Franchise Opportunity Rating
Review completed: November 2020
0-49
Below Average
50-69
Average
70-100
Best
$50,000
$50,000
$65,431 - $112,126
2008
75
Clean Air Lawn Care provides full-service and environmentally-friendly lawn maintenance for both residential and commercial properties. Clean Air Lawn Care conducted their franchise review in November 2020, and collected feedback from 54% of the active franchisees (20).
Highlights include:
For brands to be successful, it has to work for both franchisees and the franchisor as they grow. All marks on the survey show the Clean Air Lawn Care team has created a culture of caring and supporting their franchisees.
In addition, being able to learn from other franchisees in the system- what has worked for them in their markets AND what they would have done differently, is a powerful relationship for new franchisees just joining the system.
Franchise Business Review has worked with over 1,100 franchise systems. We independently contact all open and active franchisees and invite them to participate in our satisfaction survey. Only the brands that exceed our satisfaction benchmark are displayed on our website. Not all brands share their results publicly, but Clean Air Lawn Care shares their satisfaction scores to show their commitment to franchise relationships, their culture, and transparency.
Actual owner reviews from our third party, independent surveys.
"The initial owner training is great. It takes owners from 0-60 quickly."
Craig & Katie, Single Unit Owner, Major Metro (500,000+ population)
"Having the ability to claim first to market in this service is great - the model is highly innovative and cutting edge."
Aaron, Multi-Unit Owner, Major Metro (500,000+ population)
"We appreciate the leadership and support from senior management."
Scott & Ellyn, Single Unit Owner, Major Metro (500,000+ population)
We support new franchisees from Day One! The CALC HQ team sets up a new franchisee’s website, business listings, emails, etc. New franchisees attend a week-long training where they learn the history of our company, operations, the science of organic lawn care, marketing, finances and the support available from the HQ team. After training the new franchisee will meet with marketing and operations teams to complete a pre-launch checklist. We also provide a post-launch checklist that helps guide the franchisee toward success. Extra support is provided during the first three months of operations. CALC HQ team has multiple education calls throughout the year, marketing strategy meetings, two pro-forma enhancing calls and a yearly conference.
Clean Air Lawn Care offers a green alternative to lawn mowing and yard maintenance which includes proprietary organic fertilizers and weed control products. As a result, no harmful chemicals or pesticides are released into the environment. We reduce air and noise pollution by using solar powered and battery-operated equipment. In the very near future, our franchisees will be licensed in the emerging robotic mower industry. Franchisees operate territories consisting of at least 50,000 residential and commercial properties. New customers are found in a number of different ways. The HQ team helps franchisees set up different online business listings and optimizes those listings for them. In addition, we work diligently to get a high rank in SEO. Our marketing team offers support in implementing and managing things like Google Ads and different automations to help capture new interest. Customers of CALC franchisees are generally very happy as we have a 4.8 star rating nationally on Google. Our established customers share their satisfaction with other which also helps the business grow.
We have what we call an Owner Growth Fund. Each year an Owner lead marketing committee along with the Marketing Director, comprise a national strategy to be implemented with the fund's dollars. Each Owner gets monthly calls with HQ marketing support and as well as a planning meeting at the beginning of each year. The marketing team at HQ not only works on local strategies, but helps implementation such as managing Google Ad campaigns at no fee (Owners only pay for the ads), running email campaigns, and managing business listings, for example.
We have franchisees who are only franchisees, some who manage, some who do sales and treatment, some who do it all! Daily activities may include managing operations, marketing, customer service and sales.
What type of person is well-suited to operate a CALC franchise? Is a background in lawn care or the home service sector necessary? What skills do you look for in a potential franchisee?
A great Clean Air Lawn Care franchisee is humble, motivated and someone who goes after what they want. This person also has great passion for our environment and understands the growth of the sustainable and organic lawn care market. Prior experience in lawn care is not required. Successful franchisees are good with people, organized, have a good business acumen, and can manage multiple teams.
The franchise fee is $35,000. Each additional territory is $15,000. Royalty is 8.5%. Grand opening marketing spend is $1500. There are financing options available both in-house and through a third-party partner.
Clean Air Lawn Care Owners have multiple revenue streams built into the model. HQ works with each Owner to hit their personal goals with their business. The opportunities are vast as there are a lot of lawns that need cared for and a lot of people becoming educated and switching to sustainable and organic services.
After an Owner goes through training. We can open in less than a month. We work with Owners before training to ensure they have all the necessary paperwork and items in place.
Prior experience in lawn care is not required. Successful franchisees are good with people, organized, have a good business acumen, and can manage multiple teams.
There are currently no discounts for veterans. However, we do find that veterans thrive within our company as we have some great owners that are veterans.
As a company we are committed to our mission, "Change the way America cares for lawns by empowering our local owners and managers to deliver an exceptional lawn care service that improves the quality of life in their communities". We are in front of the organic and sustainable lawn trends and are always reaching to be the first as we have been since the beginning of Clean Air Lawn Care. Our Owners enjoy a forum of constant communication with other Owners, a great quality of life, and exceptional operational, financial and marketing support from HQ.
