Simon Coleman, 47 left the rat race of the City behind by quitting his job in corporate banking and opening up a Greensleeves lawn treatment franchise. His territory covers a large area across Surrey and west Kent including Croydon, Bromley, Orpington, Sevenoaks, Chipstead and Warlingham.
Why did you consider going into franchising?
Working in the City involved long hours, a stressful job, travelling away from home a lot and generally an unhealthy lifestyle overall. As a result I developed a health issue, which was a bit of a wakeup call that I needed to change my lifestyle. My wife told me that if I did not do something different then I would not be around in five years time.
Working for another financial institution would not have been any different in the long run, so I decided that the only way forward was to work for myself and set up a business. I did not want to set up a business from scratch – having spent my life in paid employment, I wanted some degree of comfort that my business would be somewhat successful – so a franchise seemed to be the obvious route: a tried and tested business model with full marketing and technical support.
Why an outdoors-based franchise?
It was a combination of three things: to create a lifestyle that meant I chose the hours I worked with the freedom of being a mobile business; to have some level of exercise and fresh air to keep healthy; and most importantly, I thought the business model for the lawn care business was really good. When a customer comes on board the business is repeatable four times a year with additional services, so every sale is an annuity and the customer base has a real tangible value to it.
Having spent 28 years working in an office environment, the thought of working outdoors was very appealing, especially during good weather. Having said that, there is something nice about working in the cold and wet and then coming home to warm up. There’s a real sense of achievement and wellbeing to it, although I don’t want every day to be like a damp, cold February one!
How would you describe your typical day?
My day is a combination of three main things: firstly, actually working on the lawns and performing one of the seven or so treatment activities we offer; secondly, generating and quoting for new business; and finally, unfortunately, the dreaded admin work associated with running a business.
At the moment I probably spend five hours on the lawns and directly with my customers – this has gone down a bit since we hired our first full time employee 17 months after starting the business. I will then do a couple of hours a day quoting and a couple of hours a day doing admin work and preparing invoices etc. for the next day. It’s pretty varied so the days go very quickly.
Is your work affected by seasonal patterns, and how?
Yes – mainly the weather! The grass does not grow much between November and early February, so our services are not on the top of our customers’ minds during this time of year. Other than that, it is very busy for at least 10 months of the year, with spring and autumn being the busiest periods. I worry each January whether the phone will ring at all – then we get the first weekend of good weather in February and everybody starts to focus on their garden and off we go!
How has your business fared during the downturn?
What downturn?! We had to slow down our marketing activities in the early autumn last year because we could not cope with all the new business – we took on between 30 and 50 new customers every month between February and October 2011 and lost less than 10 during the whole year.
2012 has started in the same way, we have lost a small number of customers due to them tightening their belts but at the same time we took on 36 new customers in March. We are finding that our customers are deciding to spend their money on improving what they have got rather than acquiring more debt and moving house ¬– that’s good for our business and our growth.
What are your future plans for the business?
The aim is to continue growing at a rate of an additional van on the road each 12-18 months over the next five years. By then I will be in my early fifties and thinking about doing less heavy lifting and more of the business-building and quoting. I see a dedicated team of lawn managers in place keeping to the high standards I have set in out first 18 months of business.
My family are involved in helping the business, and it would be excellent if my son, who is currently 18, decided to join the family business full-time and begin to run the business in the next few years. This would free me up to spend more time on the golf course and I would be able to pick and choose the amount of time I spent working on the business!
Ultimately I want the value of the business to grow and become a substantial asset that will either pay me a nice pension each year, if we decide to keep it in the family, or a large lump sum if we decide to sell and retire completely. My hope would be to keep the business and continue to have an interest in it for many years to come.
