Growing your own business (Daily Mail franchise story)

Growing your own business

Daily Mail

By: Linda Whitney

WITH spring here at last, it's tempting to consider chucking in your office job for a life outdoors. You can, with a gardening franchise.

People are still spending money on their gardens. 'Lower interest rates and prices mean people still have money to lavish on their lawns, especially as they are not moving house,' says Mark Hallam from lawn care franchise Green Thumb.

'Some of our franchisees have added 200-300 customers in the past month alone.' You don't need a degree in horticulture, or even the ability to tell a weed from a wallflower, to start a gardening franchise, but you must have the enthusiasm to work outside and grow a business.

'We are targeting people who want to set up their own business with a franchisor who can help them change their lives,' says Stephanie Boyd of LawnHopper, whose franchisees provide professional treatments, core aeration and machine scarification to produce green, weed and moss-free lawns. Start-up cost of £19,950 includes training, initial customers, machinery and stock for treatments.

There's more to gardening franchises than simply applying treatments. You usually start out working alone from a van, but franchisors expect you to expand.

Mr Hallam says: 'Green Thumb is a management franchise, so as soon as your customer base is big enough, we expect you to take on staff to treat the lawns while you visit customers to give quotes, and manage your team.' Green Thumb's largest franchisee services more than 8,500 lawns.

Some have up to eight lawn operatives and between 12-15 other staff providing marketing, administration and customer services. The investment is £28,000.

Don't worry about what you will do in the winter, when lawns lie dormant. This is the time you will be doing aeration and scarification, and treating for moss.

Some garden franchises also involve other services. As well as treating lawns, Nicenstripy Garden Care franchisees also provide hedge cutting, patio pressure washing, leaf clearance, turfing, pruning and gutter maintenance.

Nicenstripy has relaunched after franchisees rescued it from the nowdefunct Myhome Group. It's looking for outdoor types with management and communication skills. Investment is £20,000, with no management fees for three months.

Some outdoor franchises can be done part-time — ideal for the semiretired.

Tree stump removal service Stumpbusters, for instance, has some franchisees who work three days a week, though you can work full-time.

The £25,000 investment includes the specialist machine required and training. This is a mature franchise and the only areas left are Northern Scotland, Edinburgh, Cornwall and East Kent.

It's not all lawns and hedges in this sector. With business opportunity Kwik Kerb you could be laying decorative concrete kerbs around lawns and garden beds in domestic and commercial premises. The £35,000 investment includes the Kerbmaster machine.

• Green Thumb, 01745 586 041
• LawnHopper: 07813 314 419
• Nicenstripy 0845 230 7676
• Stumpbusters 01844 342 851
• Kwik Kerb 0800 567 7690.

'I'VE always had a passion for lawns - I had a lawnmower for my tenth birthday,' says Alex Colville.

But after university, he went into sales, latterly working for car company SEAT UK, until he decided he wanted to be outdoors working for himself.

He looked at six lawn treatment franchises, and is now the LawnHopper franchisee for Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Alex, 34, says: 'It's very rewarding turning a rough, weed-ridden patch into a wonderful healthy lawn.

Customers can hardly believe it and the feedback I get is great.' He had no problem getting used to being outside in all weathers, and in two years has taken on four full-time and two part-time staff to serve 1,200 customers.

'The hardest thing was making the jump from employee to business owner, but it's easier if you have a genuine passion for the business and the support of a franchisor,' he says..