Lawn Care Franchise Ownership Tips - Spring-Green

Meet the Spring-Green Team—RJ Krone

Here at Spring-Green, one of the most common things we hear from our franchisees is how much they love the corporate support staff. From initial training to ongoing consultation and company conferences, everyone’s taken care of at Spring-Green. This week, we’d like to introduce you to RJ Krone, who’s been Director of Franchise Operations since June 2010, and has been with the company since 2007.

At Spring-Green HQ, “Operations” is a bit of an umbrella term – everything from consultants to education to equipment falls under that department, so it’s touching all aspects of the business. Because of that, it’s especially important for new franchisees to understand the team well. So as the head of the Operations team, RJ is in charge of training and maintaining relationships with our many franchisees, and how he does that is what sets Spring-Green apart from the rest of the pack.

When new franchisees first join the team, they head to Spring-Green HQ for one week of corporate training with RJ and company. Once that’s complete, the tech team pays the franchisee an onsite visit to set up the franchisee's Spring-Green software, followed by an initial consultation from the Operations team to help out with sales and marketing strategy. Each franchisee is assigned a support consultant at the corporate office to make sure someone is always looking out for the business.

Over the next couple weeks, more face-to-face contact helps ensure that franchisees are supported as the owner begins acquiring new customers. After the first month or so, once the initial launch is done, franchisees are always able to contact the operations or educational team to consult about business concerns, unique lawn care issues, or just offer advice and answer questions. One of the best things about Spring-Green, RJ says, is that franchisees don’t just sit on hold or talk to a computer – they can take a picture of a strange plant and send it straight to the education team for real-time feedback. Basically, someone’s always looking out for you – and it’s RJ’s job to make sure that’s always the case.

RJ says he loves his job because he gets to be involved at so many levels of the business. He says that for franchisees who are so busy handling day-to-day issues, it’s helpful to have someone watching out for them at corporate and catching issues the owner might have missed. RJ is the kind of person that makes Spring-Green great: his passion, dedication, and commitment to all of our franchisees makes him a vital resource for the whole staff.

Kent Fisher Gets Started with Spring-Green Lawn Care

We pride ourselves on the start-up support we provide new franchise owners to help them get off to a successful beginning. Kent Fisher recently converted the lawn care portion of his business to Spring-Green Lawn Care, and over the past few weeks he has learned a lot from the corporate support center starting with a training and business planning session. Before converting, Kent felt that the lawn care services part of his business was stagnant, and he wanted to learn how to operate it effectively and increase revenue. Spring-Green’s systematic operation and training should make a big difference.

Kent came to our corporate support center for his initial training, and then a member of our support team went to Indiana with Kent to begin the in-field training. Our support team helps with staff development, computer support and in-field marketing support. Over the next few years, Kent and our other new franchise owners will receive daily communication, including conference calls and field visits in the first and second year of ownership. In addition to teaching new owners about lawns and tress, our support team provides valuable business advice. We focus on the areas that are most critical to the success of the business.

Our training and support practices go along with our philosophy that we are helping our franchise owners build a business for themselves, but not by themselves. We’ve been doing this for more than 35 years so we have fine-tuned our process.

Spring-Green is committed to having a mutually beneficial franchise owner-franchisor relationship. The training Kent is receiving right now is a great example of both groups working together.

Professional Development Seminars Sharpen Skills of Franchise Owners

Note: This is a guest post from Spring-Green's Harold Enger. Harold is Spring-Green's Director of Education and has been in the green industry for over 30 years. He blogs regularly for Spring-Green's Ask The Lawn Care Expert blog.

Spring-Green’s Professional Development Seminars are well under way in 2012 with 7 of the 13 regional seminars completed.  This is the 10^th year that Spring-Green has sponsored these educational days for franchise owners and field staff.  Seminars have been held in Charlotte and Clayton, NC, Seattle, WA, Tulsa, OK, Baltimore, MD and Columbus, OH.  So far, over 25 franchise owners have sent over 60 attendees and Team Members to the seminars.

The topics covered during the seminar include sales, cancels, lawn disease development, handling spills, reducing drift and integrated pest management.  There is also a section where the attendees break into small groups and have to write down how they describe four additional services to current customers, such as Core Aeration, Perimeter Pest Control, etc.  They all know what services we offer, but it is not always easy to explain the services to customers.  This activity allows them the opportunity to hear how their fellow Team Members explain the services and come up with good descriptions.  The descriptions are read out loud and suggestions for improvement are provided.

Each seminar includes a team building game that finishes up the day.  This is usually the highlight of the day’s activities and everyone enjoys working together as a team.  The attendees divide into small groups and have to complete a challenging task.  We have used two different games this year – Junkyard Games and the Rain Forest game.  To learn more about the games, you will have to attend the seminar.

Those who have attended the seminars have also learned about the 2012 Sales Challenge.  This challenge is an opportunity for attendees to win some great Spring-Green apparel.  Certain sales goals have to be achieved to win, but the response has been positive with one Field Service Professional telling me that he has already sold 10 new customers.

The Professional Development Seminars are a great opportunity for Spring-Green franchise owners and Team Members to network with other people and sharpen their skills to provide the best possible service to all Spring-Green customers.

Franchise Advantages

 

 

Franchising offers lots of advantages that most other business types don't. Let's look at some of them...

First off, it's always nicer if you can go into a business of your own with someone else. In the case of a franchise business, the franchisor...the company that came up with the concept is your business partner.

It's their business idea; it's yours to use to full advantage....

You're Not Alone; Field Support in a Franchise Business

                   
                Spring-Green Franchise Field Support  

 

If you're thinking about becoming a franchise owner, you'll probably hear this from someone during your search;

"You're in business for yourself, but not by yourself."

Isn't that one of the main reasons that you want to become a franchisee? Aren't you expecting the franchise company to step up to the plate?