Weed Man Meetings Mean Sharing Ideas

Weed Man franchisees from Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York gathered in Cleveland recently to compare stats and share ideas. The group of lawn care professionals, representing 11 franchise territories, assembled for its yearly lineup of motivational meetings and sales review.

“Ever summer at about this time of year, we get all the franchisees together to recap and project opportunities that exist to serve customers throughout the rest of the year,” noted Phil Fogarty, subfranchiser and co-owner with Bob Ottley of Growing Opportunities, LLC. “We do a hard look to see if everyone is on track – to see if we need to make adjustments or corrections before too much time goes by.”

And this year, franchisees were treated to a dinner cruise on the Majestic – a motor yacht on Lake Erie. While aboard, the industry group added a social element to its industry chatter. Since Weed Man is fairly new to the tri-state area, the meetings were especially helpful for all in attendance – from rookies to third-year franchisees.

“The invaluable part of it is getting together with people who are in the same business with you but are not your competition,” Fogarty acknowledged. “We share all kinds of numbers, information and ideas.”

Fogarty said numbers are above average, with some franchisees posting “great” profits and others seeing “good” figures. “Everyone is extremely encouraged by the numbers they brought in this year.”

This year’s gathering marked the first year a coveted “Weedy Award” was presented within the Ohio-Pennsylvania-New York region of Weed Man’s business.  The award goes to the franchise demonstrating excellent sales results and impressive growth.

Honors went to the Cincinnati West franchise, operated by Robin, Vicki and Jeff Moeller and Jake Neal.

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