Editor’s Note: Find out from AJ how he put his SEED Grant to work. SEED Grants are available through the Schroeder Center for Wabash students with entrepreneurial aspirations. Contact us for more details. 

As you may already know, I was recently selected as a recipient for the Wabash College SEED Grant. For those of you who are not familiar with the SEED Grant, it is a grant that is given for student entrepreneurial development. I was selected for the Grant in the spring of 2012.

Over the last several years, I have been attempting to get my lawn care business off the ground. I quickly found that the expenses of running my own business were far from inexpensive. With equipment costs, as well as maintenance costs, there was hardly any cash left over to cover the necessities, such as gas and insurance. As you can tell, I was more than thrilled to learn about the SEED Grant that Wabash College offered to the student body. I was approved for the SEED Grant with the understanding that my Grant would be used for purposes such as insurance, lawn maintenance computer software, and equipment costs. The SEED Grant not only gave me some breathing room in terms of cash flow, but it also allowed me to run my business much more efficiently with the purchase of a rather expensive, yet incredibly beneficial, software program–something I would have never been able to spend the money on otherwise.

This past summer turned out to be a major success (with the exception of the 3-week drought during the month of July), and the business is now stronger than ever thanks to the Wabash College SEED Grant. Attached are some pictures of the equipment and some of the work Sutherlin’s Mowing Service performed over the course of the summer!