Archive for Manual labor

R.J. Duarte- Founder of GreenWorx Landscaping

R.J. Duarte, a nineteen-year-old talented entrepreneur found his light for work. He was accepted into Colorado State University, although he decided not to go. R.J. at nineteen said “College wasn’t for me” and he said this because he had a landscaping business that was bringing in six figures. He said, “I figured I should stick with this” that is so impressive to have your own business that is driving in six figures at such a young age. R.J. started cutting grass at a very young age, he was eight cutting in Golden, Colorado. At the age of eight, he had a unique work ethic that really made his business successful. He was tripling his income every year even at this young age, and in middle school, he and his friend came together so they could cut more lawns. When R.J. was in high school, he named the company GreenWorx. After high school, his friend went to college, and it forced a split between the two. Although, R.J. just took everything back into control, and he saw a lot of room for growth and innovation. Then, he rebranded his company and made it a premium landscaping and maintenance company. Duarte had said a few things on his decision, “It’s higher margins for more risk,” and “That comes with headaches, but without headaches, there’s no reward.” This shows that he had a mind of an entrepreneur, and he was willing to go big or go home and innovate with his company. Now, GreenWorx is up to twelve to fifteen members on staff that is made up of mostly high school students. R.J. definitely made the right decision considering just as of this year, GreenWorx is bringing in right around $750,000! This is just so amazing to see the innovations that R.J. had to make, and the outcome was exactly what he wanted. Finally, Duarte said, “We’re hardworking, blue-collar people,” and “There’s nothing wrong with that.” This is awesome, he and his crew are very comparable, and they make a lot of money doing what they do.

RJ Duarte: The Founder of Green Worx Landscaping

Based out of Golden, Colorado, RJ Duarte was only eight years old when his entrepreneurial ventures started. Motivated by his desire to buy himself candy, Duarte started his lawn mowing business in 2008 with one lawn mower, a red wagon, and five weekly lawn mowing clients. He began to take his business seriously by his third season and invested his savings back into his company. Duarte’s dedication, commitment, and incredible work ethic as an entrepreneur are evident as his income tripled every year since he began his business.

As Duarte began middle school, his business had grown too large to handle himself. He chose a friend from middle school, Owen Johnson, to be a partner in his landscaping business. Two years later, Duarte and Johnson decided they needed a name for their company- they eventually landed on Green Worx. Green Worx had grown much larger than the mere neighborhood lawncare service it started as. After working with Green Worx for over five years, Johnson decided to part ways with the company in order to pursue a college education after graduating high school. Duarte and Johnson, however, still frequently meet as friends to discuss Green Worx and life in general. As Duarte was contemplating going to college and running his company from school, Green Worx was pulling in six figures from annual revenue. He decided to focus on growing his company and work on creating a full-scale landscaping business.

One way that Duarte demonstrated he was an excellent, young entrepreneur was through his willingness to take risks. After high school, in 2019, Duarte made the decision to drop Grenn Worx’s small clients and, instead, rebrand as a premium landscaping and maintenance company. This meant that he would be undertaking large-scale, intricate landscaping and construction projects. Green Worx added two construction crews and lots of new equipment to the company. Duarte knew how risky the shift in scale would be for the business but decided to continue with it anyway. “It’s higher margins for more risk,” he says. “That comes with headaches, but without headaches, there’s no reward.”

Green Worx was incredibly successful throughout the years. In 2015, Duarte and Johnson had won first place in the Celebration for Young Entrepreneurs and also won the Young Americans Bank Business Award. In 2016, the newsletter, The Golden Informer, wrote an article about the success of Green Worx and put Green Worx on the front cover. In that same year, Green Worx was nominated and won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award By Ernst & Young Foundation. By the end of 2016, Green Worx was 300% bigger than the year before. Green Worx continues to steadily grow. In 2019, the company brought in $750,000 in revenue. Duarte was never afraid of the workload and was always searching for new ways to expand and grow his business. Green Worx’s success is built off of his hard work and devotion to his craft.

Click here to read more about Green Worx.

Ladder Lockdown

Troy Kumprey created a Ladder Lockdown saddle after one of his employees fell from a ladder while working. Kumprey saw the dangers that normal ladders have so he wanted to create something that would make ladders safer and guarantee his employees would return to their families each night. So Kumprey created a versatile setup that accommodates extension ladders up to seven meters and most A-frames up to 1.8 meters. Ladder Lockdown is adaptable to hard soft surfaces, from concrete to wood to snow. Ladder Lockdown reduces lateral movement. Kumprey saw a problem and need that should be filled, he took a problem and created a solution. Kumprey also found a niche market for his product; construction, homeowners, and firefighters can relate to ladder safety. Ladder Lockdown saves lives and forever changed how ladders are used. Kumprey turned a dangerous tool into a safer for everyone to use. Here is a link to Ladder Lockdown website to learn more about the product, mission, and Troy Kumprey’s story:

https://ladderlockdown.com/about-us

Moving? Need Junk Hauled? Get the Boys

It is such a pain to move someone in or out of their house. It usually requires a team of people who are close with the person that is moving, and sometimes not everybody is available. Sometimes moving companies are hired, yes, but they can consist of some old dudes that move really slow and are not motivated to get the job completed. If only there was a way to help people move in and out a lot quicker. Now, we turn to the people classified as collegiate men. They are full of energy and are usually looking for a chance to make a quick buck here or there, whether it be for textbooks, movies or going out to the bar. There is definitely a connection here.

“On a hot summer’s day in 2003, two college buddies borrowed a beat-up cargo van and dubbed themselves College Hunks Hauling Junk.” Withing a short period of time, College Hunks expanded its franchising efforts and took off across the United States and Canada. College Hunks is a moving service that will also haul junk out of your house if that is what plan you pick. This just goes to show that you can literally start a company off of anything and you really do not need any experience to make a living (for certain jobs, of course). Moving houses is definitely a pain in the butt, and it is awesome to see that a company with smiling faces and dedication to what they do is out there.

I think that this is one of the best company ideas out there, and it was created pretty much out of nowhere and without any experience. They had the concept of thinking about what people struggle with and decided to do the dirty work themselves. On top of earning a bunch of awards since the founding of the company, they have a very good reputation and always leave their customers satisfied. That is a critical part in the business realm; without happy customers, you will not get any business… no business, no revenue. The idea of College Hunks is very inspiring and creative. I would definitely consider using their business one day.

Resource: https://collegehunkshaulingjunk.com/about/