Lawn Doctor

When entrepreneurs make the decision to get into business for themselves by signing a franchise agreement, it’s hard for them to imagine the day that their role in that business will end. However, the ability to gracefully and successfully exit a franchise system is one of the key components that candidates should be looking for throughout their due diligence process.Take Mike Mary, a former franchisee with <a href="https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=how-a-former-franchisee-eased-into-retirement-with-the-help-of-lawn-doctor-2713274" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lawn Doctor</a>. A lot went into his decision to purchase the brand’s existing location in Knoxville, Tennessee back in 2009—before he was a franchisee, <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/lawn-doctor-franchisee-mike-mary-leads-by-serving-2705127">Mary had built a 34-year career in the book and magazine business</a>, working his way up from being a truck driver to vice president of marketing. Mary started to consider a career change when his friend, a franchisee of Lawn Doctor, told him about the brand’s business model. After doing his own research, Mary decided to purchase that same location from his friend, who was looking to sell.&nbsp;Ultimately, what inspired Mary to become a franchisee was how he could utilize the skills he had acquired over the course of his career and capitalize on them as the leader of his own business.“What appealed to me was that I had a lot of experience managing people, training employees and managing budgets. I was used to being the owner and decision maker, and I was comfortable being a leader and setting goals,” said Mary. “But what really stood out to me was that Lawn Doctor provided the opportunity to work with people and help them. I loved the idea of being able to give employees a decent wage while building a company.”Over the next decade, Mary had a successful run with <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor">Lawn Doctor</a>. After buying the Knoxville location and taking over in 2009, Mary grew it from generating about $750,000 in sales to over&nbsp;$2 million. However, as he approached his 69th birthday, he realized that it was time for him to retire. So, he started thinking about selling his location.The perfect solution then presented itself—Mary wanted to sell the location to a friend, which was the same way that he initially entered the system. He found that new owner in Steve Mitchell.“I met Steve when I moved to Knoxville. He was a golf course superintendent in the community where we live, and he often helped me with my lawn. He also has a degree in turf management and owns his own landscape company, making him a perfect fit for Lawn Doctor,” Mary said. “When I mentioned that I was looking to sell my franchise, a lightbulb went off. It made perfect sense for Steve to take over because he wanted a business opportunity that was a little more stable.”Even though Mary is no longer the official owner of Lawn Doctor in Knoxville, he’s still playing a role in the business. ‘Right now, I’m in the process of helping the new owner,” he said. There’s a lot that goes on seasonally, so I’m helping him get acclimated to all of the best practices that worked for me.”Mary’s also thankful for his time with Lawn Doctor, and is looking forward to seeing the brand thrive in Knoxville for years to come.“After 10 years, I’ve built a great connection with the Lawn Doctor team,” he said. I’m grateful that this company allowed me to build a strong business in my community, work with really good people along the way, and head into my retirement knowing the business is in great hands and will continue to grow.”&nbsp;The startup costs for a Lawn Doctor franchise range from $100,015 to $116,065. The franchise fee ranges from $25,000 to $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=how-a-former-franchisee-eased-into-retirement-with-the-help-of-lawn-doctor-2713274" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/</a>.

How a Former Franchisee Eased into Retirement with the Help of Lawn Doctor

1851 Franchise

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BcKD8sjCwtk

After running and growing the Lawn Doctor’s successful Knoxville, Tennessee franchise for over a decade, Mike Mary is stepping down and helping a new local owner take over.

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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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