Congratulations to Don Elliot of Monster Tree Service of Knoxville on his well deserved Franchisee of the Year award. Don is an outstanding example of how franchise owners can get involved in their community. For example, in honor of Arbor Day, his location partnered with a local daycare in their community for a tree planting event in April.
The team came equipped with resources like a Monster Tree Service coloring book, wood chips, and a center cut from a tree trunk to help educate the children on the anatomy of a tree and how you can tell the tree's age based on the number of rings displayed in the trunk! They also worked with each child to aid them in planting seedlings to take home, care for, watch grow, and plant on their parent's properties when it comes time. Beyond this, Don does what he can to help his community by recycling tree waste from jobs to provide those in need with woodchips to use for mulching their landscapes.
Don joined the Monster Tree Service family three years ago, looking to launch a service-oriented business that was "internet proof" and scalable. Don has been a great example of a successful owner from the start, launching his second crew just six months following his initial launch and his third crew within the following six months. In 2020, his sales for the calendar year were $1.35M, he produced $1.65M in sales for 2021, and is on track to break $2M in total sales for 2022!
When we asked Don what he feels makes his business so successful, he said, "The core support teams at Monster that work day-to-day with the Monster franchises are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. The framework puts a strong emphasis on professionalism, customer service, and overall experience from initial interaction to completion, allowing us to stand out from competitors," and "our team continuously works to grow and adjust processes to improve our operations, customer experience, and bottom-line profits."
Don shared some insight on how to avoid failure, saying, "Understand you are the owner driving the success of your business. It is up to you to hire, develop, and retain a strong crew. Know yourself, find people complimenting you, and build a well-rounded team focused on the right things, the customer, and profitability."
We are incredibly proud of Don's success as a Monster Tree Service owner, we love seeing his efforts to give back to his community, and we can't wait to see how he continues to grow over the years!
