"A Fast-Growing Tree Service Considers Selling Franchises"
By: JOHN GROSSMANN
Monster Tree Service is a five-year-old tree pruning and removal business based in Fort Washington, Pa., north of Philadelphia. It is owned by Josh Skolnick, 29, an entrepreneur since boyhood, whose outdoor businesses have evolved from lawn mowing to mulching to his current company, which has 15 employees and annual revenue of more than $2 million. Mr. Skolnick, who manages the business, takes pride in the fact that he has “never pulled the cord on a chain saw.”
THE CHALLENGE Having established himself in a profitable niche, Mr. Skolnick wants to add more locations, but he is not sure whether he wants to own the locations or franchise them.
THE BACKGROUND Like many boys growing up in the suburbs, Mr. Skolnick mowed lawns in the neighborhood. At first he did it to earn spending money, but by the time he graduated from high school, he had three employees and 110 clients. He bought his first house (for $167,000) when he was 18. His friends had headed off to college, and Mr. Skolnick realized, “I didn’t want to be cutting grass for the rest of my life.” He took landscaping courses at a vocational school and started offering additional services, like putting in patios, walkways and ponds with waterfalls. He acquired other landscaping businesses, paying much of the purchase price out of future earnings, and folded them into Josh Skolnick Landscaping.
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