Lawn, pest and irrigation franchise finance
Averan read the 2026 FDDs of nine lawn, pest and irrigation brands.
The median brand here reports average revenue of $671,405 an unit. Percentage fees at the median brand come to 12.5% of sales. The median cost to open runs $123,162 to $195,788.
Find a lawn, pest and irrigation brand
9 brands in this guide, each from its own 2026 FDD. Open one, or pick two and compare them.
The brands in this group
Each brand has its own business model breakdown, with every figure set out against the brand’s disclosure document it comes from.
- Conserva Irrigation Full P&L · Customers times visits times ticket rebuilds the revenue line
- Lawn Doctor Revenue by group · Customer years open of 6.80 years against a margin that excludes labor
- Mosquito Joe Revenue by group · Revenue per customer flat across years open, so the business reduces to customer count and retention
- Mosquito Shieldquartile · Flat price against a difference of 2.7 times in customers per territory
- Mosquito Squadquartile · Fixed appointment count against a difference of 4.2 times in ticket
- Pestmasterfull_list · Territory count accounts for 2.4% of the variation
- The Grounds Guys Revenue by group · Three-year maturity doubles revenue, against openings collapsing and terminations accelerating
- U.S. Lawnsquartile · Net profit published after owner salary
- Weed Manquartile · A $30,000 unit territory that produces about $393,088 a year
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | $671,405 | 9 of 9 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | $579,810 | 6 of 9 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | $49,000 | 9 of 9 | |
| Royalty | 8% | 9 of 9 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | 2% | 8 of 9 | |
| Percentage fees, all in | 12.5% | 9 of 9 | Royalty, funds and local marketing set as a share of sales |
| Cost to open, low | $123,162 | 8 of 9 | |
| Cost to open, high | $195,788 | 8 of 9 | |
| Profit margin | 26.2% | 4 of 9 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | 23.3% | 3 of 9 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 2 of 9 | |
| Unit growth, 2025 | 3% | 8 of 9 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost, 2025 | 7.3% | 8 of 9 | Terminated, non-renewed, reacquired and ceased, ÷ opening units; transfers excluded |
Each figure is the median of the brands that disclose it, and the Brands column counts them.
How we calculated this
Revenue is each brand's own reported figure on its own unit basis, so the median describes the group and no single brand. Growth and customers lost are our calculations from each brand's outlet table. Where fewer than three brands disclose a figure, no benchmark is shown.
The model
The business model the top performers in lawn, pest and irrigation are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
4 of the 9 brands here sell a visit at a time. 3 of them run a recurring plan, and turning a first visit into a standing arrangement is a skill in itself. Rostering against demand is the constraint: wages run 23.3% of sales at the middle brand, more than any other line.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a service booked when it is needed. At 4 of them the model is different: the customer buys a recurring account billed monthly, which asks something else of the owner. A location at the middle brand sells $671,405 a year; the top group sells $1,683,735. The offer is the same at both ends of that range, so the difference is volume rather than product.
Who the customer is, and how often they come back
The customer relationship sits between the two: some repeat, some are won once, and the mix decides how much has to be spent on marketing. A median 33% of locations reach their own brand’s average, so most of the system is below the number the brand advertises, and the gap is usually a demand gap rather than an effort gap. The top group sells $1,683,735 against $208,341 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $92,850 to $252,850 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 1.4 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs wages 23.3%, occupancy 2.8%, cost of sales 43.1%, franchise fees 12.5% of sales. What is left runs 26.2% at the middle brand, which is $441,139 a year at the top group and $54,585 at the bottom. The percentage barely moves between them; the dollars do. 3 of these brands publish how a new location builds up, so the first year can be read out of the document instead of guessed at.
Also disclosed across this group: $199,407, $2,042,514, $376,414, $59,084, $6,378, $6,714, $80,569, 28.8, 6.7, 9.9.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in lawn, pest and irrigation
At the typical lawn, pest and irrigation brand, the best group of locations sells $1,683,735 a year. The worst group sells $208,341. That is $1,475,394 more a year, 8.1 times over, for the same brand on the same agreement. Across these brands, a median of 33% of locations reach their own brand’s average. The average describes the top of a system, not the middle. 9 of the 9 brands here publish bands; the rest disclose no spread at all.
Decided before you open
- What it costs to open.Opening costs run $92,850 to $252,850 across the group, and the top of a single brand’s range is typically 1.4 times its bottom. The top group sells $1,683,735 a year against a build that tops out at $252,850, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $6.66 for every dollar it cost to open. That build is recovered inside a year or two of sales at that end of the system.
- What a location sells.Average sales run $671,405 at the middle brand and $1,683,735 at the top group. Format and site decide most of that before an owner does anything, which is why the same operator produces different results in different trade areas.
- Rent is one number, and it lands twice.Occupancy runs 2.8% of sales at the middle brand, which on median sales of $671,405 is $18,464 of rent a year. That same $18,464 is 1.1% of sales at the top group and 8.9% at the bottom. Nobody negotiated a worse lease. The top performers move this line by putting more sales through the same square footage: longer earning hours, a second daypart, and a site picked for traffic rather than for the rate.
Live operating levers
- 4 of the 9 brands here sell a visit at a time.The owner counts how many visits happen, what each one is worth, and how many customers book the next one before they leave. The last of those three is what separates a busy week from a full calendar next month. They are Conserva Irrigation, Lawn Doctor, Mosquito Joe, Mosquito Squad.
- 4 of the 9 brands here sell a contract that bills every month.An account signed this year still bills next year, so the owner who keeps accounts beats the owner who wins them. Losing one account and winning two sounds like growth and usually is not, once the cost of winning them is counted. They are Mosquito Shield, Pestmaster, The Grounds Guys, U.S. Lawns.
- 3 of the 9 brands here run a recurring plan.A plan turns a business that waits for the phone to ring into one that knows roughly what next month looks like, and that predictability is what lets an owner staff properly. It is built by asking the customer to book the next visit before they walk out, not by spending more on marketing afterwards. They are Lawn Doctor, Mosquito Squad, Pestmaster.
- 3 of the 9 brands here publish how a new location builds up.Where a brand shows its first year month by month, an owner can see when sales finally cover the costs and how much cash has to be put in before that point arrives. Where a brand does not show it, that curve has to be guessed at, and the guess is usually optimistic. They are Mosquito Joe, The Grounds Guys, U.S. Lawns.
- Wages. Same labor market, different result.Wages run 23.3% of sales at the middle brand and 11.3% to 28.0% across the 3 that disclose it. These brands hire from the same pool at the same rates, so a 17-point spread is not a pay-rate gap. It is scheduling and productivity: rostering against booked demand hour by hour, managing sales per paid hour as the number, and keeping enough of the pay variable that the line falls when the week is quiet. On the top group’s $1,683,735 of sales, a point of wages is $16,837 a year; on the bottom group’s $208,341 it is $2,083. The same discipline is worth more where the volume already is.
- Cost of what you sell. The line that compounds.Products and materials take 43.1% of sales at the middle brand, 13.4% to 66.2% across the 5 that disclose it. Buying on the brand program rather than locally, holding the price list instead of discounting to close, and counting waste weekly are what separate the ends of that range, and each of them compounds with volume, which is why the gap widens as a location grows.
- What is left at the end. Where the gap comes from.Of the 4 brands that publish a profit line, the middle one keeps 26.2% of sales, from 18.7% to 35.0%. The cost lines above move by a few points between the best and worst locations while sales move by multiples, so the top performers are not running a cheaper business. They are running the same cost base over more revenue. Hold that 26.2% margin steady and the top group earns $441,139 against $54,585 at the bottom, a difference of $386,553 a year that comes from volume alone.
- What the brand charges. The line that works backwards.Fees run a median 12.5% of sales across 9 brands, from 6.0% to 21.5%. Where a minimum sits underneath the percentage, the weakest location pays the highest effective rate, so the fee line costs most exactly where it can least be afforded. The top performers clear the minimum early and stop thinking about it. At $1,683,735 the fees cost $210,467 a year; at $208,341 they cost $26,043. The percentage is the same and the burden is not.
Context you underwrite around
- How many brands show a ramp.3 of 9 filings in this group show how a new location builds up. For the rest the first year has to be assumed, and the assumption is usually wrong in the same direction.
Operating levers
What each brand’s top performers actually work on
The levers the filing supports, brand by brand. Three to five each, read from that brand’s own 2026 FDD. Filter by type of business, or open a brand for the figures underneath.
9 brands
Conserva Irrigation
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Cost of what you sell. Products and materials take 44.8% of sales, against 20.8% kept at the end. Buying terms, price discipline and waste are where this is won, and each of them compounds at volume. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Visits, the operating driver. This model bills on visits. The owner watches how many visits happen, what each one is worth, and how many customers book the next one before they leave. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 9.5% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Lawn Doctor
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Cost of what you sell. Products and materials take 13.4% of sales. Buying terms, price discipline and waste are where this is won, and each of them compounds at volume.
- Visits, the operating driver. This model bills on visits. The owner watches how many visits happen, what each one is worth, and how many customers book the next one before they leave. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking. A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 20.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Mosquito Joe
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Visits, the operating driver. This model bills on visits. The owner watches how many visits happen, what each one is worth, and how many customers book the next one before they leave. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 21.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Mosquito Shield
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Cost of what you sell. Products and materials take 31.2% of sales, against 35.0% kept at the end. Buying terms, price discipline and waste are where this is won, and each of them compounds at volume. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Occupancy, the line that does not flex. Rent and building costs take 1.8% of sales here. Sales per square foot and the hours the space is earning are the only two ways to move it, because the rent itself is fixed at signing.
- Accounts, the operating driver. This model bills on accounts. An account signed this year still bills next year, so keeping accounts matters more than winning them. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 20.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Mosquito Squad
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Cost of what you sell. Products and materials take 43.1% of sales, against 31.6% kept at the end. Buying terms, price discipline and waste are where this is won, and each of them compounds at volume. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Occupancy, the line that does not flex. Rent and building costs take 3.7% of sales here. Sales per square foot and the hours the space is earning are the only two ways to move it, because the rent itself is fixed at signing.
- Visits, the operating driver. This model bills on visits. The owner watches how many visits happen, what each one is worth, and how many customers book the next one before they leave. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking. A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 21.5% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Pestmaster
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Accounts, the operating driver. This model bills on accounts. An account signed this year still bills next year, so keeping accounts matters more than winning them. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Membership and rebooking. A recurring plan turns a high-fixed-cost business from an appointment book into a subscription, which smooths the utilisation that drives the wage line. Rebooking before the customer leaves is what builds it, not marketing spend afterwards.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 9.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
The Grounds Guys
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Accounts, the operating driver. This model bills on accounts. An account signed this year still bills next year, so keeping accounts matters more than winning them. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 12.5% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
U.S. Lawns
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Cost of what you sell. Products and materials take 66.2% of sales, against 18.7% kept at the end. Buying terms, price discipline and waste are where this is won, and each of them compounds at volume. Small movements here move the result more than anything else, because nothing else in the structure is that large.
- Accounts, the operating driver. This model bills on accounts. An account signed this year still bills next year, so keeping accounts matters more than winning them. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 6.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Weed Man
Lawn, pest and irrigation
- Routes, the operating driver. This model bills on routes. The van costs the same whatever it does that day, so the owner works on how many stops fit into it and how far apart they are. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 8.2% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?Usually it is a revenue problem wearing a payroll costume.
- Revenue was the highest it has been. Why did profit not move?Where the extra revenue went, line by line.
- At what point do spreadsheets stop coping?What changes at around ten units, and why lenders care.
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →How many jobs did you run last week?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast. Reporting, built around job count, a minimum fee your brand imposes. A chart of accounts mapped to the benchmark you are being measured against.
Request the reviewWhere these figures come from
Every figure here comes from the brands' 2026 FDDs and is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brands. The medians, growth and customers lost figures are our own calculations. The figures describe past performance at other businesses. They are not a projection of your results. This page is an educational summary and is not an offer to sell a franchise or financial, legal or tax advice. All trademarks belong to their owners. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.