Your Investment
The Costs
The Lawnkeeper Franchisee Fee is initially £10,000 + VAT.
This figure includes:
Use of our established brand
Benefitting from our reputation and ongoing marketing efforts
Full training and certification as a lawn care expert
Access to the best equipment and supplies in the industry
Your own large, protected territory with up to 100,000 potential customers
Ongoing support from our head office team to make your business a success
In addition there are a number of other costs you need to consider as part of starting your business. These include the essential professional machinery and equipment you need to provide our core services, initial supplies of lawncare chemicals, your uniforms and PPE, and start up marketing materials to support your launch such as leaflets and sign writing for your van. We put this together in a complete package for you for just £7,000 + VAT.
You will also need to source a van from which to operate your business. We recommend a Ford Transit Custom, and all our vehicles are silver. You can choose to lease, finance or purchase new or nearly new – that’s entirely your choice. In any case, per the above package, we’ll get your van branded for you once you have it.
Finally you’ll need some money to cover your working capital requirements. This should be enough to cover the initial running costs of the business (fuel, chemicals, additional sales and marketing etc), and what you might need to take out of the business to cover your personal expenses at home for a period of time while you build your business. It’s important to build this into your financial modelling. These are all things discussed during the fact-finding process with the Lawnkeeper team.
The initial franchise agreement lasts for five years, which is renewable subject to certain criteria being met by the franchisee and in agreement with the franchisor.
Help raising funds
While Lawnkeeper does not provide financing directly, there are a number of attractive options to help you with your investment.
For example, it may be possible to obtain funding from most major high street banks for some of the amount. Franchising is one of the safest and most secure ways of starting your own business, so many lenders rightfully see it as a much lower risk than a completely new start-up, and may be much more inclined to lend you money against your investment. The Lawnkeeper franchise has been operating for many years, and so has already demonstrated its financially viability to a number of big name banks.
You may even qualify for the Government Backed Business Start-Up Scheme which allows you to borrow up to £25,000 without investing any money of your own. This figure doubles, if the business has two Directors. We are more than happy to discuss all these options with you so you can decide which is best for you.
Ongoing Costs
As a business owner, the vast majority of the money you make stays with you, of course. However, there are certain costs involved in maintaining our partnership.
Lawnkeeper charges an ongoing franchise fee of 8% of your monthly sales.
There is also a fee of 2% for our national marketing levy. This goes directly into our marketing efforts to raise and maintain brand awareness on your, and the network’s, behalf. You are welcome, even encouraged, to carry out your own local marketing, too, but our efforts across the network are designed to save you time and maximise the number of new customer leads.