Lawn Doctor

<a href="https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=why-lawn-doctor-franchisee-bryan-sallmen-continues-to-grow-with-the-brand-2711464" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lawn Doctor</a> is a household name in the lawn care sector and one that touts a robust franchise opportunity that is especially friendly to multi-unit owners. Just ask <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/how-bryan-sallmen-knew-the-grass-was-greener-with-lawn-doctor-franchise-ownership-2706439#brand-latest-stories">franchisee Bryan Sallmen</a>.&nbsp;Sallmen first joined <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor">Lawn Doctor</a> in 2011. He had spent the previous few years working for a competing lawn care brand and wanted the opportunity to become his own boss.“I watched my dad, who is a business owner, work 80 hours a week for 15 years to build a business to the point where it was profitable and did well,” Sallmen said. “I knew I liked being a business owner but I didn’t want it to take 15 years to get there. Lawn Doctor is turnkey. You have a huge support system. If you don’t have an answer for something, you can get it from your neighboring franchisee.”&nbsp;Today, Sallmen owns and operates three Lawn Doctor franchises. Two are in Michigan, specifically in Kalamazoo and the Portage-Battle Creek area, and the third is in South Bend, Indiana. He opened his second territory with the brand in 2017 and his third earlier this year.&nbsp;Sallmen credits Lawn Doctor’s strong franchise opportunity as a major reason for his continued expansion with the brand.&nbsp;“They’re willing to support you in any way,” Sallmen said. “Lawn Doctor is a tight-knit group. You have access to other franchisees and can tap into their knowledge and experience.”&nbsp;Lawn Doctor was founded in 1967 and <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/lawn-doctors-incredible-staying-power-2709103#franchisor">has since grown to more than 570 franchise locations across 40 states</a>. Lawn Doctor touts a franchise model that does not require a brick-and-mortar location and provides franchisees with recurring revenue. Earlier this year, the brand <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/lawn-doctor-recognized-on-entrepreneur-magazines-franchise-500-list-for-2019-2708901#franbuzz">landed a spot on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500 List</a>.&nbsp;Today, the brand’s support system is stronger than ever thanks to the recent launch of Happinest—which will serve as the parent company of Lawn Doctor—its sister company <a href="https://mosquitohuntersfranchise.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=why-lawn-doctor-franchisee-bryan-sallmen-continues-to-grow-with-the-brand-2711464" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Mosquito Hunters</a> and the newly-acquired residential cleaning service <a href="https://www.ecomaids.com/franchise-opportunities/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=why-lawn-doctor-franchisee-bryan-sallmen-continues-to-grow-with-the-brand-2711464" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">ecomaids</a>. Happinest will ensure that franchisees with all three brands receive the same consistently exceptional support.&nbsp;Sallmen certainly appreciates the support provided by Lawn Doctor team members such as the regional business consultants.&nbsp;“Your regional business consultant is the best employee you don’t have to pay for,” he said. “They can help you with whatever you need.”&nbsp;Of course, there are also the <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor/lawn-doctor-franchisees-enjoy-major-lifestyle-and-culture-benefits-2708649#franchisee">lifestyle and culture benefits</a> that come with being a franchisee. These include the chance to get involved in one’s community; Sallmen is very involved, sponsoring local sports teams and providing support to churches and senior citizens. He also supports veteran foundations and recovery programs for alcohol and drug addiction.&nbsp;“I like the fact that I can create my own lifestyle,” Sallmen said. “The harder I work and the more time I put in, the better my business will do. I can hire family members. I can go to my son’s basketball games whenever I want. The work still needs to be done but I have flexibility. I never want someone to tell me what to do.”&nbsp;Given his track record of success, Sallmen is open to continuing to expand with the brand.&nbsp;“It depends on the situation,” he said. “It’s all situational. You have to take advantage of opportunities but also work with what you’ve got.”&nbsp;He joked—but was also serious—when he mentioned that his 17-year-old son’s friends will turn 18 soon, which could possibly help with his labor needs.&nbsp;“Then I’ll have a good plethora of young kids who like me and will want to come work with me,” he laughed.&nbsp;When it comes to his management style, Sallmen describes himself as being more of a friend than a boss. Since rainy days, for example, prevent Lawn Doctor workers from taking care of lawns, Sallmen seizes the opportunity to build his company culture and takes his crew out for a late breakfast or lunch. This gives him a chance to connect with his team and get a feel for any pain points they may be experiencing.&nbsp;“I can get a good read on where my team stands and how they’re doing in life,” Sallmen said. “I can tell when someone is not happy to be there and can find out what it is that’s holding them back. I know everything that’s going on with my employees and what their future aspirations are. When you hire people, you want to build them up and give them opportunities. You want to give them insight into a future potential career.”&nbsp;With a genuine love for the brand and a desire to build up his employees, the future is looking bright for Sallmen and his relationship with Lawn Doctor.&nbsp;The startup costs for a Lawn Doctor franchise range from $100,015 to $116,065. The franchise fee ranges from $88,950 to $102,000. To learn more about franchising with Lawn Doctor, visit <a href="https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor">https://1851franchise.com/lawndoctor</a>.&nbsp;

Why Lawn Doctor Franchisee Bryan Sallmen Continues to Grow With the Brand 

1851 Franchise

A turnkey franchise opportunity and the chance to really connect with his employees keep Sallmen loving the lawn care brand. 


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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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