Contractor Profile: Growing Up With Michael’s Complete Lawn Care

Those young entrepreneurs often trade in their lawn mowers for other careers as they continue through school, opting for more "professional" jobs at Wendy’s, the movie theater or the mall. As other job opportunities arise, the mini mowing "businesses" fall by the wayside into the annals of defunct young businesses along with countless lemonade stands. However, there are those young entrepreneurs who take the dream of providing mowing services to the next level. That is precisely the path Michael Ackerman, a 16-year-old entrepreneur from Wichita, Kansas, has followed in fulfilling his dream to become a professional full-service lawn and landscape contractor.

Ackerman is the owner of Michael’s Complete Lawn Care, a lawn and landscape maintenance company in the Midwest with an estimated $35,000 in sales for the 2000 season. He started out at age 11, and like the aforementioned entrepreneur, he got his start traveling door to door with his bicycle and lawn mower. His growth has been steady, both in number of clients and in knowledge of the industry, and he hopes to turn his pre-high school graduation job into a life-long career. "I realized that there’s a lot of success and money to be made in this business. I just decided I have a dream to pursue this so I decided to stay with it," he said.

Although Ackerman is technically going into his fifth year of business as a lawn professional, his company is in its second year of official operation. He has seen his mowing client base grow from six lawns his first year to 15 his second year, 24 his third, 30 his fourth, and now close to 50 lawns this season. That doesn’t include the more than 40 customers Ackerman is providing with a five-step lawn fertilization program or a one-time organic fertilizer application this year. Add tree trimming, tree removal and plant installations to the mix, and the full-service title is fairly accurate. Ackerman has established a loyal and growing customer base to which he provides professional services, and he still doesn’t have a driver’s license.

A FAMILY AFFAIR. Being in high school, Ackerman’s schedule is naturally different than most contractors. This summer he has been taking driver’s education courses in the morning and then waiting until afternoon to go out in the field. His father works until 3 p.m., so the father-son team heads out from about 3:30 to 7 or 8 in the evening with dad taking the driving responsibilities. Add some hours on Saturdays and Sundays, and you have one busy 16-year-old. That schedule is the same during the school year with Ackerman balancing his studies while running the business. His schedule will be a little more normal in the summertime after he gets his license.

Not only does Ackerman’s father help with driving duties, he also became a licensed commercial applicator this year. This enables Ackerman to carry out his newly developed fertilization program as long as his father is on site or at least reachable by telephone. Because his father is a licensed applicator and has helped with various duties, Ackerman is hoping to grow the business to the point that his father can work for him full time. He anticipates securing some commercial contracts during the upcoming winter season and growing to the point that by this time next year his dad will be able to leave his current job and work solely for Michael’s Complete Lawn Care.

The family involvement doesn’t end with dad as Ackerman’s mother takes care of the business’ bookkeeping duties. It’s a family affair from top to bottom, and Ackerman wouldn’t have it any other way. "If it wasn’t for my dad and my mom, I don’t think this would have happened at all," he said.

RUNNING A BUSINESS AT 16. The image of the young child looking for a couple of bucks to mow a lawn conjures up the image of a homeowner giving a charitable payment to the child for movie or candy money. But what happens when that child grows up and turns into a professional? Does the homeowner change with the business and pay more for the better service and knowledge? Or does that homeowner still view the professional as the kid who used to have cheap equipment and lower prices? Ackerman said that as long as he delivers high quality service, most of his customers make the adjustment and stick with him. "I have sensed that people think, ‘I don’t think he knows what he’s doing.’ But I prove them wrong. Then they trust me, and that’s how I get the referrals later on," he explained.

Referrals have been the majority of leads for new clients with about five calls from potential customers coming in each week. Ackerman sometimes offers referrals of his own to companies that can handle some of the services he does not currently offer. For instance, a customer may ask about a pond installation. In that case, Ackerman will contact a local landscaping company to quote the job. He has a relationship set up with that company to receive a 15 percent commission on the profit of those jobs. This relationship developed at a lawn and garden show where Ackerman was able to talk to the company’s owner. "The person that owned the company was there, and he actually gets out there and does the work. I wanted a relationship with that kind of company because the quality control is a lot better," he said.

Another source of Ackerman’s customer base comes from his involvement at church. True to his entrepreneurial spirit, Ackerman grabbed his church member directory of approximately 1,200 people and called those members last winter. He says those sales calls helped him get his five-step fertilization program running with about 30 to 35 people from his church signing up. About 15 to 20 of those clients also turned into full-season mowing accounts. Ackerman is anxiously awaiting this year’s directory as the church membership has nearly doubled. "When you call people like that, they put your name down, and when they need you, they call you. You don’t realize how much that helps you until it really hits," he said.

To convey a professional image, Ackerman has invested in equipment. His equipment lineup currently features two Walker mowers, two RedMax trimmers, 2 ECHO handheld blowers, a LESCO trimmer, a LESCO blower, sprayers and spreaders that are transported on a 16-foot trailer. He hopes to purchase a new truck that will feature his company name to help promote the professionalism of the operation. He and his father also wear the same color shirts as uniforms. "People comment about that because you see a lot of other companies out there that dress with ragged shirts. I just don’t like that look. I want to try to make us look as professional as we can. That’s why I spend the money for the equipment and uniforms," he explained.

GROWING IN WICHITA. With five years under his belt, Ackerman is learning what it takes to run a profitable company. He is focusing more on the numbers now than he has in the past. As of now, he does not have his profit and loss information determined, but he plans on learning soon. "I’m going to try to learn all of that this winter and try to get set for next year," he said. "Most of it is figuring out how long it takes me to do the job." To do that he has recently started a log for each day he works, noting the time it takes to perform a job, the costs involved and the amount of money he is charging.

Ackerman has taken advantage of the wealth of information available from other professionals in the industry. He has contacted companies in Wichita that have been happy to help a young man with industry questions. He also reads about the industry and studies information on the Internet. His education is paying off as he is starting to turn some profit. "This year is the first year I’ve been able to save money back. It seems like I have more equipment this year and more expenses, but for some reason I have more money," he said. "I guess it’s just more efficient work with better equipment."

With his no-driver’s-license abbreviated work schedule, Ackerman and his father are able to cut about seven to eight lawns a day from about 15,000 to 20,000 square feet. He said pricing is about $45 on those properties. Ackerman says he still has some properties that run about $20 to $25, but he is reticent to drop those customers. "It’s kind of hard to drop those people that have helped you get your business going. I had to raise prices on everybody this year because of my additional equipment," he explained. "For the people that were at $15 and $20, I just told them that I needed to increase them to $25, and if they couldn’t afford it, they might have to find someone else. But they all stayed with me."

During his first few years of business, Ackerman said he is focusing on growth. His goal is to make the company big enough to sustain two full-time employees – his father and himself. Part of that plan includes obtaining more commercial clients. "If I can get a bigger commercial property, then I can go and weed out some of my not as profitable accounts. Right now I can’t afford to do that." Last fall he and three other companies bid on a retirement center. Ackerman’s price quote was about $15 more than a competitor’s, so he didn’t get the job. In hindsight, he said he was actually glad to lose that job at the time because he didn’t have the equipment to handle the work. However, Ackerman’s confidence is undaunted as he said, "I’m going to probably get the job this coming season."

Ackerman seems to be fitting right in to the lucrative Wichita lawn and landscape industry and is striving for success all the way. "It seems like on every street here in Wichita there’s a lawn care company, and there’s still a huge demand for it," he said. "I hope to grow [my business] to the size of some of the businesses here in Wichita. And if you talk to most of those people, they started out the same way I did. You basically just have to get out there and do it."