Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing have competed in curling for Workforce Canada in a mixed whole of three Olympic video games — with Jennifer profitable Gold in 2014 — so that they each know one thing about dedication. Now, after retiring from competing, they’re bringing that very same aggressive spirit and dedication to their household garden care franchise, Weed Man, in Ontario, Canada.
“The transition’s been actually enjoyable,” Jones says, of the ice-to-grass shift.” After retiring from competitors [in April 2024] and on the lookout for what to do subsequent, it appeared like an incredible match. It is a well-established enterprise and simply coping with the purchasers and attempting to be taught the enterprise has been lots of enjoyable.”
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Weed Man
Ontario-based garden care firm Weed Man, ranked #281 on the 2024 Franchise 500, was already acquainted to Laing — his dad and mom initially opened the franchise in 1982, then bought a neighboring territory in 1992. Laing, who’s a three-time Canadian and world champion who narrowly missed medaling within the 2018 Olympic Video games, labored on the franchise when he was a teen and in his early 20s. The model, he defined, has change into a part of the material of his household, and when his dad and mom started speaking about promoting, it received him and Jones considering.
“My mother and pop put their blood, sweat and tears into this for 40 years,” he says, “no matter who was going to purchase, it was simply going to be unusual to not have it within the household.”
So when his dad and mom lastly determined to retire earlier this 12 months, it appeared like an ideal entrepreneurial alternative for Jones and Laing.
“We have been taking a look at attempting to start out a enterprise or create an entrepreneurship atmosphere for our household,” Jones says, “and so it appeared like the proper match.”
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Olympic classes
So does being a world champion Olympic athlete translate to franchising? Jones — who’s a lawyer by commerce, so she’s not fully new to the enterprise atmosphere — thinks so.
“It is the aggressive nature and at all times attempting to attempt to be higher,” she says. “As an athlete, you are by no means happy with the established order. You are at all times attempting to determine methods to be higher.”
She provides that work ethic, the assumption in your self and the willingness to take constructive criticism are additionally abilities and traits she’s carrying over from competing to her franchise life.
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Neighborhood First
Laing and Jones are dedicated to fostering a way of neighborhood by means of their franchise. They emphasize the significance of native involvement and buyer relationships, an method laid out by Laing’s father when he opened the franchise within the Nineteen Eighties.
“It was simply my dad at first, him and a truck, knocking on doorways,” Laing says, “and we have by no means overpassed that, It is a household enterprise. It is a huge firm, however we have at all times targeted on that it is the Laing household enterprise.”
Jones factors out that they’re actually a community-based enterprise — their workplace is correct within the middle of city — and provides that that visibility is crucial to being the kind of enterprise they’re.
“We get to know our clients this manner,” she says, “they arrive by the workplace and I like listening to their tales.”
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Balancing household and enterprise
As dad and mom and enterprise house owners, Jones and Laing are understandably busy. They’ve two daughters collectively who’re below 13 and Laing has an older son from a earlier marriage. In keeping with Jones, working a thriving franchise will not be a lot completely different from aggressive curling, so far as the entire household is worried.
“It has been our life because the youngsters have been little,” she says, of the hectic schedule. “Our two daughters have come on the highway with us their entire lives and understood that flexibility is part of our life. So it is simply change into a part of our household, identical to curling was.”
The household really feel, together with their youngsters serving to across the workplace, is one thing that they need to hold. Each Jones and Laing mentioned they really feel an necessary duty to the legacy of Laing’s dad and mom — each in preserving the enterprise working sturdy and in persevering with the small enterprise really feel that has made it profitable.
“It is a balancing act,” Laing says, “we now have to guarantee that we hold it native and family-focused and guarantee that we at all times reply the telephones and we do not change into too company. We need to become profitable, we need to develop, nevertheless it’s all about that repute that mother and pop have labored so laborious to construct.”
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