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Gen One, Day Eighty-Five

It had been a long time coming, paying bills for a building that was going unused. But Johnny was finally ready to open his Landscaping storefront. He’d filed all the paperwork, posting for job openings and with Charlie’s help, managed to get the store into a place where they could run through appointment only before they opened for store hours. 

The first appointment was a woman with eclectic taste. Robyn agreed to go with Johnny to meet her at the office and be his assistant while he took notes and got her all set with a consult at her home so he could take a look at the yard she wanted to landscape. She wanted a koi pond with a small walkway surrounded by flowers. He knew he could do it. Knew that it was going to be a good cash grab, too. Koi ponds weren’t cheap, but his goal had been to allow his prices to be affordable, but not run him out of business either. 

Gen One, Day Eighty-Five

“I’m proud of you,” Robyn told her husband after a long day at the office. It was much different running a landscaping business than it was to be the one solely out there doing the yardwork. He found himself more tired after a night of paperwork and balancing the books, which was odd because he’d thought the manual labor would be the thing that made him more tired. 

Though, Johnny smiled, yawning and stretching an arm across Robyn’s shoulders. “Well, we just started, but thank you,” he told her. She’d put up with him enough that the words meant something. Not many wives would let their husband take out loans and buy a commercial building only to have it sit there for a few months while he got things up and running. 

Gen One, Day Eighty-Five

It wasn’t soon after that, once Johnny had the koi pond installed in his first customer’s backyard, that he started getting business out the wazoo. He’d done such a great job on such a low budget, that one customer’s word of mouth had spread. It allowed him to afford a few extra employees to help out and even some store hours so they could sell some small bits and pieces in the store itself, rather than just use it as an office. 

Johnny even made his first sale of merchandise, a small bonsai tree that he’d been nurturing. Almost $100 for the small plant. He frame the first dollar that he made and put it above the door to the office. 

So far, Zest Landscaping was off to a great start!