We Do Lines featured in The Connecticut Post and The News-Times

We Do Lines was recently featured in The News-Times and The Connecticut Post in articles titled “When parking lots need lines, We Do Lines delivers.” In the article, Chris Couri, co-founder and CEO of We Do Lines, explains that the idea for the parking lot striping company formed when he and business partners Dan Rella and Tom Darrow all worked as landscapers. After researching the $29 billion parking lot striping industry, they decided to open a business and two years ago began franchising. Connecticut franchisee, Bob Russo, said the business focuses on customer service, no matter how big or small the client, and that this year’s numbers are shaping up to be even better than those in 2010. Click here to view the article!

When parking lots need lines, We Do Lines delivers
By Stacy Davis

Business has been good for a local company that specializes in painting lines in parking lots.

"I think it's been really great," said Chris Couri, one of the three founders of We Do Lines at 7 Danbury Road in Ridgefield.

Couri, 35, established the company in 2008 with his two partners, Tom Darrow, 45, and Dan Rella, 55.

The three now paint lines on the pavements of businesses with parking lots. It can be any kind of property, even schools.

(Read More)

We Do Lines featured on AOL Small Business

Reporter Geoff Williams for AOL Small Business found out about the strikingly unique franchise We Do Lines and had to wrap his head around the business model and the founding story. In his Q&A published on AOL Small Business today, Williams sits down with Chris Couri, CEO of We Do Lines, to find out more about this outside-the-box company. Click here to view the full Q&A!

We Do Lines: No, It's Not What You Think
By GEOFF WILLIAMS

By their own admission, Chris Couri, Dan Rella and Tom Darrow aren't exactly in the most exciting industry in the world. But a clever name and a unique growth strategy has helped them transform We Do Lines into a successful franchise company with 17 locations up and down the East Coast.

Before you conjure up images of Al Pacino in Scarface, it's not what you think -- We Do Lines literally paints lines in parking lots.

(Read More)

We Do Lines featured in The Gulf Coast Business Review

We Do Lines was featured in The Gulf Coast Business Review with an article entitled "Entrepreneur takes on warmer double duty." This article was written by editor Mark Gordon, and built from an interview with Tom Darrow, We Do Lines Co-founder, COO, and Southwest Florida franchisee. In the article, Darrow discusses how We Do Lines began, why he decided to personally bring the franchise to Southwest Florida, how easy it is to become a We Do Lines franchisee, and how many business opportunities there are in the market. Click here to view the full article.

Entrepreneur takes on double duty
By GULF COAST BUSINESS REVIEW, Jan. 25, 2011

Here’s a subtle sign the economy is on the mend: Tom Darrow, a former Gulf Coast resident and entrepreneur who moved to Connecticut, has returned to the region — and business is good.

Darrow, who ran a commercial landscaping firm in Ridgefield, Conn., didn’t only move back to Florida for the weather. He mostly moved so he could help build his business, a franchise-based company that repaves parking lot stripes, into a national success.

(Read More)

We Do Lines featured in Naples Daily News

We Do Lines was featured in the Naples Daily News recently. The article, entitled "We Do Lines: New Naples business offers a lot to know about parking," discusses pretty much every angle of We Do Lines, from how it began and why Tom Darrow brought it to Florida, to how much interest has already been conveyed throughout the region from both consumer and business angles. It even delves into the safety issues around line-striping and the curb stops and handicapped symbols they paint. Click here to view the entire article.

We Do Lines: New Naples business offers a lot to know about parking
By KELLY MERRIT, Jan. 28, 2011

NAPLES — When it comes to painting parking spaces, the name of the game is to not tie up a parking lot for the businesses it serves.

No one knows that better than Tom Darrow, who operates a relatively new parking lot striping business in Naples. Darrow recently brought his company, “We Do Lines,” to Southwest Florida from Connecticut in an effort to grow the business.

(Read More)

We Do Lines featured in Entrepreneur Magazine

The nation’s first ever parking lot line striping franchise debuted in Entrepreneur Magazine this month. The article is titled “All Lined Up and In The Paint,” and written by Entrepreneur reporter Jason Daley. Entrepreneur interviewed all three co-founders of We Do Lines Chris Couri, Dan Rella and Tom Darrow to catch up with them about tapping into a $1 billion underserved industry, their current growth and future expansion plans as well as becoming a national franchise with opportunities for development all across the U.S. With 50 million parking spaces out there, someone needs to do the job! Check out the article here!

All Lined Up and In the Paint
Three landscapers go from lawns to lanes, forging new ground in the $1 billion business of parking lot striping.
By Jason Daley

There are roughly 50 million parking spaces in the United States, and by law many of them have to get a fresh coat of reflective paint every year or two. You would think re-striping would be easy, but back in 2008, Chris Couri, Daniel Rella and Tom Darrow, who all owned landscaping businesses around Richfield, Conn., found themselves in a bind.

"Danny called around to 13 guys to stripe our parking lot, and only two called back," says Couri, CEO of We Do Lines. "We realized the parking lot striping industry was underdeveloped, and didn't have any real standards."

(Read More)

We Do Lines featured in The Gulf Coast Business Review

We Do Lines was featured in The Gulf Coast Business Review today in an article entitled "Entrepreneur takes on double duty." In the article, Tom Darrow discusses how We Do Lines began, why he decided to personally bring the franchise to Southwest Florida, how easy it is to become a We Do Lines franchisee, and how many business opportunities there are in the market. Click here to view the full article in its entirety.

TUESDAY’S CUP: Entrepreneur takes on double duty
By Gulf Coast Business Review

Here’s a subtle sign the economy is on the mend: Tom Darrow, a former Gulf Coast resident and entrepreneur who moved to Connecticut, has returned to the region — and business is good.

Darrow, who ran a commercial landscaping firm in Ridgefield, Conn., didn’t only move back to Florida for the weather. He mostly moved so he could help build his business, a franchise-based company that repaves parking lot stripes, into a national success.

“We want to be able to do any job from Maine to Miami,” says Darrow, who previously lived in Venice and now lives in Naples. “But we realize we have to have the hubs to do that.”

(Read More)

Giving Franchisees the Tools to Succeed; We Do Lines Brings on Another Key Partner

Veribooks Assists We Do Lines Franchisees Secure Jobs

Big ideas come in all sizes. Rarely, though, do those ideas come to fruition. That is unless you are Chris Couri, Tom Darrow, and Dan Rella – who collectively teamed up to put the word “sexy” into the parking lot striping industry with the launch of their franchise-brainchild We Do Lines, USA, which is now in six states . In order to bring in jobs quicker and more efficiently for its franchisees, We Do Lines has partnered with Veribooks, a business that offers complete management of all non-core business services.

“It’s important to us to give our franchisees all the tools they need to be successful,” said Chris Couri, CEO of We Do Lines. Sales and marketing is a must in our business so in addition to our franchisees making local connections, Veribooks is also securing qualified appointments for our franchisees who will then meet with the decision makers to close the deals.”

In just the three months that We Do Lines has been working with Veribooks, they have secured over 200 appointments for existing franchisees, including multiple appointments in new opening markets.

Veribooks also provides We Do Lines franchise owners with weekly sales tactic roundtables. “Most franchisees don’t have a formal sales background, and for those that do, a moderated roundtable on best practices is very beneficial,” said Eric Sweeney, President of Veribooks. “These weekly calls cover sales basics in an environment where franchisees can connect with fellow franchisees on a consistent and structured basis.”

According to Couri, as a growing start-up franchise, We Do Lines is pulling out all the stops for its franchisees to ensure they’ll be successful from day one. Earlier this fall, We Do Lines entered into a strategic partnership with Sherwin-Williams to provide training, supplies and expert knowledge to We Do Lines franchisees.
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These partnerships will position We Do Lines for further growth and development. While other brands are struggling to find avenues that work, We Do Lines is ahead of the curve by signing 11 new locations this year and partnering with key players to drive the business and brand forward.

“Giving franchisees everything they need to run a successful We Do Lines franchise is how we’ll get from eleven locations to 100,” Couri said. “We continue to be on the forefront of this industry at every level. And these strategic partnerships and national supplier agreements are key components in the We Do Lines value proposition.”

We Do Lines featured in Business News Daily

We Do Lines was recently featured in an article in the national online magazine Business News Daily called “Crazy Companies: Bizarre, But Successful Business Ideas,”. The article talks about the 500 million parking spaces in need of painting, how We Do Lines has stepped in to paint them, the type of paint they use, and how they got started in Ridgefield. It also mentions that We Do Lines became a lucrative franchise in 2009, and now has locations in several states. The article is included below and can be read in its entirety by clicking here.

Crazy Companies: Bizarre, But Successful Business Ideas
By Jeanette Mulvey

Got a crazy business idea but afraid to give it a try? It might not be as crazy as you think. BusinessNewsDaily tracked down a few small business owners who are making a living doing things you’d never expect.

There are more than 500 million parking spaces across America and someone’s got to paint them. But it’s not a guy in painter’s pants with a bucket and a brush.

We Do Lines, based in Ridgefield, Conn., is a franchise started in late 2009.
The businesses’ owners, Chris Couri, Dan Rella and Tom Darrow, got the idea to start the company after realizing how difficult it was to find someone to paint the lines in their business parking lot.

It started as a small business and now has franchises in several states.
The company uses a waterproof latex paint that is specifically manufactured by Sherwin-Williams to be durable, bright and approved by the Department of Transportation. The company does most of its stripe painting at night when parking lots are clear.

(Read More)

We Do Lines highlighted in the Hartford Business Journal

The Hartford Business Journal recently published an article on everything We Do Lines including how the concept was developed, why it was developed, the growth of the franchise, and how to become a franchise owner. The story was built from interviews with the executive team: Chris Couri (CEO), Dan Rella (CFO) and Tom Darrow (COO). Currently, We Do Lines has six franchises in Connecticut, the Cleveland area and west and central Florida. The goal is to open 200 franchises over the next three years. Check out a portion of the article below or click here to read the full article.

Idle Thought Yields Plan For Painting Franchise

Three years ago, Chris Couri, Tom Darrow and Dan Rella were commercial landscapers with too much time on their hands. One workless day in the winter, an idea occurred to the longtime Ridgefield residents. They were staring at the faded lines of a parking lot when they started thinking, who’s out there repainting all these stripes?

That thought led them to start a business they named We Do Lines, which has gone from “zero to six franchises” in the past six months, said Darrow, noting line stripping is a $700 million industry in the U.S.

The We Do Lines franchises are in Connecticut, Ohio and west and central Florida. Over the next three years, the owners plan to have nearly 200 franchises across the country.

“Tom came up with line striping. We knew nothing about it, so we started researching. We called a dozen line strippers in the area and no one really got backTom Darrow, one of the co-founders of We Do Lines, works the line striping equipment to update a parking lot. to me. I got the feeling that it was fragmented, that no one treated it like a business,” said Rella.

With a $20,000 investment, the three partners were able to start a business by reaching out to their landscaping customers, many of whom hired them immediately to paint the lines of their businesses’ parking lots. The team also developed an unusual marketing plan. They began painting customer’s parking lot lines during daytime hours as a way to stir up interest in their business.

“Immediately, we started getting interest from people who have never seen a line stripper. Not too many people know line strippers because they’re done at night. What we started to do is create a buzz with our logo, name on the truck,” said Rella. “As a part-time business, we hit solid numbers, validating why it could be full-time. That’s when we decided to start a franchise model. We started hard selling those in October.” (Read More)

We Do Lines was recently featured in Franchise Update!

We Do Lines Wants To Stripe Your Lot!

Outside of parking your vehicle, who thinks about the painted lines in parking lots? Chris Couri, Tom Darrow and Dan Rella that's who! Couri, Darrow, and Rella co-founded We Do Lines, a parking lot striping franchise, in February 2008; Lenahan joined in April 2009. After testing the concept up and down the East Coast, they're ready to pursue the approximately $1 billion striping niche of the $29 billion U.S. parking lot market. "There's not one national parking lot striping company out there. The market is completely untapped," says Couri, president of the Ridgefield, Conn.-based concept. The four have teamed with Skip Barrett, who co-founded GarageTek in 2000. "I have seen a lot of franchise concepts, but none with the potential of this one, especially given the landscape of this industry," says Barrett. Start-up costs range from $77,000 to $134,000, with the leasing of a truck and equipment making up the bulk of costs. The company also places a high priority on being eco-friendly and socially responsible. (Read More)

We Do Lines was recently featured in the Gulf Coast Business Review

Company tries to stay in the lines

By: Gulf Coast Business Review

February 19, 2010

A startup franchise company with ambitious growth goals — and a catchy tag line — has targeted the Gulf Coast for its nationwide debut.

We Do Lines, a Connecticut-based company that repaints parking lot stripes, says it hopes to bring sexy to the parking lot business.

We Do Lines was founded in 2008 in Ridgefield, Conn., by four business partners in the commercial landscaping industry. The partners looked in vain for years to find a good, reliable company to pave parking lot lines. “We couldn’t find anybody,” says We Do Lines co-founder Tom Darrow. “It was like a vampire industry.”

So Darrow and his partners founded We Do Lines to bring some order to the industry. The company, through Internet search engines and its database of landscaping clients, grew quickly. It took on a job to pave lines for the parking garage of a $60 million condo project in Stamford and last year it was awarded a large job at the Doral Resort in Miami. (Read More)

We Do Lines was recently featured in The Register Citizen

Line painting company exceeds expectations

Published: Sunday, February 7, 2010

By DAVID HUTTER

David Choplinski hired We Do Lines to paint lines in a parking lot of a medical property in New Milford, and raves about the company’s work.

The president of Hudson Construction Associates, Choplinski touts the company as having far exceeded his expectations.

“Without a doubt, I’ll keep hiring them. They are professional in every way,” Choplinski said. “We Do Lines exceeded my expectations. Usually guys who do lines are not as professional (in general).”

Founded by friends Christopher Couri, Craig Lenahan, Dan Rella, and Tom Darrow in February 2008, We Do Lines is a Ridgefield-based company. Besides painting lines in parking ltos, they also paint curbs, install traffic sign, and stage warehouse floors. (Read More)

We Do Lines was recently featured in The Stamford Advocate

We Do Lines looks to franchise

By Michael C. Juliano, STAFF WRITER

Published: 09:04 p.m., Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The owners of a Ridgefield business built on creating boundaries wants to turn it into a venture with limitless possibilities.

Ridgefield residents Tom Darrow, Chris Couri and Dan Rella are offering franchise opportunities for We Do Lines, a line-painting company they founded in 2008 that quickly has grown to stripe about 60 parking lots a month up and down the East Coast.

"As soon as we started developing operations and saw how the company was doing, we saw that this would be a great franchise opportunity," said Darrow, the company's chief executive officer and the owner of Pinnacle Landscaping Inc. "We decided why don't we put this out there to see who else is interested." (Read More)

We Do Lines was recently featured in The Miami Herald

We Do Lines was interviewed about launching their franchise nationally for the first time! The full article discusses ways that different franchisors are adapting in the down economy and how the industry is continuing to grow.

By appeal grows in down economy
BRIDGET CAREY
bcarey@MiamiHerald.com

After being unemployed for a year, Pauline Hamian ditched the résumé and bought herself a job.

The former Burger King employee had no luck finding a job after being part of a corporate restructuring in 2008. While at an outplacement center, she stumbled on a webinar about franchising.

"I felt I had to do something,'' Hamian said. "It provided an opportunity for me to do something I've never done before and never really envisioned myself doing.''

With the help of a franchise broker, she decided to invest in ShelfGenie -- a company that installs sliding shelves for kitchen and bathroom cabinets. She didn't need to buy a storefront -- it all can be done from home. There were no fixed costs and her two part-time employees work on commission.

Jobs are still scarce, so the unemployed are reinventing themselves and becoming the majority of new franchise owners, industry sources say. The troubles in commercial real estate are making it easier by driving some landlords to negotiate -- sometimes offering several months' free rent or paying for remodeling. (Read More)

Executive Biography: Thomas E. Darrow CEO of Operating Company

Tom has always excelled in the service industry. Both his commitment to his clients and his attention to detail have been the backbone for his companies since the very beginning.

Born and raised in Ridgefield, CT, Tom quickly entered the business world starting a lawn service. Tom grew the lawn service, which he ultimately sold, to concentrate on the landscaping and irrigation division. The company, Pinnacle Landscaping, Inc., with headquarters in Ridgefield, is a leader in the turf industry and manages large scale landscaping and irrigation projects from Nantucket, MA to Heathrow, FL.

Tom's latest venture, with long time friends and business associates Chris Couri and Dan Rella, reinforces his commitment to the service industry. Residing in Ridgefield with his Girlfriend Jacqueline, Tom fills his down time with golf, drag racing and mountain biking.

Launching A Never-Before Concept in an Untapped Market

We Do Lines was established in February 2008 in Ridgefield, CT by Chris Couri, Dan Rella and Tom Darrow out of the necessity to have a parking lot striping company that would be reliable, efficient and professional. We've modeled We Do Lines to be the premier parking lot striping company. We have applied over 80 collective years of business experience varied in industry, but sharing the trait of being heavily based on customer service and meticulous attention to detail. Taking that knowledge, we decided to fill a gap in the $29 billion parking lot industry and create a market segment in parking lot striping that has never been done before by applying our "Out of the Box" thinking to We Do Lines.

Fortunately, we have had the pleasure of working from Maine to Florida and the ability to establish a reputation for unsurpassed quality, professionalism, and accountability along the way. We aim to continue this trend as well as to apply our philosphy across the United States. We Do Lines will leverage a national presence while providing our franchisees a Centralized Command and Control infrastructure to support their operations.

~The We Do Lines Team (Chris, Dan and Tom)