99 Lawn Care

Website launch: September 10, 2022
Blog updated: August 15, 2024

https://99lawncare.com
https://www.facebook.com/99LawnCare/

I was in my office at the ADM flour mill in St. Louis, MO. I had just started the job 9 months prior as a quality manager. My heart pounded and my mind was full of thoughts. My hand shaking just out of pure excitement and anxiety. I had just gotten a verbal yes on my fourth flight school client. I started crunching numbers in my head.

“I could go full time in the business. I could quit my job!” I said to myself. I couldn’t believe this was reality. I picked up my phone and called Hilmo and asked for his counsel.

Hilmo was my previous colleague at Roha, a food color manufacturing company I worked at prior to my stint at ADM, and he is also the owner of 99 Lawn Care. When I took the job at Roha, Hilmo had been assigned to the quality lab. He taught me all the various analytical tests that needed to be done and how the SAP ERP software worked. We worked closely and we eventually also hanged out outside of work.

We would chat about personal development and how he was growing his lawn care business on the side. But I was still deep entrenched in climbing the proverbial corporate ladder and wanted to do the best job I could as a freshly minted quality manager. At the time, I had sold a few websites including Jayrone’s Voice of a hustler and Maria’s Belleville Pancake House, and I was nowhere near the stage that Hilmo was at.

He had started his business cutting grass during his high school and college years, and worked on his business after the 9 to 5 job at Roha. He even had Roha as a lawn care customer! He eventually pulled the trigger and quit the job and went working full time on his business.

Hilmo and me hanging out in my office at Roha before he quit

Which brings me back to the story I opened this blog article with. Although he told me that he looked up to me because I was young (I was in my 20s still) and able to become the manager, it was actually quite opposite. It was I that looked up to him because he had the courage to quit his job. He had the business prowess to grow a sideline and make it a sustainable business that could support his livelihood. It was the first colleague I had seen and worked with that actually pulled the trigger and went full time on a business.

When I called him, he was already a few years working full time in the business and had a team working for him. Before I niched down and targeted flight schools for my marketing agency business, I pitched to him that I could help and design his website.

Screenshot of the 99 Lawn Care website

This was my last client I worked with before I fully committed to the flight school market. Hilmo really inspired me to continue pressing forward and keep working on my dreams. I kept going through the motions with the corporate route and working the 9 to 5 job. But Hilmo ignited the flame in my heart and really opened my mind and made me believe that working for yourself was actually in the realm of possibility. I have nothing but gratitude for this man and even to this day, I still support him and his business with offering the web development skills and expertise that I have.