Father and Son Take Separate Paths with Spring Green Businesses

Source: www.TurfMagazine.com

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Spring-Green Franchise owner Ken Brown joined Spring-Green Lawn Care as a franchise owner in 2005 with an end in mind. His vision for choosing a franchise was clear; he wanted a proven business model with recurring revenue. He also wanted a business that he could grow large enough to satisfy his vision of passing along a portion of it to his son, while also meeting his retirement needs.

Following a technology career at IBM, Ken chose to purchase an existing Spring-Green franchise which had three territories servicing the Rochester and Twin Cities in Minnesota (Cottage Grove and Bloomington). Ken’s son, Ryan Brown, operated the Twin Cities branch, “which allowed for some supervised independence,” says Ken.

“Ryan had day-to-day responsibility for operations and customer service, while the Rochester branch provided all of the back-end support. This business structure allowed Ryan to have his independence while I was able to provide the necessary leadership training and preparation for Ryan to own his own franchise,” continues Ken.

In 2015, the father-son team split their territories, with Ryan signing franchise agreements for the Twin Cities. Immediately thereafter, Ryan expanded his service area to include a neighboring franchise servicing the Metro area in Anoka. “Ryan has earned his independence and this opportunity, and I am confident that he will be successful,” mentioned Ken. Ken will continue to operate the Rochester franchise with a clear path to meeting his retirement goals.

“The succession planning was already in place, however, the opportunity to acquire a new territory prompted the decision to separate the entities,” says Ryan, “I am excited about the opportunity to begin building my own retirement plan. While it is a long way away, the Spring-Green business model provides that opportunity.

Most importantly,” continues Ryan, “my father [Ken] and I are both very thankful for the response from the community to our services, as we know there are choices when it comes to selecting a lawn care provider. Our greatest success is when our current customers refer their friends and family. That is when we know we have built something very special.”

As for business, Ken says “Business has not always been easy, but the community has embraced us as their local lawn, tree, and mosquito service provider, and we take that very seriously.”

Ken and Ryan Brown visited the Spring-Green Support Center on January 8th, 2015 to finalize their new territory acquisition, and Ryan will continue servicing an expanded portion of the Metro area in the spring.