In High School, These Friends Started a ‘Roadkill’ Side Hustle. Their Business Made Nearly $600K Last Year: ‘Didn’t Have a Lot of Experience’

In 2018, Anthony Heathco and Colton Roush were 15-year-old high school students in Grand Junction, Colorado, who wanted to start a side hustle for some extra cash. “Like every high-schooler, you want a new pair of tennis shoes or clothes that look cool and can impress your friends, but [have] no way to make the money for it,” Heathco recalls. 

At the time, Heathco and Roush were too young to apply for jobs — and “too old to have a lemonade stand on the corner.” So Roush’s mother advertised the boys’ availability to do yard work on the neighborhood social media platform Nextdoor. That’s when a man named Ron Cotton reached out; he needed a lot of help. 

“ We were able to go over there pretty much every day after school and on the weekends,” Heathco says. “He was an older gentleman, so just really everything he couldn’t do labor-wise, he wanted us to do. Pulling weeds, fixing irrigation. We built a flagstone patio for him, ripped out some bushes, planted some new ones, that kind of thing.” 

Their high school side hustle made $5,000 to $10,000 a year

By the time graduation approached, Heathco and Roush had built a steady side hustle.

They were still working for Cotton, earning $10 an hour, and had about 20 lawn clients, mowing under the name “Roadkill.” (Roush’s grandmother came up with the idea back when the two were considering opening a food truck with “interesting food items,” and it stuck.)

All in, the high school side hustle made anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 a year. 

But after two years helping with Cotton’s property, there wasn’t much left to be done. Cotton pulled the boys aside and told them it would be a shame to let the last couple of years go to waste — he encouraged them to transition from side hustle to full-fledged business. 

Bobcat purchase helps fuel the growing business: Roadkill

For a while, the boys had relied on the basic tools — a shovel, wheelbarrow and lawnmower borrowed from Heathco’s father — at their disposal. But they had their eyes on a Bobcat loader. Initially too young to rent one, Roush’s mother had helped them do it.

It wasn’t long before the duo saved up enough money from the side hustle to purchase their first MT100 from Bobcat. Heathco and Roush walked into Bobcat of the Rockies prepared to write a check for $40,000. 

“ That’s when Jeff Ellis and Clay Hoffman talked us through how it might be the smarter decision to finance that because they can offer 0% loans over two years or four years,” Heathco says. “And put that $40,000 that we were about to spend on one machine back into the business and just pay it over time. So that was a huge help for us.” 

The Bobcat helped the friends move their business to the next phase — making it possible to complete projects that had taken a week in just days, Roush says. 

Roadkill takes off with service-based projects and lawn care

Running with Cotton’s advice to build a real business, Heathco and Roush began researching how much they could charge for service-based projects in addition to their lawn care offering. That’s when Roadkill Lawncare & Landscaping really took off. 

The first year in business after high school, Heathco and Roush made $20,000. “It was a lot back then; that’s a lot of new shoes,” Roush quips. “Right out of high school, that felt pretty good.” And the business just continued to grow. The next year, the co-founders hit $120,000 in annual revenue. 

At that point, Heathco and Roush decided to stop working for another landscaping company on the side and go all-in on their business. Once they made that leap, revenue soared to $350,000 a year. Then $500,000 the next. Last year, the co-founders did about $560,000, and this year, they’re on track to reach $700,000. 

Weekly salaries, with most profits reinvested into the business

Although Heathco and Roush pay themselves a weekly salary, they’ve never taken a large amount of profit, reinvesting earnings into Roadkill instead.

“That’s why we’re able to have so much equipment and so many trucks and grow like we have — because we’re not taking large paychecks, and we’re really focusing on putting everything into the business,” Heathco says. 

Today, Roadkill has eight employees, including Heathco and Roush. Two people work on the maintenance crew; four others work on the install crew. 

The challenges of being young entrepreneurs, building trust

Of course, starting and growing a business, especially as young entrepreneurs, hasn’t been without some challenges.

“Obviously, we were right out of high school, so being 18 years old, walking up to some of these customers that are willing to spend multiple six figures on their landscaping, and when they open the door and they see two kids on their doorstep, they’re getting a little hesitant as to why they would trust us with this large sum of money,” Roush says. “And rightfully so, because we didn’t have a lot of experience.” 

Additionally, Heathco and Roush were up against some landscaping companies that had been in the area for decades, with the manpower of 20 to 30 employees, which meant they were nearly impossible to outbid. 

Word of mouth and customer referrals accelerate business

Fortunately, that’s where customer referrals and reputation-building help bolster the business. 

“ Word-of-mouth is huge,” Roush says. “That’s how we get most of our jobs. So now that neighbors talk to each other and can see the work that we’ve done and how we can work with the customers on their design, that helps a lot with landing these bigger jobs.”

When Heathco and Roush were about 19 years old, a client took a chance on them with a 50% deposit for a major landscaping project on a new construction home. 

“He’s like, ‘I don’t know why I’m doing this. You guys are so young, but for some reason, I trust you. Don’t let me down,’” Heathco recalls. “ He’s been a great customer. We did his project four or five years ago, and he still gets on Facebook and shares about how good Roadkill Landscaping is.”

Fostering strong vendor relationships and community building

Additionally, the co-founders say their relationships with vendors have been key in driving the business’s growth and impact.

For example, the business is currently completing a memorial for an elementary school teacher who passed away; despite an initial bid that was two times over budget, Heathco and Roush worked with local vendors to fund the project and get it back on track. 

Looking ahead, Heathco and Roush are excited to continue growing their business, leaning into the creative opportunities that come with that while cultivating a close-knit team. 

Don’t fall for overnight business success stories

What’s more, the co-founders encourage any young person who aspires to start a business to take the leap. 

“It’s the blue-collar industry, not overnight success stories that you see online all the time,” Roush says. “It is hard work, and it takes a long time to build that reputation and relationship with the clients. So don’t be [discouraged] after a year or two if the money’s not there, the work’s not there, you’re losing jobs, because that is part of the process. Keep going at it. Eventually, if you’re doing quality, hard work, the results will show up.”

Heathco echoes the sentiment, noting that if a young entrepreneur has the drive to build a business, they’re already in a strong position. 

“What I would say to do from there was actually my senior quote in high school,” he says. “It’s, ‘Don’t choose something that makes you money and force yourself to love it. Rather, choose something you love and force it to make you money.’” 

This article is part of our ongoing Young Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of being a young business owner.