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Shawn Rine goes from mowing local lawns to reinventing them

Shawn Rine wanted a cell phone when he was 11, so he started mowing lawns. Now, trucks with his name on them can be seen all over central Ohio.

In 2001, Rine had only a handful of clients, all neighbors, and says on a Saturday he would make up to $200 mowing their lawns. As he continued to grow his clientele, he fell in love with the business and found himself enjoying the time outdoors.

Growing the business

He grew up in Grandview Heights and has a treasure trove of familiar stories such as inhaling a big lunch at Paul’s on Fifth after football practice on a summer morning. As he continued to mow lawns and make connections, he grew his clientele and team.

“The competitive spirit in me was like, ‘I had six (lawns) last year, I should get 10 this year,’” Rine says. “So I kept growing it and we were servicing upwards of 40 accounts on a weekly basis by the time I graduated.”

Now equipped with a team of trusted workers, Rine started to get asked about other projects.

“I think we did our first constructiontype project probably in my sophomore year,” he says. “So I was hiring classmates and friends to work with me. I hired my first full-time employee when I was a senior in high school.”

After high school, Rine knew that he didn’t want to give up the business he’d built. He chose to go to school at The Ohio State University so he could get a business degree and continue to grow his company.

“I took some horticulture classes, (but) most of my knowledge came on the job from the school of hard knocks,” he says.

He decided to get a business degree since it would not interfere with his landscaping schedule. He would wake up at 4:30 a.m., head to his office near Mill Run for administrative work in the morning, then go to campus for the day’s classes before heading outside to do some landscaping around town.

When he became a walk-on for Ohio State’s football program as a fullback his junior year however, his schedule became even more full. He did not end up returning as a senior so that he could preserve his energy and not risk any injuries that could jeopardize his landscaping schedule.

After graduating, Rine had plans to structure Rine Landscape Group in a more efficient way, which meant hiring some experts such as a landscape architect and client relationship manager.

After college

Rine has continued to live in the TriVillage area, and currently has a home in Upper Arlington with his wife, Mackenzie, and three kids, Bo, Blair and Flannery, who are 5, 4 and 3 respectively.

Rine says his business has grown to be “self-sustaining” at this point. He has found that as long as they do a good job, word of mouth will do the rest. He now has clients all over the greater Columbus area, from Powell to Grove City.

“I get a ton of fulfillment from seeing a client’s reaction or hearing about a party they had,” Rine says. “I’m envisioning myself and my kids in 10 years when clients say, ‘Look, I need a backyard or pool or a space that is set up in such a way that my kids and their friends always want to be here and not running around somewhere else.’ Those, I think, tend to be the most rewarding.”

He is always crossing paths with clients, as he loves walking around near his home in Upper Arlington. In fact, this was part of why he has continued to stay in the area his whole life.

He says he likes the security that comes along with seeing so many familiar faces around his neighborhood. As his kids grow up and start to ride their bikes around town, he is comforted to know that he has friends all over the Tri-Village area that he can trust.

Rine ensures that his work is enhancing the place where he grew up, which is his philosophy anywhere he works.

“Even though I lived in the bubble, I think I’m a little more aware (that) it is a bit of a special place,” he says. “And whatever we can do to help preserve that in the form of tasteful, timeless design and architecturally appropriate landscapes, … we do things that complement or make it better.”