It was late Sunday night. I had just finished eating my dinner and headed back to my bedroom. I began to think deeply about the events of the last two days. I kept my open notebook right beside me on the bed. Scribbling random thoughts on the paper actually helped me think much more clearly.
I began to roughly write out my immediate plans in the notebook, carefully calculating the numbers. It all started yesterday afternoon when I walked into Georgie's messy room. I simply looked at him and asked if he wanted to earn some actual money. He jumped up from his bed immediately without a single complaint, eagerly asking what we were doing.
I actually had absolutely no idea what kind of job I could realistically do right now to earn some big bucks. I didn't find one good part time job in this town. Because of my age limit, I decided to just go back to the basics that I used to do with Georgie during the summer breaks.
Mowing local lawns seemed like the easiest path forward. Considering that I would definitely need some initial capital if I wanted to start a real venture later, I simply had to start somewhere.
We quickly started asking around our immediate neighborhood to see if anybody wanted to hire us to mow their overgrown lawns. Georgie was the one actually knocking on the doors and doing all the asking.
I deliberately let him handle the talking since I definitely did not want to drain my limited social energy dealing with the neighbors.
Georgie was a complete natural when it came to dealing with people, easily charming the local adults with his casual attitude and wide smile. After asking around at ten different houses on our street, we successfully managed to find four homeowners who needed some yard work done.
After securing the verbal agreements, Georgie and I rushed back to the garage to grab our own heavy lawn mower from home. We hauled the heavy equipment to every single job using a rusty old tricycle cart we had lying around. It was tough physical labor, but the prospect of getting paid kept us moving.
The neighbors already knew us from living on the same street for years, so it was not very hard to convince them to give us the job.
We managed to completely mow four separate house lawns by the time the afternoon sun started setting. For every single completed job, the owners gladly handed us fifteen dollars in cash.
That specific pricing structure meant we earned thirty dollars each for me and Georgie. That was honestly not a bad payout for roughly six hours of strenuous manual work. We definitely got much faster and better at navigating the yards by the time we reached the final house on our list.
There was also not much operational cost to worry about on our end. We only had to spend money on a few liters of gas and engine oil for the mower. Considering that fuel was incredibly cheap during this specific era, our profit margins were looking very good.
We basically spent our entire Saturday doing that exhausting yard work. However, considering the federal minimum wage was only around three dollars and thirty five cents an hour during this specific time period, we were doing incredibly well. We had just made some actual, tangible money entirely on our own. It was a good feeling.
While we were busy pushing the mower around those properties, I actively noticed another lucrative opportunity.
Most of the houses on the block desperately needed their faded curb numbers repainted so people could actually read them. I immediately thought that this was a service we could easily provide for some extra cash.
I quickly asked Georgie to go back and ask around the neighboring houses to see if they wanted their curb numbers freshly repainted.
I strictly instructed him not to tell them our official prices just yet. Instead, I told him to casually ask how much they would personally be willing to pay for that specific service.
I eventually walked down to the local hardware store just to figure out exactly how much the paint, number stencils, and masking tape would cost us. After doing some quick mental math, I estimated the material cost would be roughly two dollars and fifty cents per house, provided we did not waste the supplies.
Georgie met up with me shortly after and happily reported that eight different people had already agreed to let us do the painting work. He mentioned that they generally pay around ten dollars to have a professional handle it. Some stubborn people prefer to do it themselves to save a few bucks.
However, if a homeowner wanted to do it by themselves and went to buy all these specific supplies, it would actually cost them significantly more money upfront. Two standard cans of paint alone cost nearly nine dollars at the register. It was simply not very cost effective for a single house.
Because of that initial expense, most rational people just preferred to hire someone else to handle the minor hassle.
The homeowners would just be left with unused painting materials, but we could easily reuse our supplies across multiple jobs to maximize our profits. So, I firmly told Georgie we were going to do the curb painting ourselves.
We ended up completely missing Sunday school at church the next day. Instead, we headed straight to the hardware store to buy all the necessary supplies first thing in the early morning. We dipped into our recent lawn mowing profits and spent exactly twenty five dollars on the stencils, tape, and paint.
We immediately went around to the agreed upon houses to start the painting jobs. I decided we would officially charge eight dollars for our service, slightly undercutting the standard rate. Most people readily agreed to the price since they desperately wanted to have the annoying job completed without doing the labor themselves.
Furthermore, Georgie was simply too incredibly charming for the older folks to say no to. We ultimately managed to run entirely out of white and black paint right after completing exactly eight houses. I officially called it a day at that point, considering we had already spent four hours of our Sunday morning working.
We were admittedly a bit slow and clumsy for the first few curb jobs, but we quickly got the hang of the proper taping techniques.
We looked almost like seasoned professionals by the time we sprayed the final address. Most people were very open to supporting two young teenagers doing honest manual labor, so we did not run into any problems. Some people even offered drinks for which i was happy.
We managed to earn sixty four dollars straight from painting the curb numbers, plus the sixty dollars from the lawn mowing. After subtracting our total operation costs of around thirty dollars for gas and paint supplies, we had made a clean, combined profit of exactly ninety four dollars for the weekend.
That meant forty seven dollars each for me and Georgie. Georgie completely trusted me with handling the cash pool and let me do all the final accounting numbers. When I finally handed him his exact half of the money, he was absolutely ecstatic about it. We didn't earn this much for mowing lawns. Painting curb numbers was easier and more profitable.
He jumped around the garage a little bit, clutching the green bills tightly in his fist. He was already planning to head out to the local arcade where the older teenagers usually go to spend their weekend allowances. He tried to get me to tag along for the celebration.
"Charlie, this is completely insane man. I have never held this much cash from just two days of work," Georgie said, a massive grin spreading across his face as he counted the bills again. "I am heading straight over to the arcade right now. You have to come with me. My treat."
"I appreciate the offer, Georgie, but I am going to pass this time," I replied, folding my share of the money and slipping it into my pocket. "I have some things I need to figure out at home."
"Suit yourself, nerd," Georgie laughed loudly. "More arcade tokens for me then."
I initially started this entire weekend project simply as a quick way to earn some easy pocket money. However, this small neighborhood operation quickly taught me that we could actually scale this up and run it as a highly functional, real business. It just required proper structure and planning.
The only way it could realistically happen and remain profitable is if we manage to find a constant, reliable stream of neighborhood work. I will definitely have to sit down and make some detailed logistical plans for achieving that. Word of mouth will only get us so far before we run out of local lawns.
One of the homeowners also casually warned me to make sure we get the proper city permits for painting curbs. If a grumpy neighbor complained to the town, I could easily get slapped with a heavy fine for operating without a license. I realized right then that if I wanted to expand the business, I had to do it completely by the books.
Later that same evening, Georgie and I rode our bikes all the way down to the town administration office just to ask around about local business regulations.
Surprisingly, most of the older clerks working behind the desks were entirely too eager to offer their professional advice to two young men wanting to do honest work.
Since we were acting politely and definitely not causing any typical teenage trouble, the staff genuinely seemed highly interested in helping us navigate the red tape.
It was not the fast paced twenty first century yet. It was still quite rare to see high school kids already taking their financial lives so seriously in a small town.
I made sure to bring my notebook along with me. I meticulously wrote down absolutely everything the clerks said regarding municipal permits, tax forms, and residential zoning laws to research later.
Georgie was naturally the one doing all the talking at the front counter, while I remained completely silent, carefully listening to the exchange.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Georgie said, flashing his best polite smile at the tired woman behind the counter. "My brother and I are looking to paint some curb numbers around town, and we wanted to make sure we are following all the official rules. Do we need some kind of special permit for that?"
The clerk adjusted her glasses, looking pleasantly surprised. "Well, aren't you two just the most responsible boys around. Yes, you will need a minor solicitor's permit to offer services door to door. It keeps the police from bothering you while you work. It costs exactly ten dollars for the entire summer."
"We will take it," Georgie replied smoothly, after looking at me for permission to which i nodded yes.