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the next 12 months as a huge opportunity to grow the business further.
-,##.*/+01 Graham
Smith, 47, has run his Bath GreenThumb franchise, with help from his wife Ronnie, since 2010. They live in Little Somerford, outside
Malmesbury, Wilts.
What did you do before franchising? I worked in various sales and marketing Reckitt Benckiser. At Reckitt’s I was a national account controller overseeing a where we managed numerous brands ranging from Finish and Airwick to Veet and Harpic.
Why franchising? Why this sector and with GreenThumb in particular? When the business relocated I took a redundancy package. I had always wanted to be my own boss and knew I had a broad range of management skills I could utilise. What I didn’t have was one big idea to start up a business from scratch. Lawn care appealed because it was clearly a growth market with lots of potential for expansion. GreenThumb’s scale meant they were
income stream to fund some strong national marketing activity to further raise brand awareness. When I spoke to GreenThumb they had a professional clearly were looking to drive the business forward. I also thought it important that GreenThumb could offer me ongoing support and training through their regional technical managers. Centralised IT support was also important to me.
What attracted you to a resale? Although I am happy to get my hands on lawns every day as my real added value is in the sales and marketing side. Having an established business and turnover also meant I could generate a decent budget to drive local marketing deliver growth.
November 2012 |
Businessfranchise.com | 35
a resale in particular? so I had a lot of experience within my team to help me get up to speed. Obviously over time there are things certainly in the early stages it allowed me to learn the basics of simply running developing my technical lawn care knowledge.
How has business been so far and what is a typical day like? Despite the recession and a number have continued to grow the business. My real focus has been on customer service as much of our new business comes in by recommendation. I spend a lot of my time doing the customer- doing service calls and a small amount plan marketing etc. My wife works in the business doing a lot of the admin and manager who organises the scheduling and paperwork for the crewmen.
How do you see business developing in the future?
even in these tougher times. I can see us using email/text to improve customer costs. I’ll almost certainly take on an additional crewman in the next 12
manager.
What have you found the pros and cons to be running a resale franchise? I really enjoy the industry as we deliver great service at a great value – on the whole people really like what we do! The real pros have been having scale invest in marketing drives and new equipment. Having experienced staff meant I didn’t need to know everything speed with the industry. I found it gave me time to learn how to run a business – a steep learning curve in itself. It also means I’m able to have time off with my family and know the business will continue to run smoothly.
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Any advice for others?
Build a detailed business plan to fully and loss). There were big differences in loan costs and banking charges between lenders when it came to the banks – so shop around. It’s a great need a background in horticulture to come into it.
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