Fitz Lawn Care

Scholastic:  Why did you start your lawn-care business?
Max: I have always mowed my parents’ lawn, and I asked my neighbors if they would like me to do theirs too. After that, I started to knock on doors—150 of them! I did a ton of mulching, landscaping, and planting trees. In the lawn-care business, cutting grass is almost the side work.

The real hard work is the landscaping, or making the entire outdoor space look nice. That fills up your days. When you first get somebody interested, you ask them what they are looking to get done. If they already have a flower bed, you could put in mulch or rock. It’s about beautifying the space. The other part is the weekly mowing. Landscaping is a good way to introduce a customer to the grass cutting, and that’s how you get the regular weekly work.

Scholastic: What math do you use to run your business?
Max: It’s a lot more math than you’d think. To calculate the amount of mulch I need, I find the square yardage of the whole area. Usually, it’s an irregular shape, so I use a giant measuring tape to measure the space. Then I’ll draw the shape on a piece of paper and calculate the square yardage. One bag of mulch can cover a certain number of square yards, so I divide the total square yardage by that number to figure out how many bags of mulch I need to buy.

Scholastic: What advice do you have for other kids who want to start a business like yours.
Max: In general, the best thing you could do is just get out and talk to people. Being able to talk to people—especially adults—is probably your biggest asset. If you can have good conversations with most people, they’ll respect you more and take you more seriously.

Key Math Idea:
Start-Up Costs

Max started his lawn-care company last year. When you start a company, it often requires start-up capital. This is money to buy the supplies and equipment you’ll use to run your business. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.