In February 2001 Keith Ives launched Evergreen Exteriors, based in Clinton Township, Michigan, offering landscape, lawn maintenance, lawn care, snow removal, and landscape design services. The company was successful, but Ives knew it could do even more with the right resources. That’s what led him to investigate into Spring-Green Lawn Care. As he learned more about the company and opportunities it brought, he began thinking about adding a franchise to diversify and grow his existing business.
Owner Profiles
“Making the investment fueled the rest of my career.”
Ben Whitehouse
Owner of Whitehouse Lawns and Spring-Green
Charlotte, NC & Fort Mill, SC
Starting in 1998, Whitehouse had built his business from scratch, clawing out a successful niche in Charlotte’s competitive lawn care and maintenance business. A 2008 acquisition of a competitor doubled the business’ revenues and gave Whitehouse a stronger foothold in the Queen City’s commercial and upscale residential markets. As he added people and equipment, he found that for the first time he was able to reduce his time in the field and spend more time managing the business.
While all the signs pointed to a bright future, Whitehouse was wondering how he was going to get there. He looked at his maintenance business – the side of the company with the lowest profitability – and asked: “Do I even want to grow this business?” Then he looked at the more profitable lawn care side of the operation and asked: “What will it take to grow this business?”
Rather than invest in the additional staff, office space, equipment and trucks needed to increase his maintenance business, Whitehouse decided the smarter move was to focus on lawn care. Learn what happened by watching the video and reading the owner profile.
