16 Year Old Lawn Care Entrepreneur - Ep.27

What's up everyone? This is Mike and he's been listening to episode 27 of Landscape Businesscourse.com podcast. Today's tip is if you don't have itunes or stitcher or some other way of playing these podcasts, you can always just go to the website@podcast.landscapebusinesscourse.com and on there I also do a blog post. If you like reading it in text and kind of what we talk about, you can go there as well. I do lots of blogging there. So without any further delay, we're talking today to Drew, who is a 16 year old entrepreneur in Missouri and has one year under his belt of doing lawn care and landscaping and is doing it while he's in high school. So even if you're not in his shoes, like just starting out or if you already are established, I think some of the things we talk about today will still add value. We talk about sales, we talk about marketing, we talk about your unique selling proposition and, and different types of direct mail things like that. So I think you'll get a lot of value out of it. Without any further delay, this is going to a call I had a few days ago with Drew, 16 year old out of Missouri. Here we go.

All right. Yeah, I've got a couple questions like.

Well, I was thinking I did at least like building, I mean, manages like building my business. Like I'm just 16, and so I mean, I just, there's a point, like.

How much like really, how busy do you really have to be to be able to make like, like, you know, or even to make like, like $10,000 a month, even just starting small like that.

Yeah. So essentially like average. Because the thing is, you got to look at, you know, what's your profit margin? That's what it's all dictated by. Because if you're running your just, you know, mowing lawns and doing landscaping by yourself, your profit margin might be 50%, but you're probably only gonna make max 10 grand a month gross profit. And so then if you make it 50%, you make five grand a month technically that you take home. Now if you want to make say ten grand, then you might have to hire a couple employees, have more equipment, so your overhead is going to be more. So you can't really say, oh, well, I just need to make twice as much because my Profit margin is 50%. Because as you get employees and all the equipment, you're gonna have more overhead. So you might be looking more at 25% profit margin, which means you're gonna need to make 40,000amonth in gross income in order to take $10,000 home, actually for yourself.

So like. So really it comes down to like, just running the numbers. Like if you. If you have a goal of, you know, a certain amount per month that you want to take home, then just. You just have to work backwards and say, okay, well, what's my profit margin gonna be? And then what do I need to do to get there as far as how much money you make in the business? Because, you know, like I said, you can't, you know, expect to make ten grand.

Ten grand a month after taking that home if you're gonna be working by yourself.

Yeah, yeah.

I understand that.

So do you do. Do you do lawn care right now, like mowing or what do you kind.

Of focus on mainly? Well, mainly since I'm, you know, I just 16 and I was still in school and everything.

Yeah.

Last year at least I just did mainly mowing. I'd had it. I had a few landscape jobs, but my. I mean, I really wanted, like, I want to grow. I mean that, you know, I just have some limitations with, you know, still having school and everything. Right. But I definitely want to grow and, you know, get into more landscaping, install and I mean, hardscaping, all kinds of stuff like that.

Yeah, like, especially when you're still going to school and stuff, I'd really focus on the lawn care just cause recurring revenue and so. And it's just easier to do. Right. Like, a lot of people get kind of lured into doing hardscaping and the complex jobs like patios and retaining walls. But to be perfectly honest with you, like, if you talk with some of the biggest companies out there, that's not where they make their money. That. That's more of like their pride and that's where it comes. Like, I've talked to a company that he does $7 million a year in hardscaping, and he says the projects that they make money on are the smaller ones that are between 10 to 20,000, but the ones that they do that. They do projects that are, you know, one to $200,000 for landscaping, hardscaping. And they said they hardly ever make a dime on those. They're more about. It's more about like getting good pictures and getting their name out there and then. But the real where the money is is the smaller jobs. So like, I would focus on, you know, doing the lawn care, doing the push mowing and like, focus on the stuff that you don't have to buy a whole bunch of equipment for, because you know, for a few thousand dollars you can get some good commercial, you know, push mower, weed whacker, things like that. And you're set to go. Whereas when you start getting employees and stuff, you're gonna wanna be full time. So if I were you, I would kinda like set your gauge and your numbers as to like when you come outta school you're gonna go full time and maybe that means getting an employee and things like that and then just gauge up until then, like how many people can you realistically mow every day or every week? And then just make sure that you're max. Like you could technically hire someone still when you're in high school, right? So as long as you just had a good managed them well, they could be mowing while you're in school. And so it's really all about sales. And when you're 16, a lot of people think, well, you kind of have a disadvantage, but honestly you have the biggest advantage because most people that are looking for your services like push mowing, they'd rather hire you. And if your mission and you make it clear in your marketing that you, you're trying to pay for school or you're a young entrepreneur and you're just trying to grow your business, people will be more willing to support that than they would be a big company. And so that was the way I marketed back when I was 11, 12 and 13 starting my lawn care business. And that worked. Now I wish I could use that because. But now I'm on the other end right now we have to market based upon professional and. And we're a big company and we can handle big jobs. And so I would just, it's not that it's. Anything either way is bad or incorrect. I would just focus on the thing that's gonna make you different than everyone else. And right now your biggest differentiator is that you're young and you shouldn't shy away from it, right? Just like embrace that and be, just recognize that people are gonna hire you because you're young and because they wanna support someone that's trying to start their business and things. And so I would like all your marketing if you do direct mail, if you do flyers, if you do door hangers, if you do Facebook ads, whatever it is, it should be like support a 16 year old with his lawn care business. Like that should be the kind of the punchline or like what you're essentially trying to say. And I think you'll be amazed how much more business you'd get just from that versus trying to say, quality lawn care free estimates insured, you know, great pictures and all that, like, before and after, like, all that stuff is fine. But right now, your unique selling proposition and is that you're a young person.

Okay, but you think, like, even though I'm young, you don't think people, like, kind of almost shy away from picking me because I'm young and maybe I might be more inexperienced, or do you think that's not really something to worry about?

So there's two different types of customers in our industry for lawn care. One is the person that just needs their mow, their lawn cut, and just because they don't like doing it themselves, that's literally 80% of the population. Okay.

Because that's how pretty much everybody I mow for is.

Right? Exactly. And then the other 20%, they're the people that are gonna get finicky. They want you to know all about turf management and different types of fertilizers, and they want to make sure that people on the property are experienced. And so, so many people will. They'll shy away from the entire market and say, oh, I gotta wait. But really, only 20% of the market cares. And so what you gotta do is realize if you get someone to complain or, like, they start complaining and all of that, and you don't even know what they're talking about when they start talking about lime treatments or ph of the soil and all this stuff. You just need to recognize that you're not gonna be able to tend to everybody's needs. But you still have a huge market that 80%. And to be honest with you, Drew, I didn't know a single thing when I was younger. And I didn't really even up until I was like, 18, 19, when I really started getting to know a lot of the deeper stuff. And the reason I had to was because no longer could I sell on the fact that I was a young person and a solopreneur and trying to save up for school and all this stuff. And now it was like, okay, now you're in the big leagues. You have a big company, and you've got to figure this stuff out and know you're, you know, you got to be the one that's selling on experience. And so now we do tailor to the 20% we are. We charge more money because of it. But you're. You're like, there's always going to be down the road where you can transition from, like, going the way you market and who you're going after and switch over to the higher paying client. But right now like I definitely focus just realize that 80% of the market just wants their lawn mowed, just wants to cut and, and taken care of and they don't want to do it. And if you can be quality service and still know your stuff and communicate well, like that's all gravy on the top and you'll keep them as clients, you can't just be like, oh, I'll mow your lawn and then not follow up with them, not email them. Well, not have good invoicing and systems and stuff. But as far as just getting the client, you'll be amazed how much more people really just want their lawn cut. They don't aren't super picky about it.

All right.

So I mean like, I mean even around like just like in my main kind of where I mow a lot of the time there's, there's not a lot of higher end houses, but where I want to kind of expand to, there's more higher end houses. And so are those people, I mean, are those more people I should try to like, are those what type of clients I should try to try to, you know, actually get third, I mean get their business. Business. Yeah.

That business. The higher end because there's a little bit more money there to be made or.

Yeah, like in our industry it's kind of funny, everyone thinks they need to go after like the high end residential areas when they're kind of like. Because this is kind of how I see lawn care when it comes to mowing and like maintenance. A lot of times people start off going with, excuse me, they go start off with smaller properties and lower margins and then they go to like higher residential like richer areas and then they vent in like larger estates and property, then they go to commercial like bigger, you know, apartment complexes and things like as you get the equipment and all that. Right.

Yeah.

What I find though is honestly that second group of people that are high end residential, they're going to be your pickiest customers. Usually they're also you are going to get a higher margin because they're the part of that 20% usually the ones that actually care how things are done, they're willing to pay for it, but they're also going to be more picky. And so when you start hiring people, that can get tricky because like they're the most picky client when it comes to maintenance because the commercial guy that's managed by the property manager who is there once a month doesn't really Care, as long as everything is just taken care of. You know, maybe a tenant will complain once in a while but like you're not dealing directly with the owner usually. And then on the other end you got your, you know, the person just wants to cut the residential, the small property. And so I would focus on that first group really. I think a lot of people keep saying that they want to get into like high end residential because the money is there and it is as far as like net profit margin. But it's also when you're still starting, just starting out, like that's where the most problems as far as most time, those people are more picky. They want their place to look perfect. And so I would start at that first step and you can always transition. Like that's where I started is just the people who wanted to get their lawn cut, they didn't care so much about like the little tiny details. They didn't care if I couldn't trim their trees or you know, use a chainsaw or whatever. And then I transitioned. Now we're really focusing on that, you know, upper 20% and really customizing someone's service and getting them on a full service plan with treatments and tree shrubs and all that stuff. And then, and then we're focusing on commercial. So it's just that progression and I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that you need to, need to focus on that. I would nail down that 80% of the market. That is just when it cut and you're going to get experience there that will be valuable to the people in that second group that are looking for the quality.

Uh huh. Okay.

Like how, how much did you do in revenue last year? Drew.

Revenue or what?

I brought in revenue. Revenue like just, just what you essentially build out.

Almost 20.

That's pretty good. That's really good. Is that your first year? Yeah, that's really good. Very good. Yeah. And so like, like, like essentially because if you're still in school and you did that, that, that's really good. Like I wouldn't, you know, don't discount that. I think if you like. Do you have people on schedule as far as mowing clients?

Yeah, pretty much. It's.

Like, I mean there's every, I pretty much mow like every week and then I know you know the same.

How many clients?

25.

Mowing clients. 30 total. And I think I end up having about 22 weeklies.

Awesome. Okay. So like 22, 30. Okay. Yeah. Like honestly man, you're, you're like almost where I was at When I was. I started my first year, like, so this is like, what now? Three. Three years ago. So three years ago I started my business because I had. I had done it since I was like 11 or 12. And then I grew up to like 30,000 a year. And that just paid for my college expenses. Then when I graduated out of college, I did college early, but, like, I graduated and when I was 18. So this is three years ago, I did 28,000 sales my first year. And so, like, if you can do like even like 30 this year and then hire somewhere, whatever, and get like 40, that's like, great. And then when you'll see the big kick when you go full time, because that's when you can, like, really start to sell and, you know, get your name out there and. Cause like, I ate at 18. I did 28,000. The next year we did 200. Year after that, 550. And so you'll. You'll see the scale when you get out and do it full time. But, like, I definitely. If you're. That if your first year was 20 and you're still in school and like, how much of that did you bring home, you think?

I did have a person that helped me out some. And then I ended up buying two mowers and I helped. And then my parents helped me with my truck. And then I also bought a trailer, and I ended up bringing home about 8 or 7,500. 8,000 after I purchased all that stuff.

Yeah. And like, when you're in high school, that's all you need, right? So, like, I think that's really good. If you can. If I were you and you're really serious about growing the business, I would kick things into high gear in the next few weeks as you try to get these. No more people on the mowing schedule. And then, and then, then you either, you know, hire one of your buddies to join with you after school or on the weekends. I'd start there because you don't want to go too fast and hire someone full time and you're in school trying to. And they have a problem. Right. Like, that's what I was.

That's kind of one thing I was thinking. Like, I mean, if I really am going full time and I'm in school and there's an issue, like, what do I do? Like, if I have a, you know, a mower breakdown or a truck breakdown, I'm like, what do I do now?

Yeah. So if I were you, I would. Right now, I'd take it in two steps. First of all, I would just hire a buddy to, you know, mow with you at like once you get enough jobs. Like, so right now, if you can handle them by yourself, don't hire someone because you want to keep that money for yourself. But like, I'd focus right now a lot. Like, if you're not mowing right now, you probably have a few more weeks. I just like go super, like where you do door hangers or you go door to door or whatever it is to go out and get. Try to get that up to like 40 clients a week that you're mowing. If you can really bust your butt and you'll get to 40, then you'll be able to hire a buddy to pay him 10, 12 bucks an hour, whatever, just to join with you in the truck during the weekends or whenever you mow. And just that alone, you'll probably go up to almost 40,000 in revenue in the next year. And then if you really wanted to the next year, you could get someone to go full time. But that's totally. You just gonna have to figure out how that works with your schedule. Right. School schedule. Yeah. Or even if you did another, another one of your buddies, just do a crew of three. As long as you can keep the margin, you know, retained, you can make that work.

So, like, advertising, what way? I mean, well, you probably, you have a lot more experience advertising. I do, but what way do you think is the most. I mean, like, what do you. How do you get the most outcome out of advertising? What type of it? Like door hangers or just flyers, like in the mailbox or.

Yeah, so it really depends on your market. Like, every single town and city is really different. Like, if you ask me that on a very, very broad level, I'd say Facebook ads. But when you're small and you are just starting and things like, still, I would say Facebook ads. However.

It'S, you know, you're paying money for those ads. What you can do, really, Drew, is if you're really scrappy about it, like you can literally go door to door and get away with it because you're young. You know what I'm saying? People aren't gonna be mad at you because you're a 16 year old kid that's grinding and trying to start a business and they're not gonna slam the door in your face or get mad at you. It's just whether or not you got the courage to take all the rejection and a lot of no's. But.

Honestly, if I was you and you didn't have a whole lot of budget. I'll do door to door and I do cold calling. And like they work, they still work. And it's super low budget. Like you can literally for $0, pick up the phone and a phone book and call people and be like, hey, I'm gonna be in your area. You want a free estimate next week. And you already have their address because it's in the white pages. Or you can do door to door. And what's nice about door to door is you literally go to all the people that are around your existing clients. And so you increase your density of your route. And that means you can do a lower price if you need to, or at least you get more margin. Like you take more money home because you're not driving the truck around. And those are free, really, just free ways of doing marketing. It just all comes down to if you're willing to put yourself in that kind of like awkward position of door hanger. I mean, knocking on doors and cold calling people. Right. If you're not, if you're not and you're like, you know what, I'd rather just pay money. I know where you're coming from. So like, my question would be like, how many people is in your city and do you have a small, like a local newspaper that's published?

Yeah, we have a local newspaper that's published. And like in my direct place where I did a lot of my business last year, we're not real big. We're like 1400 people. But where I want to expand to is like 40,000. Then it's like 170,000 I think is a population the next town closest. And so like where I would be wanting to expand, she was a lot bigger than where we right now.

So are you saying that all your 22 to 30 mower inclines right now are within that small, like the 1400 city?

All but.

Okay, yeah, so what I would do then is I would do. Okay, so for that 1400 people, is there, is there a newspaper that goes just, just them?

Not just them, but it goes to like the three them and then the two other kind of smallest surrounding towns that are pretty close to them within like five miles. So.

Okay, within five miles. Okay. All right. I was thinking like 20 minute drive or something. Okay, so then what I would do is like, I would, I would call the paper. And this is a lot of times what people forget and that is that newspapers are looking for good stories and content. So instead of calling them like, hey, I want to advertise I would call them and say, hey, I'm 16 year old, 16 years old. Here's a couple pictures of me and my equipment, everything. I started this business last year. Have some sort of purpose that you're going for, whether it be saving for college or you're trying to do something, or you have dreams of having a million dollar company, whatever it is, and ask them if they'd do a story on you.

Okay.

And I know some people are like, that's weird that you'd ask someone, ask a newspaper to do a story on you. But what you have to remember is they're looking for valuable content that their readers are gonna like. And people like that sort of stuff, man. So like I had last year, our local newspaper goes to like 10,000 homes. And it wrote a, like I didn't pay a penny for it. And they wrote like half a page on my business and our growth and what we're doing. And it was because at the time I was like 20. Like, I'm kinda coming out of that whole young entrepreneur, like really young guy. So like, I just capitalize on that while you can and you know, call this newspaper and be like, hey, I started this business last year. I'm hiring my buddies to work. We do this on the weekends. Do you want to write a story about me? Whatever if they say no, like, whatever. If they say yes. You literally got like hundreds of dollars worth of advertising for free. And literally that alone could get you another 10 or 15 clients. So I would try that. Then if they say no or whatever, then you gotta ask them, okay, what does it cost to put a flyer insert in the newspaper? And I'm not talking like a quarter page ad or like some random classified ad. Like, those things just don't drive the needle. What you want is either the back page or an insert in the fly in the paper. And that insert is like an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet.

Something big that somebody that they're actually gonna pay attention to.

Exactly. I do not advertise in our local newspaper unless I get the back page or they allow me to put up 8 1/2 by 11 she as an insert. Because people are definitely gonna see the insert because it falls out when they open up the newspaper and they're most likely as far as the paper itself. They're gonna see the back page. And so. And then on that page, like it's a whole nother conversation as to, you know, what you put on there. Like it's the same concept. You want to really introduce yourself, tell Tell the story. Don't worry about like the whole what everyone else is saying, like quality lawn care, free estimates, blah, blah, blah, license, insure. Don't focus on that stuff. Focus on what makes you different. You're a young guy starting the business. You had 20 grand last year. You're wanting to make it big. You're hiring your friends, da, da, da, da. Like that, that, that's what gets people like reading it and interested and they're gonna start calling.

Okay.

Like, when do you guys start mowing?

Last year we started March 16. But the last week and a half or so here has been about anywhere from, well, the last. I mean, we've had a really mild winter. But like last week there were three days that were 70, Saturday was 80, Sunday was like 68.

Oh my word.

And so, and then this week's all supposed to be in the low 60s. So I would say we're gonna start, I mean, it's gonna start picking up here pretty quick.

Yeah. So like this is prime time then for you. Like, if it's that kind of weather, people are starting to think about, know their lawn and start thinking about landscaping. So like really, if I was you, like, you just gotta kind of buckle down and figure out what you want to do, how many clients you can handle by yourself. And then when you would need to hire one of your buddies and kind of get those numbers worked out. But like, if I was you, you got like two to three weeks to really, you know, really grind and try to get these people, whether it be door to door. I'd do all three, man. If I was you, I would call the newspaper or email them and, you know, tell them a little about yourself, ask if they want to write a story. Don't even implicate that you want to advertise with them. I would just, you know, do the story part and then, and then I'd do door to. I'd go door to door if I were you. Go to all the people that are the neighbors of the people you currently mow because they've already seen you, they already see your work, so they already like, they, they know if you're good or not. Then there's not going to be the objection of, oh, I don't know if this kid's gonna mow my lawn or ruin it. And so I'd go all the people next to your existing clients, and then you can do cold calling. And then if that newspaper says yes, we'll take this story and you have some money to spend. I would then Also do a flyer and try to get in the same newspaper. So they read about you in the paper in the story part, and then they see your flyer, like, bam, bam. And that can create a lot of awareness too, for your brand.

All right. And I mean, I have like, and I have some flyers that I've got, like off vistaprint.

Yep.

And I mean, and like, I, like, I have some flyers, I got Vista print and everything. But, you know, if you saying like, you know, really advertise it, like, I'm a 16 year old kid, I'm trying to grow my business. Would, like writing just a short kind of message on the back of them or something, like, help any? Just like, I mean, because I'm just.

I've got.

Well, I've got like 250. So, like, I mean, I know it'd be a lot, but if I just went through and kind of wrote like a short little story about myself or about my business and everything with that, I mean, would that be any different than just handing them out?

Yeah, like essentially vistaprint, you know, they have to, you know, they have to kind of.

I'm there though. They kind of like, they gotta get mainstream, like, kind of like where everyone's at. So they're gonna have the typical type of jargon that everyone else is gonna have on their flyers. So, like the main thing, regardless of how you put on the flyer, whether it be on the back or you want to tell your story, because as more and more people get into marketing, and there's more and more retailers that do everything from paper ads to YouTube, people are bombarded with commercials. And so what you don't want your flyer to be is a commercial. You want it to be a story. Let you be the commercial. When you come and give them the estimate and you start talking numbers and things. I would focus more on telling a story in all of your commercial, I mean, in all of your print marketing right now. All of it. Yeah, like, like people are buying from you right now not because you're the best, not because you have experience, not because you have quality work. They're not buying because that. They're buying because you're a young guy and they support that. And you'd be amazed how many people do, especially when you're selling to a target audience, which is the baby boomers, who are 50, 60, and they are very supportive of young people that are willing to get out there and work.

All right, Makes sense.

Yeah. Anything else I can help with, Drew?

Not really. I can think of that was just the Main thing was just advertising, right? Figure out what I wanted to do.

There and I'm glad, I'm glad that's where your mind's at. Because a lot of people, you know, they can get really stuck on equipment and my logo and my website and that's all fine and good. Like you're going to have to get a website within a year or two. Like that's all you, you know, part of the, as you grow. But what you really, most people forget is that the main thing that drives your business, drives the success and growth of your business is sales. So like I'm glad that you're focused on getting more clients and you're more worried about that than like, oh, my business card or you know, my logo or my truck or I have this great skag mower. Like that's not what's important. It's about growing the business, making the sales. And if you get enough sales, you'll have the money to go buy the equipment and get the nice logo and all of that stuff. So I just, I'd keep doing what you're doing, focusing on that and everything else will kind of take care of itself if you make sure that you're getting solid profit margins and a lot of sales are coming in.

Alright, So a big thank you to Drew. 16 years old, crushing already. Hope someone out there that's wanting to just start out has got a little bit information. Maybe you're a young guy, young gal that is wanting to start your business. And so that may be a little bit different than the usual advice I might give to someone. But at that age it's definitely an opportunity and I really believe that a lot of people who look at their weakness, whether it be age, demographic, whatever it is, that's actually their unique selling proposition that they can use to set themselves apart from all the competition. So hope you got something out of it. It's been fun and I continue, I'll continue to put a lot of these actual live talks that I have with landscapers up here because I think it brings a lot of value and answers a lot of questions that are real life, less theoretical. So that's it for today. Landscapebusinesscourse.com Remember you can get a 30 minute free call with me and if you want to do that, just go to landscapebusinesscourse.com we'll talk to you next time. Mike Andy's landscapebusinesscourse.com podcast.