OLATHE, Kan. — He is spending his entire summer cutting lawns with a few of his friends. But the Olathe trio is already hitting some bumps in the road with their new found business and learning some very important lessons along the way as pre-teens.
Any other 11 or 12-year-old might be thinking about what fun activity they’ll do next this summer.
“Either playing video games or outside playing sports,” Marcus McElliott, 12, said.
But not for him, or his friends.
“Hi my name is Marcus. I’m starting a lawn mowing service, would you like to be one of my clients?” Marcus said.
Meet the newest members to the area’s lawn care market. Caleb Metsinger, 11, and Bobby Irbin 12, are Marcus’ business partners.
“I just like helping out around the neighborhood.”
Not to mention earning a little cash. But again, you’d be mistaken if you assumed Marcus was keeping all the money for himself. His parent Kathleen Robinson, said some of it goes back to his family to help out.
“It’s not something that you willingly want to do is to take money from your child, but it’s one of those situations where he can see that we’re struggling and he just kind of comes up and says, ‘Hey, I made this today and I want you to have it,'” Robinson said.
So Marcus and his friends are learning how to handle business problems without the financial backing of their parents. Marcus said they’ve already run out of weed killer and dealt with busted lawn mowers.
But while a client has helped buy this mower for them after their streak of bad luck, Marcus said they could use a weed eater and a few other pieces of slightly used equipment. But still, they said business has been OK.
“I think it’s outstanding for a 12-year-old to have that kind of a work ethic,” Robinson said.
A sign that the success of this venture might have nothing to do with years of experience and more to do with attitude.
“I’m hoping that I make more clients outside of my neighborhood, like be able to go to different neighborhoods and maybe go to a different city sometimes to help out more people,” Marcus said.
If you’d like to help: email Marcus’ parent, Kathleen, at katiemce5791@gmail.com.