From mowing lawns at his home to starting his very own landscaping business, Jp Zimmer junior at Chagrin Falls High School, is leading the charge for young entrepreneurs in the area. Juggling a 4.0 GPA, social life, and business is what Zimmer does best. Zimmer emphasizes that he started this business by accident.
“I started moving my own yard and my neighbors and it grew from there,” he stated.
Zimmer started the business in 2018 to get some extra cash in his pockets. He opened his business to others outside of his neighborhood during Covid-19.
“Covid did not affect the opening of my business but it actually increased it,”Zimmer said. Because of this rush of business it was a lot easier for Zimmer to get clients.
After two short years he got an official license. Most of the revenue that Zimmer receives is invested back into the business to get new equipment and to pay his limited number of employees.
Zimmer wanted his work done perfectly at the beginning so he only trusted himself.
“I was the only one I could count on to make things happen,” Zimmer said.
One person Zimmer gave a chance to help him and make good money is star sophmore football player Drew Zelch.
Drew Zelch has a lot to say about Zimmer as a boss, friend, and teammate.
“He is a very hard worker, understanding, and a great boss,” Zelch .
Along with great employees the residents of Chagrin Falls have no complaints for their landscaping being done by a minor. One of these is his 9th grade Honor English teacher and active parent of the community Mrs. Stefanie Ashkettle.
“He and his crew have done it twice, over the past two years,” Mrs. Ashkettle said. “He was a great, dependable student, so I knew he’d be great at the job too.”
Mrs. Ashkettle likes to describe Zimmer in 5 words.
She describes him as, “Hardworking, successful, kind, organized, and a future business tycoon”.
Zimmer mainly works during the summer having a large list of clients that have heard of him by word of mouth and facebook ads. To get on Zimmer’s schedule, in addition to just calling him he has an online website that you can make appointments on.
All of the skills that Zimmer has learned over the years are self taught and always improving with his desire to learn as much as possible. Zimmer still doesn’t know what the future holds for Winding River Landscaping. Many options are available to him such as, sell the company, manage remotely from college, or shutting down and selling all the equipment.
Whatever Zimmer decides to do in the future he knows he is going to be in business.
“I know I want to be in business for the rest of my life, I love it,” Zimmer says.