From Roots to Branches: How Joshua Tree Grew from Local Business to Franchise Powerhouse

Joshua Malik, Joshua Tree Experts founder and CEO, dreamt of owning a small business, but given his desire for a challenge and knack for entrepreneurship, this small business exploded into a successful franchise in no time, known for its quality tree care services and excellent employee training. 

The Founder’s Vision

Malik’s vision for Joshua Tree Experts is simple, yet ambitious. He wants to perform a million services for the franchise’s clients over the next ten years.

He plans to continue growing and sticking to the brand’s strength: recurring revenue. “One client will statistically stay with us for three to six years,” explained Malik. By retaining clients, this revenue builds year after year, and the services offered to each client add up, too. 

This makes the business quite scalable and has led to an impressive amount of growth. “I never thought I'd be franchising in 2005 when I started the Joshua Tree Experts Journey,” said Malik. “I initially wanted to get to a seven to ten person company. I knew what kind of money I could make at that level, but I love a challenge. I like to build teams. I like to grow the business over the years, which I'm having a lot of fun doing.”

Navigating Challenges

With any franchise journey comes challenges. Many companies in the home services, or more especially, lawn care industry have experienced labor shortages in recent years. However, Joshua Tree Experts has navigated this challenge well with plenty of staff.

“We have a set of core values that we hire and promote around,” explained Malik. “We can always train and educate an employee with the right core values.”

Another way Joshua Tree has overcome the challenge of finding employees is by building its own training and support system. With certified arborists and experienced plant health care and pest management professionals on the corporate team, Joshua Tree Experts has the know-how that can be passed down to new franchisees and employees alike. This way, newcomers needn’t have the training and skills beforehand, so long as they share the values the brand stands by and the work ethic to learn. 

Finding and retaining the right people is something Joshua Tree Experts excels at. From the first interaction through to the onboarding process, Joshua Tree Experts is thorough in its vetting process and works hard to ensure each employee is a right fit for the brand’s culture and values. 

Malik is particularly proud of the brand’s employee retention. He believes training his employees and supporting them is entirely worthwhile. “Investing in people has a high return on investment,” said Malik. “It comes back to you”

The Franchise Model

This franchise opportunity is accessible to a wide audience with two business models: one path is for individuals with a high net worth who wish to purchase the necessary equipment outright and one path is for franchisees who do not necessarily have the immediate funds who would rather finance the equipment to get started. Either way, the entry barrier is relatively low, typically between $196,760 - $303,091.

The franchise also offers potential franchisees scalability. After creating an internal team, the necessary infrastructure and a customer base for nearly ten years, Joshua Tree Experts began to diversify its offerings. As a direct result of customer demand, the company established lawn care as its own division in 2017. After the immediate success of this addition, Joshua Tree experts expanded its services once more with a pest control division in 2020. 

Franchisees all start with the brand’s primary offering – tree care. However, the brand's ability to offer a range of services from tree care to plant health care and plant management makes Joshua Tree Experts a smart investment for franchisees who wish to diversify their revenue streams.

Franchisee Success

Joshua Tree Experts’ first franchisee is an example of the success other franchisees can find with this brand.

Located in Orange County, New York, Carlos Lozano was fed up with the lack of quality tree care service in his area and decided to take matters into his own hands. The franchise model provided by Joshua Tree Experts provided Lozano with the support he needed to start his own business and fill a need in his community. 

Lozano was impressed with the team’s knowledge of the tree business and felt confident with the quality and value of the service the brand provides.  

While Lozano was impressed with Joshua Tree Experts, the brand was just as impressed with Lozano. He now serves as a business coach for other franchisees joining the system. The value of his background in leadership and experience in entrepreneurship was immediately recognized by Malik, and now Lozano is instrumental in the brand’s expansion. 

Building a Strong Brand

Joshua Tree Experts has a strong reputation and positive public image. “People will pass a work site and comment on our clean trucks, nice matching uniforms and the proper use of safety equipment by our employees,” explained Malik. “People will come to us because they’ve seen high reviews on Google.” 

On top of such a positive public image, Joshua Tree Experts has become known for the education, training and certifications it offers employees. “We invest in our employees,” explained Malik. “Other companies are not necessarily doing that.”

The Future of Joshua Tree

With Joshua Tree Experts recently surpassing $7 million in sales in 2022, the future looks bright for the tree care brand. 

Joshua Tree Experts has big plans for growth going forward and aims to sell 35 units over the next two years, giving prospective franchisees the chance to be a part of the brand’s major expansion. 

The startup costs for a Joshua Tree Experts franchise range from $196,760 to $303,091. For more information on franchising with Joshua Tree Experts, visit https://www.joshuatreeexperts.com/franchise.