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Summer's supposed to be the easy season, so why are so many people quietly googling a therapist between summer Fridays? Because more daylight doesn't fix the hard stuff. Sometimes it just turns the volume up. Grow Does Therapy Differently Therapy is not only for when you're in crisis. Grow therapy is here for all the moments when you decide you want more. More support, more clarity, more tools. Mental health isn't a destination you reach, it's something you build. And Grow makes that easier. Grow connects you with thousands of high quality licensed therapists across the US offering both virtual and in person sessions, nights and weekends. You can search by what matters like insurance, specialty, identity or availability and get started in as little as two days. There are no subscriptions, no long term commitments, you just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. The therapist you want takes your insurance on. Grow grow accepts over 125 insurance plans. Sessions average $21 with insurance and some pay as little as $0 depending on their plan. Visit growtherapy.com booknowtoday to get started. That's growththerapy.com booknow growththerapy.com booknow availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.
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Hello and welcome to the Green Industry Podcast, your go to guide for building a more profitable and thriving lawn care and landscaping business. Your host, Paul Jamison is the author of five best selling books including Cut that Grass and make that Cash and his latest, Level up your Money, all available on Amazon and Audible. Now get ready for more expert insights and practical strategies to boost your business and level up your life. Here's Paul Jameson.
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C
Well, today I'm going to share the story of how I got started in business as an entrepreneur. As a small business owner with pretty much zero business acumen, zero understanding of how to run a business. And how I got started was desperation. I was living in my friend's house and he had moved out to Kansas City with his wife and children for one year and he asked me if I would like to stay in his house for the year. The mortgage was $928, which was a lot of money back then. And to me, coming out of college and basically having pretty much no steady job, $928 was a challenge. And so he's like, well what you should do is just get a few roommates, you know, have Meech pay 250 to 350 for a room, get three, four, five of them. He's like, you'll be making money. And he sold me on it. He's like, yeah, just, just this is A five bedroom house, a four bedroom, and the other one could be used with bedrooms. With five bedrooms, essentially he's like, how, you know, you take the master, fill out the other four rooms and you'll be making money. Well, long story short, ain't nobody I got, I didn't recruit anybody. So I'm staying in this big old, you know, five bedroom house by myself and I got to scrape together to 928. Now all I had for income at the time was I was in a, like a multi level marketing company called Mel Luca and they sold vitamins and things like that. So I was, you know, hustling, know, calling all my relatives and then, and basically if you ever been in one of them things, then everyone avoids you. Like, oh, Paul's calling. He was trying to sell me on vitamins, you know, and thankfully like my aunt and my mom, you know, bought them to help me out. But then everyone else is like, yeah, I call them like five times and then they block me. So anyway, I was quickly realizing that wasn't the career path for me. But I had a little bit of money coming in from that and that was about it. And so I was getting close to having to pay my next round of $928. I'm just looking at the calendar and I, you know, I think I had like a two weeks. I had to pay them on the first of the month. And so I went out on a walk in this neighborhood that, you know, neighborhood I was living in. I went on this walk and they got this nice little area that kind of. I was living in Georgia at the time and, and Atlanta area. And there's one little nice spot in the neighborhood that was kind of on a hill and you could kind of look out in the distance. It was a N. And it's around sunset time, so it's a beautiful night. And I'm just walking around the neighborhood kind of praying, God help me. Like that was my prayer, help me God. Like, God help. And I get to this cul de sac and I'm just kind of, I just kind of stopped for some reason and I look at this house in the cul de sac and there's a for sale sign in the yard and the grass looks like it hadn't been cut all year. This is springtime in Georgia. So the weeds are growing, the grass is growing, everything's growing. And clearly this house hasn't been touched in, in since the previous year. And I was just thinking to myself, if you're a real estate agent, And I'm not, you know, again, I didn't have much business knowledge, but I had enough common sense. Like if you're trying to sell a house, it's called curb appeal. Wouldn't you want the house? Like, you know, if I would, if I rolled up to, to buy that house, I'd be like, this looks, this looks raggedy, you know, I mean, let me get sip of water here. So I called the, I called the number on the real estate agent sign thing and she answers and I said, hey, I'm. I'm sitting here at the property. I named the address and I just wanted to let you know the grass is really overgrown. So I'm, I'm kind of like in my mind, I'm kind of like the. Not the caring of the neighborhood, but you know, I mean, I'm. I'm like the neighbor that's complaining, hey, come out here and cut your grass. So the lady says to me, the real estate agent, I later found out she was a second leading real estate agent in, in, in Atlanta at the time. And she's like, well, hey, what, what's your price to cut the grass? She thought I was a land like a lawn care business calling the. To put in a bid, which I wasn't. I didn't have no law. I didn't have a lawnmower. I didn't know it. I mean, when I grew up in high school, my neighbor. So my, my parents would make me cut the grass for free. They didn't give me diddly squat. But my neighbor Frank, while I was cutting my parents yard, he was like, hey, can you come over and mow our yard? He's like, I'll give you 20 bucks. Well, 20 bucks could go a long way when you're a high school kid. So I said, sure. So I'd mow my parents lawn and I'd have my shirt off. So I'm thinking, I'm getting a suntan, getting an exercise, and I go mo Frank Shard, which he had this crazy big hill. And so anyway, I would mow Frank Shard with my, my dad's mower. And, and, and then, you know, Frank would, you know, I'd get done. I'd knock on the door and he, he was always in a meeting, right? But he'd come out, he wouldn't come out. He just, he would like crack open the door and hand me a $20 bill. It's like, you done? So I'm done. He give me a $20 bill. So that was all the experience. I had. So when this lady said, what would you. What's your price? It was like an epiphany. It was like a light bulb went off. I could make money, just like I used to make $20 cutting Frank Shard. I could cut a whole bunch of grass, make some cash, pay the $928. I'm in survival mode of life right now. So I'm thinking, well, actually, I'm not thinking, but. But it's like time froze. And the lady is like, what's your price, sir? And I don't know where I pulled $60 from. Now, this yard, when I say was overgrown. If you ever watch, like, SB Moen or Al Blades or Lawn Care Juggernaut or those guys who go around and, like, mow these overgrown, abandoned yards, it looked like that. And. And I. I blurred out. I said, $60. No idea where I pulled that number from, but I just said, 60 bucks. And she's like, sure. She's like, here's my. I think she said, here's my email address, or I'll text you my email address. Send me the invoice when you're done with a picture. And she told me, she said, by the way, the guy who was taking care of our, you know, properties in that area, he's been in the hospital, and that's why it hasn't gotten done. And we've been waiting on him to get out of the hospital, but it sounds like he might need a little bit of time to recover. So would you be open until he recovers? And she told me, she's like, when he recovers. We've been working with this guy for 10 years. When he recovers, we're going to bring him back on. But honestly, we need some of our other properties cut immediately because we're having the same issue because he hasn't been able to work because he's been in the hospital. And so she gives me another address in Winder, Georgia. Now, at the time, this. This property was in Lawrenceville, Georgia. And then Winder's kind of like the city over. Next, over. So she's like, can you also give me a quote? Swing by this other property in Winder, Georgia, and give me a quote for that one. So I said, absolutely, ma'. Am. And so she texted me her email address. And just like that, I started a lawn care business. Now, I didn't have a pickup truck. I was actually renting for $150 a month, this Honda Accord that was one of the most pitiful vehicles you've ever Seen ever. It had like the R. The hood was completely like, rusted. And then. And, and some of y' all are too young to even know, like a 1990s car that had rust on it. But, like, I don't know why, but the paint job just didn't last too long. It was a, it was a 1997 Honda Accord that looked, cosmetically, it looked rough and in. Inside it was decent. But I was, that was my vehicle and I was renting it for $150 a month. And I thought, you know what? I think there's a lawnmower in my friend's garage that I was renting for $928. I like, I think I saw a lawnmower in there. So there's a saying, ask for forgiveness instead of permission. So I was like, if I call my friend and be like, hey, I'm going to use your lawnmower to cut the overgrown neighbor's yard, he's probably going to say, I don't know what he would have said, but I was like, you know what, I'm just going to go use it and not even tell him because he's in Kansas City. He ain't going to know. So I, I go in the garage, I finish my walk, I go in the garage, and I, I got a little bit of excitement at this point. Cause I was like, I can make 60 bucks, which at the time the most money I had made in my life because I was just out of college. So the most money I'd made in my life up to this point was $10 an hour. I worked at an accounting firm and they paid me $10 an hour, which I thought was just huge because the, I just thought that was so much money back then. $10 an hour. Because my first job at Best burger, that was $7.15 an hour. And then when I was in college, I worked at a dining hall and they paid me $8.40 an hour plus a free lunch. Oh, yeah, there is such a thing as a free lunch, by the way. I got it. We're going to hear a quick word from today's show sponsors. And coming up, like Paul Harvey said, the rest of the story. 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Lawn Care and Landscaping Pros Listen up. If you're tired of guessing your way through pricing, marketing, hiring and sales, this is your wake up call. The LCR Summit hits Downtown Louisville October 19th and 20th at the Galthouse the same week as Equip and it's going to change the way you run your business forever. This is not another sit and listen event. It's two full days of hands on workshops from leaders who've actually built what you're trying to build. Neylor Taliaferro shows you how to generate better leads through smarter marketing. Paul Jamison teaches content that converts. John Pajak breaks down your numbers so you'll stop working for cheap Eric Triplett, the pond Digger reveals how he built a multi million dollar business, making more money with less work. Plus you'll have a surprise guest speaker, add in live Q and A panels, powerful networking, and an exclusive VIP dinner with all the speakers. When you purchase at the Platinum level, grab tickets and infocrsummit.com or just tap the link in the podcast description. That's lcrsummit.com Stop guessing. Start growing. Build the business you've always imagined at the LCR Summit. Here's Megan Koberly from the Landscaping Bookkeeper.
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The Landscaping Bookkeeper is a company for lawn care businesses under 300k. We like to onboard you under 300k so that we can educate you on your finances. Many bookkeepers love numbers, but we love the education behind the numbers. So each month we want to organize behind the scenes, but then we want to meet with you monthly to deliver your statement of cash flows, your profit and loss called the income statement and your balance sheet. And our real goal is to help you to understand how each of those work together so that you can see the health of your business. And not just crunch numbers. It's about actually putting them inside a framework so you know when to purchase and what to do with each of those facets of business.
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Schedule your free 15 minute call today at the landscaping bookkeeper.com now at the
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time I actually did have a very small part time job as well. They were paying me $400 a month to essentially be a youth pastor. It was a Korean church and they met on Friday nights. They would have a service and then on Sunday mornings and so I would go and served the the youth group there. It was a smaller church. It was kids of all ages. I look well, you know, two and a Half year olds with snot in their nose that are, you know, being little two year olds. And then I had like high school kids that thought they were, you know, too cool for school and like, they thought they were all that in a bag of chips. And, and so it was like, it was a, it was a side hustle that I had. So that was $400 a month that I had coming in. And then my vitamin business was
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maybe
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a few hundred bucks a month. I wasn't the best multi level marketer at the time. So anyway, there was a huge deficit between the $928 that I had for rent and what was in my bank account. And that's not even counting, you know, ramen noodles and, you know, canned tuna, which was my diet back then. When you're broke, broke people eat ramen noodles and canned tuna. And there's, there's, you know, Wendy's dollar menu. And some of y' all know what I'm talking about. I've been there, Paul. I know exactly what you're talking about. That junior bacon cheeseburger from Wendy's is your, is your diet. So I was broke. So 60 bucks to mow this, this yard was, was, was. Sounded awesome. So I drive out to the yard in Winder, my 1997 Honda Accord, and I check it out. I was like, okay, this one, this one. Actually, for whatever reason, that one wasn't as bad. So again, not understanding anything about pricing other than having this hourly mindset because I, I had, you know, I made $7 and some change at Best Burger, $8 and some change at the dining hall. $10 an hour for the year. I worked as a office assistant at a accounting firm. $10 an hour. I'm thinking wrongly, but I was thinking, well, I could, I could probably go mow that yard. And I'm gonna have to mow it like four times because it's so high. But probably I could get it done in like a few hours. It's like making 20 bucks an hour. So I go to my neighbors. Pardon me, the. I go to the, the neighbors. Was the yard that was overgrown, but it was kind of a few streets over. So I go back home to where I'm living for the $928 a month rent. I look in the garage and there it is, this lawnmower. Now my dad's mower had something called self propel where you would push down on the little lever with your thumbs and this thing would giddy up and go. And it was a 21 incher but it would, it had a little pep in his step. So the guy's mower in the garage that I'm renting his house from, his mower didn't have that little bottom knob. It just had one thing. And I quickly learned it didn't have self propel for a 21 inch mower. Tackling this gigantic jungle of a yard with no self propelled, that's, that's, that's problem number one. So the good news is it had a little, it had a little fold thing. There's a little, these two twisty things on the side so you could, you could turn them and then the handlebar would like fold down. So I was like, oh well, this will fit in the Honda Accord so that I, you know, I don't have to push it a few streets over. It's all in the same neighborhood. But still I was like, I'm gonna, this is efficiency right here. I'm gonna load it in the Honda Accord. So I loaded up in the Honda Accord and there was a little gas can in the, in the garage. I was like, oh, this is, this is awesome. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. There's a gas can, a mower, we are in business. So go to the gas station, fill up the mower, the, the gas can, little one gallon, dinky little gas can, fill it up and I go to my first yard. Paul Jameson Lawn Care. This is the first yard. Put the, put the gas in the mower, crank it up, thing starts. Let's go, Start pushing it. And it goes out, bogs down. Try it again, crank it up, it's going, start mowing. It cuts out. What happened is the grass was so tall, the weeds were more, more weeds than grass, but the weeds were so tall. This raggedy little mower from, I believe he got it at Walmart. And if I, if it had a brand, it might have been called a Murray, something like that. I mean this thing was, this put. It was, it was underwhelming. So I tried for probably a half hour. And now my first adversity as a lawn care business owner is happening because this thing ain't moving. It ain't, it ain't. Once it hits the heavy grass, it just cut, it just stops immediately. So I tried and I try and to try and I, I, it wasn't working. So I load it back up in the Honda Accord, go back to the garage, unload everything. And I'm debating, I could call the real estate agent back and tell her, you know, I'm a Loser. I can't do the yard, you know, call someone else. My, my, my mower ain't working. Like that was a thought. And then my other thought was, my, my. I knew a guy named Dave and he had a lawn care business. Because I remember he had this truck and he had a lawn care business. I just remember he had a lawn care business, but he started a nursery. And so I was like, I wonder if he has a mower. So I call him up and he's from, I think he's from Boston. He had this big thick accent. Hey, Dave, you remember me?
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Paul?
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Yeah, you know, with his accent, he's talking to me all fancy and everything. And I said, listen, one of the neighbors is going to pay me 60 bucks to mow their grass. I'm, I'm broke. I need the money. And the mower, I'm using it, it turns on. I'm explaining to him and he's, he's like rushed. He's like, hey man, listen, I ain't trying to be rude. He's a little bit different vocabulary. But he's like, I'm really busy right now. What do you need? Like, just like, he was like, he didn't have time for me to like conversate because he was running this nursery. It's the spring rush, he's busy. I was like, I need, I need to figure out how to mow this grass. And he's like, well, I got, I got a 36 inch mower, I got a 16, I got all these commerc mowers. But he's like, honestly, you ain't going to know how to use them because you've never used a commercial mower before. So I, I don't feel comfortable with that. Yada, yada, yada. He's like, I'll tell you what. He's like, I got, he's a real, real busy guy. He's like, I got all my power equipment sitting in the garage. Just come on over. Joe's at the house. You can use, you can use my weed eater, my blower. But he's like, you know, I don't think you'll know how to use these mowers if you've never used a mower, you know, commercial mower before and you don't have a trailer, a truck. He basically, he was like, I help you out, kid, but, but, but you don't even have a trailer, a truck to haul the mowers. And you probably don't even know how to use the mowers. But if you want to use my weed eater? He had a blade edger, a weed eater blower, handheld blower. He's like, you can, you know, have at it. So, like, all right, so I go over there, and he's got. He's got a weed eater and straight blade, straight edge, you know, blade edger. He's got a little handheld blower. And so I'm like, okay, well, I could probably go do that $50 yard, you know, with this stuff and the other mower, because I think the other mower might work out at the other yard. And then I'll have to figure out something else for the yard that's all overgrown. So there's a happy ending, this story. So I. I get the. I get that power equipment. I go back, I get the. I get the ghetto mower, put it in the Honda Accord. Now, the string trimmer and the edger, they don't fit unless I put it. It's starting in the passenger side of the car. And the heads of the weed eater and the blade edger actually have to put the window down. They actually. The only way they'll fit is that they're kind of sticking out, like, snugged up against the mirror on the passenger side, like, outside the vehicle. So it's the windows down, and part of the weed eater and string or the edger is hanging out of the vehicle. And then it's going over the passenger seat diagonally into the back seat. And then the base of the weed eater and the edger are on the seat behind the driver's side of the seat, so it's laid out diagonally and it's hanging out the window. And then there is a little handheld steel blower that I borrowed, and then the gas can, which, for whatever reason, I put in the back seat and end up spilling gas in there. And one long story short about this Honda Accord, the lady. Crazy story. I didn't even got time to tell that crazy story. But anyway, that lady needed her. Her car back. That's a whole nother story for. For later on. But I had spilled a bunch of gas in her car, and she wasn't too happy when I returned it and smelled like gas. Like, what'd you do, run a lawn care business out of here? I was like, actually, I did shout, man. She was so mad. So anyway, if anyone lets you ever borrow their vehicle, don't spill a bunch of gas in it like I did. So. And my character has developed and grown and matured over the years, so. So 2011, Paul isn't the same as current Paul. My, my, my, my character thankfully has. Has polished up. But back then I was young and dumb and so anyway, I go out to the winder house and the mower actually now it would bog down and it would, it would shut off after like three or four passes, but it would work a lot more. So I was able to get my first yard done out there. And I didn't even know how the string trimmer worked. Like, I didn't know how to restring it. So anyway, I needed tutorials on that. You never use a weed eater before for the first time. You're like, where did the string go? What's going on? And then, you know, I had to call my friend. I was like, yeah, thing you gave me don't even work. He's like, well, you know, what's going on with the string? I was like, it's gone. You got to restart. Anyway, I didn't know anything.
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Nothing.
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So I get that yard done and a lady at the gym, she had told me, hey, my son has a lawn care business. I'll give you his number. So I had called him and I said, hey. I said, I, you know, told him I got this yard, it's all overgrown. And anyway, he, we. He ended up helping me out on the yard and most of it because there was so many rocks in, in the yard. He's like, I don't feel comfortable mowing this because there's so many rocks in this yard. They're going to fling everywhere and I'd hate to break a window. So we ended up weed eating. Like, it took us so long. It took us so long to do that yard. But he helped me and then I ended up kind of working for him a little bit. I went out, we did all his yards because he had a. He had a full route. So I was like kind of, you know, helping him out. So anyway, I get the, I get the yard done and it cost me more than $60 because then ultimately another guy came out and Mo, who did have a commercial mower, and he helped pitch in too, and I had to pay him, so he did some of the mowing. Then Tyler and I, we weeded everything else. So it's like this collective effort between three people and different equipment. We got the yard done for the real estate agent and I invoiced her $60 and then $50 for the other yard I did in Winder. And you know, after a couple weeks, finally the check showed up.
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I.
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That was my first. Yeah, checks in the mail. Like I, I had a rude awakening for what that meant because I'm thinking I need the money today, like really I needed it yesterday. And you know, they're all being all slow payers. So that was it. I was in business and I'll go to church on Friday night. And I had Vista Print. I had created some the most ghetto raggedy ugly business cards you have ever seen. Got the little stock image of the lawnmower and it said, Paul Jameson Lawn Care. It had my phone number and yeah, that was it. Paul Jameson Lawn Care with my phone number on it and this funky little picture. I mean, I don't know what I was thinking because I saw one of them one day, I was like, oh my gosh, like I can't believe I passed them out. But anyway, at the church, I told the guys at church, I said, hey, I got a lawn care business now. And so some of them, out of sympathy, Dr. Kim actually, he's like, hey, he's like, talk to my wife because she's been, she's been griping and complaining. How are your guys? No, no, good. So I was talking to her and she's like, yeah, swing by and give me a quote. And I go to the house. Now this is back in 2011. This is a 1.25 million dollar house in 2011. All right, country club golf course in the backyard. Literally there's a, like a, a fancy golf course in the backyard. Really nice golf course. The putting greens right like in their backyard, about right past their fence, they got a swimming pool, one of those driveways, it's got like a big U shaped thing so you, you know, you can pull in and just incredible house and you know, Porsches, they got his fancy Porsche, you got the Lexus, they got all these fancy cars. And she's telling me, my last guy, he, you know, telling me, I'm thinking, I'm looking around like this place looks pretty good to me. Like I don't know what's going on with the last guy, but there was a few weeds on the side of the house. But I was thinking, man, this place looks amazing. I don't even, I think the nicest house I've ever been to in my life. And this was on a Sunday. Now. So anyway, they end up having like a cookout at their house after church. So I'm at this house and I'm walking around the yard with Mrs. Kim and she says, what's your price? I don't know where I got $45 from. Wrong answer. Right? But I told her $45, all right, that is property. I don't know what the market rate was back then. Well, I do know the market rate was, you know, back in 2011, the average man hour rate was $45. And very unlikely I'd get everything done in one hour from just working by myself. I mean, zero chance, because there's a lot of hedges to trim, front yard, side yard, backyard. I mean, that alone is going to take a long time. And then cleaning, you know, cleaning up all the hedge trimmings and then just edging the meal, mowing the front yard, side yard, cleaning up around the pool, blowing every. I mean, this is, this is. I was so underpriced, it was crazy. But I got the yard.
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So.
- [30:01]
C
Yeah, when can you get started? And, and she fires the other guy. Hires me again. I don't have any equipment, I don't have a truck. So I show up, I show up at Dr. Kim's house in the 1997 Honda Accord. Thankfully, my friend Dave let me borrow his, his string trimmer again. His, his blade edger, his blower. I said, listen, I'm broke. I'm going to try to buy. I like your stuff, okay? I'm going to buy everything you got. I'm, I'm getting familiar with it and I'm gonna buy it. I just don't have the money to buy it. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna try to make the money to pay my rent, and then I'm gonna try to get more money than that and I'm gonna buy my own little blower. I'm gonna buy my own little weed eater. I'm a mo string trimmer, I mean, edger string trimmer. I'm gonna buy my own. I'm gonna buy all my stuff. Dave, please let me borrow this stuff until I can afford to buy my own. And he was so generous. Have at it, kid. You know, it's. He's like, I'm gonna sell all this stuff anyway. Maybe we can work a little bit, just have at it. So that was huge. So I drive in. Those of you who are familiar with Atlanta, this is a 45 minute drive from Atlanta, from Lawrenceville all the way out to Johns Creek, Duluth, Johns Creek. With traffic, it's 45 minutes each way. So I got my window down, got my weed eater hanging out, got the edger hanging out, got. Now I'm borrowing his hedge trimmer, got the gas cans, you know, tipping gas all over the place in this, this 99, 1997 Honda Accord. I remember too, I was thinking, man, it smells like gas in there because it's tipping over. The little ghetto gas can I have it on? I don't know what I did, but it tipped over a little bit. I should have put it in the trunk, but even it would have spilled in the trunk too. But anyway, got the mower in the trunk, folded up and I'm out, I'm out to Mrs. Kim's house. And then this other lady, they Korean people, their, their last name's always Kim. So this other lady, her last name was Kim too, but she didn't live in the fancy country club, but her house was decent. So I told her 40 bucks. So I'm thinking this is going to be great. I'm going to go out there, I'm going to make 45 bucks from Dr. Kim. I'm, I'm going to make $40 from Mrs. Kim. But Mrs. Kim was like, I want you to come every other week. Which I had no idea what I was doing. So I was like, yeah, bi weekly, sure, you know, so but when I show up there, her house every other week for the 40, it was, it was, it was a jungle style house now. And so, I mean it would take me all day to do those two yards because I was, I was absolutely clueless. But my friend, I had a lawn care business. I had that sixty dollar property, I had the yard out in Winder for fifty bucks until these houses sold, they were mine. And then I had Mrs. Kim at 45 or pardon me, well, Dr. Kim's wife, Mrs. Kim. There's two Mrs. Kim's here in the story, but one's 45 property which was way underpriced, but she lives in the fancy country Club. Then Mrs. Kim, who lives in a couple, couple neighborhoods over out in John's Creek. But it wasn't a country club, but it was overgrown yard. So I have them four yards. And then I knew nothing about marketing, but I had these Vista Print cards I got for free. Vista Print back in the day in 2011 they had a little promotional. You just went to the Vistaprint.com is like get your first free hundred, you know, business cards or whatever. So I had a stack of cards. So I took them around my neighborhood and I'm, you know, passing them out. And this lady named Maria called me and she lived really close to where I lived and she drove a black Escalade, brand new. And I was like, man, it's a nice car and everything. So yeah, thanks. My husband just bought it for me. And I, you know, I met her husband. He just got, you know, they. Anyway, very, very, very. They seem like they're rich. And so, yeah, we, you know, we want to hire someone to cut our grass and everything. And. And I was like, sure. It's like $25. Crazy. Took me about two hours, which, again, the man hour rate back in 2011 was 45. I should have charged her $90. 25 bucks. I didn't know anything about business, but I picked her up as a customer. Reggie. And this guy who had these two gigantic dogs, he had a bunch of holes in his backyard. The dog had poop everywhere in his backyard. And, you know, he. So I picked him up, and I was starting to pick up yards in the neighborhood with this mower that barely worked. And so my friend who was the college student, he worked on Thursdays. So I. I struck up a deal with him. I said, hey, his name's Tyler. I said, you got a whole bunch of yards. You know, I got Mrs. Kim, I got. I got. I got Dr. Kim, I got Reggie, I got Maria's yard. Now I got the real estate agent yard. I said, how about we just work Thursday, do like 10 yards.
- [34:53]
B
We'll do.
- [34:54]
C
We'll do five or six of your yards. We'll do my five yards, and we'll just split all the money. We'll just add it all up and just split it halfway. We'll use your equipment. And, you know, he was like, yeah, man, he was. He's a real cool guy, but he's like, yeah, let's go. So he had this nice Chevy Silverado, so air conditioning. So he'd come pick me up in the morning, and he had a trailer. He had a lawn mower, like a nice one, and he had all the equipment. I. I brought a little bit of my equipment, and we would just work and get all these yards done, and I'm in business, baby. I only had access to him on Thursdays, but I had access to him on Thursdays. And then I had my buddy Dave, he's let me kind of indefinitely borrow his equipment, and I would. I would. I would return it each time I drive back to his house. I put it in his garage. And. And he had a buddy, Joe, that was in town from New York that was kind of temporarily living at his house. So Joe would always open the garage for me. Hey, you want a iced tea, man? And. And it come in and. And, you know, talk about how. How my day went. And. And, you know, they were kind of. Dave was busy at the nursery, but he'd pop in every now and again and he'd kind of give me a little bit of business advice. And things are starting to. Things are starting to improve here. Starting to pick up more work and I got myself a lawn care business. There's more to this story, folks, but I got to get to the gym. So we'll have part two of how it all started coming up soon.
- [36:42]
B
Hey, it's Marty, producer of the Green Industry podcast. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services that you heard about during the episode. And thanks for listening.
- [36:54]
C
Awkward time to ask this, but. Hey, did you download the trail map? Yeah, no, I don't need to. I. I don't understand.
- [37:00]
E
You're trusting your signal out here?
- [37:02]
A
I'm trusting T Mobile. They have the best network.
- [37:04]
C
And if we end up in bumtots
- [37:06]
A
nowhere, well, we've got T Satellite for backup.
- [37:08]
C
Whoa.
- [37:08]
B
I don't trust my carrier that much.
- [37:11]
A
We'll just use your phone as a flashlight.
- [37:14]
B
With America's best network and T Satellite,
- [37:17]
E
we're keeping you connected in places you never thought possible. And if you switch today, you get
- [37:21]
B
free phones for zero down and only 25 bucks a month per line for free. More lines. Find out more@t mobile.com or visit your local store.
- [37:30]
E
Best Mobile Network Based on analysis by Ooklev speed test intelligence data 2H 2025 with 24 monthly bill credits and 4 eligible port ins on essentials for well qualified customers with autopay plus taxes, fees and $35 connection charge per line credit stand in balance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel Contact Us Finance Agreement example $299.99 Moto Edge 5G required T Satellite available with compatible device in most outdoor areas in the US where you can see the sky. Included with experience beyond or $10 a month all over news monthly. Cancel anytime. Visit t mobile.com.