Speaking of Larry Johnson…as I was. He was also my partner in another money making plan. We had teamed up on the lawn mowing projects, thinking correctly that with two lawn mowers going we could do both front and back lawns in record time and move on to the next job. A spirit of competition also helped us to speed things up.
On a slow day, we decided to search out new business and this meant crossing Sepulveda (near Marine) and visiting the sub-division that had recently been built there. We had made flyers with our credentials and phone numbers on them and were distributing them house to house. And at one house we hit pay dirt! The owner of the house, an older lady and a widow, had just moved into the new house and asked us if we could do landscaping? Well, of course we could! After a minute or two of negotiations, we had agreed on a price of $100 to landscape the front and back yards, with the owner providing the materials. $100? That was a number that was so foreign to us, that I’m sure our mouths had dropped open when she first mentioned it. But we recovered nicely and made arrangements to return in a few days and begin the project.
We immediately threw away the rest of the flyers and then began to dream of ways to spend that much money. $100! Was there anything that we couldn’t buy with that much money?
Long story; short…we did the job and it took us months of working two or three afternoons a weeks and some Saturdays as well. And our benefactor renegotiated the contract many times, always adding more money for us. I wish I could remember her name?
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