Lawn Doctor

<a href="http://www.lawndoctor.com/chardon-oh/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=ohios-alan-eggleston-finds-a-fresh-start-with-lawn-doctor-2704624" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">New Ohio Lawn Doctor franchisee Alan Eggleston</a>&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t have much experience searching for jobs. When he was 18, the Eugene, Oregon native was hired in the office of a six-million-dollar food-service-equipment company, and he&rsquo;d work for that same company for the next 33 years.&nbsp;

That&rsquo;s not to stay Eggleston did not have an exciting career path. Eggleston rocketed through his company, finding himself in upper management at a young age, and eventually moving to Ohio to run the company&rsquo;s Cleveland branch.

&ldquo;When I was hired at 18, I immediately had my hands full with all sorts of work,&rdquo; said Eggleston. &ldquo;I was doing bills and routing and handling accounting materials, and soon my work was recognized by the president of the company. By 21 they had essentially put me in charge of the shop. I was just a kid, but I was managing 50 employees. It was an awesome experience.&rdquo;

A few years after that promotion, the company was sold to a new owner, who asked that Eggleston take over operations at their Cleveland branch. Eggleston moved to Cleveland and the company continued to grow until the owner decided to bring on new management, a move Eggleston did not support.

&ldquo;I was very happy with the direction that the company was moving in, but they decided to bring in new management, and I didn&rsquo;t agree with their tactics at all, so after 33 years, I decided to resign,&rdquo; Eggleston said. &ldquo;Three years after that management team came on board, the Cleveland branch closed, so I have to say my instincts were right on that one.&rdquo;

Eggleston was glad to have left the company when he did, but he was still too young to retire, so he began looking at other career options.

&ldquo;I decided I wanted to own something for myself rather than jump back into another giant company,&rdquo; Eggleston said, &ldquo;so I began to look at franchising options.&rdquo;

Eggleston&rsquo;s experience in business and operations had prepared him to run a business, but what kind of business he would run was still an open question.

&ldquo;I worked with a franchise consulting company, and they were helping me shop around different concepts,&rdquo; Eggleston said. &ldquo;Some of them made more sense than others, but I was really looking for something that I could be passionate about.&rdquo;

It wasn&rsquo;t long before the consulting company introduced Eggleston to&nbsp;<a href="http://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=ohios-alan-eggleston-finds-a-fresh-start-with-lawn-doctor-2704624" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lawn Doctor</a>, and Eggleston immediately took an interest.

&ldquo;I live in Hambden, Ohio on a big three-acre lot. It&rsquo;s a huge property, with a giant yard,&rdquo; Eggleston explained. &ldquo;I love working in that yard, so when I came across <a href="https://lawndoctor.1851franchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=ohios-alan-eggleston-finds-a-fresh-start-with-lawn-doctor-2704624" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lawn Doctor</a>, I was excited.&rdquo;

Eggleston&rsquo;s consultant put him in touch with Eric Martin, Lawn Doctor&rsquo;s vice president of franchise development, who saw a great candidate in Eggleston.

&ldquo;Alan had tremendous business experience,&rdquo; Martin said, &ldquo;but what immediately stood out to me was who the guy was as a person. Alan is married to his high school sweetheart. He&rsquo;s got kids, grandkids, he&rsquo;s very family-oriented, and that&rsquo;s something we are always thrilled to find in a prospective owner.&rdquo;

Moreover, Eggleston is an outdoorsman, a quality Martin sees as an invaluable feature among Lawn Doctor owners.

&ldquo;Alan fishes, he works on his property, he rides ATVs, he&rsquo;s exactly the type of person who really takes to the Lawn Doctor model. I knew right away that he was going to have fun with this business.&rdquo;

Martin and Eggleston would speak on the phone a few times a week while Eggleston was checking out the company, and both were increasingly sensing a strong fit. After a few weeks of research, Eggleston had the opportunity to meet Lawn Doctor&rsquo;s CEO, Scott Frith.

&ldquo;I went out for the company&rsquo;s discovery day, which allowed prospective owners to spend a few hours at both the manufacturing and group headquarters, and I met Scott there,&rdquo; said Eggleston. We had dinner that evening, and it was basically a two-way interview. I got the idea from that conversation that I could really grow with Lawn Doctor, and I think Scott saw the same thing.&rdquo;

After that meeting, Eggleston was sold on Lawn Doctor, and he was eager to get his operation up and running quickly.

&ldquo;I was probably pushing them to get me started faster than most franchisees,&rdquo; Eggleston said. &ldquo;I really wanted to get the business up and running in 2017 so I could be fully prepared for the busy seasons in 2018. They helped move the process along quickly, giving me all the information I needed, guiding me on securing a license with the state, and setting me up with all the training I needed.&rdquo;

Eggleston had vetted a number of other franchise concepts before picking Lawn Doctor, and he found that their initial communication efforts didn&rsquo;t stand up to Lawn Doctor&rsquo;s.

&ldquo;The other franchises I worked with, they could be a little disorganized and slow to respond,&rdquo; said Eggleston. &ldquo;That wasn&rsquo;t at all the case with Lawn Doctor. I could get Eric on the phone whenever I needed him, and anything he didn&rsquo;t immediately have an answer for, he&rsquo;d research and get back to me the next day. It was a great experience that really made me feel like I was working with a strong partner.&rdquo;

As soon as the ink was dry on Eggleston&rsquo;s contract with Lawn Doctor, he began training.

&ldquo;The training program is really incredible,&rdquo; Eggleston said. &ldquo;They offer in-depth training sessions as well as hands-on experience shadowing existing franchisees. Even now, after getting my business up and running, they&rsquo;re still offering me training sessions and site visits.&rdquo;

Eggleston finished up training and received his state license in the fall. He opened his business on September 15. Eggleston had aimed for a fall start so that he could establish his business and do some marketing before the busy spring season, but he was surprised to find a steady stream of business right off the bat.

&ldquo;I&rsquo;m saving my advertising budget for 2018 and I&rsquo;m still receiving great leads every day,&rdquo; Eggleston said. &ldquo;Lawn Doctor has very sophisticated online marketing tools, and I get very strong leads just from the Lawn Doctor website alone. And the conversion rate on those leads is extremely high. People don&rsquo;t go out looking for lawn services and then drop it; if they get in touch, they are likely to follow through.&rdquo;

Business is coming in faster than expected, but Eggleston feels well prepared to handle it.

&ldquo;After you&rsquo;ve seen a few customers, you start to feel very comfortable doing evaluations,&rdquo; Eggleston said. &ldquo;Between that on-the-job experience and the training, you have so much knowledge, it&rsquo;s easy to feel confident.&rdquo;

With such a strong start even before the spring and summer months, Eggleston is already preparing to grow his operation.

&ldquo;I am going to bring on my first employee in February so that they are trained and ready to go in March,&rdquo; Eggleston said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m also going to purchase a trailer before the end of the year. That&rsquo;s pretty significant growth, but it&rsquo;s just keeping up with the pace of the business.&rdquo;

Eggleston does not expect that growth to slow anytime soon.

&ldquo;When I was looking into Lawn Doctor, I suspected it would be a business that I could grow fairly rapidly,&rdquo; Eggleston said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve found success even faster than I anticipated. I fully expect to be a million-dollar company in ten years.&rdquo;

In ten years, Eggleston will be in his 60s, at which point he plans to take a less hands-on role in the business.

&ldquo;One of the things that attracted me to this job is that it&rsquo;s something I can do after a typical retirement age. Right now, I really enjoy being outside and working with my hands, but in a few years, I plan to settle into a management role and let the younger guys do the physical work. After so many years working in a corporate environment, that kind of flexibility is exactly the type of freedom I was adamant about finding in my second career.&quot;

<a href="http://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=ohios-alan-eggleston-finds-a-fresh-start-with-lawn-doctor-2704624" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Visit Lawn Doctor&#39;s Website</a>

Lawn Doctor Franchise, Alan Eggleston, Ohio

Ohio’s Alan Eggleston Finds a Fresh Start with Lawn Doctor

1851 Franchise

After 33 years in the corporate world, Alan Eggleston is shutting off his computer and heading outside

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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

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