Mike Andes explains why lawn-care companies should expand into small towns and suburbs before big cities. Building multiple smaller locations creates a network that supports branches doing $8-10 million in revenue, following Sam Walton's retail model. Examples include rolling out around Houston, Madison, and Milwaukee.
What's the benefit of doing that versus going to a big market that has 20 million people and just making a $10 million company? Why have you broken it up that way?
It's because I came from a small town, and so the closest biggest town from me was 2 hours. And then from there we just kind of started hitting all the small towns. So like, I don't know if you ever read Sam Walton's book. Yep. Or we follow that same model.
Yeah, 100%. It's one of my favorite books. Made in America.
Me too. So we built all of our— we built all of our locations around the big cities first. And then moved in the big cities last.
Yeah. And that's usually where our target market is at in the suburbs.
That's exactly— we're looking for those same markets and that's why we've been able to grow so fast because typically those big corporations, big companies are focused on those areas.
Got it. So like they'll be like, hey, yeah, we're going to burn $5 million going into Houston. You're like, yeah, well, let's go to the 5 markets around it.
Exactly. And then so like we did the same thing with like Madison and Milwaukee. We went all the small towns around it and then moved in there last.
Got it.
So like we are in those big cities now that can hold an $8 to $10 million branch.
But after a few years of brand penetration, in ranking on SEO, stuff like that.
