McLean High School students Jack Lannin, Ben Jeannot, and Quin Frew started a business that connects local teenagers with homeowners who are looking for yard work done. Photo contributed
It is very common for teens to get a job to pay for expenses like clothes and entertainment. Traditionally, the neighbors offer jobs for kids such as babysitting, dog walking, mowing lawns, shoveling snow or weeding. To get an odd job, you have to go around your neighborhood and knock on doors asking, “Is there anything I can help you with?” Not all teens are brave enough to do this. To help teens earn some cash, McLean High School students Ben Jeannot, Jack Lannin, and Quin Frew started a business that connects local teenagers with homeowners who are looking for yard work done.
“When we were sixth graders we were walking around the neighborhood and asking people who need their driveway shoveled or lawn mowed,” Quin Frew shares their story. “I hated asking about that because I wouldn't know if they were going to pay me or not. There were several times when people gave me hot chocolate or something like that. It was a guessing game. Now, with TeenServ, kids know they're getting paid a certain amount to go do some work. Instead of knocking on the neighbor's door and receiving – or not – $10, now they could make $30.”
Ben Jeannot explains how his friends and he decided to start the business.
“Every year, all three of us coach kids to swim at our local pool. We wanted to find another way to earn money. We were thinking about how to make money and, at the same time, how to benefit people who just like us are unable to get a full-time job because of constantly changing schedules. We came up with the idea of outdoor work. That's what teenagers have been known to do in the past. A lot of people actually do enjoy hiring teenagers because they feel like they're giving back to the community.”
“We set up a website where we connect local teenagers with homeowners who need mowing lawns, shoveling snow, weeding, mulching, or planting,” Jack Lannin joins the conversation.
“We are very passionate about computers. At school, we all take a computer science class. In addition, this summer Ben taught himself how to code because he has been working on TeenServ app,” Jack said. “In the future, we are going to make it similar to an Uber concept. Teens are considered independent contractors. They get notified of a new job posting and can choose to accept a job.”
Once the job is done, customers are billed through PayPal. TeenServ keeps 20 percent of the price and the rest goes to the person who did the job.
Currently, the owners don’t consider any company profit to be their salary. They reinvest the profits back into the business to improve service and expand operations.
McLean and neighboring towns are the first TeenServ currently operate in. They plan to expand to Vienna, Fairfax, and Springfield. The plan is to create a network of local branches throughout the country.
For now, TeenServ accepts only outdoor jobs, to take away the potential dangers of going inside a customer’s house. The team is working hard on making the service absolutely safe and secure. With time, the range of services will be extended to cover indoor jobs, such as tutoring, dog sitting, and babysitting.
Next year, Ben and Quin are going to college to study business. They will run the company remotely. “That's the beauty of it being an online service and us not having to physically be here to do the job,” said Ben. They both believe that experience gained in TeenServ will ultimately pay off in future endeavors.
Learn more at www.teenserv.com