Houston Partners Expand Lawn Care Services With Lawn Pride And The Grounds Guys
Travis Reed (above, left) and his business partner, Travis Hicks (right), decided to invest in Lawn Pride primarily because it’s part of Neighborly, a well-established parent franchisor of home services brands. In February 2023, the men opened their Lawn Pride franchise, which provides fertilizing, weed control, aeration and overseeding services for residential and commercial lawns.
Reed and Hicks also operate a The Grounds Guys franchise, a Neighborly brand offering a wide range of services to homes and businesses. Lawn Pride was a natural complement to The Grounds Guys, especially as demand for lawn care continues to grow. According to a ResearchAndMarkets report, the U.S. lawn care market was valued at $57.77 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $89.47 billion by 2033.
“We were already doing a small amount of turf care through The Grounds Guys and we wanted to scale it,” Reed says. “We believe in Neighborly,” he adds. “The corporate team and brand leadership teams are always working to push their brands forward. Technology and marketing are just a couple of examples of things they play a big part in setting up and making sure that owners are always updated and educated on.”
An Inclusive Community
Reed praises Neighborly’s inclusiveness along with its support. “The goal has always been to get the best people in place, whether that’s in corporate positions or as franchise owners, regardless of backgrounds.”
Both of his franchises employ diverse workers. The Lawn Pride team has three members, an office manager and two technicians, one of whom acts as the field manager, to serve the Houston suburbs of Friendswood, League City and Pearland. Forty people comprise the The Ground Guys staff. “We have several women in the field and in management positions and many different ethnicities represented. The Houston area is very diverse, and our customers reflect that.”
Reed draws on many years of experience to serve those customers. “We started as Hicks Gutters and Sprinklers in 2010. Travis Hicks’ father did gutters, and we were really interested in irrigation so he started a business focused around the two. I joined a few years later to add landscaping and maintenance to the list of services.
“Franchise ownership happened by chance. Both of us had worked for a smaller company previously and had seen firsthand the problems that can come up running a small business of this type,” Reed says. So when Hicks later attended a family reunion and heard that a relative was working for Neighborly, he was intrigued. Reed says that when they visited the corporate office and learned about the culture, systems and structure, “We knew this was something we wanted to be a part of and signed on shortly after.”
Ongoing Support
Neighborly’s call center and national marketing provide significant support, and Reed also values Lawn Pride’s community of owners. Like all franchisees, Reed is responsible for local marketing and networking. “It’s important that we get out there and build awareness about who we are and what we do,” Reed says. “It’s great having people in the same position as you whom you can go to with issues or ideas and get feedback — people who might have already gone through it. Growing a business is both challenging and rewarding, and it helps to have other people in your circle to go through that with you.”
Why Choose Lawn Pride?
Lawn Pride offers the following advantages to owners:
- Franchisees enjoy steady recurring revenue because customers need the brand’s services frequently.
- Each franchise can provide multiple services for the same customer.
- The home-based franchise is easy to operate and highly scalable.
- The brand offers an executive ownership model in which the franchisee leads a team of lawn care professionals.
- Lawn Pride has built an enviable reputation by prioritizing customer service since its launch in 1983.
- The franchise is recession-resilient.
Learn more about the Lawn Pride franchise opportunity.
