Newton teens run ‘professional’ lawn care service

While it may not look or feel like it yet, spring is here and that means time to break out the lawnmower.

Although some people take pride in maintaining their own yard, others see it as a chore or aren’t able to adequately care for their lawn for various reasons. This is where Reynolds Brother Lawn Care can come in handy. The company was founded by Collin Reynolds, 18, back when he was a freshman at Newton Senior High School.

“I played three sports — football, basketball and baseball — and it was kind of hard for me to get a part-time job while I was playing sports, I was really involved,” Collin said. “So I kind of looked for something I could do in the summer and on afternoons where I didn’t have practice.

The thing Collin found was providing lawn care services. He inherited his initial clients from a few of his friends who no longer had time to provide the service and then it grew from there.

“We had seven clients our first year,” Collin said. “Real small and then that winter, a friend of ours had about 15 snow removal clients and he fell ill and broke his leg. He was wanting someone to take over for him and we took over that and he never took it back up. Instead, he just retired that winter.”

Collin said after the friend retired, he also turned over his lawn care accounts to them for the summer, which he said was all he could handle at the time since he was still in high school.

After he graduated high school, he pondered his next move. Playing college football became out of the question for him after he tore both his shoulder laburnums and an offer from one of his former high school coaches helped him decide what to do next.

“He offered me an assistant varsity football coach job — which I took — so that kept me here in town. Then I started looking for something that could work around that, it’s hard to get a full-time job and get out at 2:30 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon (to go to practice),” Collin said.

“I kinda of looked around and our lawn care business had the opportunity to expand, we had never wanted to before and we were at our max,” he continued. “We started looking into that and we were surprised at the demand for it.”

Collin's decision to stay seems to be paying off for him. His business is growing, the flexibility allows him to maintain his coaching schedule and by taking online classes through DMACC, he is also earning his business degree.
Reynolds Brothers Lawn Care consists of Collin, his 15-year-old brother, Austin, two walk-behind mowers, a Grasshopper Zero Turn Mower, a few snow blowers and the other tools needed to provide full services to their clients.

Since the expansion, Collin said the company is fully insured with a million-dollar insurance policy and now has around 30 private and corporate clients. He said he is also working on acquiring a pesticide license.

He credits their company’s growth not only to his staying in Newton, but to excellent word of mouth from their customers.

“We know all our clients names, first and last names. They know us when we see them, and we talk to them on a first-name basis. That type of relationship … is how we’ve gotten all our business,” Collin said. “We haven’t really spent much on advertising ... I could go up to anyone of our clients for a reference and they’d be more than happy to give it.”

For a free service estimate, contact Reynolds Brothers Lawn Care at (641) 841-2220.