Lawn Doctor

It&rsquo;s not every day that two married couples in their 30s decide to go into franchising together, but then, not everyone is Jim and Aimee Coia or Brian and Jamie Foster. 

The Coia-Foster team opened their first <a href="https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=friends-and-franchisees-the-coias-and-the-fosters-are-all-in-with-lawn-doctor-2709532" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Lawn Doctor</a> franchise, based out of Stow, Ohio in February and are already seeing positive results. They&rsquo;ve purchased four territories in total. All four territories touch each other and cover 41 zip codes in northeastern Ohio. The two couples plan to open more <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/info/index.html" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">Lawn Doctor</a> franchises in the future. 

The Coias and the Fosters are thrilled to have purchased franchises so close to home. 

&ldquo;The fact that Lawn Doctor has 600 franchise locations and we were able to pick these four unbelievable territories right in our backyard is incredible,&rdquo; Jim said. 

They joined Lawn Doctor <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/lawn-doctor-begins-2019-with-strong-franchise-development-expectations-after-completing-one-of-its-biggest-years-in-franchise-development-in-2018--2708943" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">at a pivotal time</a>.

&ldquo;Their entire software system is being relaunched at the same time we&rsquo;re coming in,&rdquo; Aimee said. 

Jim and Brian Foster first met about 10 years ago when they both had just started working at the same company. Foster&rsquo;s background is in corporate finance. Today, he is a finance director for a local company in the Cleveland area, a role he enjoys and will retain while also franchising with Lawn Doctor. Jim&rsquo;s professional background is in sales and marketing. He, too, will retain his full-time job while franchising with Lawn Doctor. 

Aimee&rsquo;s background is in education. She was a preschool teacher before moving into early childhood administration, which she did for a combined 11 years before devoting herself to Lawn Doctor full-time in December. She knows a thing or two about wanting for solid, reliable lawn care service. 

&ldquo;Jim and I have lived in our house for seven years and couldn&rsquo;t find good lawn care where they had any relationship with you or make recommendations to get the best results,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I figured that I&rsquo;m used to taking care of people&rsquo;s children and I could see that translating to lawn care.&rdquo;

Aimee likes how Lawn Doctor <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/lawn-doctor-provides-financing-and-marketing-services-to-help-franchisees-ramp-up-their-business-and-achieve-success--2708415" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">has systems in place</a> to help set franchisees up for success.

&ldquo;I like the security of knowing that we&rsquo;re good and safe,&rdquo; Aimee said. &ldquo;Opening my own business was never on my wishlist but if there&rsquo;s anyone I believe in, it&rsquo;s Jim. After meeting with the leadership team, along with President and CEO Scott Frith, it was very clear that there&rsquo;s a lot of staying power behind Lawn Doctor.&rdquo; 

Jim wanted to open his own business for a long time. When a franchise consultant reached out to him on LinkedIn to gauge his interest in franchising, he was intrigued. He ended up going to a franchising event. Lawn Doctor wasn&rsquo;t present at the event, but Jim filled out a questionnaire and one of the companies recommended to him was Lawn Doctor. Jim actually has lawn care in his background. He did lawn care while in school and his family used to own a multi-state lawn care company. 

&ldquo;I love lawns and lawn care so I was immediately interested,&rdquo; Jim said. &ldquo;I went home and reviewed everything and was put directly in touch with Lawn Doctor&rsquo;s Vice President of Franchise Development, Eric Martin. We felt comfortable with him, the development team and the process from the very beginning. It was clear early they were evaluating the potential fit as much as we were. We wanted to move aggressively and it was about 45 days from our first conversation to signing papers.&rdquo; 

Jim appreciated the sense of authenticity he got from the brand. 

&ldquo;You get a team sense of open and honest communication,&rdquo; Jim said. &ldquo;Lawn Doctor honors their commitment and that meant a lot to us.&rdquo;

The Coia-Foster team is <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/lawn-doctor-s-incredible-staying-power-2709103" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">thrilled with the support</a> they&rsquo;ve received from the corporate team, especially in terms of marketing. 

&ldquo;Digging deeper into it, I really liked the strong marketing support we get, and our customer service reviews and ratings are among the highest in the industry from a retention and loyalty perspective,&rdquo; Foster said. 

Foster is thrilled for the chance to serve communities. Like Jim, he also wanted to own a business. 

&ldquo;I just love that we&rsquo;re going to be a locally-owned company with a national backing,&rdquo; Foster said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always wanted to be a business owner and be visible to the local community, too. It&rsquo;s nice because it&rsquo;s a service-oriented business. I just want to make people happy and help them enjoy their lawns and their yards.&rdquo;

The Coia-Foster team is excited to grow their business. 

&ldquo;One of the important things for us was trying to find something we could truly build and scale together,&rdquo; Jim said. &ldquo;I almost feel like there&rsquo;s no way we&rsquo;re going to fail. We&rsquo;re coming into this with a good team and we have the great support of Lawn Doctor.&rdquo;

The startup costs for a Lawn Doctor franchise range from $101,840 to $115,890. The franchise fee is $35,000. To learn more about franchising with Lawn Doctor, visit <a href="https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=friends-and-franchisees-the-coias-and-the-fosters-are-all-in-with-lawn-doctor-2709532" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line:none" target="_blank">https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/</a>.

Friends and Franchisees: The Coias and The Fosters Are All In with Lawn Doctor

1851 Franchise

The two sets of married couples decided to go in together on a Lawn Doctor franchise and they are already making waves with the brand. 


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

friends-and-franchisees-the-coias-and-the-fosters-are-all-in-with-lawn-doctor

FRANCHISE INFORMATION

Own a Lawn Doctor

Happinest Brands Makes the Off-Season a Win for Franchisees

Veteran Success With Lawn Doctor

Lawn Care Franchise Opportunity Overview

Learn

Download Brochure

Visit Website

LAWN DOCTOR

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

YouTube

SOCIAL MEDIA

Navy Veteran, Former Field Service Engineer Celebrates Early Success With Lawn Doctor Franchise

LAWN DOCTOR MOST READ STORIES

1851 LOGIN

GROWTH CLUB LOGIN

ABOUT LAWN DOCTOR

CONTACT LAWN DOCTOR

facebook

instagram

twitter

linkedin

youtube

First Name

Last Name

Email

Phone

City

State / Province

Zip Code

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.

navy-veteran-dominick-pennella-success

Design with photo of John Perry and Lawn Doctor logo

How a 20-Year Industry Veteran Tripled His Sales With a Lawn Doctor Franchise

lawn-doctor-franchise-success-story-john-perry

Happinest-Lawn-Doctor-Franchisee-Ralph-Valle-Profile-Jacksonville-FL-June-2025

From Near-Quit to 7 Figures: Success With Lawn Doctor in Jacksonville, Florida

lawn-doctor-franchise-success-jacksonville

Record-Breaking Rookies: Firefighter-Banker Duo Blazes Trail With Lawn Doctor Success

record-breaking-rookies-firefighter-banker-lawn-doctor-success

Friends and Franchisees: The Coias and The Fosters Are All In with Lawn Doctor

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS