Green Acres - Immigrants Get Green Light

British couple Paul and Peggy Sheehan decided they wanted to come and live in New Zealand after their son moved here to take up an opportunity. Now in ‘very early middle age’, the couple are certainly not short on enterprise and experience, as Paul explains. ‘After being in the police force in the UK for many years, we realised a dream to go and do up a house in France. Somehow we managed, sold it and bought another. We might well have carried on doing that for ever but then my son got in touch from New Zealand and said we’d really love it here. Eventually, we thought “Why not?”’The couple didn’t want to be dependent only on a pension and didn’t just want to sit around so they decided to look at the Long Term Business Visa option. As part of their research, they got in touch with Green Acres.’

Supported By NZ’s Largest Franchise

Green Acres is New Zealand’s largest home services company with around 1000 franchisees throughout the country. For the last twenty years it has developed business systems for franchisees in a large variety of services, from lawn mowing to pool valet, home cleaning and carpet care. The franchise is one of the country’s best-known and most trusted brands and offers franchisees the added security of a guaranteed income dependent on the level of investment.

‘But you can’t just say “I’m buying a business” and be granted residency,’ says Paul. ‘As potential new immigrants we had to come up with a strong business plan and that is where Green Acres’ long experience really told. We started talking to their sales manager, Justin Annereau and with his help we were able to put together a business plan that worked for us and was what we wanted to achieve. The immigration process can be extremely complex but we were fortunate because we had such support from Green Acres, who had been through it all with other franchisees before.’

Checking It Out

Paul and Peggy arrived in the country in November 2009 and their visa was issued just a month later. Paul had chosen a lawnmowing round and started work in February. Being a suspicious ex-cop, Paul didn’t take anything for granted, though. ‘Apart from using a good accountant and investigating the business itself, I shopped around for the best deals on things like insurance and mobile phones only to find that Green Acres really had got very good deals for its franchisees – they really are what they say they are. Their training is very thorough and covers handling tax and GST and all sorts of details. In fact, I loved the practical training because the gentleman who showed me how to work efficiently was in his 60s and incredibly laid-back. At first he seemed to have only two speeds – slow and stop – but that was so deceptive. It turned out he was twice as fit as me and what he achieved in an hour was incredible! It’s that sort of experience that’s invaluable.’

And learning how to speed through the work soon proved vital. ‘People say February was a bad time to start because of the drought but I had plenty of work so heaven help me in a wetter summer! Basically, I have about 80 lawns, but there is no restriction on what I can take on – if I could do 280 in a week I could have them. As a Green Acres franchisee you only pay a flat royalty fee and the amount of work you do is entirely up to you, which is fair. It needn’t be just lawnmowing, either. We have a client from the USA who sent an email asking if we could plant some bulbs on his property here. I know nothing about that kind of gardening but Peggy sorted it all out,’ Paul grins.

Life-Changing Decision

Paul and Peggy are very happy with the life-changing decisions they made. ‘Green Acres has helped us establish ourselves in New Zealand and given me a business that is an asset I will be able to sell when the time comes. If I were asked to offer advice to anyone else considering it, I’d say don’t think just because you are your own boss you don’t have to work. You will work hard, but you’ll have a lot of flexibility and you’ll get an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s labour. You can’t say fairer than that.’

Green Acres has lawnmowing and other franchises available around the country for immediate start. Investment levels are from $24,000 +gst.

This advertorial is taken from Franchise New Zealand magazine Volume 19 Issue 2 

Contact details for Green Acres

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