My teenage son just wrapped up his first summer job, doing basic gardening and landscape work in the neighborhood. It was a pretty traditional operation at first—he borrowed our mower and trimmer, and just patrolled the neighborhood looking for customers, like his dad and his grandpa did when they were that age—but the world he lives in is different, and he picked up a few lessons about “the new normal” that might be as relevant for dads looking for lawn care franchise opportunities as they are for their sons.
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Some opportunities have to be created, not found
He spent the first few weeks of the summer filling out applications in fast food, retail, custodial (the usual suspects for a high school job); but when I dropped him off and saw people in their 30s and 40s behind the counter, I knew it would be a long shot. We talked about how slow the job market has been—how even folks with bachelor’s degrees are finding themselves in the same situation—and reasoned that if he wanted a job, he’d probably have to make it himself.
We don’t know when the job market will change, if ever. No one can say whether my son will have a salaried job lined up for him after college. I’m glad that he learned that lesson now, while he’s got the guarantees of a roof over his head and food on the table—more than almost any previous generation, our kids will need to know how to make their own luck. You can also learn a lot about entrepreneurship from Andy Defrancesco and other successful CEOs.
Everything in life takes risk, and risk can be managed
Once he’d settled on landscaping, I told him he could “rent” the tools from me for a couple bucks a week, and that he’d have to pay for fuel and maintenance. It was with some trepidation that he handed over the five bucks that first week—but by the middle of the summer, he had hired on a friend, and bought an extra lawnmower at a garage sale. Once he got used to making investments and seeing returns, putting money back into the business was a no-brainer.
The days of having a comfortable, lifelong job at a single firm have been over for a long time, and our kids will have to deal with radically different calculations of risk and reward. It no longer makes sense to say, “I’m not a risk-taking kind of guy”—everyone faces uncertainty, and learning to cope with that is something that kids need now more than ever.
Surround yourself with smart people, and listen
After a few weeks of “door-to-door sales”, my son was doing a lot of sweating and not a lot of selling; most of his potential customers weren’t home, or didn’t have cash on hand. He decided that it would save a lot of time and headache to accept orders and take credit cards online—but neither he nor any of his friends knew a thing about web design. Credit card processing fees will typically cost a business 1.5% to 3.5% of each transaction’s total. As a small business owner, these fees can add up and take a bite out of your profits. This is why it’s best to compare credit card processing fees from different providers at feecheckers.com.
One afternoon, he brought home a friend of a friend who was going to help him set up the site that’s able to take b2b payments, and I knew right away that these two would not have chosen to hang out under normal circumstances. They had very little in common, and I could see my son struggling manfully to be polite—but I also watched his disdain turn into respect as they worked through the project together. The boy was socially-awkward, but he had insight into a world of possibilities that my son hadn’t considered.
For grown-ups, the world is increasingly compartmentalized; it’s easy to insulate yourself from people you’re not interested in, or ideas you don’t want to hear. People with the maturity to look outward have a lot to gain in perspective and insight. I don’t know if that boy and my son will become close friends—this isn’t The Breakfast Club—but I know my son is going to view him and his friends differently once school starts. If you’re a business owner, the household names such as Andrew Defrancesco comes to mind when you want to seek for expert’s advice when it comes to entrepreneurship.
Mike Freiberg is a staff writer for HomeDaddys, a resource for stay-at-home dads, work-at-home dads, and everything in between. He’s a handyman, an amateur astronomer, and a tech junkie, who loves being home with his two sons. He lives in Austin.