Unless you started mowing at the young age Jason Binder did, your next purchase right after your first mower was likely a means to carry it around. Walker user Gerry McCarthy, owner of Mac’s Landscaping in Burlington, Massachusetts, did the next best thing 35 years ago when he started his business. “I made my first trailer,” McCarthy recalls. “I purchased the running gear and built a make-shift frame on it.”

What would you do if you were six months from celebrating your 60th birthday and your boss walked into your office and said, “The company has been sold and you are not part of the sale”?

In 2010, it will be 30 years for Walker Manufacturing in the lawn mower business. My brother and I, our sisters, our parents and our families count it a real privilege to have lived this story from the start; what a ride it has been!

Cal Kearns was in the landscaping business for five years before he realized what it took to be a success. The owner of C&D Landscape Company in Dayton, Oregon, had to suffer through early growing pains and a bad economy before he “needed to turn his small company into a real business.”

Your customer list includes 60 Homeowner Associations (HOAs) and 120 residential clients, and all told, you mow between 400 and 500 acres of grass a week. Not bad for being in business only 10 years. Isn’t it about time you slow down?

David Wright’s business card speaks volumes. After the catchy name of his company, Wright Way Lawn Care, comes this teaser: “A firstclass cut is measured by the yard.”