Grass; I always thought it was just that short green stuff I played football on and rolled around in when I was a kid, but as it turns out, grass is a bigger deal than I've ever given it credit for. There are magazines, books, websites, clubs, and innumerable businesses that specialize specifically in grass: knowing and teaching how to make a lawn as green, thick, and healthy as it possibly can be. In fact, in 2003, it was an $11.6bil industry, but this industry is more than just grass, it's called lawn care. If you're an entrepreneur interested in starting a home based business that will be profitable and enjoyable, entering the lawn care world as a professional may be a good way to go, and here are some great lawn care franchises to get you there.

Lawn Maintenance

There are a few different angles from which to approach lawn care as a business. The most obvious side of the industry is the actual work of maintaining the lawn itself, and there are three businesses I would recommend for their excellence in the market.

Spring-Green Lawn Care is a longtime powerhouse in the lawn care world, providing top-notch service to homeowners in 24 states for the last 30 years. Franchisees with this mobile franchise receive a week of initial training and a few days of on-the-job training before starting out as owner/operators; fertilizing clients' lawns, controlling diseases and insects, aerating, and maintaining trees and hedges around the lawn as well. And that simple beginning can quickly turn into a more profitable operation with the franchisee overseeing a larger group of employees actually doing the work.

Home lawns aren't the only option in the business, though; there are also small business opportunities in the field of commercial lawn care. U.S. Lawns is a company that has been franchising successfully since 1986. Their goal is to provide the corporate professionalism necessary in commercial landscaping with the personal touch of a small business. Franchisees need no previous experience to succeed with the business, and overhead is low, while business is very constant, as commercial clients tend to be repeat customers for a long time.

Since its inception in 1991, NaturaLawn of America has been the nation's leader in organic lawn care. Unlike their competition, NaturaLawn of America refuses to use harsh chemical treatments to rid lawns of weeds and insects; instead, they fight disease and promote growth with only natural solutions. Increasingly, this is the preferred method of care for many consumers, and thus demand for this kind of business is growing.

Lawn Cleanup

Not all problems in a person's yard are threats to the lawn, though; sometimes, the threat is to the people walking across the lawn instead of the lawn itself. It may not be a danger, per se, but dog waste in the yard is definitely an eyesore and an inconvenience, and there is a special class of lawn care businesses that concentrate on getting rid of it.

Doody Calls and Pet Butler are the big names in the pet waste management industry, each providing professional waste pick-up and removal to innumerable clients around the country. Their systems are incredibly well-planned and brilliantly functional, orchestrating numerous mobile units that run their circuits around town while tracked by GPS to check progress. Marketing plans are made available to all franchisees through central computer systems, and communication between franchises is encouraged to maximize effectiveness. It may not be the most glamorous work in the world, but it is certainly profitable, sometimes turning up to a 49% profit margin, and running in a $40bil-and-climbing pet market, the prospect of future business growth is a definite possibility.

Lawn Boundaries

Another opportunity for working in lawn care without having to worry about the maintenance of grass is with a franchise business called Kwik Kerb. Today, it has become incredibly popular to have artistic concrete boundaries between the lawn and planters in the yard, and that is precisely the product and service that this work from home business provides. Aesthetically, the product is pleasing to the eye, but it provides a very functional purpose as well, drawing a clear boundary between yard and planter that doubles as a barricade, keeping any weeds and diseases from the lawn out of the flower bed, and visa versa. There are many benefits to this business, aside from high profit margin in the world of landscaping, and one of those is that this particular brand of landscaping doesn't require continued service, so once the franchisee finishes the work for a client, the project is complete. Some business owners like the consistency of repeat business, but for those who like to get a job done and move on to another, this is a good choice.

If getting your hands dirty at work is important to you, and you really find satisfaction in growing a deep, emerald green lawn, lawn care may be just the business for you to get into. With any of these franchises, it could easily be the road to success and financial freedom.