TALKING THE TEDTALK PlOWING HIS WAY TO SUCCESS

Plowing

His Way to

Success by Lainey Harvey design by Loukas Bezani Photo by Lainey Harvey

Christian Schloegel, junior, manages his local landscaping business as the winter season comes to an end.

When the forecast called for five inches of snow overnight, C+I Services was prepared. Christian Schloegel texted his crew to get ready and head out at 2 a.m. to start the snow removal. Schloegel and some of his crew had to be at school in the next six hours, but that did not stop them from plowing and salting driveways and sidewalks on the local streets of Hinsdale. C+I Services LLC is a landscaping and lawn care business started by Christian Schloegel, junior, at Hinsdale Central. The company was introduced in 2013 and works primarily in Clarendon Hills and Hinsdale but travels to surrounding suburbs as well. They work year round and offer various services in spring, summer and fall, and snow services in the winter. Schloegel’s interest in lawn care began when a family friend had a John Deere lawn tractor. “It was fun to ride on, so I wanted to mow my own yard,” Schloegel said. He decided to start a landscaping company when he was 10 years old. Schloegel and his younger brother, Isaac, who was six years old at the time, purchased an $800 lawn mower and came up with the name C+I Services, standing for Christian and Isaac. They are a limited liability corporation, fully insured and have workers compensation for their laborers. “I started just mowing my own lawn and then grew to a couple neighbors and then I just went from there, I just liked mowing, it was kind of fun,” Schloegel said. According to Schloegel’s mother, Judy Schloegel, she was not surprised when he started his own business because ever since a young age, he wanted to participate in “meaningful, adult work.” Isaac helped purchase their first machine, resulting in Isaac owning 10 percent of the company. According to Schloegel, they made more than $1,000 in their first year of mowing. “After the first year I could see that I was going to go down this path,” Schloegel said. By Schloegel’s third year, he had gone from a push lawn mower to a $7,000 stand-on lawn mower. In his fourth year, he purchased a larger stand-on lawn mower which included a snowplow. This encouraged Schloegel to offer snow removal services in the company. The company has been growing ever since then. In 2019, C+I Services received more than $100,000 in gross sales and their goal in 2020 is $250,000. Schloegel said, every year since 2013, C+I Services has nearly doubled the amount of clients from the previous year. With the increase in clients Schloegel has also added more service options. In the spring, summer and fall, C+I Services provides lawn mowing, fertilization, mulch, cleanups and more. In the winter the company offers snow removal and salting. Schloegel said, this year, he hopes to offer hardscaping and aquascaping. The C+I Services crew is made up of adults and students from the area. According to Schloegel, he hires many high school students and college students attending College of DuPage but he has had workers who have been in their fifties. “A lot of [the crew] are friends of people who already work for me, who want to work,” Schloegel said. Sam Blankenburg, junior, worked for Schloegel during the summer. He worked on mulch and weeding. According to Blankenburg, he worked five to six hours a day and got paid $12 an hour. is someone who has experience in landscaping, and someone who exemplifies the company values of safety, quality in the work, and communication. Schloegel attends many conventions for C+I services. He said the conventions are mainly for networking with different landscaping companies. Every October, Schloegel goes to the Green Industry Expo (GIE) in Louisville, Kentucky. Companies share new technology and machines for smaller businesses to promote. “We’re able to network with other landscapers and we learn a lot from each other and then I get sponsorships a lot of times coming out of these companies,” Schloegel said. Schloegel said one of the most important things in his business is marketing. Isaac mostly helps with marketing and worker oversight and according to Schloegel, Isaac is one of his most trusted members. “I trust him to manage the crew even though he is 13 and most of the people are over 20, he is still a good leader and manages My business has helped me develop really good time management skills. “I thought it was a lot of fun, especially getting to work with other kids I knew,” Blankenburg said. Marco Grande, junior, recently started working for C+I services and has been helping with snow removal. Grande contacted Schloegel at the beginning of the year because he saw many Instagram posts about C+I Services and became interested in being part of the crew. Grande plans on working for C+I Services in the following seasons as well. “[Schloegel] is a good boss, he has flexible hours and the work is fun,” Grande said. According to Schloegel, he pays his workers electronically, starting at $10 an hour, although some of his top guys receive up to $25 an hour. “We pay our guys pretty high; I feel like if you pay your guys a good amount of money they’re willing to put in more effort,” Schloegel said. According to Schloegel, a top guy and he does the right job,” Schloegel said. February is the busiest month in terms of marketing for C+I Services. They order 3,000 door hangers and many flyers to distribute in the upcoming spring season. “[Door hangers] are really effective… We’ll see about a one percent return rate which is pretty good,” Schloegel said. Schloegel’s truck, that he bought in 2018, also has a decal on the side promoting the company and one of his goals for this year is to wrap the side of his new enclosed trailer with his logo. One of Schloegel’s newest pieces of equipment, an enclosed cab tractor, is part of a promotion from Steiner, a company that makes articulating frame commercial tractors. Schloegel said it’s one of his favorite tools for the winter season. “It’s a heated cab so I like sitting in my t-shirt or sweatshirt while everyone else is bundled up in jackets outside “ “ Christian Schloegel

and it’s just so much less tiring on me and my guys who use it,” Schloegel said. In the winter, C+I Services are hired by six commercial properties and about 60 households to plow and salt sidewalks and driveways. According to Schloegel, when it snows, C+I Services goes out during the night to plow in order for the sidewalks and driveways to be clear by the time people wake up. He said that he contacts his crew as soon as he knows there is going to be a significant amount of snowfall, but sometimes the forecast is wrong. “I’ll text someone saying we’re calling it off because we didn’t get enough snow so it’s difficult in the winter, but it’s more consistent in the spring, summer and fall,” Schloegel said. According to Schloegel, one struggle that comes from working overnight is most of the crew has to go to school in the upcoming hours. “My business has helped me develop really good time management skills, so if I even think there’s a chance for us to plow let’s say on a Thursday, I’m going to be studying for my tests that day, on Monday,” Schloegel said. Grande, who has not had much experience with working all night on a school night said that he got used to the work hours quickly and he did not mind the late nights because the work is so fun. In school, Schloegel took the class, Intro to Business his sophomore year. He said he already knew a lot about the class, considering he completed many of the class topics like filing taxes through his business. His favorite thing about the class though, was seeing the other students learn. “It’s way more rewarding to see the other kids doing stuff that related to the real world that I had already done,” Schloegel said. Schloegel learned how to run a company mostly from his parents. He said his dad helped him with commercial proposals, invoices and other high level business topics. His dad taught him how to file taxes and how to hire an attorney, accountant and bookkeepers. According to Schloegel there are many things his parents had to sign off on because he is still a minor. “A lot of the [professional documents] have to be under their name until I’m 18… without them, [C+I Services] would just be a cash business, so it’s taken me to the next level to have my parents,” Schloegel said. Judy said Schloegel tests a lot of his products and services on their property before he goes out into the community. She gives him feedback on work and also practices different customer scenarios. “He’s gotten an incredible amount of experience out of it that [he] wouldn’t get from a textbook in terms of what he’s learned and the life experiences he’s had,” Judy said. Schloegel said his parents have been very supportive throughout the growth of the business. “Having a business in your house is really stressful because guys are like there at three in the morning… It also creates a lot of messes with big piles of papers that wouldn’t be there if there was no business... I’m very thankful for them supporting me,” Schloegel said. According to Schloegel, in the future, he has not decided where he is going to college but he is interested in studying entrepreneurship or finance. “Ideally, I would go to a really good local college and keep running my business,” Schloegel said. Schloegel said when he first started C+I Services in fifth grade, he did not expect his own company to grow as much as it has. He encourages kids to start businesses and get jobs. He said jobs give kids many real world experiences and life skills. “Be unique and work hard, be patient and do a good job,” Schloegel said.

Photo by Lainey Harvey