’re considered a business-format franchise. This means that we provide our franchisees with the operating procedures, business systems, training materials and tools to run a successful grounds care company focusing on larger commercial accounts,” Moxam continues.

“A landscape business owner faces many challenges every day, things like how to hire and retain employees, bidding work correctly, managing cash flow and implementing the best way to build infrastructure within their company so that their business is not solely dependent upon them. These are all things a franchise like U.S. Lawns can help them with.”

Myth No. 3: As a franchisee, you can’t go wrong.

“There is this myth among some people that if they join a franchise their business is automatically going to grow. Or, worse, they believe that the franchisor is responsible for selling work for them,” Moxam says.

“A franchisor like U.S. Lawns can certainly provide marketing and sales support; and we do offer robust marketing programs that help our franchisees generate leads within their territories, everything from SEO to digital advertising packages to email campaigns and postcards, for example.

“We also have an inside sales bullpen that sets appointments for our franchisees with commercial decision-makers that are interested in the services we offer. Knowing who to contact and who to market to and who to sell to is really half the battle. But there is rarely an easy button a franchisee can hit to achieve financial growth. It’s still ultimately up to them to grow their businesses.”

Myth No. 4: The franchise makes your equipment choices.

“Certain franchises operate this way, but not all. We all know how emotionally charged people in this industry can be about the color of their equipment,” Moxam says. “U.S Lawns has a fantastic, robust purchasing program that provides our franchisees with discounts and preferred pricing for equipment, supplies and even for business services like insurance. Our franchisees have access to what’s essentially a national buying program.

“Also, as a small business owner, do you really want to be spending your time researching and pricing equipment and materials? Or would you rather spend your time going out and generating more business? Our franchisees are not required to use our purchasing program although all of them do.”

Myth No. 5: Once you’re up and running, you’re on your own.

“It can be a lonely world out there for a small business owner because they don’t have other small business owners to share their experiences and concerns with, other people that truly understand what it’s like to own and run a business like theirs,” Moxam says. “In a franchise like U.S. Lawns, your fellow franchisees aren’t competitors. They operate the same systems and approach business the same way that you are.

“I would describe the culture of U.S. Lawns as a culture of competitive camaraderie. Every owner has goals they’re trying to achieve, and our owners are constantly challenging each other to achieve their goals. The camaraderie piece is the support piece, the way the franchisees educate and try to help each other, share best practices and the things that have worked for them and things that haven’t. It’s what we call the power of the network here at U.S. Lawns.”

Myth No. 6: You’ll be working just as hard.

“Early on, when you make the conversion to a franchise, you will be working just as hard because there is a learning curve and you’re educating yourself on a new way of thinking,” Moxam advises. “You’re implementing new systems and processes. But coming out of that transition period it’s a much different story. You will be working smarter because you’re developing a business that is not solely dependent upon you for every aspect of its operation.

“You have implemented infrastructure and systems within your business that now allows you, as the owner, to focus on things that really count like strategic planning, and getting your arms around your customers and your employees.”

This content is sponsored by U.S. Lawns. Sponsored content is authorized by the client and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Turf and LawnSite editorial team.

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During Design, Manufacturers Must Consider All Forms Of Snow Conditions

Josh Wilson, senior director of engineering for The Ariens Company

A book written in 1911 by anthropologist Franz Boas who had lived with and studied the native peoples of northern Canada in the 1880s set off a controversy that lasted for decades. In his book he claimed that Eskimos (Inuits) used as many as 100 different words to describe snow – for example “aqilokoq” for “softly falling snow” and “piegnartoq” for “the snow [that is] good for driving sled,” according to an article in the Washington Post.

Many linguists disputed the anthropologist’s claim. But it turns out his observations were more accurate than not. In fact, it’s since also been learned that the Yupiks in Siberia and the Sami people in far north of Scandinavia have similarly rich vocabularies for describing snow in all of its many different forms.

The fact is that snow is not just snow.

That observation is hardly surprising to today’s snow professionals. What they may not realize, however, are the challenges that snow in its many different forms — from watery to tiny flakes of powder to granular ice and everything in between — pose for the manufacturers of snow removal equipment, especially snow blowers.

The makers of snow equipment must design and manufacture equipment that performs satisfactorily in all types of snow.

That’s why Josh Wilson, senior director of engineering for The Ariens Company, and his supporting team now use aerospace-level software to model the performance of their designs and modifications — power usage, recirculation, etc. — under an almost bewildering array of snow conditions.

But, it’s not enough to run computer simulations, of course, says Wilson. He and his colleagues test their designs and innovations by chasing snow and ice events across the United States.

“We have a portable field test rig that allows Ariens to get to snow as early as possible,” says Wilson. “We get into different conditions fast and we have to be prepared with a list of potential modifications to collect data to enable the best design decisions.”

In terms of severe real-world tests, in addition to testing done at his plant in Wisconsin, Ariens, the past six years they have been using a 600-acre military proving ground in northern Michigan. The winter of 2016-2017, the site got 180 inches of snow, almost half the record 360 inches it received in the winter of 1978-1979.

The site is also used by other snow and ice researchers including the military and a leading vehicle tire manufacturer. In addition to the many different snow events it promises each winter, the site offers Wilson and his design team the advantage of having multiple pavement and asphalt surfaces for product durability testing.

For Eskimos, snow contractors and also for snow equipment manufacturers, it’s obvious that snow is more than just snow.

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Who Says Great Employees Are Hard To Find These Days?

In 1996 Michael Hatcher went back to college. No, he didn’t sign up for any classes. That spring he drove from his landscape business in Memphis, Tennessee, to his alma mater, Mississippi State University, specifically to recruit talent. At the time it was a big step for him — in fact financially scary given how his company had plodded along barely growing for almost a decade thanks in large part to its inability to retain valuable employees.

“I did not even have enough money to pay myself at the time,” recalls Hatcher, president of Michael Hatcher & Associates, about his trip to Starkville, Mississippi. “I wound up paying those two young men more than I could afford. But I needed them and I also realized to attract them I had to create a vision so that they could see the company moving and creating opportunities for them rather than us just remaining a small company.”

His success in convincing those graduating students (one of whom remains with him to this day) to move 180 miles north to established a pattern that has helped Hatcher and his wife, Mary, company vice president, to build one of the most respected and successful landscape companies in the Mid-South.

Recruit, recruit, recruit

That pattern? If you need talent, go out and find it and recruit it rather than waiting for it to find you. Since that first recruiting trip, Hatcher has identified, pursued and hired talented men and women from MSU and almost a dozen other universities.

Affable, energetic and ebulliently optimistic, Hatcher’s success in attracting, developing and maintaining talented designer/salespeople and managers (some even rising from the crew level) has allowed he and his wife Mary to grow their firm to almost 100 employees. Their company now provides a full palette of environmentally friendly landscape and lawn services in a 125-150 mile radius in western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas and northern Mississippi.

Michael Hatcher’s recruiting efforts have allowed he and his wife to build one of the most progressive landscape companies in the Mid-South.

The power of positive publicity

Hatcher doesn’t go on recruiting trips as often these days due to the visibility of his company in its service area. In the 1990s, Hatcher, outgoing and an entertaining storyteller, advertised and also hosted a garden show on local television. “It didn’t take me long to see that was happening, so I started to focus in that direction,” he continues.

While television boosted his company’s reputation, in more recent years he’s been focusing its efforts on community service, installing almost 90 learning gardens at schools in Memphis and Shelby County under the umbrella of The Kitchen Community. The stated goal of that 10-year-old program is to “connect kids to real food, increase academic achievement, and drive community engagement.”

He’s keenly aware that other factors — apart from pay, as important as it is — influence talented people to consider one job offer over another. “Young people today want to work for a company that they feel is giving back to the causes and needs they support, many of the same things that we, as a company, also support,” says Hatcher.

 

Better facilities, better talent

The good prospects also want to work for a company with modern and clean facilities. This past year Michael Hatcher & Associates relocated from its Memphis location to new headquarters on a 22-acre site in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The company’s new 10,000-square-foot building and surrounding property, featuring environmentally friendly landscape trends and composting, is now known as The Landscape Center. Schools and senior care facilities are being encouraged to visit The Landscape Center for field trips.

Hatcher equates his new headquarters with what major university athletic departments are doing in upgrading their stadia and training facilities to attract talented athletes. “Besides the facility and being reputable, you’ve got to have nice equipment and nice trucks too,” he says. In that regard he sees himself as not only a recruiter but also as “a head coach.”

Another characteristic that defines hiring great employees these days, says Hatcher, is their need to see a defined path for their careers and also their mobility, both of which Hatcher is willing to acknowledge upfront with them.

“I have recruited and hired some really good people that I knew weren’t going to stay with me forever. Even so, I’ve told them I want you to come work with us. If they have a goal to someday own their own business I encourage that. That’s the same goal I had. I will tell them there’s nothing wrong with that. Let’s figure out what your career path is as well as being a contributor to Michael Hatcher & Associates,” says Hatcher.

“I am very candid with them in a casual way talking to them about their goals and ambitions. I want to know more about the individual — their personal and professional goals — than I want to know about their skill set.”

Staying on same track

But Hatcher also makes it clear to new hires that their goals as employees must perfectly align with company goals. He uses the analogy of a set of railroad tracks.

“As long as those rails are parallel — the employee is getting what it needs from the company and the company is getting what it needs from the employee — it will allow us both to head in the same direction. That train will run down those rails and pull as big a load as you can imagine. But if there’s ever a deviation in those rails, there’s the possibility of a train wreck. We’ll have to stop the train and let them (employee) off in a respectful way,” says Hatcher.

Yes, his company, like almost all landscape companies, is struggling to hire and retain enough hourly laborers to meet growing demand for landscape services. He sees that problem as being a pay issue.

“Mostly what these people want to know is ‘how much are you going to pay?’ Labor is always a problem and I don’t think we will ever eliminate that problem.”

But while he’s always seeking employees, including laborers, he’s convinced that the talent at the next levels — from crew leaders to supervisors to design/sales — is what separates growing and profitable companies from the others in every market.

“That’s why when I market, I market for two things,” continues Hatcher. “One is for customers, and I’m always marketing and recruiting for good employees, too.”

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13 Unique Gifts For The Turfgrass Lover

Use these gift ideas this holiday season to spoil yourself or for a fellow landscape professional. There are even some fun things that can be used in your office to make employees and visiting clients laugh.

1. Turf Coaster Set

Photo: Begino

Protect your nice wood furniture or office desk with a little bit of turfgrass. This set of four coasters is recycled and made in the USA.

2. Grass-blade Ballpoint Pen

Photo: Amazon

Make sure your office staff has their mind on the lawn by having them use these pens.

3. Turf/Glass Paperweight

Photo: Danielle Rickaby/Contemporary Connoisseur

These are good for the on-the-go office when it gets a little too blustery outside or your crew is leaf blowing near the truck.

4. Potted Pen Phone Stand

Photo: Amazon

Bring the turf to your desk with this multipurpose stand for pens, pencils, a tray for paperclips or to rest your phone while you watch YouTube videos.

5. Grass Sandals

Photo: Kusa Shoes

You will look like you are walking barefoot in the grass anywhere you go. Made from synthetic grass, these sandals will be quite the conversation starter.

6. Grass Lampshade

Photo: GrassFurniture.com

If you can’t convince your family to have this lampshade at home, bring it to your office and keep it in the lobby for clients to admire whenever they stop by.

7. Countertop Drying Rack

Photo: Boon Inc.

The blades from this grass stand will hold dishes as they dry.

8. Green Grass Candles

Photo: Chandler Candle Co.

In various sizes, these candles will burn with the scent of fresh-cut grass. The company claims the candle will burn for about 40 hours.

9. Field Hammock

Photo: Studio Toer

Lay in the grass while floating above the ground in the synthetic hammock. Bonus: it is water- and UV-resistant.

10. Grass Rug

Photo: Generate

This plush rug will bring the landscaping indoors. But the best part: no mowing required.

11. Grass Table Runner

Photo: Artificial Landscapes

This unexpected table runner on your holiday dinner table will catch the eye of your family and friends.

12. Turf Phone Cases

Photo: CafePress

With a lot to choose from, CafePress lets you personalize the phone case and get the best “stand of turf” possible.

13. Messenger Bag

Photo: CafePress

No matter where you are going, bring along your books, paperwork, tablet or laptop in this padded, customizable bag.

Share your turf-lover gift ideas with us in the comments below!

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in November 2016 and has been updated for accuracy.

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I Am A Landscaper: Aaron Rodolph

Like so many others in the green industry, Aaron Rodolph, president of Rodolph Brothers, based in Casper, Wyoming, got his start as a kid pushing a mower. He was 14 years old and borrowing his father’s mower to service 20 lawns around the city. He’d put the gas cans in the mower bag, balance the string trimmer on top of the mower and push it all with one hand while steering his mountain bike with the other.

One day his father told him he’d need to buy his own mower — and he agreed. But when he came home later that day there was an $1,100 commercial-grade mower and a $450 trimmer waiting for him. “My dad told me I’d be paying him back for his investment,” Rodolph remembers. “I could hardly believe a mower could possibly cost so much but my dad was helping me to recognize that my business would never thrive without high-quality equipment. It’s a lesson I’ve kept with me ever since.”

I actually began pursuing a law degree when I had an epiphany. I realized that the 5-year-old landscape business that I had started to get through college was what I was really supposed to be doing. I dropped out of college the next day and never looked back.

The landscape profession is God’s work. You get to create and tend to a giant forest. We were created to care for this giant urban garden — it’s at the core of our human nature to improve the land.

Living in the mountains of Wyoming a lot of my hobbies are mountain-related. I’m an avid mountain biker, back-country skier, fisherman and hunter. I also spend a lot of my time riding a skateboard in the city with my kids — Aden, age 7, and Madilyn, age 6 — while they ride their bikes.

Spending time in the very remote region of D.R. Congo last year was life changing for me. We — my wife, Nicole, of 15 years and our two kids — spent two months helping a doctor establish his missionary outpost there. It was good for us all to be unplugged and isolated in the jungle for a couple of months. We lived in a hut and immersed ourselves in their culture and language.

I believe that we exist to serve others. This motto shapes every client interaction we have with our 1,500 (and growing) base of clients. It’s at the heart of all we do.

I spent a lot of time cowboying at a ranch here in Wyoming throughout college. I could’ve stayed there forever — landscaping and being a cowboy have a lot in common, after all: dirt, beautiful country, unpredictable days, taking care of the land, and the joy of a hard day’s work every single day.

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Like A Boss: Managing Rapid Growth

Brent Ayles

Brent Ayles, CLT, president of Ayles Natural Landscaping, Ltd., based in Riverview, New Brunswick, Canada, says that the “gazelle-style growth” he experienced has raised challenges with cashflow. But planning for cashflow management has saved him from a lot of headaches.

Most businesses grow without any plan for cashflow management—and that can cause huge problems, says Ayles. In time, most landscape businesses are eventually going to grow as long as they are doing good work and continuing to keep up with it, he adds. But growth can definitely be challenging, especially if you don’t have a plan in place.

“Most business owners start out without a clear growth plan,” Ayles says. “Work comes in, they get excited, and they deliver the work. That sounds like a good business cycle but it can pose challenges. Growth is not always your friend.”

Ayles says that a lot of businesses can continue to operate and grow by keeping up with delivery of work—that is, until they reach their capacity. It’s at that point where growth can start to pose challenges. The biggest challenge, Ayles says, is that getting these issues under control requires “hard skills,” which are not often talked about—and that many landscape business owners lack.

Ayles says that in the industry, landscapers often spend time talking about things like mission, vision, or values—and those are all very important. But they are also “soft skills.” He says that soft skills are all the “warm and fuzzy” aspects of business that are often talked about in business books and in motivational speeches. But Ayles says landscape business owners really need hard skills to manage growth appropriately. If they lack cash flow management skills, for instance, fast-paced growth is going to overtake them.

“As a business grows, much of the skills of doing the work become over-consumed by trying to manage internal operations,” Ayles says. “Seek out wise counsel early on to avoid financial failure.”

It’s a topic that Ayles can speak on because he experienced it himself.

“After many years of that gazelle-style growth, we were faced with a major issue—poor cash flow,” he says. “Growth can kill you if it’s not managed. Thanks to good client relations, good relationships with suppliers and vendors, we sustained. But it was an important lesson in understanding business life cycle.”

And if business owners aren’t good at these things? Well, Ayles says not to be afraid to reach out for help.

“Most often, the owner is responsible for the overhead budget, the marketing plan, the strategic plan, and more,” Ayles says. “One almost needs to be a genius to excel at all of these areas. Always ask for help! Reach out to many of the well-seasoned consultants within our industry. Ask someone to mentor you. Don’t be afraid or too prideful to ask for help. I am a firm believer that people need several mentors in their life. For business finance and management, strategy, and for spiritual, physical, and mental wellbeing.”

Our Like a Boss series highlights some common business challenges landscape professionals face and how they conquer them. Discuss your biggest business challenges on LawnSite’s Business Management forum.

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How Can I Build Strategic Alliances To Offer Additional Services?

Whether it’s forming a strategic alliance or making a full-blown acquisition, partnering with a business that offers services that you don’t offer can be a great way to grow. That has been the case for Blondie’s Treehouse Inc., a Manhattan-based company that has grown its business with a combination of both strategic alliances and mergers since their first acquisition of a company that did holiday display work around 1990. Since then, the company has branched into multiple divisions and services in an effort to become more of a one-stop-shop for clients — and it’s paying off.

Of 15 different partnerships and acquisitions over the years, the most recent is with Opiary, a Brooklyn-based green design and high-end landscape company that offers unique lines including custom planters, fountains, indoor/outdoor furniture and sculpture. Howard K. Freilich, president and CEO of Blondie’s Treehouse, says the partnership will give his company its first fabrication studio, which is dedicated to designing and producing planters, containers and furniture. Rather than being a total acquisition, Freilich says this is a “strategic alliance.” But he has done both forms of business relationships over the years.

“We have partnered with companies and we have purchased them,” Freilich says. “It all depends on what works strategically for us and what the owners of those companies prefer to do. Some owners desire to get out of their businesses entirely and want to sell them. Others are interested in partnering so that they can still be involved in the company but aren’t responsible for the day-to-day financials. We want to make the best decision that works for everyone.”

Freilich equates it to a marriage. He says that a partnership must work for both partners – or it doesn’t work at all. In terms of why Freilich grows his business through acquisitions and partnerships — rather than just adding those services on his own — he says that it is like “dating.”

“First, you have to date,” he says, equating it to that marriage analogy. “It’s a lot easier to date and break up than it is to take the leap and get married only to decide it’s not what you wanted. When we partner with a business that offers a service that we don’t, it allows us to try it out and see if it works. We might give it a try for 12 months and see how things go. At that point, we would decide whether we want to move forward together, whether Blondie’s will buy the company or whether it wasn’t a good match after all.”

Over the years, Blondie’s has expanded the company in many ways. When Freilich started the company in 1979, he was a one-man business selling plants on the street corner. Since then he has grown to 150 employees and branched into a little bit of everything.

“After buying a company with a strong holiday display presence, we bought a company that did a very strong floral business and started building clients on the floral end,” he says. “Today we have our own floral shop. We also started getting into the sale of silk and made another strategic partnership there.”

Freilich says they’ve also moved more heavily into landscaping services over the years and even purchased a landscape architectural firm so that in addition to doing the installations, Blondie’s would also have licensed architects to do the design work. He says that has strongly ramped up their design/build division.

“Each of these steps has been about keeping the client happy,” Freilich says. “When you have a client that uses five different services, they find it much easier to work with just one vendor — Blondie’s — than to have to hire multiple companies. They’ve come to know and trust us, and it only makes sense for us to handle all of their needs.”

Freilich says that expanding into multiple service offerings has also been a differentiator for Blondie’s. It not only sets him apart from the competition but it also bolsters the relationship between the company and its clients.

“It’s given us some power in that clients aren’t able to find other companies out there like us,” Freilich explains. “In a day and age where people switch services frequently, they’re a lot less likely to switch from us because there aren’t very many companies out there that could offer everything we do. We also work very hard to build and maintain client relationships. Our clients all have our cellphone numbers and when they need an answer — even on a Saturday — we get them what they need.”

Going forward, Freilich says that they’ll continue to always look for ways they can grow and improve the business — and, in turn, better serve clients. While they already have so many offerings, Freilich says the next step will likely be to move more into the e-commerce market. No matter what, Freilich says the company will continue to be driven by that entrepreneurial spirit that has lead them into all of their strategic alliances and acquisitions, to date.

“We are a big believer in vertical integration and continuing to add on to what’s already established,” Freilich says. “We will always look for ways to bring in new, dynamic concepts. Our goal is to continue to grow as a company and to be a leader in the industry.”

Read more: Get to Know Howard K. Freilich

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