Lawn Doctor

On February 15, Kevin Galbreath officially opened his new <a href="http://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=33-year-old-kevin-galbreath-opens-first-lawn-doctor-territory-this-month-2705744" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lawn Doctor</a> business in San Marcos, Texas. The 33-year-old entrepreneur had been preparing for the opening throughout the fall and winter, training with other franchisees and marketing the new business throughout his territory. Now, just a half-year after Galbreath first discovered <a href="https://lawndoctor.1851franchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=33-year-old-kevin-galbreath-opens-first-lawn-doctor-territory-this-month-2705744" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lawn Doctor</a>, he&rsquo;s already anticipating significant growth for his business.

<a href="http://www.lawndoctor.com/southaustin-tx?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=33-year-old-kevin-galbreath-opens-first-lawn-doctor-territory-this-month-2705744" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Galbreath&rsquo;s Lawn Doctor</a> represents his first foray into the worlds of franchising and business ownership. For years after college, Galbreath worked in the corporate world, making the most out of his degree in international studies (with a focus on Latin American business) as an international sales manager for a Swedish power-products manufacturer. Galbreath even lived in Costa Rica for a year before his wife, Rachel, gave birth to their first child, at which point they moved back to the states, but Galbreath continued to travel. Once Rachel was pregnant with their second child, Galbreath decided it was time to stay put, so he transferred to a position that did not require travel. It wasn&rsquo;t long after that transition that Galbreath found himself becoming burnt out on the corporate world altogether.

&ldquo;They always tell you that you are making your own decisions, but you aren&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Galbreath said. &ldquo;Even when you are running a department, you can&rsquo;t make any decisions without getting all sort of approvals and working through all the red tape. I was tired of it.&rdquo;

Galbreath knew that he wanted to own his own business, but he wasn&rsquo;t sure where to start. Still, in the early stages of his career, Galbreath couldn&rsquo;t say he&rsquo;d mastered the world of business, and he wasn&rsquo;t confident investing his future in something he&rsquo;d have to build from scratch. Like many entrepreneurs in Galbreath&rsquo;s position, he decided to look into franchising.

&ldquo;I began researching different franchises, and I really liked what I saw,&rdquo; Galbreath said. &ldquo;It was the perfect way for me to own a business without having to build it from the ground up. Of course, I also saw some negative things, people who invested in a model that wasn&rsquo;t right for them and were struggling, so I wanted to be sure to find the right business.&rdquo;

To help find a franchise concept that matched his skill set and lifestyle, Galbreath hired a franchise broker, who quickly introduced Galbreath to Lawn Doctor.

&ldquo;He worked with me to learn everything about my interests and business experience, and he matched me with a few different businesses. One of the very first ones he showed me was Lawn Doctor,&rdquo; Galbreath said. &ldquo;Right away I was intrigued.&rdquo;

Galbreath said there were three things he saw that initially drew him to&mdash;and ultimately sold him on&mdash;Lawn Doctor. The first was the franchise&rsquo;s average startup costs, which at $101,890&ndash;$115,940 are significantly lower than the costs for most other concepts in the segment. The second aspect of the business that appealed to Galbreath was its recurring revenue model, which ensured a steady stream of business throughout the year, taking much of the unpredictability out of the business. Finally, Galbreath was struck by the franchise&rsquo;s deliberately scalable model, which was designed to encourage large-scale growth for franchisees.

&ldquo;When you look into the franchise model, you see how it&rsquo;s built for new franchisees to get up on their feet quickly,&rdquo; Galbreath said. &ldquo;Not only is the franchise fee lower than&nbsp;other brands&#39;, most of it goes right back toward things you need for the job, like signs, invoice forms and equipment, so when you pay that initial fee, you are investing directly into your business, and there really aren&rsquo;t that many other costs. From there, it&rsquo;s easy and inexpensive to grow. You can take on a second territory and get more trucks out on the road without having to build another location or find a whole new staff. You can&rsquo;t find that kind of scalability with other models.&rdquo;

In early October, Galbreath went to a Lawn Doctor discovery day, where he met with members of the corporate team. He learned how those features that attracted him to the brand were not just ancillary benefits for franchisees, they were foundational aspects of the Lawn Doctor business model.

&ldquo;When I was meeting with everyone at the discovery day, it became clear how the brand&rsquo;s first priority is the franchisee&rdquo; Galbreath said. They don&rsquo;t just say that. Their entire growth strategy for the brand is about encouraging the growth of their franchisees, so everything they do works to support the franchisees.&rdquo;

Shortly after the discovery day, Galbreath signed on to become a Lawn Doctor owner and set to work training and marketing. According to Lawn Doctor&rsquo;s Vice President of Franchise Development, Eric Martin, the benefits of Galbreath&rsquo;s young age immediately became apparent.

&ldquo;This is a business that has historically appealed to a slightly older generation,&rdquo; Martin said. &ldquo;Millennials don&rsquo;t tend to have as much interest in lawns, but that&rsquo;s exactly where Kevin sees a big opportunity. Millennials are moving to the suburbs and are busy with their careers. The younger, dual income family of today places a huge premium on their downtime, more so than that of previous generations. They have embraced the &lsquo;do it for me&rsquo; mentality and there&rsquo;s a substantial market there for our services. Kevin sees that clearly and he knows how to take advantage of it.&rdquo;

Galbreath says his young age has already played a big role in setting his business up for early success. &ldquo;Lawn Doctor is very savvy with online and social media marketing, and because we&rsquo;re a part of our target demographic, we have comfort in how to work with and market to these people. This was a big decision to make at our age, but we knew that the sooner we got started, the greater potential we&rsquo;d have for our future.&rdquo;

Now that Galbreath&rsquo;s Lawn Doctor is open, he&rsquo;s already considering his long-term and short-term plans for expansion.

&ldquo;We&rsquo;re talking about growth,&rdquo; Galbreath said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s early, but our area is growing fast and we can already see a lot of potential for organic growth over the next couple of years. This is a business that is built to grow, and we&rsquo;re excited to capitalize on that.&rdquo;

33-Year-Old Kevin Galbreath Opens First Lawn Doctor Territory This Month

1851 Franchise

The Texas native is one of the youngest owners in the lawn-care brand’s franchise system.

This brand page has been paid for by LAWN DOCTOR. Content within this page that is paid will showcase a Sponsored icon. This means the brand has engaged 1851 FRANCHISE to write the content. Content without the Sponsored Icon is aggregated media placements the brand earned. Questions can be sent to editorial@1851franchise.com

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For&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominick-pennella-9918a448/">Dominick Pennella</a>, the journey to becoming a franchise owner with&nbsp;<a href="http://lawndoctorfranchise.com">Lawn Doctor</a>, the 700-plus-unit national lawn care franchise, has unique ties back to his childhood and family. Growing up in Brooklyn in a traditional Italian family, Pennella was involved in the family landscaping business from a young age. He also saw just how important family was. As he approached adulthood, he wanted to explore other paths, which led him to the Navy“I was the baby of three kids. The family culture was already set; landscaping was the thing, and we were Italians who lived in Brooklyn,” Pennella said. “I just felt like there was so much more world to see. I’m appreciating all of these things now, in hindsight, but as an 18-year-old, I just wanted to get going. So I joined the military, and it was the scariest thing I ever did.”<h2>The Military to Corporate Transition</h2>For Pennella, the military was a way to fast-track personal growth, in a way, allowing him to explore what it would mean to go out on his own. It meant leaving his hometown and taking on the adventure without familial backing.He spent about four years in the Navy, working on submarines and doing things like monitoring nuclear reactors through a keyhole. In addition to meeting new people and seeing new places, his time in the Navy set Pennella up with a technical foundation that would define his corporate journey.This military background and technical proficiency opened doors for Pennella as he transitioned to civilian life. He was hired as a field service engineer for a biomedical company before even completing a college degree, but he was already looking toward the “next rung” of the ladder.“I was looking up at the next rung. I thought, ‘I can do that, and to do that, I would need an education directly in management,’” he said. “I decided to sign up for distance learning and see if I could work full-time and go to school at the same time. I did that for about five years. My master’s was in business management.”As he continued to climb the corporate ladder, Pennella returned to lessons he learned in his early landscaping years.“Whether you're showing up to someone's home to take care of a lawn or whether you're showing up to a hospital mid-surgery to take care of a blood gas instrument, the end result is still the same,” he said. “You still have to deal with people who are discontent. They don’t like the current situation, and they need to believe in you. You need to convey a plan, communicate throughout that process and close the loop at the end.”“Regardless of the perceived severity of what you’re fixing, any type of field service is similar,” he continued. “When I worked for my father as a landscaper, it was the exact same thing. A different product, but the exact same customer-facing experience. They want to know what you can do for them. ‘I’m in this situation. How can you help me? And can I contact you if I need anything?’ If you answer all those questions, they're happy. It was the same thing in medical device field service. So, I did well by literally copying the same tenets my father taught me.”Throughout his corporate career, Pennella’s approach earned him and his teams multiple awards and widespread recognition. But as he advanced, it also began to demand more from Pennella in terms of travel. When these requirements began to overshadow his family time, he knew it was time for a change.“I was successful, but my family is so important to me, and they were not more than 20% of my week in any given week in that life,” he said. “I knew it was time for a change.”Today, Pennella says that decision was fueled by the people who matter most — his wife of 14 years, Maria, who is also his partner in running the business, and their two daughters, Dora (11) and Gigi (7). He describes them as his daily inspiration and the driving force behind his decision to build something that would allow him to be present, ambitious and rooted at home all at once.“I didn’t even think of landscaping again, because that was what my dad did,” he continued. “I did electronics in the Navy, and that was my thing. But my father and I, one thing we have in common is the love of family. He couldn’t wait to get home and spend time with us when I was young, and I share that same view.”So, when he first began searching for his next opportunity, Pennella was looking for other roles in the same industry. He wanted to stick with “his thing,” just in a capacity that would require less travel and allow for more family time. After realizing that, at his level of seniority, any new role would be more of the same, he went to step two: franchises.<h2>Identifying Lawn Doctor: The Return to the Lawn Care Business</h2>“There are about a billion franchises for anything you could possibly think of, so how do you choose one?” he said. “I ended up finding some really great people — some franchise brokers. I took the Zorakle Assessment, and two days later, they called and said, ‘Hey, have you ever heard of&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/info">Lawn Doctor</a>?’”At this point, Pennella had not mentioned Lawn Doctor to the brokers, but he remembered it from childhood. He saw the green thumb logo and vehicles in the community and, as a child, asked his father how the business model worked since he never saw them cutting anyone’s lawn. At the time, his father explained that fertilization was one of the more profitable services in the lawn care space, but the conversation stopped there.So, when Pennella was presented with the Lawn Doctor franchise opportunity decades later, it almost felt meant to be.“When I started doing some research, I realized it might be the perfect fit. It tied in with my nostalgia, my culture, my history, my skill sets — everything,” he said. “And again, it’s field service. It wasn’t a straight line, and I don’t know where I would be if it wasn’t for the folks who guided me in the selection process. But when they said ‘Lawn Doctor,’ I thought, ‘Are you kidding me? I used to joke about comparing Lawn Doctor to the type of work I did in my father’s business.’ And here I am, the owner of a Lawn Doctor franchise! And I couldn’t be happier with the choice.”<h2>Building Momentum Through a Culture of Collaboration</h2>As Pennella launched&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lawndoctor.com/naples-fl/">Lawn Doctor of Naples-LaBelle-Marco Island</a>, he applied a sophisticated management lens to a local service model. This approach has already yielded impressive results, driving Pennella to blow his first-year projections out of the water within a couple of months. By focusing on communication and personal outreach, including knocking on clients’ doors himself, he was able to build trust and set the business up for an amazing first year.“It’s a simple, scalable model, and it sets you up to make your money back in a fairly short time frame,” he said. “It’s a great choice for a calculated risk-taker.”In addition to his own analytical lens, Pennella’s success has been driven by the support of the entire franchise system. Previously accustomed to a “dog-eat-dog” atmosphere in corporate America, Pennella was pleasantly surprised by the collaborative nature of the Lawn Doctor system. While he has worked diligently to educate himself on all facets of the business, he realized that, with the franchise system behind him, he didn’t have to absorb all of the information immediately and completely.“In the corporate world, everyone is looking for their own win. Here, a rising tide floats all ships,” he said. “I have at least five other owners and a dedicated mentor that I can call any time for any reason, and they’ll have an answer. I’m not scared to take on things I might not be an expert on yet because I have the backup to help me find those answers if needed.”&nbsp;Pennella is quick to credit those who have walked beside him during this first year. He highlights&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottspitz/">Scott Spitz</a> of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lawndoctor.com/lakeworth-fl/lawn-care-in-west-palm-beach/">West Palm Beach</a>, who has served as a dedicated mentor, providing the institutional knowledge that only a veteran owner can offer. He also expresses deep gratitude for the ongoing support from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafael-valle-a92584103/">Ralph Valle</a> in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lawndoctor.com/jacksonville-fl/lawn-care-in-jacksonville/">Jacksonville</a> and the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lawndoctor.com/fortmyers-fl/home/">Duffy family in Fort Myers</a>, whose insights helped him navigate the nuances of the Florida market, illustrating just how valuable it is to be a part of the Lawn Doctor system, which functions as a true team.As he prepares for continued growth, Pennella recognizes that there will be additional learning and growth opportunities as a Lawn Doctor owner, but he’s ready for them, and he encourages others in a similar position to consider taking the leap, as well.“If you are willing to learn agronomy and work closely with the franchisor, this can change your life,” he said. “It gave me the one thing I couldn’t find in the corporate world: the ability to put my family first without sacrificing my ambition. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor">https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor.</a>&nbsp;

Photo of Lawn Doctor franchisee Dominick Pennella and family

After making the switch to franchising for better work-life balance and to prioritize his family, Dominick Pennella exceeded his first-year projections by 50% in his first few months of operations.

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Design with photo of John Perry and Lawn Doctor logo

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33-Year-Old Kevin Galbreath Opens First Lawn Doctor Territory This Month

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