Profile
Green Worx
teenage business owner learns on the fly Hard lessons built success By Lyn Dean
At
age 18, RJ Duarte has been a green industry entrepreneur for just over 10 years. Duarte, founder and CEO at Green Worx, LLC, and former president, Owen Johnson, officially named the business and incorporated in 2015, making it a “real business.” Both were in high school. Duarte graduated high school May 2018, less than a year ago and is now at Green Worx full-time.
Photo courtesy Green Worx Landscaping
Back in the day
By middle school, Duarte had more landscape maintenance work than he could handle himself, which is when Owen Johnson started working with Duarte after school, on weekends and during the summer. Once in high school, Duarte understood more about the skills and education he needed to help develop the business. “I knew what I wanted to learn for Green Worx,” he says. “I took engineering, shop and manufacturing classes in high school. Fortunately, I was able to communicate effectively with my teachers. They were supportive of my course selections that backed plans for the business I was already running.” Duarte notes that not all students can do what he did. It took a lot of work and ongoing communication to prove he was trustworthy and convince the teachers to believe in what he and Johnson were doing. Johnson, who attended a different high school, had a much harder time getting teacher support for the leniency he wanted to work on Green Worx.
In 2015, Green Worx’s digital presence began when Duarte and Johnson used their skills to create the company’s first website. Though Johnson has left his position as president, he continues to do all of Green Worx’s digital marketing/advertising including videos, photography and writing. By 2017, with the help of some media coverage and a lot of hard work and sweat, the company was earning revenue in the six figures.
The killer experience
Green Worx’s customer base in the foothills of Golden was built by word-of-mouth. Duarte says he’s “not here to get rich” from his clients, but he does want to give customers a “killer experience.” “We don’t want to be ‘the same.’ We do extra little things that help people. We do even if we don’t do the work,” says Duarte. His mission is to help the customers, no matter who does the actual work. He picks up business cards from other contractors including plumbers, electricians and other landscape contractors. “I’ve referred customers to other landscape contractors if we can’t do the work.” Or he will help clients find a plumber if they need one. He says these little details have helped grow his business. He wants his customers to experience “100 percent satisfaction.”
Bumpy ride
During high school, Duarte didn’t get much sleep—not for the usual reasons parents
Mats Moreau, Robert (RJ) Duarte, Owen Johnson and Robert (Rob) Duarte March/April 2019 Colorado Green
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