Hello From ALMA!

Hey, everyone, it's Tommy Ganz, president of ALMA, the American Landscape Maintenance Association. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm here to help with any aspect of growing your business. I have a very unique background in the green industry. Aside from running our own family landscape busness, Ganz Landscape, www.ganzlandscape.com, I was also a general partner of U.S. Lawns, and divsion VP for Environmental care, two of the largest landscape companies in the world. I was responsible for franchise development and training maintenance operations of all sizes all over the country. There's nothing I can't help you with so don't hesitate to ask. Looking forward to working with everyone! Tommy

[arthur712]

Lawn care business tips

Wow! Impresive! Welcome to the forum! Thanx! Artie

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Artie Crowley
www.marketingholders.com

www.mytakeacard.com

[Steve]

Hi Tommy,

Welcome to our forum.

You have a lot going on there! What did you think about your experience with U.S.Lawns? How did you like being in charge of franchise development?

Would you ever like to create another franchise again?

My time growing USL was great! I had a few unbelievable mentors who taught me a great deal. The most rewarding thing for me was being able to turn around the lives of so many great people. After I left USL, two former franchise owners and myself started AgriCare. The same kind of company. But a family tragidy struck one of my partners forcing him to get out and the company just wasn't the same. So we put it on the shelf after bringing on 6 franchise owners. To operate a franchise company it takes a very dynamic team made up of people specializing in a specific aspect of operations. One of the things I didn't like about franchising was making the franchise owner pay "royalty". Some of our USL owners were paying over $5,000. bucks a month in royalty. I hated that! So with ALMA, I'm going to give them the same kind of help for $10 bucks a month...better deal hugh?

PS
I love the forum. Great way to share resources!

[Steve]

Some of our USL owners were paying over $5,000. bucks a month in royalty. I hated that!

I'd figure if they were paying that much in royalties, they must have been doing pretty well.

It seems a lot of times, the franchise model can really help take an entrepreneur and catapult them into success quicker than without going that route.

From your perspective, what do you feel are the top reasons why lawn care businesses fail? Or why do they never get beyond a single operator / owner?

Most fail because they are not willing to take the steps neccessary to take their company to the next level! Most contractors refuse to measure their properties. When you try to convince them that they must, they call you crazy! But they continue to watch other companies pass them by and they have tons of excuses why! If I hear another person crying about low-ballers, I'm going to shoot myself! They will call somone a low-baller when not only do they not know their OWN cost of doing business, but the certainly don't know the OTHER guys costs...but they always asume they're lowballing! When I ran USL, all the competitors thought we were lowballers, yet were growing by 40% a year. Most of our owners had boats, planes, owned their own facilities...doesn't sould like a lowball to me! It's just hard to get the landscaper to stop thinking like a "tradesman" and start thinking like a businessman!

[Steve]

all the competitors thought we were lowballers, yet were growing by 40% a year. Most of our owners had boats, planes, owned their own facilities...doesn't sould like a lowball to me! It's just hard to get the landscaper to stop thinking like a "tradesman" and start thinking like a businessman!

Can you tell us more about how this was possible? Did this simply come down to knowing your costs and measuring your properties? Or was there more to it?

Also what kind of profit % did the company shoot for per lawn or hour? Were there any sort of benchmarks they would try to hit?

Also how much did they try and grow each year?