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For over a decade, Ryan Hannon helped companies use robotics to streamline their processes. He was an industrial engineer for UPS, then a supply chain engineer for NFI, a supply chain solutions provider in Camden, N.J. He then spent four years with Pitney Bowes, a global shipping company, as an industrial engineer using automation and robotics to speed up their processes.
With a degree in industrial engineering, maximizing efficiencies with robotics became his area of expertise. But while he was speeding up efficiencies for others, he was missing out at home.
“I was constantly traveling for my previous work,” Hannon says. “We have a 4-year-old who’s soon to be 5, and when she was born, I was missing events and first milestones, traveling for my corporate job. I wanted to find something that I could be good at, having the industrial engineering background and the space of designing processes and workflows.”
It was while at a trade show for the logistics industry that Hannon came across a booth that was an advisor to people seeking franchising opportunities.
“I’d always wanted to own my own thing,” Hannon says. “I decided to check it out.”
In July of 2024, Hannon became the owner of a U.S. Lawns franchise in Atlantic City, Vineland and Sewell, N.J. He had $550,000 in revenue in 2025 and already has $410,000 in revenue in 2026.
Now he hopes to take his expertise in robotics, along with his competitive spirit, to make his U.S. Lawns territory one of the strongest in the network, while also never missing an opportunity to take his daughter to the bus stop.
Time for nine
Hannon graduated with a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering from Elizabethtown (Pa.) College, where he also competed on the swim team for four years, serving as a captain for three years.
He’s always been competitive, he says.
“Since joining U.S. Lawns, I’ve wanted to be in the top 10 percent of all franchises,” he says. “I’m just a competitve person — even in my golf league, I want my team to win.”
When Hannon started considering the franchisee opportunity seriously, he didn’t just look at the lawn care and landscape industry. The other top contenders were running a swimming school or a mobile gym company.
“We thought all three had potential. The biggest reason for choosing U.S. Lawns was it was more recession-proof,” Hannon says. “The commercial properties that you manage must stay clean-cut. Even if the person inside the warehouse goes out of business in a recession, the people trying to sell, or at least the warehouse, they need the place looking good.”
When Hannon started researching U.S. Lawns, he admits he was a little “different and picky.” He asked the company to give him the names of three owners who were the best in their class; three owners who were about a year in; and three owners who were struggling to “get the full picture.”
“I had nine conversations,” Hannon says. “Everybody was open about it, and that was the big selling point — they didn’t shy away from letting us know, from letting us talk to anybody.”
The robots are coming
Hannon’s core business is landscape maintenance and enhancement, almost entirely commercial. HOAs, commercial sites and apartment complexes are his “bread and butter.” The company is also expanding into artificial turf and artificial golf green installations, especially in the Atlantic City region, where customers want less maintenance in favor of more beach time.
He says he enjoys the outdoor work and has always loved taking care of his own yard. He isn’t always on jobsites — much of his time is spent on billing and creating proposals for new clients.
Business is steadily growing for Hannon, and he’s happy that he had 95 percent retention of his clients from 2025 to 2026. The five percent he lost was by his choice. The key to his success, he says, is that he demands excellence of everyone on the crew.
“I don’t accept anything less than our standards,” he says. “People make errors, I’m fine with that — everybody’s human — but I don’t like seeing the same mistake twice. I don’t like having the same conversation twice. Last year, we went through four crew leads by May, because it wasn’t the standard I needed. And once we found the right people, we were good to go.”
Now that he has the right people, he’s excited to add the right tools to get more work done. A fleet of Scythe autonomous mowers is arriving at his shop soon. With more than a decade of experience working with automation in a different industry, he’s excited to see how he can apply automation to his lawn care business.
“I started my career in 2013, and that whole time was around automation and robotics. So, I have that understanding that allows me to feel more comfortable taking that risk and challenge of bringing it to the green space,” he says. “Look, we’re never going to be in a spot where everything can be done without a person, but those long, monotonous runs with the mower where guys just sit there for eight hours straight mowing one field or multiple fields at the local park? I can put two robotic mowers there and have two guys do all the edging and make sure those soccer fields look perfectly clean and put a good impression on everybody from the town.
“I’d rather my guys focus on those detailed areas and make sure that the properties are looking as good as they can where the residents go into their office, or the customers enter the facility, versus worrying about cutting three acres behind a warehouse.”
It’s all been an exciting journey for Hannon, and he adds that he loves that he oversees his own schedule now. No more business travel, no more missed milestones with his daughter.
And now, instead of being the one making calls to franchise owners to get their thoughts, he’s the one taking the calls.
“I get a call once a week from somebody looking to buy a U.S. Lawns territory, and I’ll spend anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes with them answering questions,” he says. “(The U.S. Lawns) owners did that for me. That support across the network is huge, and I think that is what really helped us stand out.”
