January 30, 2003
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| Franchised Lawn Care Business Grows into Freedom, Family Time And Profits |
Tom Hofer's career trajectory has taken him from the wild blue yonder of piloting Navy planes to the wide expanse of green lawns serviced by his lawn care company.
It's easy to see how Hofer became president of a company like Spring-Green Lawn Care, which provides high-quality, individualized lawn and tree care services to residential and commercial customers. His background in agriculture, along with leadership skills developed in the military and executive experience in the retail industry has culminated in success in the lawn care industry.
Hofer grew up on a farm, and later earned a B.S. in Agriculture at the University of Illinois. After college, he began military service in 1968, flying a Navy P-3 and attaining the rank of lieutenant.
"As a P-3 pilot with a crew of 13 people, you're the leader of that small team," Hofer says. "Building that team feeling, knowing what it means to work as a successful team started for me in the Navy."
After serving five years in the Navy, Hofer did charter flying in Peoria, Illinois. He wanted to be a commercial pilot and was hired by Delta Airlines in 1973. A month before he was supposed to start work, the Arab Oil embargo began. The resulting oil crisis caused Delta to delay hiring Hofer. After waiting two years for the oil shortage and hiring freeze to disappear, Hofer decided to move on.
The department store chain he piloted charter flights for had an executive training program. Hofer was put on the fast track, which resulted in him becoming a buyer. After two years, Hofer realized retail was not for him.
At this time, 1977, Hofer's fraternity brother Bill Fischer was co-founding Spring-Green.
"When I came out of the retail business, I felt I wanted to own my own business," Hofer says. "I've never thought twice about it. Owning your own business is not for everybody. It's probably not for most people. For me, it 's the only way."
Hofer became the third Spring-Green franchise owner and ran his business for two years. Then he exchanged his franchise for corporate stock and came aboard as vice president of Spring-Green in 1980.
"It combined my agricultural background with the marketing and merchandising aspects of retail," Hofer says. "Lawn care is very much about marketing."
In 1987 Hofer was appointed president of Spring-Green. His experience both as a franchisee and franchisor helps a lot. "When you run a business you know what it means to pay the bills and meet the payroll. That helped when I moved to the corporate side. You still have to pay the bills, but on a different level!"
Hofer, 56, has been married 35 years. He and his wife live in Bristol, Ill. They have two grown children. Franchise owners are able to spend quality time with their families, Hofer says, because Spring-Green has flexible work schedules.
"Depending on the part of the country you're in, there are from one to five months we don't do any service work for customers. A typical franchisee can take time away from work then. People might ask, what's the cash flow if you 're not working all year? We have pre-pay programs. Customers can save significant money. With services paid for up front, our franchisee doesn't have to go to the bank and get an operating loan for the season," Hofer says. "In some markets we get as much as 50 percent of our revenue pre-paid."
Even with such flexibility and steady revenue streams, the business still some challenges. "A few years ago one of the top challenges was the labor situation," Hofer says. "Unemployment was very low. It was tough to attract and retain a good staff. So we developed a training program to focus on our franchisees leadership skills."
Ongoing training and certification of team members is a carryover from Hofer 's Navy days. "The military is always training, always improving people. So is Spring-Green."
Marketing is important as well. "Our typical franchisee tends to get the cream of the crop of customers," explains Hofer. Better customers bring better revenues, and are more likely to be retained during tough times, Hofer says. "Demand for our service has been consistently increasing. Even through the tougher economic times, we've held our own."
"We have an aging population," Hofer says. "People getting into middle age tend to buy more services. Customers could go to Home Depot and buy materials and do it themselves, for less money. If they value convenience, and don't want a hassle with their lawn, they hire us. We think demographic trends look very favorable for our business."
Visit http://www.spring-green.com for more information.
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