How to Make Money - An Entrepreneur Mindset That brings him in $1/2 Million a year

all right I'm with Cullen Greene he is an eighteen year old senior in high school he's been in business for nine years and he's now topping out at over $500,000 per year he's gonna walk us through the steps on how he originally built this business where he's at today so that you guys can do the exact same things in your lives Colin how are you doing today do we all stay that way yourself thank you for coming on the air today call it first thing I wanted to address is you were not born with a silver spoon in your mouth how did you get started and what age were you when you originally got started we started or I started and forth going into fifth grade I bought a craftsman riding motors about $800 cheap motor from Sears and that's what began the whole entire journey and then 5th grade is when I bought my first commercial mower in a little 6 by 10 trailer so that was the start of it all quite a few years ago so you were in fourth grade and how did you get the $800 to buy your first molar just had money in the bank account I probably had 1500 hours of just general money built off you know birthdays whatever and I really spent any money how we like to save money an IV just remember give my dad $50 and saying hey put this in my account I thought it was a big deal so that's kind of what started it all so you guys started when you were in fourth grade by saving up money that you had collected throughout your whole life and you bought a keep craftsman more and then what happened after that I had it back for a year I cut I cut like two yards three yards probably was a hundred bucks you know a lot of much money did some small stuff here there and then I bought a year later after buying that mower I bought a 60-inch turf tracer and that's you know people that's what it all started you know started off that one Bower to lawns 3 lawns turned into five or six yards you know equipment just built up as time progressed so in fifth grade you were able to save enough money up from what you did in fourth grade to buy a $3,000 more correct I say two grand to you know two to three grand I think I paid 2,500 2,400 dollars for a 60-inch walk-behind mower that's what began and on after that was a six by ten trailer and a bunch of craftsman handheld tools so wasn't the best buddy I was the fundamentals at the time right now as a senior in high school you just bought a brand new caterpillar skid loader for 62 thousand plus dollars yeah we just purchased the calves or last one of my last piece of equipment we got a couple of trucks after that but we did purchase a brand new caterpillar track skid steer for arts heaping crew I guess the big question is how did you build this business while you were still in high school : I built it off of one you got to be one of the work and work hours that you don't want to work I started in ninth grade every day after school I worked from three o'clock til til dark past dark here I mean I used to cut all the grass I did everything when I was a freshman in high school I was working every job that was going on I was at and I was doing stuff on top of that while it wasn't at work and then sophomore years when I really started to be able to hire people I had a lot more work to do it my SATA maintenance crew and I had one landscape crew and that's all we did was cut grass and do other walls do a little bit stuff here and there but that was a time in my school allowed me to leave a little bit early so I started with a work program and I just decreased the time that school over the last three years I mean I was senior in high school that I leave out there fourth period every day I've got my credits already done the school I got to say it worked out it's where we that's where we are now how did how did a kid cuz you basically a kid when you were ninth grade how did the kid get enough work ninth and tenth grade to hire a crew how did you go out and acquire new jobs and build the trust needed to have customers sign on the dotted line to give you contracts for thousands of dollars worth of work sure so I started ninth grade my legalised my company completely what the government and did all the taxes and did everything my licensing I had general insurance before that but I never was legal with the state or the government so once I legalized myself I got myself on the internet I caught myself on AngelList worked up an Angie's List account built up pretty well on there I mean we've been on ages those three years we have 50 reviews probably all B+ rating Super Service Wars the whole nine your honor so I use the power of the internet Angie's List mainly it's advertise the company and where you're going out and you get enough reviews to do enough good work and we're to mouthal says you know you're never gonna get any better you know you wake up everyday in the phones ring and it's a good day so that's kind of how it all started and I hired Tom I even have a driver's license so I was I hired a guy to work for me without a license that drove my truck and you know I was willing to work as many hours as I did and Peter accordingly progressed it more and more more employees shut up and more work showed up four years later where it's uh it's never a dull moment so you started as a fourth grader with absolutely no money except for the $800 you saved up then you reinvested that to buy an a mower and then is that the formula you've used to get to the point now where as a senior in high school you're doing a half a million dollars a year in business and buying brand new equipment buying new equipment you're only as good as your last job always stand on top of everything always make sure the quality's there all right good people people were extremely difficult task I've been blessed with I've got good core five guys that work me full-time that are you know way know one of the main but understands what I'm here to do what I want to do and they respect that and when you hire good people you get good work you get good clients you take care of them at the end of the day it's you know like I said you're only as good as your last job so you always keeping the quality of work I Oh making sure you don't have anything interfere with you too while you're at it hope you guys do you have on right now calling so we're right down the winter so a lot of our guys are laid off however will pick up back in the spring probably have in the spring eight to ten and then some we might peak twelve this year I don't know about that just yet but I'm definitely full-time tech guys through the season this year so you've got a lot of young entrepreneurs and it doesn't matter when I say young I'm you guys can be 3040 years old but if you haven't ran your own business before you're still a young entrepreneur you're young - the entrepreneurial game call it what words of wisdom would you share you've been in business for nine years you developed a business while you were in high school you did something unique and applied yourself in a way that most guys don't think is possible you've proven it's possible what words of wisdom would you share with guys just getting started to help them off don't let anybody tell you you can't do it you can do anything you want at the end of the day it's all up to you you know everybody's gonna be for you doing it you know a lot of people that say it was my dad's company it was passed down in the air I was given a bunch of money to get it going or whatever it may be don't listen to it it's all you know people were gonna doubt you people or people want be at the end of the day but do whatever you want and accomplish what you want and it's good eventually it's gonna snap and just work for it so true Colin so true is there any way guys that I really wanted to find out more could reach out and connect with you yes you could check we have a website which is www.hyken.com my email is pulling green landscaping at yahoo.com in touch with me you can check out our Instagram page we have just for business and a lot of people for me on my personal Instagram we have one just for work now it's green landscaping underscore Pittsburgh so it's PG each so green landscaping underscore PGH don't want more pictures of jobs and whatever we might be doing and trying to post on that every day and keep people in touch with what's going on here what changes and if for those of you guys that are interested I've been documenting Cullen's journey since you were a junior in high school right Colin direct I think we did a video last year roughly in Springer we didn't went we did a video when you were in 11th grade and you were doing $250,000 a year in businesses as a junior you sense doubled your business just in the last year you purchase brand new equipment word and we did a podcast so there's plenty of information for you guys to watch his journey as he's been progressing Colin can do it you guys can do it as well that's right Stan you're exactly right about that god bless go get them don't let anyone tell you it's not impossible Thanks going