Lawnscience

The nice thing with your own business is that you are in control of your success and your future. Working for yourself is safer than working for somebody else, as you are in control. Most customers contact you. In my experience most of my customer say yes, straight away. There is no hard sell required. If you are committed, do what you have been shown to do, put in the effort, there is no reason why you won’t be successful.

I knew that in order to take complete control over my income and working life, I would have to work for myself, rather than working for others. However, choosing a business to start on my own was not that simple. I was initially most drawn to Lawnscience because Terry supplied me with lots of information from the start, which helped me to understand the business. Another great advantage to Lawnscience is that they gave me the opportunity to create my own bespoke trading territory, something which most franchisors could not have done. Having met with Lawnscience on several occasions to discuss their business and the way in which they operate, my mind was made up. This was always going to be a daunting decision, but I was given the opportunity to speak with all of the current franchisees about their experiences, which gave me the confidence to take the leap into self-employment. After my three week initial training, my marketing plan fired into action and the phone rang and rang and rang. Today, after only 7 months of trading I have already surpassed my first years sales target by over £10,000, and the year is far from over. The demand for my services has been so great that I have had to take on a temporary employee to help me cope with the work and it’s still coming in! I can see myself quickly developing the business into a multi-van operation within a year or two. Occasionally I miss the banter I used to have with the lads at work, but building my business and new life for my family has been more rewarding than I'd have ever imagined.

I loved the concept right from the start. Gardening had always been a hobby of mine, but it was the business opportunity that appealed to me over anything. The more I thought about it, the more appealing the idea became. I started my search by meeting with the five main franchising players within the lawn care industry. I was just about to make my decision, when I heard about Lawnscience, almost by accident. My mind was made up after about three minutes into the meeting with Terry Nicholson. Whilst the other operations focused on ‘green keeping’, it was clear that Terry approached the business from a completely different angle. He was a marketing man, and he really understood the potential of the business. It was this focus on marketing that set Terry and Lawnscience apart from the other franchisors that I was considering. Having started up a business myself, it was obvious that Lawnscience had developed the most comprehensive marketing strategy in the UK lawn care business. I knew that having the right territory was pivotal to the running of a successful and efficient business. Lawnscience’s practice of creating bespoke territories for each franchisee was a great solution. It meant that I was in control of where I would operate my business, instead of having a pre-designed territory imposed on me. Within a few weeks, I attended the training course and launched my business. Was I apprehensive? Of course I was! It was a completely new field of business for me, in which I was a complete novice. Fast forward to today, having launched my business three years ago, I have my first employee. Next year I will focus on consolidation, and the year after that will see me focus on expansion, where I aim to take on another employee.

Lawn care is something I looked at quite a long time ago, I’ve always wanted to work outside. For over thirty years I had worked for two companies. Working long hours, early starts, late nights and weekends, missing big family occasions. I now wish I had left this behind sooner than what I did. After meeting up with Terry, I did kinda got the feeling that Terry wanted me to be a success in this field. Would I go back to my previous life, my previous career, no I wouldn’t. I’m happy with what I am doing.