Pacific Lawn Sprinklers Franchise Radio Show Interview

Speaker A: Hey, folks, John Henning here with the franchise radio show. And today we are joined by a very unique individual. We were just chit chatting and we've got a lot in common. So Joel Lazarovitz, uh, VP of franchising over at Pacific Lawn Sprinklers. Hey Joel, thanks for your time, buddy.

Speaker B: Thank you, John. It's a pleasure.

Speaker A: And I didn't even butcher your last name. Right.

Speaker B: Can I just tell you something? Not only did you not butcher my last name, you said it, you enunciated it perfectly, which is such a rarity, John. So that was a pleasure. So thank you. Mine's

Speaker A: a lot easier. Mine's a lot easier. You can't really butcher that one. Right, so.

Speaker B: Right, right.

Speaker A: Hey, before we jump into the business stuff, I just wanted to kind of talk about you a little bit. I'm a huge proponent of people do business with people first. So let's talk a little bit about Joel. Kind of walk us through your life and tell us kind of how you got to where you are today.

Speaker B: Sure. So it's a, it's, it's actually an interesting road, John. I, I've been in franchising since 1997, which is crazy when I think about that. So 27 years in franchising. I started in, uh, the children's enrichment education field with a company out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, basically, um, grew that to 225 franchises in 25, um, countries. And then realized, uh, there was a real gap in the market on an international landscape. And so I went back to some of the companies who used to pick my brain and said, hey, listen, if I do some fractional development and nicely focused on the children's enrichment space, would you be interested in working with me? And the first two companies I reached out to said yes. And so then all of a sudden I was like, oh, well, I guess I have my own company now. And so I started, um, helping franchisors. Uh, I've now over the past 27 years, introduced brands in over 65 countries, over 150 cities across the US all across Canada. I've. John, I've focused almost exclusively in service based businesses. Right. That's what I love, you know, so I've done children's enrichment. I was fortunate enough that when, uh, I started my own company going back 17 years, um, I was reached at a company in the residential cleaning space called Maid Brigade, that, that actually reached out to me and they said, we're interested in expanding internationally and in Canada. And I said, I was like, what am I going to do with a residential cleaning company? I know the children's enrichment space. And so next thing you know, uh, I was hired as a consultant, uh, did a master franchise in Saudi Arabia. Some single units in Edmonton, in Surrey, Vancouver, Greater Vancouver, Ontario. And they're like, we'd like you to be our VP of franchise recruitment. And I was like, that's great, but I want to continue doing the international things that I love. And that became a perfect marriage. So for the past 14 years, I've been the VP of Recruitment for May Brigade. And then most recently, uh, May Brigade was actually acquired 14 months ago by, uh, the Riverside Group, which is one of the most, uh, prestigious and well known private equity groups in franchising. And they got to know me and then offered me a second brand called Pacific Lawn Sprinklers, which is kind of why we're, we're here today. And I'm super excited about it. It's in the irrigation space. And so I manage, uh, both brands proudly for the Riverside Group. Both in home services. We have a, uh, portfolio under EVI brands of seven different home services brands. Senior, uh, care, irrigation, residential cleaning, estate sales. What am I leaving out? There's so many, you know, um, beyond that we also have, you know, so they're Grayson's assisted living locators, executive home care, the brothers that do gutters, which is exactly what it sounds like. And um, you know, with, you know, made Brigade and then Shine. So Shine and Pacific Lawn Sprinklers are the two latest and greatest acquisitions. And that brings us to today. I still love what I do. Absolutely.

Speaker A: Let's talk about Pacific Lawn Sprinklers. So a little bit about the company itself. So we know now that they're part of the Riverside group through a vive. Right. Uh, what's the business model look like? What size company are they give us kind of the bring us up to speed on where they're at.

Speaker B: So Pacific Lawn Sprinklers was a company that was started back 45 years ago, which is crazy. But it didn't start as a franchising concept. It started as two brothers, or three brothers that ended up focusing almost solely in the irrigation space. They saw what I believe is a very fragmented industry. For the most part, if you look at irrigation, it's something that's controlled by mom and pop operators.

Speaker A: Sure. And

Speaker B: when you're controlled by mom and pop operators, that's wonderful, but doesn't always come with the technology and some of the other things that larger companies can provide. And so they grew that really successfully. They actually started franchising in 2002. And their path to franchising is so different, John, than others. And what I mean by that is they use that not as a way to necessarily grow nationally, but as a way to incentivize their employees who could grow with them to be able to get their own territories. And as they grew, uh, it grew to where they had 52 franchisees in 73 territories today. And what ended up happening is Riverside looked at the brand. The founding fathers had been there for 45 years. They saw it as an opportunity to exit to what they had built. And they ended up, uh, selling to Riverside. I was given the opportunity to, you know, represent Pacific Lawn. Flew to New York in college, uh, Point in Queens, which is where they're based. Fell in love with the, just the people as a whole. Like the brand leader's been there for 30 years. The franchise business coaches have been there for years and years. It just great, great systems and people. And so because the space was fragmented and because I think there's maybe one other company in franchising, in irrigation, I was like, wow, they're focused on technology, they're focused on water conservation. They're focused on things that especially water conservation is only going to get stricter.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Over the next several years. And I just saw this, saw this as an opportunity to grow something really, really special. And so, uh, I came on seven, eight months ago. Obviously, with Riverside's purchase, we had to redo the FTD because that's a material change, which deal with ownership. And now we've really started to launch and grow Pacific Lawn. And so I will tell you the beauty of this brand is it's not just irrigation. What it is is four different streams of revenue. So irrigation is what the company was founded on. But it's not just the irrigation. Yes, we do the ins, the installs, yes, we do the blowouts, yes, we do the breakage and the maintenance of the, uh, equipment. But the other areas of business are really demand driven by the franchisees. They said we're on customer's property. If we're on a customer's property, why can't we go out and do permanent lighting? Why can't we do holiday lighting? Why can't we do drainage solutions? And so now all of a sudden it's four different streams of revenue. Takes away some of the seasonality of the business and we're able to grow and to scale. And I haven't even touched on, ah, you know, all the, the bells and whistles and features that we have for franchisees. And so um, I just think it's an excellent brand. 55 person call center housed in New York, answers every single call, books every single appointment, optional bookkeeping for the franchisees. So no need to have to go out and hire an admin to do this. We do all of that for them. And so we're ah, just at the cusp of something right now where we can grow something really, really special. And so I'm just super excited to be able to be part of that team.

Speaker A: So Joel, is this the uh, B2C. B2B a combo? Who's getting the services?

Speaker B: So it's primarily B2C but we do B2B as well. So when we build a territory as an example, John, we're looking for 50 to 75,000 single income dwellings. And I always have fun saying this because whenever I say that people are like well I'm used to, is it, that's a hundred thousand qualified households or it's a, you know, this many single income dwellings is important for our business model. Let me explain why.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: If we go into your suburb and you have an apartment complex with 50 doors, you still have one lawn at

Speaker A: the

Speaker B: end of the day. So we want to make sure that if someone's getting in a territory it's attractive, just not just from a geographic standpoint but you have enough customers to be able to attract it.

Speaker A: Well

Speaker B: so we use 50 to 75,000 single income uh, dwelling homes that earn above a hundred thousand dollars a year which is what that territory is. Now you're still going to be able to go into, you know, where office buildings have lawns.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker B: You know, so there's nothing preventing you from doing the B2B as well. But. So we do both. But I would still say the B2C is primary revenue driver for our model.

Speaker A: Makes sense. That makes sense. I like how you have the, all the different things you're actually know you're looking for. And that's got to be one of the benefits of being part of that larger organization is they already know what works for the franchisors. Right?

Speaker B: 100%. Yeah, listen, 45 year track record, uh, with longevity, continuity, um, we have, I'll tell you, Riverside did a study from the franchisees. They always do. How satisfied are the franchisees? Are they getting the support? Are they getting the training? Our NPS score for Pacific Lawn was 93%. That is the highest in Riverside's history. And Riverside currently has six different umbrella companies with almost 40 brands. So that's saying a lot. So the systems and tools that are in place for franchisees are phenomenal and we have very, very happy franchisees that validate.

Speaker A: And to put that in reference for folks that don't know what an NPS is, it's a Net promoter score, which is a very specific way that this is calculated. But to give you a reference point, companies like NP Apple are in the 80s, other big name brands are in the seven high 70s and they're like, that's good. So to be in the 90s in the NPS is like a unicorn type status, right?

Speaker B: It is. And I appreciate you elaborating on that and not just making. I shouldn't have made the assumption that everyone understands the acronym. So thank you. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, no, it's all good. Let's, let's talk about the person that would be like, you know, the franchise partner. Who is that person? What personality traits they have, what transferable skills do they need? You know, who is that ideal F for this particular franchise?

Speaker B: So, uh, the question's interesting because there's been an evolution in that ideal candidate. So I think when they first started the franchise system it was more the owner operator, the person that wasn't afraid to get their hands dirty, to get down on their hands and knees to do the irrigation. We have a lot of those people. But what really is attractive to us right now, given what franchisees are doing from a revenue standpoint and just their growth, is getting that sales and marketer that wants to be an empire builder, someone HR related, not afraid to get involved in their community, join their BNI networking group. You know, they're mingling with other business owners, exchanging referrals, sponsoring a local sports team. What works well for us is the franchisee who's going to be customer facing. You can hire the irrigation techs. What they need to be is just handy. We can train them on how to do the irrigation and how to do the permanent lighting, the holiday lighting and the drainage solutions. So for us, what we're looking for ideally is someone has that sales and marketing skills, might be on a property and they see, you know what, they're one, there's a puddle forming, there's not, it's not even raining. Why is that? Why? Because there's some issues with the drainage solutions. They need a French drain they need to dig up with their lawn. So having those sales marketing skills, shaking hands with the customer, then being able to upsell the other areas of business is something that's Important for our, for our model. I would tell you we still have owner operators and that still works. But we're really looking for that sales and marketer who wants no 1, 2, 3 territories because they see a huge opportunity. And then for us, like because it's a New York based company, we're virtually sold out in New York and New Jersey. That's because that's where the company is founded. But outside of Florida and some franchisees in, let's say Atlanta, Columbus, the Research Triangle and Charlotte, we're pretty much wide open. Like I just registered in California. We don't have one franchisee in California. This is a no brainer for this brand. We have one in the state of Texas.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Like uh, you know, so, so I would tell you sales and marketing, hr, people oriented, you don't need a ton of employees. It's not a laborious model. One employee can generate a lot of revenue for you. So it's more, it's not, it's home based. You don't need a brick and mortar. It falls into that. Uh, let's get two, four transits. Let me get my territory, let me hire my irrigation techs and away we go. So from an investment standpoint, you're looking at, you know, in that 100, 150 range with way less than 100 coming to us. We just want to make sure that they're properly capitalized for, you know,

Speaker A: what does the uh, what does the training look like, Joel? Like, how do I need to have experience in this field to, to become a franchise owner? Or is it something you guys can show me what I, in a period of time and then we hire that skill with the, the employees.

Speaker B: Great question. So we just built a whole new facility for training in Long Island. Um, you know, we used to train people at our head office in uh, College Point in Queens, but we just built a new training facility because we know that we're going to be growing this brand exponentially. What that uh, looks like is like any other. You're going to have an onboarding in. The onboarding is some things that you can do virtually. Once that's completed, then you're going to come to our head office in Long island or training center in Long island to spend four to five days with us to be trained on all aspects of that business. Once the training is completed, it doesn't end there. We actually do ride alongs. We have your franchise business coach that will travel to you in your community and then train you and your first group of employees right after. So It's a two prong training that works really, really well for us because they get to meet everyone obviously at the New York office and then they get to really really, um, cement that relationship with their franchise business coach because they're going to be traveling to them and to be able to help them hit the ground running as well.

Speaker A: Now you mentioned as a fragmented interest industry, so what really separates Pacific from the other folks that are in this space? What are the two or three things that just really stand out for you as a company on the differentiators?

Speaker B: Yeah, and it's a couple of things I mentioned before, but they're bare repeating like for the, the call center.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: Is so important. Like we have a 55 person call center in New York that has access to the employee schedules, has access to the franchisee schedules, can seamlessly put it right into their calendar. Um, let's just say we're the only one in the space, in the franchising space that has that

Speaker A: right.

Speaker B: And that takes away the need to hire an admin that won't be as qualified or educated on our brand.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: Beyond that, we have the bookkeeping services as well. That's optional. Some franchisees have accounting background and love QuickBooks and ADP and everyone else you can think of and they don't want that. And then there's others that are like, oh my God, please do this

Speaker A: right

Speaker B: for me. So, so being able to have those two options are huge for franchisees because they can concentrate on what's really important, which is sales and marketing and hiring and training and retention to staff. At the end of the day, that's what service based businesses are. They're sales and marketing driven and they're hiring and training and retention of staff. So if we could take away a lot of the, call it grunt work, but the back end that they don't want to handle so they can focus on growing their business, that's a huge advantage. The second part is that we have four streams of revenue. We're not just an irrigation company. So in the past you would have some people that would say, oh, you know, they're only going to be busy from April through September. Well,

Speaker A: um,

Speaker B: I'll tell you one thing. If you ever looked at your neighborhood to see who's putting up their Christmas lights, you know, that's a business all on its own, right? So being able to offer, you know, the holiday lighting, the permanent lighting, the drainage solutions, that's where we're different, you know, because the other irrigation companies are irrigation only we have multiple streams of revenue when we're on a property. So that's a huge advantage, you know, that we offer as well. So I would say those are the biggest differences is the fact that we're losing the seasonality perception of our business. We also have the call center, the bookkeeping. It just, we focus on water conservation. Every single state is becoming stricter and stricter in water conservation. So if you're not using the proper equipment, you're not, you're not doing the proper research. Yes, you could be the mom and pop operator that does that, but you're usually not going to have the technological background that's going to help manage this in a more effective fashion.

Speaker A: Sure, that makes a lot of sense also, I would imagine. And um, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think that it being less seasonal now that helps me with my employees too with retention. Right. If I'm, if I'm able to carry them through and provide for their families through the, the off, off sprinkler season, whatever it is, um,

Speaker B: sure.

Speaker A: Then it probably helps me with retention and hiring as well. Right.

Speaker B: Does it absolutely does. Because people are looking for consistent work. Right. One of the, one of the biggest challenges in service, and I've been in service my whole life, is that if you can only offer someone eight hours a week, it doesn't really matter what you're paying them. If someone else can offer them 30 or 40 or 50 hours a week, at the end of the day, all they want to do is provide for their family. So for us, like in our peak months, we can be busy seven, seven days a week if we choose. But even in those you're going to have, you're always going to have a little bit of a lull for sure. But that lull is not as long as, let's say if we only offered irrigation as an example.

Speaker A: Let's talk a little bit about support. We talked about the training. Right. Which then naturally leads into that. But now I'm six months in, I'm 12 months in, I've got my feet wet. I, I need some help. What does that look like? Uh, from a support standpoint.

Speaker B: So we have, um, we're very fortunate. The son of one of the founders is a franchise business coach. He actually grew his own territory in New Jersey to a seven figure business in a very short period of time. So we have people on staff that have been there 15, 20 years. You know, that's uncommon as you know from a support function. So they're always dealing with A franchise business coach. They're having regular strategic calls. We have an annual convention coming up in Orlando in February where all of our franchisees get together. Um, we have people that will do presentations. We have, you know, people who share best practices. So support is, we're creating all the marketing templates, marketing library. All you need to do is overprint your contact details. We have relationships with vendors when it comes to SEO and PPC and equipment that you're buying. Like, so support is, is never ending. I think what you're doing is you have a franchise business coach that's supporting you directly and then we have a great peer networking group, you know, so we're starting a franchise advisory council. We're doing a whole bunch of things that allow our franchisees to be able to share best pract but also share obstacles, uh, as well. So having a uh, franchise business coach that's dedicated to each franchisee is really, really important. And of course franchise business coaches will be supporting multiple franchisees, but at the same time the people on board are people that have been with us forever. And that continuity is really important as well.

Speaker A: Well, it sounds really comprehensive. So I'm sure that uh, it's a, uh, sounds like a great system for the franchise owners that can reach out and have all those different types of support systems. Because you're right, the, the thing that's unco. Not just uncommon, but I guess different than many franchises is what I refer to as that institutional knowledge. Right. You get great people that are franchise business coaches, but maybe they don't have that 10, 15 years experience in the industry of actually growing the business themselves. Right.

Speaker B: I so true. Like I, I, the brand I was, I work with as well, the other brand, their support team, and with an EBI within May Brigade as an example, they've run locations themselves. When you find people that have run locations themselves, they don't just think of it as an operation person. It's

Speaker A: the

Speaker B: same thing with Pacific Lawn. They have franchise, they have support people that have run locations. So they face the same challenges that franchisees have faced. If you don't have that commonality, you're still on the outside looking in, trying to understand it. If you've faced the same obstacles before, then you probably know how to fix it or at least give advice on how to fix it. So that's something that Pacific Lawn has and it's uh, it's, it's instrumental to franchisee success for sure.

Speaker A: Now let's say somebody was listening to this and they wanted to learn more what's the best channel for them to reach out to you? And then what are those first couple of kind of steps look like in that, in those different meetings and you know, you know, evaluations.

Speaker B: The first, the best thing is always to set up a call with me. I'm very people and of course I'm going to send videos, I'm going to send brochures, I'm going to sell it, send a wealth of information. But I want them to understand what's the range of investment, you know, what does my territory look like, what's my rule, what's the day in the life of a franchisee.

Speaker A: So

Speaker B: the best thing to do is always to reach out to me directly at, uh, Jay Lazarovitz at pacific lawn sprinklers.com or 770-746-3619 they can reach me. I set up calls evenings, weekends. This is, this is what I love doing, John. This I've done for 27 years. So. And then what we would do is we go through a methodical process. It starts with just a call like this where I get to know the person, I get to understand why are they looking at business ownership and more specifically franchise ownership and what's their expectation and are they looking to do this full time? Because what we don't want is someone who comes to us and says, you know what, I'm looking to contribute five hours a week and I want to buy. I'm like, yeah, it's not going to work, right? So it's, it's really more about, um, connecting, getting to know one another better. I'm a big believer in understanding people's motivation and what's, what's making them look at business ownership and it's the right fit. So I'm about the relationship when we start and I explain everything they'll know and then what we'll do is we go through a webinar during a second call. And I get really into the nuts and bolts of the business, the business model. Um, from there that goes well, I send a copy of our franchise disclosure document, which as you know, is, you know, uh, a nice cure for insomnia, but incredibly important for franchisees. To be able to respect the franchisees, to review and to understand what the commitment is and what their role in the business is going to be and what they can expect from the franchisor. That goes well. I introduce them to franchisees so they can speak to other people, really find out, you know, what this business been like for you and would you do it all over again. And what type of support and training are you receiving? And then we'd introduce them to our brand leader, Mary, who's Mahoney, who's been with the company for 30 years. So that, that speaks volumes. So it's a step by step process with the eventual hope that they travel to New York and they meet the people. I'm even in this virtual age, John, which we still do virtual meet the teams. I'm still a big believer in shaking someone's hand. So we do the virtual ones because that's better for some people. But we also welcome the idea of someone coming, spending an entire day with us to really get to know the people that will be supporting them. And at that point, then they have a good feel for it. And I call it the mutual admiration society. Everybody has to like each other and we need to make sure it's the right fit. So. And then they'll know at that point, you know, whether they'd want to move forward and purchase a Pacific Lawn sprinklers and we would know. The likelihood of me having someone come into New York, you know, incurring the cost of lodging and airfare for not sure, is zero. I'll know immediately if they're a good fit and, um, and then they can come meet everyone and just cement the relationship.

Speaker A: Well, Joe, we'll make sure to include the, uh, information right below the episode here, so folks can just click right on it, call you, it's right there on the page and everything for you. Okay. So they can start that process once they look through the info and see if it's a mutual fit, right?

Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited. I'm excited by this brand. I just think there's so much opportunity, like I said, in the space that's so fragmented right now, to where we can come in and offer something that's really polished, quite frankly.

Speaker A: Well, there you have it, folks. My name is John Henning with the franchise radio show, and today we were talking with Joel Azarovitz, the vp, uh, of franchising over at Pacific Lawn Sprinklers. Joel, thanks for taking some time for us today.

Speaker B: John, thanks for having me on. It was an absolute pleasure.