Tyler is 17 and runs a lawn-care franchise in North Bend, Washington while finishing high school. He manages three part-time employees, works weekends, and says the hardest part is getting customers to take him seriously because of his age. He stays connected with other franchisees for advice.
My name is Tyler. I'm 17. I'm an Augusta franchise owner in North Bend, Washington. There's times where clients don't take you serious when you show up to like, an estimate or something. They doubt you because of your age. But you can also use your age as a unique selling proposition and really attract people and want to support you because they see someone young doing something cool.
I go to school for four classes on weekdays before that and afterwards I'm working, and then on the weekends, I'm working all day. In spring, while I was in school, I had a few employees full time, but with me being in school, that didn't work out very well. So now I work with a few of my friends from high school. I have three employees and they each work about 20 hours a week. There can definitely be challenges with working with your friends. It's kind of hard to have a conversation with them like, hey, I really need you to set things up here. Those conversations can be hard, but overall, working with your friends, it's people you trust and you know aren't going to screw you over or just not show up someday. So that's a big plus, being able to rely on them and trust them right out of the gate. I often talk with other members of the franchise. We talk about how things are going in our businesses and get ideas and new perspectives on solving problems and inspiring each other and trying to motivate each other to keep growing our businesses and keep our heads up when things are not going well. It's really good to have a network of people to support you when things get tough.
I really enjoy the freedom and responsibility you have running your own business instead of working for someone else. So I want to be able to maintain that and make a good living off doing what I really enjoy. I have no problem working all day, every day in the business. Working with other people is a big part of running a business, and I enjoy working with both clients and my employees. It's really fun getting to know people and hearing their life stories and what they do for a living and gaining new perspectives on life. A lot of people have mentored me and given me assistance that led me to getting where I am today. In the future, I want to create a good workplace where employees can learn and grow personally and advance in their career to kind of pay on all the help other people have given me.
