RecessionWire

  • About
  • Ads
  • Contributors
  • Press
  • Contact


// author archive

Martha C. White

Martha C. White has written 1 posts for Recessionwire
Email us

Lemonade Makers: The Lawn Painters

By Martha C. White ⋅ June 18, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

green-genie-painting-grass-lawn-250Southern California was a greener, lusher place before the downturn. Homeowners worked to keep their lawns verdant—but with recession came thousands of foreclosures, and acres of brown grass. Last summer, T.J. Davis, who is retired from the fire department, and his brother-in-law, Mike Patino, who had been laid off, saw a news story about a company in drought-plagued Northern California that painted dry lawns using an eco-sensitive dye. In October, they launched Green Genie Lawn Service in Winchester, Calif. Davis talked to Recessionwire about the opportunity they saw in making grass greener for 25 cents a square foot.

What did it take to start this up?
It wasn’t a cheap investment. We spent almost $9,000. We bought a tank for $2,500 and a trailer we got through Craigslist. The dye itself is $99 a gallon and comes in two-and-a-half gallon containers, so if you want to buy several of them, it’s expensive…

If you enjoyed this story, print or share it!
  • email
  • Print
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Mixx
  • Reddit
  • Technorati
  • Tumblr
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Fark

 

Get Recessionwire by email!
twitter

Most Popular Posts

  • The Recession Will End... by 2010
  • 10 Tips for Learning to Cook from Scratch
  • The 5 Questions You Should Ask an Interviewer
  • Tax Tips for the Unemployed
  • 11 Easy Steps to Relocating
  • The Just-Laid-Off Checklist
  • Screwed: 2,500 at Xerox
  • Recession Lessons from the Jersey Shore
  • Eight (of the 1 million) Reasons Not to Go to Law School in a Recession
  • How Not to Look Desperate

Special Sections

Recent Posts

  • The Toughest City to Find a Job
  • Recession Lexicon: 99er
  • Free Financial Bootcamp
  • 80 Percent Off Restaurant.com Ends Today
  • Economists Pessimistic About the Rest of 2010
  • 10 Tips for Social Networking Your Way to a Job
  • How to Bootstrap Your New Business Wisely
  • Stashing Cash Over the Border
  • Senate Approves Unemployment Extension
  • Entrepreneurship is Declining, Survey Says

We’re Talking About…

Wowzio
grab this · careers blog
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Press

  • Culture
  • Living
  • Money
  • News
  • Small Business
  • Working
© 2010 Recessionwire. Entries (RSS)