As teenagers working on a dairy farm in Beaver Creek, Virginia, high school friends Tim Harrell and Chris Seaborne had no idea what the future held for them. After high school Harrell and Seaborne went their separate ways. Harrell worked for a lift company and Seaborne did arbor work. Both mowed lawns on the side. After grinding away for a few years, they both wanted more. They decided that if they wanted to get ahead, they should team up and buy a U.S. Lawns franchise.
Over the next two decades the pair followed the U.S. Lawns system and built an extremely sustainable and profitable commercial landscape business. “We didn’t really have a growth plan, but U.S. Lawns showed us where to put our resources and focus to take our business to the next level,” says Seaborne.
“We started out in our first territory, we had one truck, a small trailer, one commercial mower and some landscaping tools. Today we have two territories, a dozen trucks, commercial mowers and up to 40 employees during our peak season. We service 150 commercial clients and are enjoying year over year revenue growth.”
Over the years, Harrell and Seaborne have demonstrated themselves as leaders and an inspiration to other U.S. Lawn franchisees. In 2016, they were inducted in the Hall of Fame for their contributions to the brand.
As their business has grown, Harrell and Seaborne’s business eventually outgrew their rented office, work and storage space. Recently, the pair decided it was time to build home base for their business.
Coming full circle, the franchisee team purchased land in the same area where they worked on the dairy farm as teenagers to build an expansive 9,000 square foot building to accommodate their growing landscape maintenance business.
By becoming U.S. Lawns franchisees, Harrell and Seaborne had a roadmap for building a sustainable business, one that would grow beyond what they envisioned when they first started out. By following the system, even though they did not start out with a plan, today they have a business that continues to grow and has created personal wealth and freedom in their lives.