Back story
My son had been trying to get a job for a few months. No one was calling him. He was looking for a job at the worst possible time with the economy the way it is there are a lot of people looking for jobs that have recently lost their jobs. I know where I live there are several houses that are either foreclosed or they are having problems paying their bills (my husband gets a list of those people late on their HOA dues). We decided a few months ago that we would not be paying for my son to attend college. Community College is pretty cheap (about $800 a semester+ books).
My husband came up with a plan for him to start advertising in our subdivision only to mow lawns. Then I came up with the idea that since he has a truck there is a lot of things he could do. This led to the name of his business "A Boy With A Truck" which describes what he can do. My son and I came up with a flier for him to put in peoples paper boxes. He listed on there the jobs he could do things like dog walking/sitting, clean litter boxes, lawn work with his core market being those going on vacation that would only need their lawn mowed once or twice while they are out of town or a person that needed stuff hauled to the dump since we have a small truck (which we don't know how we lived 20 years without one!). I also had him put on his flier that he is just trying to pay for his college (which he is). He put the fliers out the beginning of June and got a few calls. He missed out on a few jobs because we were going out of town for half a month. When we got back from our trip he put the fliers in the paper boxes again and expanded the area to include our entire subdivision. I am surprised how much work he has gotten. Just because he is willing to do jobs that people just don't want to be bothered with. He is not a handyman and does not claim to be, but doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. One job a woman wanted him to do was just trim her bushes- simple enough right? Well he did the job and she proceeded to tell him that she called TWO OTHER PEOPLE and neither one of them showed! Must be nice to pass up work! She ended up paying him $80 for 2 hours worth of work! Can you believe that?
A few days ago my husband was swimming with our kids at our community pool (for our subdivision only) and a neighbor said "I saw your sons truck at someones house, I might have him haul some stuff to the dump for me." Well it dawned on me that more important than business cards (that my husband has been harping on him to get) that advertising on his truck is more important. So I came up with this sign, plus a few others but this one is the one we went with.
How do you like his motto? I felt it was PERFECT! It doesn't mislead people that he is a handyman because he most definitely is not-he is only 18yrs old. I feel it is kinda catchy though and describes the fact he will do the work that others just don't like to do.
I am so proud of my son. I can remember a year ago being so frustrated. He showed no initiative to do ANY work what so ever. We used to have to say "When are you going to mow Pat's yard?" or "Did you check Bryce's yard lately?"-he lives 1/2 mile away now. He works about 30 hours if not more a week. He mows on average 5-6 lawns a week, 4 of them are regulars now (one of which he found on Craig's list and is not in our subdivision). He is a regular HOLE DIGGER for one of our neighbors who according to her husband she just like for him to dig holes to experiment where she wants flowers, bushes and shrubbery, he also takes care of her dogs while they are gone. He has taken large items to the dump for a few others and he helped one lady try and hang some shutters and mowed her yard too because her lawn mower is broken.
In addition to all this money he has made this summer (he gets $8-$10 an hour plus bonuses and about $25 to mow/trim/blow a lawn) when we went to register him for college we found out he got a $1200 scholarship/grant too! His first two semesters he gets $600 applied to each. We had no clue- they must be merit based since we make too much for him to qualify for financial aid. Which is good because I also decided my son has until October 2010 to get a truck/vehicle because that is when his brother will be getting that truck to drive to school.
My son wakes up at 7-8am depending on how much work he has to do and he goes and gets the work done. I don't need to harp on him anymore and he even told me a few days after we went on vacation that he wishes he didn't go because of all the money he could have made.
This is the perfect job for anyone having a problem getting a job. All you need is a lawn mower, trimmer and a willingness to get your hands dirty.
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