Mowing Grass

In 1970 I started my own business I guess you could say. I started mowing other peoples yards or lawns as we would say now. My dad let me use his mowers. A riding mower and an old Lawn Boy push mower. I sickle and hand trimmers. There wasn't any weedeaters at that time. I started with Mrs. Bargers yard. A really large yard that also had a wooded area that I kept cleaned out. Mowing yards seemed to suit me well. As I was the youngest male on the street I would take a good beating from the other boys. And just the little creep to the girls. So the oppurtuinty to do something by myself and understanding profit became a good thing. At this point in time you didn't get $50 to mow a regular yard. More like $2 or $3. My big yard was $5. As time went on I was constantly picking up business. I worked on the east side of my little town and would take the tractor, trailer and everything I needed with me and did not need a truck. Good thing as I was not old enough to drive. By 1974 I had nearly 40 accounts. In addition to residential customers I had taken on a lot of local business customers. I was on my third tractor by then. I would however take 20% off the top for equipement. The people I worked for would give me things. They would give me something to eat (I did however pack a lunch and a cooler of water). In the morning I would take off with my tractor and cart with the equipement. My faithful German Shepherd Prince walking along. A full work week at 14 years old. Amazing how much energy you can have at that age. With the schedule I had worked out I could do that days work by about 2 pm. On getting home I would get cleaned up and Danny, Ricky and I would go to the country club and play golf. One of our mothers would drop us off and we would just walk home when we were done. It was only a couple of miles with short cuts. I was making $375 A WEEK IN THE SUMMER OF 1974. More money then I usually bring home in a week now. When we moved to Indiana in 1977 I left my little business behind. I did start mowing again. I would call realitors and set up a pretty good deal keeping vacant houses for sale presentable. When I moved to Louisville I eventually dicided I needed a side gig too. I had a full sized Chevy truck. Went to Sears and bought some ramps. I bought a cool old John Deere Garden tractor. Put ag tires filled with calcium (for weight). This old tractor was cherry. You know the saying "nothing runs like a deere or smells like a john". I found two Lawn Boy push mowers. A 1975 and a 1977. Fixed and tuned them up to a one pull to start condition. As I am mechanically inclined. The fall before I bought a Weber Smokey Joe grill and a weed eater at Target on their fall sale. Got them both dirt cheap as Target was dumping summer things. By the spring of 1993 I was in the new house I built in 1992. I put an ad in the New Albany Indiana paper and the calls started rolling in. At this juncture the thought of someone to mow a yard was out of style. You had a landscaper or lawn care specialist. Well my little ad paid off. There was one little nieghborhood that I got a call from. This was a nice little post war nieghborhood (world war 2 dummies) that people still took pride in. I took care of one customer and the next thing you know I had ten. The yards were so tiny I only needed the a Lawn Boy and the weed eater. The land scapers did not want to fool with these little accounts. They would ask them a real high price. I charged $10. After helping the older ladies with any other chores they needed help with I could be out of there by about 2 pm. Then go play golf. I picked up other accounts and made it about a week $200 side business on my off time. Again these people would give me things and a very nice side business. But it does require a lot of physical effort, capital and timing to pull it off. My father was smart enough to have a coin laundry, inventions and apartments to get extra money. Still trying to figure something out here in Florida. Maybe something bicycle. Who knows? I have to consider my full time job a baseline that pays the regular bills. If I am going to profit in addition to that I have to figure something else out.