8-year-old boy’s lawn care business proves to be a success
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – A West Lafayette boy is proving the “American Dream” does not discriminate.
Sawyer Geswein started his own lawn care business when he was just 8 years old. He’s now 14.
“Ever since I was 8, I’ve been determined to make a real difference in the world,” said Sawyer Geswein.
He started with just a couple of customers and now he’s a Harrison Highlands favorite.
“I’ve mowed probably a sum total of about 40 of the houses in there,” he said.
His road to success was a little bumpy.
“I had some of them [potential customers] that thought it was a safety hazard and kind of shooed me away,” he said.
But once Sawyer gets a chance from a customer, they always want more.
“I remember when he was short and one day he knocked at my door because it was snowing and so he started removing the snow,” said Lou Barranco-Cortes. “He said, ‘Oh, I can also mow your lawn.’”
Blades and Branches quickly became the only lawn care company the Barranco-Cortes family could trust.
“He’s still doing an awesome job. He’s always on time,” said Barranco-Cortes. “If he says he’s coming, we know he’s coming.”
Her 4-year-old daughter, Alaina, watches Sawyer’s every move.
“And you always want to talk to him, right?” asked Barranco-Cortes.
“Yeah,” responded Alaina.
“I love to see little kids about my age when I started this business,” Sawyer Geswein said. “I love seeing them start to have an interest in really working and chasing something that they’ve always enjoyed to do.”
He likes to share his success.
“He used to give quite a bit of his money to church,” said Sawyer’s mother Tekoa Geswein. “And just here in the last couple of years he’s opted to sponsor a girl in Ghana, her name is Doyo. I’m really proud. He gives her a certain amount of his funding every month and he writes her letters.”
WLFI asked some of Sawyer’s customers if he ever mentioned giving money to charity.
“No, he didn’t,” said Barranco-Cortes.
Sawyer doesn’t need credit, he enjoys taking care of people.
“We had some people down the road who the dad had to go to the hospital, and so he went over and mowed their grass and didn’t charge anything,” added his mother.
Sawyer is not one for handouts. He buys everything on his own.
“It was about a $300 push mower, and I bought that with my own money,” said Geswein. “I also have a snow blower. That’s about a $600 snow blower; I bought that too.”
Sawyer’s father Spencer Geswein said, “You know, that’s something that we are very proud of. I think it’s going to serve him well as he goes into adulthood.”
Sawyer certainly has a bright future ahead.
“I’m just going to keep building it up,” Sawyer said. “I don’t see anything blocking me from being a multi-million dollar business eventually.”