Friends and Franchisees: The Coias and The Fosters Are All In with Lawn Doctor

It’s not every day that two married couples in their 30s decide to go into franchising together, but then, not everyone is Jim and Aimee Coia or Brian and Jamie Foster.

The Coia-Foster team opened their first Lawn Doctor franchise, based out of Stow, Ohio in February and are already seeing positive results. They’ve purchased four territories in total. All four territories touch each other and cover 41 zip codes in northeastern Ohio. The two couples plan to open more Lawn Doctor franchises in the future.

The Coias and the Fosters are thrilled to have purchased franchises so close to home.

“The fact that Lawn Doctor has 600 franchise locations and we were able to pick these four unbelievable territories right in our backyard is incredible,” Jim said.

They joined Lawn Doctor at a pivotal time.

“Their entire software system is being relaunched at the same time we’re coming in,” Aimee said.

Jim and Brian Foster first met about 10 years ago when they both had just started working at the same company. Foster’s background is in corporate finance. Today, he is a finance director for a local company in the Cleveland area, a role he enjoys and will retain while also franchising with Lawn Doctor. Jim’s professional background is in sales and marketing. He, too, will retain his full-time job while franchising with Lawn Doctor.

Aimee’s background is in education. She was a preschool teacher before moving into early childhood administration, which she did for a combined 11 years before devoting herself to Lawn Doctor full-time in December. She knows a thing or two about wanting for solid, reliable lawn care service.

“Jim and I have lived in our house for seven years and couldn’t find good lawn care where they had any relationship with you or make recommendations to get the best results,” she said. “I figured that I’m used to taking care of people’s children and I could see that translating to lawn care.”

Aimee likes how Lawn Doctor has systems in place to help set franchisees up for success.

“I like the security of knowing that we’re good and safe,” Aimee said. “Opening my own business was never on my wishlist but if there’s anyone I believe in, it’s Jim. After meeting with the leadership team, along with President and CEO Scott Frith, it was very clear that there’s a lot of staying power behind Lawn Doctor.”

Jim wanted to open his own business for a long time. When a franchise consultant reached out to him on LinkedIn to gauge his interest in franchising, he was intrigued. He ended up going to a franchising event. Lawn Doctor wasn’t present at the event, but Jim filled out a questionnaire and one of the companies recommended to him was Lawn Doctor. Jim actually has lawn care in his background. He did lawn care while in school and his family used to own a multi-state lawn care company.

“I love lawns and lawn care so I was immediately interested,” Jim said. “I went home and reviewed everything and was put directly in touch with Lawn Doctor’s Vice President of Franchise Development, Eric Martin. We felt comfortable with him, the development team and the process from the very beginning. It was clear early they were evaluating the potential fit as much as we were. We wanted to move aggressively and it was about 45 days from our first conversation to signing papers.”

Jim appreciated the sense of authenticity he got from the brand.

“You get a team sense of open and honest communication,” Jim said. “Lawn Doctor honors their commitment and that meant a lot to us.”

The Coia-Foster team is thrilled with the support they’ve received from the corporate team, especially in terms of marketing.

“Digging deeper into it, I really liked the strong marketing support we get, and our customer service reviews and ratings are among the highest in the industry from a retention and loyalty perspective,” Foster said.

Foster is thrilled for the chance to serve communities. Like Jim, he also wanted to own a business.

“I just love that we’re going to be a locally-owned company with a national backing,” Foster said. “I’ve always wanted to be a business owner and be visible to the local community, too. It’s nice because it’s a service-oriented business. I just want to make people happy and help them enjoy their lawns and their yards.”

The Coia-Foster team is excited to grow their business.

“One of the important things for us was trying to find something we could truly build and scale together,” Jim said. “I almost feel like there’s no way we’re going to fail. We’re coming into this with a good team and we have the great support of Lawn Doctor.”

The startup costs for a Lawn Doctor franchise range from $101,840 to $115,890. The franchise fee is $35,000. To learn more about franchising with Lawn Doctor, visit https://lawndoctorfranchise.com/.