From Empty Storefronts to Sacred Ground: How Dave Koone Built Two Businesses on the Foundation of Servant Leadership

Before there were employees, customers, or even drywall, there was an empty 1,500-square-foot space and a man on his knees. Dave Koone stood alone in what would become his first Little Caesars restaurant, praying over people he hadn't hired yet and customers he hadn't met. Most business owners dedicate a grand opening with a ribbon and a photo op. Dave dedicated his to the Lord before a single brick was laid.

“I kind of walked around the space and it was just like nobody was there,” Dave recalls, “but praying that this would be kind of the ministry center—a way to serve the people who work with us and add value to their lives, and the same with every customer who walked through the door.”

That single moment reveals the thread running through Dave's entire career: the refusal to separate ministry from marketplace. It's a tension many Christian entrepreneurs feel—the nagging sense that building a profitable company and living out a calling are two different pursuits. Dave's story argues otherwise.

The Unlikely Training Ground

Long before Dave owned a single business, he spent fifteen years on staff with Young Life, a ministry reaching teenagers who'd never set foot in a traditional church. He served in Baltimore, then Singapore, then back in the States—building relationships, not revenue.

What Dave didn't realize at the time was that he was earning an MBA no classroom could offer. Leading volunteers, he explains, is harder than leading employees. You can't threaten to fire someone who's donating their evenings for free.

“So much of what I learned, I've looked back a number of times—my leadership style, my approach right now with people who get paid to work here—I treat them like volunteers. I try to motivate them and inspire and help them get a vision for their own path.”

When Dave and his family eventually moved to Indiana to build ten Little Caesars restaurants in four years, he brought that volunteer-leadership instinct with him. Years later, when he and his wife started Lawn Doctor on the north side of Indianapolis, the same instinct became the company's operating system—one grounded in professionalism, quality service, reliability, and a genuine commitment to customer satisfaction.

Salt, Light, and a Spreadsheet

Dave doesn't pretend business and ministry feel identical every day. He admits there was a strange adjustment when the primary metric shifted from souls reached to profitability.

But the discomfort didn't last, because Dave realized the mission hadn't actually changed—only the mechanism had.

“I also know that because of how I'm wired and how I always thought about my relationships with people, it's always ministry. There's not really a way to separate those things that makes all that much sense.”

That conviction now shows up in Lawn Doctor's core values—a list the leadership team refined together over the years: uncompromising integrity, relentless excellence, servant leadership, perpetual growth, proactive communication, empowered accountability, and positive energy.

Those values are also expressed in the practical commitments customers experience every day: professionalism in every interaction, quality service in every visit, reliability in doing what was promised, and an unwavering focus on customer satisfaction. These aren't wall decorations or marketing phrases. Dave hires, promotes, and—when necessary—releases people based on alignment with them.

Full of Grace and Truth

Ask Dave how he holds high performance standards alongside genuine care for people, and he doesn't reach for a leadership book. He reaches for Scripture.

“John talks about Jesus being full of grace and truth. I love that, because a lot of people are just truth people—brutally honest, no grace. And then there are grace people who never say anything true. It wasn't 50% grace, 50% truth. He was full of grace and full of truth.”

Dave points to a recent, small example: an employee who overslept the morning after Memorial Day. There was accountability—a direct conversation about the alarm clock—but no public shaming, no write-up, and no threat.

“He felt bad enough,” Dave says. “He knew he screwed up.”

The standard stayed high. The grace stayed present.

That's the tension every growing leader eventually faces: How do you build something excellent without becoming someone harsh? Dave's answer isn't a formula—it's a posture borrowed directly from the character of Christ.

That posture also shapes how his team serves customers. Professionalism does not require coldness, and accountability does not eliminate compassion. Instead, Dave seeks to build a culture where employees can be dependable, provide quality service, and take personal responsibility for customer satisfaction while still being treated with dignity and grace.

Beyond the Balance Sheet

Dave is candid that he can't point to one dramatic, faith-fueled business decision that defied financial logic. Instead, he describes something more sustainable: values rooted in faith that occasionally cost something when they're truly held.

“If somebody's not a servant leader here, they're not going to be in a leadership role here,” he says simply.

It's not about grand gestures. It's about what a company allows day after day because, as Dave puts it, “your culture is just what you allow. It's not just what you say you believe.”

That means professionalism must remain visible even when no one is watching. Reliability must continue when schedules become difficult. Quality service cannot disappear when the company gets busy. And customer satisfaction must remain a genuine responsibility—not simply a number on a report.

That conviction has also pushed Dave beyond the walls of his own office. Alongside a fellow Kingdom Factor member, Jason Lakes, Dave has traveled to Costa Rica with Homes of Hope to physically build houses for families in need. He's now working toward bringing Lawn Doctor employees along on future trips—not as a sales pitch for faith, but as a shared experience that reframes what work is for.

“It's really a life-changing experience to get to do that. You partner up with people who make you wonder—wow, what am I doing with my life? These people are doing some pretty amazing things.”

What the Ten-Year-Old Would Say

Asked what would surprise the ten-year-old version of himself—the kid who once mowed lawns for ten dollars a job—Dave laughs and says it would probably be the scale. Bigger machines, bigger teams, and a real marketing budget.

But he's equally honest that the kid might ask a different question entirely: Why are you sitting in an office? Why aren't you outside doing something?

It's a fair challenge for any leader who has climbed high enough to start living behind a desk instead of among people. Dave's answer, in the end, is that the desk is just a different mission field—one he prayed over before he ever sat down at it.

For the Christian entrepreneur wrestling with how to make faith visible in leadership, Dave's advice is refreshingly unglamorous: it's not about an altar call at the end of the workday. It's about how you treat the person who overslept, whether customers experience professionalism and quality service, whether your team can be counted on to act with reliability, and whether customer satisfaction reflects a sincere desire to serve rather than merely protect the bottom line.

It's also about what you allow your culture to become and whether you're willing to spend real money building a house for a stranger halfway across the world—not because it's marketing, but because it's who you are.

That's the kind of leadership that doesn't need a stage. It just needs an empty room, a quiet prayer, and the willingness to keep showing up—full of grace, full of truth, and committed to serving others with excellence—long after the lease is signed.