More and more, people with green thumbs are wearing white collars.
The landscaping industry generates $52 billion a year in revenue, a figure that’s rising steadily, according to Lawn & Landscape, a trade journal. For the past five years, revenue has leapt between 10 percent and 20 percent each year.
“People work more and they have to support that big subdivision,” says Terry Bailey, who runs the Lawn Doctor of Charleston out of Poca. “They just don’t have the time.”Since launching his franchise six years ago, business has about doubled every year, Bailey said.
The growing market is attracting new competition.
Orlando, Fla.-based U.S. Lawns, which limits its business to commercial contracts, now wants to break into the Charleston market, says Paul Wolbert, the company’s franchising director.
“It’s an excellent market to expand into,” he said. “We’ve been looking for the opportunity to expand there.”
U.S. Lawns expands by signing up franchise owners, and it’s trying to track down candidates by running ads and through word of mouth, Wolbert said.
Getting a franchise costs about $100,000: $29,000 for a franchising fee and from $70,000 to $80,000 in startup investment, he said.
Franchisees train for a week at U.S. Lawns facilities in Orlando on best practices, sales, marketing, bidding and budgeting, and they get the benefit of regular consulting from U.S. Lawns advisers.
The vast majority of U.S. Lawns franchisees, about 70 percent, have no experience in the business when they start, Wolbert said. “We’re looking for guys who want to build a sustained business,” he said.
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