The Sunshines in Waco

Last week, I had the pleasure of giving my Design Your Life seminar at new franchise owner training, and Peter van Stralen was among my guests. Peter’s family started a business in Canada that The Dwyer Group is now franchising across the United States as The Grounds Guys. Here’s a little story of how our businesses got together:

Peter van Stralen is the president and CEO of Sunshine Grounds, a landscaping business headquartered in Caledon, Ontario, Canada. One of 10 brothers, the whole van Stralen clan has been involved in what is now a growing franchise. But like the Dwyer family, the van Stralens experienced the trials of wanting to be big while still maintaining that closeness that existed from day one. And how do you do that when the company evolves to include more than your brothers?

“In the last five years, we began franchising,” Peter said. “And that was a new dynamic for us. Now we had locations that ran across a large geographical area. We needed our code of values to be more clearly stated.”

That’s about the time Mike Bidwell, The Dwyer Group’s President and COO, read a story about Sunshine Grounds and shared it with me. We called up the company and met with Peter. What we heard was déjà vu. The family was growing up. And so was the company.

I sent Peter a few copies of my Live R.I.C.H. book for his team to see how The Dwyer Group addressed its growing pains over the years.

“I got it in the mail and started reading and couldn’t put it down,” Peter said. “We always tried to live by our code of values but never formalized it or wrote it down. Her book came right at the right time for us.”

With 24 locations and a reach that had extended into the U.S., the van Stralens were looking to safeguard their culture. Like so many great leaders, Peter and his team already had a strong sense of self. In their marketing materials, they said the very thing that made them special: We CARE. After reading Live R.I.C.H., they used their own motto to formalize values and action items that would make sure every franchisee and every employee knew what it meant to CARE as well. Today, they have a Code of CARE that says:

We show that we CARE, by putting the needs of our
Customers first, by always having a positive and helpful
Attitude, and by treating everyone and everything with
Respect. By living our code of values we
Enjoy Life in the process.

The connections that The Dwyer Group made with the van Stralens during this free exchange were too strong to ignore. They knew grounds care and we knew franchising. More importantly, it was clear how much our companies valued a strong, ethical corporate culture. We knew we could do more together that would be mutually beneficial to both of our organizations. Earlier this year, The Dwyer Group announced that it would begin marketing The Grounds Guys franchise opportunity across the United States. It’s the seventh franchise concept for The Dwyer Group. And each new franchise owner who joins the system will receive the superior technical training that the van Stralens have perfected. Together we are doing great things to Live R.I.C.H.