I started off mowing lawns on my street to help some older neighbors out, and as people started to notice me, I began to increase the number of customers I had. I continued to pay attention to the little details that the bigger companies skipped week after week. Two summers ago, I brought Mike and Vinny into the business in hopes to grow and expand. Since then we have been determined to bring high quality work for an affordable price to cities around us.

It was mainly self-driven, but our parents have been a huge support throughout our lives and have always taught us to be self-sufficient. We were fortunate enough to be raised this way and it is really the heart of the source. Also, Gilmour Academy offered the Management/Entrepreneurship course taught by Mr. Polak which the three of us took together. We were able to use that class time to focus on ideas for our business, and we received good advice from Mr. Polak and other teachers.

Participating in the ThinkBig Challenge was truly a huge morale booster for us. I think the major takeaway was that we realized we can do something special and unique with this business. Before the competition, we had a lot of hopes and aspirations, but the Challenge has helped make our business much more visible. The opportunity to share our vision more publicly is an incredible opportunity.

With our funds from the competition we were able to purchase a trailer, t-shirts (uniforms), and a new lawn mower. These purchases have had a big impact on our business. The trailer and new mower made us more efficient with our time and allowed for us to take on more clients. The shirts helped us promote our brand and showed more professionalism to notify people that we were a real business.

Honestly, it’s kind of helped us in a way. It was sort of difficult during the stay at home order, but after that we had a lot of extra time to do more work. We were able to work around our virtual school schedules more efficiently than being on campus. So, instead of starting in the midafternoon on school days, we were able to start earlier than normal and get more work done.

Absolutely. All of us have realized that having an entrepreneurial mindset is used in many aspects of our lives. Being able to communicate, work with others, and logically solve everyday problems outside of work are very important skills to have. Maintaining this mindset has helped us greatly improve.

The biggest piece of advice we can give to other young entrepreneurs is “don’t let anyone stop you.” This has been a big theme for us in growing our business. Many people have questioned if we are qualified for jobs or even disregarded us mainly because of our age. This was honestly fuel to the fire for us because we knew what our goal was, and we have been set on it. So, any aspiring entrepreneur should set goals and keep striving to succeed. Another tip would be to focus on doing the little things right. Your reputation is everything especially when you’re trying to start a business. We know from experience that customer referrals are the number one source of advertising. So, if you do things the right way, people will hear about it.