Many days, I would cut three to four yards in a row. Before I could legally drive, I had to carry all my equipment with me. Dad and I built a platform out of wood that fit over the lawnmower to haul gas cans, an edger and a blower. This was challenging, however, I saved up enough money to pay cash for a riding lawnmower and a small 4×4 foot trailer by age 15.
Maintaining twelve to fifteen yards a week, Matt’s Lawn Service continued to grow and squirrel money away saving up for my first truck. Dad paid $2000 and I paid $2000 for a Toyota Tacoma 4×4. It had 32” BFG All terrain tires on it and I thought that they looked sick.
I drove it all through High School without having to change the tires and sold it my senior year for the same $4000 price tag that I originally purchased if for. I was dating a girl in my school who was my age named Taylor. She was a little more “well versed” in dating as she had just gotten out of a long term relationship with an guy who was a few years older than us. He was in high school. One thing that also sold me was that she had branded herself as a horse riding country kind of girl.
After we started hanging out, I shared with Taylor that I was saving up money to buy my first truck and it had to be 4×4. She quickly informed me that her dad had a truck that he was trying to sell and that I should talk to him. Sure enough, before I knew it, I had fallen in love with Taylor and in love with the truck. I had to have it. I coordinated with my dad to go and look at it with me. We went over on a Saturday morning and test drove it right there in the Chestnut Hill Plantation neighborhood. That was all it took!
It hauled my trailer and lawn service equipment nicely. I had Matt’s Lawn Service magnets made up for the sides that said “Matt’s Lawn Service” and had a basic clip art image of a push mower in a lawn. It worked quite well. I had my parent’s home phone number on the magnets, soon to be replaced when I saved up enough for my own cell phone. My parents were not paying for me to have a cell phone. I had to earn the money or go without.
Marketing was always fun to me, almost like a game. I enjoyed coming up with the flyers and what to say to get them to call. I printed flyers and business cards off my home computer and gave magnetic business cards to my regular customers. I saw that at Office Depot, I could buy magnets that were sticky on one of the sides for me to center my business card on them. This was perfect for my business. I handed out magnetic business cards to all of my clients so that they had my phone number right there on their refrigerator. I distributed hundreds of flyers to paper boxes in nearby neighborhoods. It worked so well.
By my senior year in high school, I had two crews that were maintaining 30-35 yards a week at an average of $45 per yard. I hired my best friend at the time, Rhoden who went to school with me and camped together all the time through Boy Scouts. He became my right-hand man. Six days a week in the summer months of High School, we would cut 7 or 8 yards per day. Most days we were finished by lunchtime. We were best of friends and made as much in one morning as what we could have earned working for someone else for an entire month. I maintained all of these properties and continued to grow the business for five seasons until it was my senior year and my allergies started to interfere.
At this time during High School, I had to go right after school and get allergy shots from an ear, nose and throat specialist. One day, when my sinuses kept getting worse and worse, my allergist, Dr. Weiner, strongly advised me to stop cutting grass. What! Stop cutting grass! I was devastated and didn’t know what to do. I had created a business maintaining 33-35 yards per week and he wants me to stop! I remember he said, “I don’t care what you do, but you can’t cut grass.” WOW.
I realized the value of my business and on September 17th, 2002, Matt’s Lawn Service was sold to Lawn Care Plus. I was able to use the money from the sale of the business to buy my second truck a red, extended cab, Ford Ranger 4×4 Sport. It was a slick truck and I was super proud of it. I was able to sell my first truck and my first business, pay cash for my second truck and start a profitable pine straw operation a month after selling my lawn service…. all before I graduated high school.
