The Grounds Guys : Lisa Garner on Adding The Grounds Guys to Custom Home Building

This testimonial features Lisa Garner, owner of the Grounds Guys of New Albany. Garner is in her first year of operation, and the video walks through how a Grounds Guys franchise became a logical add-on to a custom home building business she and her husband already run in New Albany, Ohio. The franchise decision was strategic vertical extension. With custom home building as the anchor, adding a high-quality landscaping operation gave the family a way to extend the customer relationship and protect the finished home with professional outdoor services. After researching multiple opportunities to find the right fit, Garner zeroed in on the Neighborly portfolio because of the breadth of franchise options it offered. Neighborly transparency drove the close. Garner emphasizes how accessible the corporate team was during evaluation — answering questions, being upfront that running the business would not be easy every day, and spending hours with the family meeting the team and walking through what life as a franchisee actually looks like. The accessibility continued post-purchase rather than dropping off after onboarding. Her franchise is built around a wide service mix. The Grounds Guys of New Albany covers commercial and residential landscaping, irrigation, turf, holiday lighting, and snow removal. The recurring-customer segment that has held strongest is residential — particularly homeowners who keep returning for landscape enhancements and additional projects beyond the baseline service contract. She closes on what the franchise format delivers that independent operators do not have. She describes the brand experience as fun rather than isolating, with a wealth of team members and resources to call on, a can-do attitude across the network, and the collaboration across the system as the part she is most proud of.