How high schoolers achieved profits in landscaping

It’s not uncommon for teenagers to mow lawns part time to earn spending money or contribute to a college fund. However, 17-year-old RJ Duarte managed to turn his part-time lawn maintenance job into a business that achieved more than $100,000 in revenue in 2017.

While the business started as a means for Duarte to earn spending money, a small local award convinced him to take his part-time gig to the next level.

“When we won an award from the Young Americans Bank in 2015, we realized this wasn’t just a summertime job but that we could take this to the next level,” says Owen Johnson, Duarte’s partner in the business.

Duarte describes his business, Green Worx Landscaping, as a start-to-finish landscape company that serves customers around Golden, Colorado, and parts of Denver. The small business employs five to six high school students year-round, with additional students helping in summer. He also pays all his workers above minimum wage.

Green Worx had about $11,000 revenue in 2015, but it increased in 2016 to $30,000 in revenue. By 2017, revenue grew to the $100,000 milestone.

“We’ve been shooting for 300 percent growth every year now,” Johnson adds. “We’ve managed to get just under that each year, and that’s normal. So, that will put us at hopefully $250,000 revenue in 2018.”

Read the full story from the April issue here.