Lawn Doctor can't wait to see green again

With the winter Long Island has been having, it's no wonder lots of people are thinking about seeing green again, as in their lawns. And that's good for the Island's lawn-care industry.

Ted Kramer, 45, of Old Bethpage, once the chief financial officer of a $50-million Manhattan-based staffing company, decided five years ago to quit the corporate life and purchase a Lawn Doctor franchise. He now has about 900 customers, and sales last year totaled $476,000.

His early forecast: It's going to be a good spring, businesswise. In past years about 15 percent to 16 percent of people he sent mailings to responded they wanted service in the spring. This January, Kramer said, the response is about 30 percent.

"The year is looking much better," said Kramer, attributing some of the increase in service requests to an improving economy and some to the fact he has been in business for awhile now.

Holmdel, N.J.-based Lawn Doctor Inc. has six franchisees on the Island, including Kramer's. Company vice president Scott Frith said Lawn Doctor has 460 franchisees nationwide. There is room on the Island now, he said, for three more franchise operations.

The two other national lawn-care companies are Memphis-based TruGreen, which has 260 branches nationally, including 50 franchises, and Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Lawn Service.

Overall, TruGreen, like others in the industry, has been struggling in the recession. It sold 15 franchises last year. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, it would usually sell about 25 annually, Frith said. But sales last year rose 4 percent, he said, an indicator of better things to come.

Kramer now employs three lawn care professionals and a secretary.

He occasionally hops onto a truck and does some of the lawn tending himself. Though he is no longer helping manage $50-million companies, he says that is not an issue as he looks toward spring.

"I'm doing this all on my own," he said.