As the above shot is not in color, I include this shot to show the calibrated colors of the logo. The logo symbolizes pure water, being blended with non toxic nutrients and applied to anemic grass, turning it a lush dark green.
I had no interest in buying a franchise, but rather offering them.
Typically a lawn care company offers four fertilizer applications a season, either granular or liquid along with weed control at least twice and bug control.
We are starting to witness environmental concerns about the widespread use of chemicals, but people still want a great lawn.
With many years of caring for lawns, I developed a formula that would use soluble product, allowing accurate distribution for optimum grass performance.
I contracted a fertilizer manufacturer to produce the blend and package with Solufeed labels.
To address the environmental concerns, we advocate not mixing the weed control in each truck load of Solufeed, but rather spot spray only as necessary from a smaller tank. This responsible approach was met with enthusiasm from our customer base and dramaticly reduces the quantity of chemicals used.
I drove down to St Catharines Ont. and met with Mark Rittenhouse, who had recently taken over the family business, started in 1914. They install spray equipment and we contracted with him to equip the pilot truck, as seen in the photo. This was to have the twin reels, with electric recoils for fast turnaround.
We then proceeded to establish a model for a franchise territory, using Markham and surrounding area including Unionville.
We started cold calling (door knocking) up and down the streets. To set the promotion in motion, Gary and I canvassed an area of estate homes, he going up one side of the street and myself the other. When we met at the top, he was quite surprised to see I had 10 signed contracts for the seasons service.
We also set up a telemarketing room, with half a dozen phones and blitzed the area. By the start of the season we had 1,000 residential customers for our model area. This was increased further through the Summer.
We also utilized classy lawn signs, about 2ft. by 1ft. that slipped into an iron stand. We placed these strategicaly around the area. Sometimes you would offer a free application for permission to place a sign.
At the end of the year, for our model territory we had grossed well into six figures, with approximatly30% profit margin.
We then approached the top Franchise Lawyer in Ontario, Frank Zade and requested he draft up the franchise agreement.
We hired Price Waterhouse to develop an accounting system for the franchisees.
We set up a corporation "Turfrite" to distribute the Solufeed product to the franchisees.
We incorporated "Solufeed Leasing" to handle the initial projected fleet of 12 Flat Bed Trucks to be used, and fleet insurance for all involved. We settled a deal with the major Ford Dealer in the city.We contracted with Mark Rittenhouse for a fleet deal to install identical spray equipment, on each flat bed truck. We provided the four color Solufeed decals to attach to the trucks.
Meantime I had written the Solufeed Operators Manual, a comprehensive manual laying out all the required procedures to establish and operate a lawn care business.
We hired a sales manager, "Peter Johnson" to take out a sales team to franchisee's areas and assist in getting their customer base started.
We then hired a Franchise Marketing Manager "Ron Swaddling" and a Technical Director "Andrew O'Conner" Andy would be able to go out to areas and identify problems and offer remedies.
Meantime we had moved to a larger facility on John St, with appropriate office space. We hired an office Manager "Marie Lowe", who hired a receptionist and assistant. Gary & I used the boardroom for our respective office needs. We installed a telephone system throughout, which was controlled by Marie. She knew instinctively which calls to put through, and which one's to say "He is not in the office right now
We produced a glossy franchise package with pull outs explaining all facets of the opportunity. We then let Ron Swaddling loose.
Ron had some excellent contacts, and withing a few months we had 10 territories committed, from London to Oshawa and Newmarket.Every spray business in Ontario, has to have a licensed weed exterminator on staff. I had held such a license for many years, which I renewed annually.
We arranged for a Ministry of the Enviroment approved trainer, to attend at Head Office and run courses to assist the Franchisees to prepare for the exams, in order to receive the required license.
Andy was driving the Dump truck one day, when he was salting with the box raised, it keeled over on a corner and crashed into the cab. He was O.K. but the truck was down for a couple of weeks. During this time our second dump truck broke down plus a smaller back up.
This was a bad time, as we had lots of Winter weather, so we had to hand bomb 44 tons of salt in one week (tractor trailer load) That means dropping a bucket full of salt into a pick up with the front end loader, then couple of guys jump in back and throw it out while driving slowly around the icy properties.
With Gary's excellent sales efforts and our top qualty service, the snow and landscape service continued to grow. Most of our work was within the Markham area. The snow service was the cash cow, on our best month we grossed $117,000.
But with our own trucks plowing and half a dozen subcontractors, my time was taken up with supervising. For this purpose and for Franchising image I drove a Ford Thunderbird. As part of the deal with the Ford Dealer we also negotiated a Ford Probe for Ron and a Ford Escort for Peter. We used second hand cars for the sales teams which Ron organized through Solufeed Leasing.
About this time Gary & Rihana tied the knot. We set up the receptions at the Valhalla Hotel, taking over the ballroom for a sit down dinner for 50 guests. I was privileged to be best man. Guest included several of our key employees, Peter Silverman, Ian and Edna Whitehead who where visiting with us from the U.K. and most importantly Gary's Mum from N.S. The $15,000. tag knocked the heck out of my American Express card, but as the Valhala was a corporate account, we earned it back, quite quickly.
She visited us for a week, courtesy of the Markham Holiday Inn, also one of our Corporate Accounts.
One night, we went out for dinner and I pursauded Sandra to hit the dance floor with me.
I think she was embarrassed when I broke into a Michael Jackson "Moonwalk"
But Gary got a big kick out of it.
In the meantime a lot of effort was being put into Solufeed at the Head Office level. We where extremely disappointed at the low intensity of endeavours by the franchisees. Instead of the projected 1,000 customers, many only had about 200, because they had not followed recommendations.
We held monthly Franchise meetings, at which I had the unenviable task of chairing. I would go round the boardroom asking each one, if they had set up telemarketing yet or started canvasing. Always they had not had time yet, or would be doing so very shortly, but things where just not happening.
Meantime we beefed up our sales teams to get out there and help them build up their customer bases. I lost track of what cars our sales department now ran, to transport the teams. We spent $50,000, on a series of radio commercials
The Franchisees seemed to take the position, they would just sit back and let Chris build up their customer base for them.
Both Peter Johnson and Ron Swaddling carried out sales training and ran telemarketing rooms, in extra space we rented.
Each year we have to send in T4 tax slips for each employee. Marie brought to my attention in the third year she had sent in 56 T4 slips. This thing was becoming a monster.
Looking back, the biggest mistake we made in developing the Franchise Organization was the failure to qualify the Francisees. It is not easy to turn away the $35,000. Franchise Fee they are willing to pay for an area. But if we had been more selective, we would have made a slower start, but with more serious prospects.
My second mistake was trying to do too much for them. We showed them the exact steps to take to build up their base, as demonstrated with our own model. If they chose to ignore the advise they where paying for, we should have pulled their license.
We hired a top level member of the major competitor with 100 franchises coast to coast, as a consultant. He introduced some interesting ideas and caught the attention of most of them, but still did not motivate them.
Our relationship with the Toronto Dominion Bank was very good. They welcomed the two million bucks per year coming through their doors from all our activities. Of course credit is easy to get, when you don,t need it. Our occasional meetings with the manager where jovial events. He recommended we should set up lines of credit "In case we hit a bump in the road" so a $50,000. line of credit was set up for Commerce Landscape and later, similar for Solufeed.
But Canadian banks change managers every few years to avoid close relationships developing with clients, that could cloud judgement. Guess what, we got a new Bank Manager, and we had "hit a few bumps in the road" and utilized the credit lines. The new manager called in the Solufeed line and placed restrictions on the Commerce line connecting receivables to the limit. They would allow an amount equal to 50% of the monthly receivable. Each month Marie had to submit reporting of receivables.
So we had to bring down our overheads quickly and divert cash to meet the banks demands. Rihana cashed in her R.R.S.P. in exchange for me relinquishing my equity in the Winona bungalow. When we brought Winona, Gary and I provided the cash portion of the purchase price, although Gary and Rihana went on title. This facilitated me to remain arms length and give up my interest in the property. This enabled them to subsequently trade into a three bedroom home in Aurora, (30 miles N. of Toronto) a few years later.
Several of the franchisees had other businesses and there was a lack of initiative to really get fired up about the lawn care business. Meantime the monthly meetings became more contentious.
I received a letter of intent, from one of our main competitors, another lawn care Franchisor ( with 30 outlets) indicating an interest in negotiating a takeover offer, but declined. I was not ready to throw in the towel.
We began to reduce our sales efforts and had no choice but to place Ron and Peter on a strictly commission basis. Ron meantime had taken over one of the franchises and this became his focus for the next few years.
By now most areas where up to about 600 customers, still hardly a profitable level. Dissent increased and several began withholding royalties.
We also had to downsize our snow and landscape operations, to keep our costs down. This of course reduces receivables leading to reduction of the line of credit.
The one good thing to come out of the turn of events, was that i was able to climb behind a plow again. While supervising plowing it had been so frustrating watching poor techniques, taking far longer than really necessary to clear the snow. Considering we had to pay the subs $60.00 an hour, one can become quite anxious.
Eventually most of the franchisees moved on to other ventures and we returned to our basic snow and landscape service, to await the Winter of 91/92.