They Built a $103 Million Franchise From a Single Location

Terry Kurth, 77, says that choosing the right life partner is an important determination a person could make — and he is aware of the reality of this assertion firsthand. Practically 50 years in the past, his spouse was in labor. She was within the hospital mendacity on her facet with extreme again ache as a result of their daughter, Amanda, was turned 180 levels within the womb.

Terry was there for his spouse — however he additionally didn’t cease working. 

“I had one hand on the small of her again to alleviate ache and the opposite on the telephone calling prospects to promote garden care,” Terry tells Entrepreneur in a brand new interview. “She didn’t complain as a result of she knew we have been about to have one other mouth to feed, and failure wasn’t an choice.”

Terry entered the Weed Man system in 2000 after exiting his personal lawn care ventures and trying to find his subsequent chapter. He shortly noticed a possibility to increase the Canadian model within the U.S. and based Epic3, which might turn out to be Weed Man’s largest multi-unit possession group. Beginning with a single territory in Madison, Wisconsin, Terry steadily scaled the operation right into a nationwide footprint.

Andy Kurth’s entry into the enterprise was far less strategic. As Terry’s son, he joined whereas in faculty merely to earn further money, working in gross sales and as a garden care technician. However what started as a temporary gig developed right into a long-term career. Over time, Andy took on growing duty, ultimately rising to turn out to be president and CEO of Epic3 and main the continued enlargement of the enterprise his father helped construct.

The next interview with Terry and Andy has been flippantly edited for readability and concision.

Early days

How did you find yourself in garden care and franchising?
Terry: I used to be going to be an engineer and went to the College of Wisconsin, graduating in 1975. Whereas I used to be there, I began working at a golf course and fell in love with being exterior and dealing with turf.

I ended up getting a level in agronomy, which is basically plant science, and have become a golf course superintendent proper out of faculty. Later, I went to work for the Scotts Firm in its skilled turf division and traveled across the nation giving academic seminars to golf course superintendents, panorama contractors and early garden care operators.

Finally, I got here into contact with an organization referred to as Barefoot Grass, grew to become one among its first franchisees in 1978, constructed that up and in the end bought when Barefoot Grass was acquired by TruGreen. It ended nicely, and I discovered myself gainfully unemployed in my mid‑40s with the proceeds from that sale.

What did you do after exiting Barefoot Grass?
Terry: After Barefoot Grass was bought and I accomplished that chapter, I grew to become previous president of what was then the Skilled Garden Care Affiliation of America (PLCAA), which gave me a powerful community of operators throughout the nation. Weed Man is headquartered in Toronto, and thru that community, I received to know their management. They flew me up; I met the franchisor and a Canadian franchisee who had acquired the grasp rights to the US, and collectively we got here up with the concept of making regional sub‑franchisors. My area included Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota. I bought franchises there, saved the most important share of the royalties, and handed the rest as much as the grasp group in Toronto.

How did you transition again into working a garden care franchise your self?
Terry: After I bought to TruGreen, I had a 3‑12 months non‑compete that restricted me from working within the cities the place I had places — locations like Madison, Appleton, Inexperienced Bay, Lexington and Peoria. As soon as that non‑compete expired in January 2001, I re‑entered the enterprise as a Weed Man franchisee. I began the Madison operation with one among my spouse’s nephews, and when he selected to pursue one thing else, we employed a supervisor.

That’s across the time Andy, who had been serving to me promote throughout faculty, stepped in and in the end grew to become the supervisor in Madison. From there, Andy and I started working carefully collectively, rising the enterprise organically into new markets after which merging further markets into our holding firm over time. Our first billing 12 months in Madison in 2001 was about $110,000 in revenue; at present, we’re round $103 million, so it’s been fairly a run over roughly twenty‑5 years.

Secrets and techniques to scaling Weed Man

What are your secrets and techniques to progress? How do you scale from $110,000 to $103 million?
Terry: A giant inflection level was once I met Roger Mongeon, who held the U.S. rights to Weed Man and is without doubt one of the smartest folks I’ve ever met, each in enterprise and usually. He’s a former chemical engineer, and we developed a deep mutual belief and respect. He confirmed me the programs Weed Man had constructed, and I shortly realized that to deal with vital progress, you will need to have robust systems. Folks discuss breaking by way of glass ceilings of their careers; progress in a enterprise is comparable — you may’t get to the following degree with out programs that guarantee nothing falls by way of the cracks as you add folks and places. You additionally want a relentless perspective — failure can’t be an choice.

Take me again 26 years. What did that very first Weed Man location appear to be everyday, and what satisfied you each that it was value betting your careers on?
Andy: From my perspective as a school child on the time, I wasn’t initially pondering of a protracted‑time period profession. I’d present up on Saturdays to an nearly vacant shell of an workplace and be the one individual there promoting garden care. We used outdated‑faculty telemarketing to generate leads, and my cousin, who had began the enterprise with my dad, was out treating lawns almost by himself.

That first 12 months, income was round $100,000, so there merely weren’t many individuals concerned. Every year, as we added revenue, we’d herald one other technician, then one other and ultimately a senior technician, progressively constructing out the crew.

Fixing errors

Andy, are you able to share an occasion whenever you made a mistake working the corporate and the way you mounted it?
Andy: Early in my leadership profession, I used to be carrying 10 hats and always chasing folks round. After we first launched door‑knocking for lead era, I discovered myself working after supervisors each morning as a result of they saved forgetting door hangers. In the future, I noticed how unsustainable that was. As an alternative of constant to chase folks, I centered on creating higher programs — begin‑of‑day procedures, checklists and clearer position possession — in order that crew members owned their tasks. That have was a catalyst for me to shift from being a activity‑oriented supervisor to a pacesetter centered on creating different leaders.

Hand-raising tradition

Andy, you might have described the group as having a hand-raising tradition. What does that imply?
Andy: Hand‑elevating tradition describes leaders inside our group who actually raise their hands to tackle new challenges and uproot their lives. For instance, a gentleman from Inexperienced Bay volunteered to maneuver to Austin to begin that department, and one other teammate from Madison, who had additionally labored in Milwaukee, raised his hand to maneuver to Denver.

These markets are actually amongst our high performers — Denver, for instance, grew from round $250,000 in first‑12 months income to over $8 million. We preserve constructing stables of leaders who breathe our mission — folks, alternative, neighborhood — in that order. They purchase into that mission and carry it into their branches and departments, which creates new alternatives in new areas and really modifications lives. Many individuals in our firm have careers they by no means imagined, and so they, in flip, move that mindset to the folks they lead.

Lengthy-term imaginative and prescient

What are your plans for progress and succession?
Andy: We plan to maintain doing what we do finest: altering folks’s lives for the higher and building a culture the place folks need to advance that mission of individuals, alternative, neighborhood. If our persons are caring for one another and constructing one thing they’ll name their very own, we’ll be effective.

Terry: On the system degree, Weed Man as a complete generates round $435 million to $450 million in annual income, and with Epic3 at round $103 million, we’re a big contributor. The broader objective is to turn out to be a billion‑dollar company, and we need to assist drive that by innovating and supporting different franchisees inside the Weed Man household. Collectively, we intend to succeed in that billion‑greenback milestone whereas sustaining the tradition and programs that received us right here.

Terry Kurth, 77, says that choosing the right life partner is an important determination a person could make — and he is aware of the reality of this assertion firsthand. Practically 50 years in the past, his spouse was in labor. She was within the hospital mendacity on her facet with extreme again ache as a result of their daughter, Amanda, was turned 180 levels within the womb.

Terry was there for his spouse — however he additionally didn’t cease working. 

“I had one hand on the small of her again to alleviate ache and the opposite on the telephone calling prospects to promote garden care,” Terry tells Entrepreneur in a brand new interview. “She didn’t complain as a result of she knew we have been about to have one other mouth to feed, and failure wasn’t an choice.”