Joshua Tree Experts Franchise Spotlight: A Conversation With Dylan DeGroat

With a history in the military, case management, policing and Joshua Tree Experts, Dylan DeGroat, the brand’s Director of Franchise Development, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the team. As the emerging Pennsylvania-based tree care maintenance, plant health care, lawn care and pest control franchise works to expand, its team of experts play a crucial role.

“When franchisees encounter issues, they have experts they can go to in every area — marketing, sales, finance, etc.,” said DeGroat. “They always have an expert in the franchise team to reach out to and ask a question, and nine out of 10 times, we have already experienced and discussed the situation they’re dealing with. There’s probably nothing a franchisee could bring us that we haven’t already seen. All of our team members have been with the company for a while now, and we’ve done these daily grind tasks, and we know exactly what franchisees will go through as they grow.”

Though he is now working with the team to support franchisees in their development efforts, DeGroat’s varied background has equipped him with a range of skills and illustrates an interesting path to leadership at Joshua Tree Experts.

DeGroat’s Journey to the Joshua Tree Experts Team

With a degree in criminal justice, DeGroat worked as a case manager for the Indiana Department of Child Services. After two years in that role, he began working toward joining the local police department, all while serving as a commissioned officer in the military.

During his training period to become a police officer, DeGroat took a job with Joshua Tree Experts to work in lawn care. Though he intended the role to be a temporary solution while he worked through the police application and training process, DeGroat quickly began to think about what his future with Joshua Tree Experts could look like.

“I started working in the lawn care department, and during that time, Josh [Malik] told me he wanted to grow the company to something more than what I would be able to do during my time off as a police officer,” said DeGroat. “We talked about what the future might look like, and I ended up deciding to stay with Joshua Tree Experts. I withdrew all of my applications and decided to follow the path that Josh was laying out.”

Once he made this decision, DeGroat began to further integrate himself with the team. He began to supervise the lawn care department and incrementally took on more responsibilities including recruiting and hiring. He also spent time with the tree crew and winter tree crew. After a year-long deployment to Iraq, DeGroat returned and stepped into the Recruiting and Training Coordinator role. In February, he stepped into his current role.

“My whole job is to take candidates through the discovery process to become future franchisees with Joshua Tree Experts,” he said. “I give that 30,000-foot view at the beginning of the process, then we’ll start to look at unit financials and predict their own success. We’ve found that a lot of people don’t expect to see everything that we offer. We have a facility with three different operations centers, and it really impresses people.”

If the prospective Franchise Owner says yes after Confirmation Day, DeGroat will walk them through the funding process and welcome call before connecting them with the support team.

As the system continues to grow, DeGroat says he (and the remainder of the team) plans to stay true to Joshua Tree Experts’ core value to consistently improve and adapt.

“We will continue to grow with that,” said DeGroat. “We will continue to improve our process with our franchisees and expand on our knowledge of territories throughout the country. Our franchise mission is to enrich lives through brand growth. We want to help people flourish in their own lives, whether that’s through entrepreneurship or being a crew leader out there working. We want to improve their lives by working with our brand.”

For more information on franchising with Joshua Tree Experts, visit: https://1851franchise.com/joshuatreeexperts/info