Lawn Doctor

Tommy Campbell’s career took a detour at a later stage in life than most entrepreneurs. Campbell spent decades in the commercial construction industry, where he served as the vice president of several major construction companies. And while he enjoyed the work, Campbell says that through all the red tape and endless obstacles, he was looking for a way out.“I was burnt out,” said Campbell. “I was ready to find an exit strategy, one that allowed me to maintain financial wellbeing without feeling so burnt out.”That’s when he encountered Sara Waskow, a franchise owner and business consultant. The duo connected on LinkedIn when Waskow asked Campbell if he would be interested in becoming a franchisee.&nbsp;“We had a series of conversations over a period of six to nine months, and then we went through some personality-type tests and she presented me with some options in the franchise world,” said Campbell.Campbell said he’d always associated franchising with restaurants, but Waskow opened up an entirely new perspective of franchising and entrepreneurship for him.&nbsp;When it came to choosing a franchise, Campbell went with Lawn Doctor. When asked why he chose to go into owning a lawn care business, Campbell said that he was motivated by his love of being outdoors and working outside.“I love the outdoors,” he said. “I had some experience in the commercial industry that I previously worked in, and every project had some sort of landscaping and irrigation, so I was already informed on how to take care of lawns.”For Campbell, opening a Lawn Doctor location was a natural fit. He decided to combine his love for the outdoors with his prior knowledge of lawn care and let it all fall into place.When he knew that Lawn Doctor was the way to go, Campbell and his wife Kim attended Discovery Day,&nbsp;where they met the team behind it all. And, as many franchisees say, it felt like they were meeting people they already knew. “Meeting with corporate leadership felt comfortable,” said Campbell. “They were onboard with us and we thought they had a great business model.”&nbsp;<h4>A Network of Caring Entrepreneurs</h4>Campbell said his experience as a Lawn Doctor franchisee has been positive, and he hasn’t looked back since.“Lawn Doctor has great policies and procedures to help guide you and keep you out of the ditch and on the road,” he said.There are also other Lawn Doctor franchises in the region, and Campbell said he appreciates the support franchisees provide each other throughout the entrepreneurial journey.“We connect with each other on a weekly basis,” said Campbell. “We have a group chat going on to share information and ask questions. There’s never anything that someone with our organization hasn’t come across already.”Even as a newcomer to the group, Campbell has been able to answer questions for other franchisees who have come across something they haven’t dealt with before.“I can answer questions for people who have been doing this for years,” said Campbell. “It’s really great.”In addition to the regional support that Campbell has with his fellow Lawn Doctor franchisees, he said that he also enjoys the help he receives from corporate. “They help with all the marketing that we do,” he said.He also works with mentors who allow him to bounce ideas off of them, while also checking in to make sure everything is going ok. “We talk about business planning and focusing on growth, making sure we’re doing the right things to help us get to where we want to be,” said Campbell.<h4>Never Looking Back</h4>When Campbell made his exit from the commercial construction industry, he didn’t want to be a “stay at home” type of guy. Thankfully, he said, he found Lawn Doctor, a train that he hopes to ride on for a while.&nbsp;“I enjoy doing this work and meeting new folks,” he said.&nbsp;Since he opened his Lawn Doctor business, Campbell said he hasn’t looked back.&nbsp;“When you’re in my shoes, as a potential franchise buyer, there’s always the question of ‘what if?’” he said. “But I would tell somebody, if you have more pros than cons, then you need to knuckle up, take the chance and go for it. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it.”Campbell said he was intimately involved in his day-to-day operation&nbsp;before he began bringing on others, delegating responsibilities and adding to his growing team. Now he’s excited about the future growth and potential that’s in front of him.“I haven’t looked back and have enjoyed every minute of it,” he said.&nbsp;The sentiment from Lawn Doctor toward Campbell is mutual."The strength of our system comes down to the success of our franchisees, which is why we're proud to work alongside owners like Tommy,” said Eric Martin, Vice President of Franchise Development for Lawn Doctor's parent brand, Happinest. “As we head into the new year, we're looking forward to continuing to help him grow as a business owner and work alongside new franchisees who are eager to tap into the rising demand for home services like lawn care."The startup costs for a Lawn Doctor franchise range from $102,015 to $127,065. The franchise fee ranges between $88,950 and $102,000. To learn more about franchising with Lawn Doctor, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=how-this-construction-vp-turned-franchisee-found-a-motivating-network-of-entrepreneurs-with-lawn-doctor-2717607" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/</a>.&nbsp;

How This Construction VP-Turned-Franchisee Found a Motivating Network of Entrepreneurs With Lawn Doctor

1851 Franchise

After decades in the commercial construction industry left Tommy Campbell feeling burnt out, his career took a detour that landed him an opportunity to do the things he enjoys.

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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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