John Perry III is a young entrepreneur with a lot of ambition. Recently profiled in the Herarld-Dispatch, Perry is the owner of Grass Busters Lawn Care. While he’s still in university, the 21 year old has 3 employees, made $40,000 last year and plans to make enough money to buy his own home before he graduates.

Entrepreneurship in the Blood

John’s father, John Perry II, is also an entrepreneur. He founded DirtBusters Janitorial Services and boasts the same cartoon figure as a logo – except Perry II’s character is holding a mop and a bucket.

You Are Never too Young

Perry III started off in the lawn care business at the age of 13. He went to work for his uncle’s company. When he was 15, he went off on his own and created the Grass Busters name the next year. In his first year he had 34 clients. By the next summer he had 60 and the following summer he graduated high school and counted 95 households as customers. After a 2 year break, John is back and plans to do 200 lawns this summer.

His Secrets To Success

• Pay your people well. John hires young people into his business and pays them better than what they would make doing similar work at a different company.
• Lead by example. John tries to instill a culture of hard work and leads by example. Some days he leaves at 8 in the morning and does not return until 10pm.
• Get the job done. Customers hate excuses and John does not offer any. If the weather is going to bring rain and prevent him from mowing the grass, John sometimes has to do 30 lawns in one day to stay on schedule.

Did you have a business that you started at a young age and then continue building it?

Evan Carmichael