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Good Morning Wolf Pack,

Today's newsletter highlights U.S. Lawns, a B2B landscaping franchise that has built an excellent revenue-to-investment ratio in the home services category through recurring contracts with office parks, retail centers, and industrial properties.

Enjoy!

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Sponsored by Isembard

The industries keeping the world running are facing a significant manufacturing crisis in the West that nobody's talking about loudly enough.

(Think industries like aerospace, defense, and renewable energy innovation.)

Supply is shrinking, and the workforce is aging...meanwhile, the operators who could solve it have no real platform to build on.

Isembard is passionate about addressing all of this.

They're building a network of owner-operators who want to run precision manufacturing businesses serving the sectors that matter most, with enterprise customers already lined up, proprietary factory software (MasonOS) doing the heavy operational lifting, and hands-on guidance from day one.

This is a mission bigger than most businesses you'll ever come across, and worth a serious look if the idea of restoring stability to critical industries in the US excites you in any way.

See If You Qualify

FRANCHISE OF THE WEEK

U.S. Lawns

Fast Facts

Background

• HQ: Orlando, FL

• Founded in 1986, franchising since 1987

• U.S. Lawns is the nation's leading commercial landscaping franchise, providing grounds maintenance, lawn care, irrigation, tree care, and snow and ice management exclusively to commercial properties.

Location Trends

Franchise Fees

• Royalty: 6% of gross billings (tiered, reduces to 4% as monthly revenue scales)

• Marketing Fee: 2% of gross billings

• Franchise Fee: $34,000

Financial Overview

• The below table discloses information on 208 U.S. Lawns franchised locations that were open and operating for the full 2024 calendar year.

The Wolf's Take 🍟

There aren’t a lot of franchises in this price range where the average unit does close to $1M, but U.S. Lawns is one of them. 

A sub-$200K investment producing that much in average annual revenue is one of the best ratios in this price range, and that’s from 186 reporting locations, too.

The model is 100% commercial B2B. Every contract is with a property manager, office landlord, or hotel group, which means recurring annual service agreements, rather than unpredictable one-time jobs. 

Commercial clients don't cancel because the neighbor's grass looks greener.

At its core, this is an operational business, so you're managing a lot of crews and client relationships. 

If you want a recession-resistant B2B service model with long-term contracts and a system that's been running since 1986, U.S. Lawns checks all those boxes.

Resources

• U.S. Lawns Franchise Development Site 

• EverSmith Brands Acquires U.S. Lawns — PR Newswire

SMB TWEET OF THE WEEK

Web Surfing in the Past - Hubert Thieblot

Hubert Thieblot had me going down memory lane, reminiscing on the earlier days of the internet.

So many memories associated with the days of StumbleUpon, Myspace, Napster, etc.

What are the first few brands that came to mind for you during this era?

WOLF BITES

• Scientists find fog is teeming with millions of living bacteria, challenging what we thought we knew about the atmosphere 💡

• Boardinghouses are staging a comeback as cities look to revive affordable housing 🏠

• Walmart's OnePay doubles its user base to 6 million and sets its sights on taking down banks 💳

• A company accidentally spent $500M on Claude in a single month 😬

• Still facing copyright lawsuits, AI music generator Suno raises another $400M 💸

• Dollar General’s sales spike as ‘$100,000-plus cohort’ hit the value store due to soaring prices 📈

• Airline miles may not go as far as the Iran war drives up fuel costs and summer fares ✈️

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. Thanks and see you next week!

 — The Wolf