Converting an independent business to a franchise allows you to expand your business and harness some of the power of a larger, nationally known brand. Before you can start converting your business, you need to ask yourself why you are motivated to do this in the first place. What are you trying to do with your business? If you answer those questions with one of the following goals, converting your business into a franchise is a smart move.
- I want to build a viable, scalable business
- I want my business to continue to grow
- I want to improve my lifestyle
- I want to increase my business’s value
Independent business owners who are considering converting to franchises often wonder what a franchise offers and how a franchise system can help them achieve their goals. Here are some frequently asked questions about landscaping franchise opportunities and what a converted franchisee has to gain by joining up with a proven system.
How Does a Franchise Help Me Increase Revenue?
Increasing revenue is a major goal for a lot of business owners, and one that makes landscaping franchise opportunities all the more appealing to independent business owners. First and foremost, customers are the lifeblood of your business and the key to increasing revenue. In the landscaping industry, commercial clients (as opposed to residential) are king. Working exclusively with commercial clients can result in higher income with fewer accounts, because commercial clients are more consistent and need to be serviced all year long.
A second way that joining a franchise helps you increase revenue is by streamlining the process to be more efficient and accurate. At U.S. Lawns, for example, we have proprietary software and programs that our franchisees use to know their numbers. These bidding and estimating tools are crucial to providing an fair, accurate estimate to commercial clients while making sure the opportunity is profitable.
How Does a Franchise Help My Business Grow?
Ultimately, if you want to grow your business past a certain point you have to be able to run several crews who provide the same quality of work that you do. In short, you cannot build your business around yourself forever, because you simply cannot be there for every job. Eventually, the owner of a large, scalable business has to step into a management role and trust their teams to put out quality work.
Converting to a franchise can help you accomplish this by giving you and your employees the training you need to do things to the same standard. Just as important is the management infrastructure that allows your crews to succeed without you being present at every job. The less time you, the owner, spend cutting grass, the more time you can spend finding clients and growing your business.
How Does a Franchise Help Me Be Competitive?
Becoming competitive in the commercial space is one of the biggest reasons to take advantage of landscaping franchise opportunities. A franchise with a well-known name brand and an excellent reputation is an obvious choice for giving you an edge over the competition, because property owners can easily find information about your business. In addition, a franchise’s experience in the industry can give you valuable tips on what customers to target and how to effectively market to them.
Converting your business into a franchise has the potential to have a major impact on your business. There can be no doubt that joining a franchise can open a lot of doors for independent business owners, many of which they would not have been able to get through on their own. If you need more information about converting your landscaping business into a U.S. Lawns franchise, get in touch with us!