Mike Andes (speaker) recounts his unusual early path—starting college at 13 with plans to be a surgeon, volunteering in Kenya where he performed procedures not allowed in the U.S., then deciding against a lengthy medical career. Having mowed lawns since age 11, he and his brother used inexpensive, residential equipment to start Augusta Lawn Care. The business later scaled (he cites 50+ locations across North America). Andes argues that lawn care or any home-service business is an excellent, low-barrier way for young people (or career-transitioners) to learn practical business skills—hiring, branding, marketing, operations—over a few years, even if they don't make it a lifetime career. He closes by pointing to resources (lawncarewebdesign, landscapebusinesscourse.com, Lawn Care Media) and the company mission to professionalize the industry.
Questions this video answers
13 years old.
11 years old.
50+ locations around North America.
September 1, 2021.
Chapters
I was 11 years old with my brother. I saw a ton of stuff. I was able to do all sorts of crazy medical procedures that in the US I would never be allowed to do.
Hey everyone, it's Mike Andy's Business Bootcamp podcast. And today I'm going to share why I started college when I was 13 years old and still started a lawn care business mowing lawns. And why I think that every young person, every teenager, every and person coming out of college to start a lawn care business. Before we show a big thank you to the sponsor, which is Gusto. If you haven't Already, check out gusto.combootcamp if you have employees and you want to do online, check in and clock in and clock out and then pay your employees via automatic transfer, check it out today. It's a great platform for benefits as well. Gusto.com Bootcamp a free 90 day trial. Okay, so for those of you who have not followed me for a very long time, what, what you might not know is that I actually started college when I was 13 years old. I thought I was become a medical professional. I thought we had a doctor, and more more specifically, I thought I was become like either a heart surgeon or brain surgeon. I know I wanted to do one of the two. And I was the guy that would literally watch every surgery and I shadowed physicians and watched all sorts of different types of procedures. I was the weirdo that would have. I had all the anatomy and physiology and bone skeletons in my room like all the rest of it. That was me. And what happened is I went to Africa. I went there for six weeks. I saw a ton of stuff. I was able to do all sorts of crazy medical procedures that in the US I would never be allowed to do. But it was because it was a volunteer position and I was in to Goni and Calanguari, not too far out of Nairobi, Kenya. And I did all sorts of crazy cool stuff. When I came back to the United States, I was pretty disappointed because I realized I was gonna be in school for another like six more, six or seven more years and then go into a fellowship and a residency. If I was ever gonna become heart surgeon or a brain surgeon, I didn't want to go into some very, very vertical, narrow vertical of medicine that was gonna be stuck in for the next 20, 30, 40 years of my life after all that school, after all of that debt. And furthermore, I had that entrepreneurial bug since I was a really young kid trying to make money. I was the kid trying to sell candy bars in School, you know, by the way, if you, if you're in that position, you should buy the candy right after Halloween when it goes on sale, and then you should sell it. That come around like October, November, the last couple months of the year, or even in January, so you buy it on sale. Like I, that was me. I was the guy selling food in, in classes, I would, I wax snowboards and skis. I sold food to people going by our house when they're playing golf, like I was that kid. And so I decided, you know what, instead of going into the medical realm, because I had finished my Bachelor's, I was 8, just had just turned 18, and I was kind of like, well, what am I going to do? Well, I had been mowing lawn since I was 11 years old with my brother. And I said, you know what, I'm going to take this mowing thing and make it a bigger deal. And that's when I started Augusta Lawn Care. Now, fast forward. Today we have 50 plus locations around North America and it's been successful, but I'm not so much talking about that. What I'm talking about is just starting a lawn care business, in my opinion, for the sake of starting is a great career move, even if you only ran it for two or three years or four years coming out of school, whether it be high school or college. I think it's a great thing to do because you learn so much about business. Now why lawn care specifically? Because it's really simple to get into. You don't need a whole bunch of money, you don't need a bunch of skills. It's relatively simple to be able to mow straight lines, pull weeds, trim bushes, and stall mulch. These are basic services that everyone in our community needs. So it's like a low hanging fruit because every single house that you see needs service. Every single one of them is a potential customer that you can make money off of. So it's an easy low barrier entry because I don't need, I need thousands of dollars. My brother and I literally got started with a push mower, a weed whacker and a blower, all of which were residentially rated. They weren't commercial, by no means. And we bought them from Lowe's for under $1,000 all combined and literally threw those in the back of a Grand Caravan. Started driving around our neighborhood with Jess. If you do the math, I was underage driving around a van in our neighborhood. But it was a gated community and we would drive around, or before that even, we would take wheelbarrows and, you know, push the mower along the road for, to the other side of the neighborhood. So that's how I got started. And now I'm 18. I'm like, okay, well what am I going to do? I'm not going to become a medical doctor. And I was kind of like looked down upon from a lot of my professors. I got emails, other students and, and colleagues that I'd been with before and people just kind of disappointed. And my family, fortunately, they didn't really look down on it. They never had pressured me to start college when I was really young. I had kind of put that pressure on myself. And so they were pretty neutral. But still there was a lot of like, man, like, you're gonna go, you're gonna mow lawns? You're gonna go mow lawns after all of this. And in their mind, in my mind, I thought I was gonna become a medical professional. I thought I was gonna be a surgeon, right? And so if you're in that place where you're a young person, you have a lot of expectations on you and you're like wondering, well, I don't think college is cut out for me. I don't think a 9 to 5 is cut. I can sit behind an office desk. I'd rather go out and mow lawns. I'd rather go out and get dirty and like, feel like I did a good day's worth of work when I come home. If that's you right now, I encourage you, go start a lawn care business. Now. I don't really care if it's just a long care business. Any home service is great because it's easy to get into and it's a great way to learn business. Again, this is not about making a bunch of money. This is about learning what. When you're young, it's not about how much money you make, it's about how much you learn. And the beautiful thing about lawn care is it's easy to get started. And furthermore, you're going to have to learn so much if you're going to make the business successful. If you're actually scale it up for a few years and hire people like, there's a lot of skill in hiring and firing and developing a culture. There's a lot of skills. You're going to need to make a website and have an advertising, have a logo, have a company name. These are a lot of things that you will need to know regardless of whether or not you have your own business. And you go do something in A completely different industry or whether you become a career person and go get hired by somebody else and have a 9 to 5, having business skills like that are invaluable. Even if you if I went and became a doctor down the road, like after a few years of running my long care business, I would have learned about hiring, I would have learned about branding myself and social media, all of which is still important. If I would have literally had my own medical practice, I could go do a lot of other things and after running my business for a few years. So I highly recommend for anyone out there that's young, that's just getting started, kind of like you're at a split rows. Maybe you're not a student, maybe you're not young, maybe you're at a point in your life that where you're at a junction you got to make a decision for your career, for your family, for providing. And I really recommend a home service is a great way to get started. Low barrier to entry and you're going to learn things that are going to serve you in your career or future businesses for many, many years to come. So I look at it as a learning experience. Not like I'm going to be in this forever. I'm going to make a bunch of money and I have to make it big. Maybe it's only a three, four, five year thing for you, but you will learn so much. And I think the problem with us today in this country is that we're starting to look down on blue collar, hard working jobs that are actually going to mold the character but also the career skills of our workforce. Maybe going to school isn't for you. Maybe. Maybe. You know, wanting to be behind an office and behind a computer just does not get you excited and you don't know what to do. I encourage you. Go start something. Go start a business. Go work for $25 or $30 an hour. Go do some yard work for someone, see if you like it, get started. I really believe that those skills are the things that's going to set you up for success down the road in business and in your career. I'm Mike Andes. I've started lawn care web design, landscapebusinesscourse.com and lawn care Media to help other people start their lawn care business. And I think those might be good resources if you're thinking about starting your business today. I'm Mike Andes. We'll see you tomorrow. Hey everyone, Mike Andes here. Thank you so much for watching. The reason we make this content is for you to grow your lawn care and landscaping business. Our goal here at Augusta is to change the level of professionalism in this industry, and you are a big part of that. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you tomorrow.
