Any entrepreneur would love to have their customers hunt them down instead of having to go out and find them. While that isn’t a realistic approach for most, it seems to be working quite well for Corey Hall reports the Orange County Local News Network.
Hall, who lives in Brea, recalls being about 5 years old when his grandfather tried to teach him to use a lawnmower (note the phrase, “tried to”).
“That didn’t turn out too well,” the Whittier Christian School sophomore notes dryly. He ended up decimating some plants his grandmother had been carefully nurturing.
But not too many years later, Hall had made a full recovery. At about age 9 he was mowing his parents’ lawn on his own, and by the time he was 10, his grandparents were impressed enough by his capabilities to let his past mistakes go. They not only allowed their grandson to mow their backyard, they paid him for it.
As a middle-schooler, Hall had been offered a lawn-mowing gig by a neighbor. One by one, other neighbors followed suit, requesting Hall’s services. Now he takes care of four yards on his block (including his family’s), as well as his grandparents’.
Complementing the wisdom, Hall’s youthful enthusiasm has led to some interesting career experimentation. Like converting the mower’s gas engine to run on propane.
It was a notion he came across online when he was about 14. And, being a 14-year-old boy, he figured it would be fun to give the project a try.
“Sure enough, it worked,” he says, still sounding a little amazed.
Why propane? Well, it’s cleaner-burning, of course. It’s a little more efficient than a gas engine. And, Hall adds, “It’s a fun project.”
Efficiency and fun are two reasons why he also decided to outfit his lawnmower with headlights. “I’d seen it on other really high-end mowers,” he explains.
But this sensible businessman doesn’t generally mow after dark. Even in winter, he tries to get to work before 4 p.m. He mows and edges each of his customer’s lawns in succession–and always on a Thursday. That’s the day after garbage pick-up, he explains, so he can be sure the trash can has plenty of space for grass clippings.
Photo by David Locke1