Lawn Doctor

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-demeyer-7bb50946/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=lawn-doctor-franchisee-takes-over-family-business-to-continue-his-parents-legacy-2726354" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">John Demeyer Jr.’s</a> venture into business ownership was over three decades in the making. It all started when his dad, unhappy with his current career, decided to seek out an entrepreneurial opportunity.&nbsp;Growing up, Demeyer worked for his parents’&nbsp;<a href="https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=lawn-doctor-franchisee-takes-over-family-business-to-continue-his-parents-legacy-2726354" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lawn Doctor</a> franchise on and off throughout the years, while trying out a few ventures of his own along the way. He always knew that, eventually, he would buy out his parents and take on the family business; he officially did so in 2020, also buying out the neighboring franchise territory for good measure.1851 Franchise spoke with Demeyer about his journey into franchising with&nbsp;<a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/info">Lawn Doctor</a> and his plans for the future.1851 Franchise: Frame your personal story for us.&nbsp;How did you become a franchisee with Lawn Doctor?John Demeyer Jr.:&nbsp;My parents started the business in 1987. They found out about the concept because Lawn Doctor was servicing my grandmother's lawn. At the time, my dad hated his job, so my grandmother suggested he come and talk to the franchise owners who took care of her lawn because she thought it might be something he’d like to do.&nbsp;We’ve grown very close with that adjoining franchise over the years. When they found out that my parents were retiring, they said, “Well then, we want to retire, too!” I ended up buying out both of them within a month of each other.&nbsp;In my younger years, I’d worked on and off with them. I had my own landscape business and a few other projects through college. My plan was always, at some point, to buy my parents out and take over the family business.My wife— or rather, soon-to-be wife at that time — was working for my parents to get through nursing school. There were a lot of technological changes and my parents asked me to come back and help out. I ended up coming back and working with my parents in 2009 and continued working with them until we bought them out in 2020.&nbsp;1851:&nbsp;What do you love most about this company?Demeyer:&nbsp;The brand is supported well by the parent company, which is a great working relationship to have. I can count on them for anything I need.&nbsp;This is a great industry to be in, as well. It’s something that people are generally happy to have as a service. Mainly you are dealing with people who want their house and lawn to look nice, and that is something we can really help them achieve.&nbsp;1851:&nbsp;What do you hope to achieve with your business? What are your plans for growth?&nbsp;Demeyer:&nbsp;We are focusing right now on increasing the services we provide for each customer within our existing territories. We do tick control, for example, on top of lawn care, so we want our customers to be aware of all of our service lines.1851:&nbsp;What is the one thing about your story you want us to know?Demeyer:&nbsp;Working in a family business can be very rewarding and sometimes tough. I was fortunate to work closely for years with my parents while I was taught how they had been doing things successfully for 30-plus years. We sometimes had disagreements on how things should be done but we always worked through it and the power of the new ideas and years of experience generally led us to a good outcome. Purchasing the business from them in the end was a great life decision for myself, my family and [my parents] as it provided them with retirement income for years to follow!1851:&nbsp;What advice do you have for other people thinking about becoming a franchise owner?Demeyer:&nbsp;Consider your franchise choice carefully and do your research. It’s nice to have that support and the brand awareness. As a startup, that name recognition is really helpful.1851: Do you have any plans to pass the business down once again some day?Demeyer:&nbsp;My children are young and they seem interested right now, but there is no pressure whatsoever. If they are interested, that’s great. If not, that’s fine too. If they are interested, I have to keep working longer!&nbsp;About Lawn Doctor:&nbsp;Since its first franchise in 1967, Lawn Doctor has established itself as a leader in the lawn care services industry through innovative technology, its ability to satisfy the needs of consumers on a national level, and its development and expansion within the industry. Lawn Doctor specializes in treatment and conditioning services, such as fertilization, weed control, seeding, aeration and tree and shrub care. The Lawn Doctor brand has hundreds of locally owned and operated franchises and is the #1 ranked lawn care franchise in the United States.&nbsp; Lawn Doctor is a 2023 Franchise 500 brand, ranking no. 79 for its financial strength and stability, unit growth and brand power.&nbsp;

Lawn Doctor Franchisee Takes Over Family Business 

1851 Franchise

John Demeyer Jr.’s parents bought a Lawn Doctor franchise in 1987. Now, over 35 years later, he is the business owner of 10 territories across Connecticut.

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

Lawn Doctor Franchisee Takes Over Family Business To Continue His Parents’ Legacy

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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;

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Lawn Doctor Franchisee Takes Over Family Business To Continue His Parents’ Legacy

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