Franchise Euphoria Innovating Traditional Industries with James Jakobsen and Peter Roberts of ManageMowed
Business partners James Jakobsen and Peter Roberts founded ManageMowed more than 20 years ago in Edmonds, Washington. The high school friends started as landscapers, working on residential and commercial projects. After the 2008 recession, residential work plummeted, and James and Peter evolved ManageMowed into a commercial landscape management business that subcontracts work to owner-operator crews. The model is attractive as commercial work is less impacted by economy shifts. After they began focusing on commercial landscaping, Peter and James realized the subcontracting model was able to swiftly take the headache out of landscaping for building managers. The brand has several marquee clients, including Public Storage, Safeway and Jack in the Box. There are currently three corporate ManageMowed locations in Seattle, Washington; Denver, Colorado; and, Portland, Oregon.
Key Takeaways:
[0:18] Today’s episode of Franchise Euphoria is brought to you by IndyFranchiseLaw.com, a leading resource in the franchise space. Head over to IndyFranchiseLaw.com learn more!
[0:59] Josh introduces today’s guests, James Jakobsen and Peter Roberts, the co-founders of ManagedMowed.
[2:58] Josh welcomes James and Peter to Franchise Euphoria.
[3:21] James and Peter discuss how their concept evolved from a traditional landscape company to what it is today.
[5:52] Franchising wasn’t the initial plan for ManageMowed but they began exploring it when they decided they wanted to scale up their business model.
[8:20] James and Peter address how they made their transition from a young company that accepted every client that was presented to them to a niche business that was more focused on a specific client.
[11:22] One challenge James and Peter had to overcome was the sales aspect of their business. While they felt comfortable with running and managing their concept, driving new business was a struggle for them. But once they pushed past this challenge, they started seeing the results they wanted.
[13:38] James and Peter made the decision to expand with just their commercial clients which was propelled by the economy in 2008.
[18:27] Since the ManageMowed clients tend to not see their landscape team, they focus their relationships more on their account managers rather than their landscape subcontractors.
[20:37] The ideal ManagedMowed franchisee is someone with quality sales and management experience that can drive business.
[22:18] If you’d like to learn more about ManagedMowed, you can visit their website below.
[23:37] Thanks for listening, and please, reach out to Josh anytime through email at josh@franchiseeuphoria.com. If you enjoyed this interview, please leave us a review on iTunes.
Mentioned in This Episode: