First of all, yes, we are brothers. Actual brothers. And yes, we own an official lawn mowing business with an LLC, insurance and everything. This is the story of our business…
Every year our dad asks our family what our goal is for that year and then tries to help us reach our goal. In 2019, Joe said, “I want to make $1,000” before my birthday in October. So, being just 11 there weren’t a lot of jobs available. Thus, dad hooked Joe up with the family lawn mower and weed whacker and then posted in the neighborhood social media page that he had a kid willing to do some lawn mowing.
Pretty soon, dad was carting Joe around to several lawn mowing jobs in the family truck. And, the jobs were taking more time and there were more of them… so Landon asked to join the business and Joe was more than happy to have a partner.
As they began to make money dad had the boys split their money up into envelopes. 10% for God right off the top. 15% to put back into the business and pay for gas, etc. 25% into an investment account. 25% into a savings account. And, our favorite, 25% for spending.
At this point though, dad was getting a little tired of driving us around everywhere and “encouraged” us to figure out our own transportation around the neighborhood. So, we used some of the money we had been saving up in the envelopes to purchase a riding lawn tractor and a trailer. We would load up two mowers, a weed whacker, and a blower on the back of our trailer, use ratchet straps to hold everything in place and head out into the neighborhood. At first dad would only let us drive the tractor to and from jobs until we’d had enough chance to practice maneuvering the tractor to begin using it for lawn mowing. But, we were able to move past dependency on dad to tote us around which also freed us up to find more lawns to cut.
It was around this time, in the summer of 2019 that our other brother Shae (we actually have 5 older siblings) decided that working hard and making money appeared to be a pretty cool thing. So, he asked to join and we were happy to have a third crew member. But, Shae had to work to pay for his fair share of the equipment used to make the business run. And he did.
Bought equipment wasn’t our only source of equipment though. When people saw what we were doing they were eager to help. Some of our clients gave us old mowers and blowers. Family friends donated trailers and carts they no longer needed or just thought we could put to good use. These helping hands allowed us to also learn how to work on machinery and often bring back to life old mowers that had died and we could put to good use again.
So 2020 and 2021 moved along. Despite COVID we were able to keep the business going and it grew and grew. There was some door knocking but most of our business came from social media and people who would see us driving around and stop us in the street or they’d literally stop their cars to come over and talk to us while we cutting their neighbors’ lawns.
By 2022 we’d gotten up to about 5 lawns we’d do occasionally and 15 lawns we’d do every week. Then, in May of 2022 something happened that was a game-changer. SHAE BROKE HIS THUMB. All of a sudden, Joe and Landon were making money and he was not. This began some real discussions in which dad pointed out that as long as you were an employee, even if it is self-employed, things like injuries or other life events could easily derail you and your flow of income. Being a business owner was the next step dad said. If you haven’t figured it out yet, he’s a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad series of books. We also love playing the Cashlow Game as a family. The discussions continued for about a month.
Finally we decided to take the leap. We were going to start a business. A real business. An LLC. Pay taxes (don’t even get dad started). Get insurance. Hire people.
And, that my friend, is how we got to where we are today.
Click these links learn more about WHY WE WENT ELECTRIC or WHAT OUR PLANS ARE…
