Shear Skill: Senior Grayson Kerwin builds his own lawn mowing business from the ground up

Returning home from lacrosse practice, senior Grayson Kerwin set his lacrosse stick down and glanced at his phone. Two texts from local moms asking him to mow their lawns. He scheduled one lawn for the next day and one for the day after, adding the dates and times to his five-column chart displaying a customer’s name, yard location, date mowed and the rate he charged. 

Kerwin’s lawn mowing business, 913 Lawncare, started out as a competition with senior Drew Trotter when they were freshmen. Trotter had been earning money from mowing lawns, but Kerwin believed he could mow a better lawn. The friendly competition sparked what would become Kerwin’s source of income for the next three years.

His uncle’s old riding lawn mower and his dad’s friend’s trailer helped him jumpstart his company.

Since spring of his freshman year, Kerwin has made $27,000 through mowing lawns and doing yardwork. Kerwin has put $5,000 of those funds toward improving his company — employee fees and buying new trailers, trimmers, parts and gas.

“I’ve always wanted to be a CEO,” Kerwin said. “So I thought it’d be kind of fun to run my own company.”

To keep the atmosphere fun and entertaining, Kerwin hired his friends. Senior Sam Demetriou was one of Kerwin’s employees from spring of their freshman year to fall of their junior year. Demetriou made around $550 per summer.

“He was the brains,” Demetriou said. “And I was his helper.”

Mowing was all fun and games until Demetriou had to be taken to the hospital after gashing his leg open slipping on Kerwin’s old flat trailer — he still has a scar. Demetriou quit shortly after the incident.

To avoid future injuries, Kerwin uses a portion of his hard earned money to upgrade broken and run-down equipment. 

After a moving truck hit his car at an intersection, Kerwin was forced to buy a new mower and trailer and pay for the repair of his car. While sorting through insurance, he borrowed Demetriou’s push mower and managed to continue mowing his usual 18 lawns per week, even without his regular riding mower.

Making his own choices and setting his own schedule is what Kerwin loves most about running his own company. He enjoys the freedom that being his own boss gives him.

Kerwin charges $35 per mow for most lawns but has gone up to $70 depending on the size of the lawn. Taking on a new lawn usually means he has to commit to mowing it for at least a year. 

Though he has a business card, Kerwin rarely feels the need to share it with his customers. He has found that word of mouth is extremely effective in expanding his business.

“​​I don’t even know if any of my customers even know the name of my company,” Kerwin said. “They just know me.”