Franchise King

Franchise folks, brace yourselves for a productive year – under the leadership of a green-thumbed professional.

Russell Frith has taken the reigns as chairman of the International Franchise Association for the year, and the green industry executive plans to put his experience and wisdom into action in coming months.

As president and CEO of Lawn Doctor, Frith brings more than three decades of franchising experience to the association. He joined the 425-unit, automated lawn care company in 1978 and has been contributing to the Holmdel, N.J.-headquartered operation ever since.

“Franchising has been a part of my career for over 30 years,” Frith reflected. “I am honored to have an opportunity to give back to association that has done so much for me personally and franchising in general.”

Serving as chairman of the IFA, Frith plans to focus on including more franchisees in the association’s doings. Adding minds to the mix would increase the international organization’s reach and expand its views.

“The IFA is the voice of franchising,” Frith noted. “And in order for that voice to resonate clearly, all of the key groups must be represented: franchisers, franchisees and suppliers. Each group has a unique perspective that, when considered as a whole, lead to innovative problem solving and creative thinking that makes our respective organizations better and stronger.”

Frith also plans to keep his eye on legal issues that could impact the franchise world. “I believe a major role of the chairman must also be to protect franchising from unnecessary legislation and regulation,” he observed. “At times, regulation is put into place with the best intentions, but without considering all the ramifications on certain businesses.”

Frith has continually emphasized the need to educate government officials about the franchising industry and the positive impacts it has on the economy.
Looking ahead, Frith is confident the year will be a fruitful one for the industry that sees more than $1 trillion in U.S. sales each year.

However, franchising is not immune to the challenges that confront businesses in general, he said, referring to the threats of an uncertain economic climate, lack of qualified labor and rising health care costs.”

And yet, today’s franchises actually are thriving, he explained. People are hungry for more spare time, so they are likely to purchase a wide range of services to ease their own workloads.

“This is good news for Lawn Doctor and the green industry in general because baby boomers, possessing over $750 billion of buying power, are spending record amounts on home services,” he expounded.

Landscape franchises, in general, attract customers because they offer a consistent, high level of service and results that go along with that, Frith acknowledged.

“Franchising is appealing to prospective franchise buyers because it offers a proven way of doing business that helps control risk,” he encouraged. “Franchise companies, like Lawn Doctor, develop proven support systems that a franchisee can plug into, which takes the guesswork, and often wasted resources, out of operating the business. These systems can include proprietary business management software, marketing programs, operating manuals and patented equipment, among others.”

There are franchise companies operating in just about every industry, Frith expounded. More than 4,000 franchised concepts exist today. However, the green industry boasts only a small fraction of those, with Lawn Doctor being one of them.

“We chose this way of doing business because it gave us the distinct advantage of having a broad market presence with the benefit of local execution,” Frith said of Lawn Doctor. “I believe our formula for success has worked well for over 35 years for many reasons. We have focused on our core competencies and maintained strong communication between franchisee and franchiser. We also believe strongly in our commitment to being only a franchiser and not having any company-owned allocations.”

The author is Assistant Editor – Internet for Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at aanderson@lawnandlandscape.com.