Lawn Doctor

When Kristin and Bob Eisbrenner decided to open their own <a href="http://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spring-push-starts-in-winter-for-lawn-doctor-professionals-2705212" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lawn Doctor</a> business in 2015, the married couple wanted to start a business they could grow on their own schedule. Kristin, a career customer service manager, and Bob, a career project- and business-development manager, had both clocked 25 years in the corporate world and were eager to own something for themselves, something that wouldn&#39;t&nbsp;take over their calendar. With <a href="https://lawndoctor.1851franchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spring-push-starts-in-winter-for-lawn-doctor-professionals-2705212" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lawn Doctor</a> they found just that&mdash;a business that not only allowed them to grow at their own pace but offered the additional benefit of a seasonal service model. Now, as Kristin and Bob prepare for their third spring as Lawn Doctor owners, the married couple is taking full advantage of the winter&rsquo;s downtime to grow their business.

&ldquo;We&rsquo;re taking the winter to prepare for the upcoming busy season,&rdquo; said Bob, who still works at his day job in the corporate world. &ldquo;Winter gives us a chance to take a step back and look at the business as a whole and see what we can do to improve it. In the summer, we are full bore in the day-to-day operations, so it&rsquo;s really valuable to have this time to gather ourselves.&rdquo;

To ensure a strong busy season starting in the spring, Bob and Kristin are focusing most of their efforts on marketing this winter. Kristin says Lawn Doctor&rsquo;s marketing model is flexible, allowing franchisees to apply the methods that work best for their service areas.

&ldquo;We do a lot of pay-per-click advertising online,&rdquo; Kristin said. &ldquo;Social media, especially Facebook, has been huge. We don&rsquo;t do much door-to-door or paper advertising because we&rsquo;ve found it to be less effective, and Lawn Doctor has encouraged us to go with what works. We also do a lot of automatic mailings, which have been great. That allows us to set up marketing now that will automatically be distributed throughout the busy season when we are less focused on marketing.&rdquo;

Marketing in the winter is especially important because it encourages customers to sign up for services in advance, which Bob says provides a host of benefits to both the business and its clients.

&ldquo;Lawn Doctor offers a discount to customers who sign up for services in advance, so that&rsquo;s a big incentive,&rdquo; Bob said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve also found that when the spring comes around, our customers who have signed up for services in advance are relieved to have that task taken off their plate. It&rsquo;s taken care of, and they don&rsquo;t have to think about it. For us, it&rsquo;s great to have customers signing up in advance because we get a payment up front, and it helps us measure out our scheduling while we are still more focused on office tasks.&rdquo;

Bob says about 25&ndash;30 percent of their customers sign up for services during the winter, and that has gone a long way to make the business easier to manage. Having a good idea of how many clients the business will be servicing in advance is particularly helpful for operations that grow as fast as Bob and Kristin&rsquo;s, which Bob says in on pace to double its revenue for the second year in a row.

&ldquo;We grew by about 150 percent from our first year to our second,&rdquo; Bob said, &ldquo;and we expect to double again next year. Taking the winter to focus on administration gives us a chance to look at those numbers and make sure we have everything we need to accommodate all of our new clients.&rdquo;

To prepare for the influx of new customers, the Eisbrenner&rsquo;s are looking to grow their operation by adding staff and a new vehicle.

&ldquo;We currently have two technicians, one year-round and one just in the spring, summer, and fall,&rdquo; Kristin said. &ldquo;Our year-round technician helps out with all sorts of marketing and administrative duties throughout the winter. That&rsquo;s worked well for us, but we&rsquo;re outgrowing that model, so we&rsquo;re getting ready to hire both office staff and technicians and bring in another vehicle.&rdquo;

According to Eric Martin, Lawn Doctor&rsquo;s vice president of franchise development, the Eisbrenner&rsquo;s winter workload is reflective of the brand&rsquo;s operational design, which has been refined to remain profitable while allowing owners to slow their pace for the season.

&ldquo;Prospective franchise partners always want to know what we do in the off season,&rdquo; Martin said. &ldquo;With payments still coming in from late-fall services, early sign-up-incentivized customers coming forward in January and February, and our spring marketing programs kicking off in the late winter months, there is a ton of activity throughout the winter. There isn&rsquo;t the hustle and bustle of scheduling and servicing this time of year, so our franchisees get to do something most business owners can&rsquo;t: enjoy the holidays, take a vacation, or just spend some time with their family for a while. Our owners are cranking away with their teams in the busy spring, summer, and fall months, and fortunately this business provides them an opportunity to take a well-earned breather in the winter.&rdquo;

As the Eisbrenner&rsquo;s Lawn Doctor business continues to grow, Bob says they are taking full advantage of the support Lawn Doctor&rsquo;s franchise system provides.

&ldquo;Corporate set us up with a field marketing rep for our first year, and we still talk to him by phone whenever we have marketing questions,&rdquo; Bob said. &ldquo;We also have a consultant from corporate who comes out a few times a year to make sure we have everything we need. We also have good relationships with the other Lawn Doctor owners in the area; they are a great source for any questions we run into.&rdquo;

That support has helped the Eisbrenner&rsquo;s grow their business quickly, but at their own pace, allowing them the control they were adamant about achieving when they first looked into Lawn Doctor.

&ldquo;Lawn Doctor offers so many ways to help you generate customers and income,&rdquo; Bob said, &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s up to us as owners to put those resources to use in a way that works for us. We&rsquo;ve found a lot of success with Lawn Doctor, but we&rsquo;re still able to take our foot off the gas a bit in the winter and even take vacations if we like. That&rsquo;s exactly what we were looking for when we decided we wanted to own a business for ourselves.&quot;

Lawn Doctor, Bob Eisbrenner, Kristin Eisbrenner

Spring Push Starts in Winter for Lawn Doctor Professionals

1851 Franchise

Marketing and preseason incentive packages keep Kristin and Bob Eisbrenner busy through the winter 

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

spring-push-starts-in-winter-for-lawn-doctor-professionals

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

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

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

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

Spring Push Starts in Winter for Lawn Doctor Professionals

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS