Lawn care or Zoom? That was the question senior Billy Wagner faced in the fall of 2020. He chose lawn care.

Wagner spoke to the Ignatian Business Leaders as part of their bi-weekly speaker series last Friday about the history of his company, Wagner Brother’s Lawn Care. He garnered the attention of more than just club members, with around 70 people in attendance.

Wagner’s love for mowing started in second grade, when he would cut his family lawn. Two years later, at the suggestion of his parents, Billy founded Wagner Brother’s Lawn Care in 2014 with his brothers Leo ’21 and Henry ’19.

“My mom noticed our interest in lawn mowing and told us it would be an easy way to make some money on the side,” said Wagner. “And, as a fourth grader, an extra $10 a week seemed like a fortune.”

Wagner Bros. had humble beginnings. With only a cheap push-mower, Billy and his brothers would go door to door around their neighborhood and hand out flyers, hoping to generate some traction. In the first few years, they had about a dozen lawns they cut regularly. 

“I think part of our appeal at the start was just that we were so young,” said Wagner. “They wanted to support us.”

As the years went by and the brothers approached high school, they faced the first big dilemma: was the side money coming in enough to take time away from the high school experience? For Billy’s older brother Henry, the answer was no. He focused on his hockey career and ended up playing hockey at Yale University. However, for Billy and Leo, Wagner Bros. was a chapter they just couldn’t end. They had a plan: expand. The way to make the company sustainable was to actually start making real money and investing in new equipment.

This vision came to fruition in the spring of 2020. Covid felt like a blessing to Billy. He could put more time than ever into the business because he could wake up early, get his daily deliverables done, and start working by 9:30 a.m. every day of the week. With the extra time and by word of mouth, Wagner Brothers Lawn Care nearly tripled its customer base, accumulating about 70 clients. 

“People hated being at home and working from home,” said Wagner. “A lot of them thought at the very least they could have nice landscaping to look at. We were able to capitalize on that.” 

They started doing more than lawn mowing, and in fact, acquired most of their new customers by mulching first and selling them on mowing afterward. Billy sent out around 3000 postcards during this time and expanded even more. 

Like Charles Barkley post-retiremenbt, Wagner Bros. kept getting bigger and bigger. And, as his junior year started in the Fall of 2020, motivation for Billy to spend eight hours a day on Zoom while there was work to do frustrated him. He quickly learned that it was impossible to go all-in on his company while at the same time going all-in on his school work, which his parents learned when first quarter grades came out. His parents weren’t mad. They were the first to pitch the idea of Billy taking the year off.  

“I thought it was crazy to have to explain to my friends and family I was dropping out of high school,” said Billy. “People don’t just drop out from SLUH. That doesn’t really happen.” 

Billy truly did think Nov. 12, 2020 would be his last day as a high school student. He loved what he did so much, mowing for the rest of his life was a real possibility. However, he did miss things about high school.

“I missed the car ride to school each morning with my brother, ” said Wagner. “We were super close, and it was common for that to be my favorite moment of the day.”

Billy worked from sunrise to sunset for the rest of that fall. It was more than common that people would see him out working in the middle of the day on a Tuesday and ask why he wasn’t at school, and he frequently had to explain what happened.  

Once winter came and he did not have any more leaf or lawn jobs, he started working for his uncle's development company at a couple of construction sites. 

“I got to meet people who legitimately dropped out of high school, and who thought of me as one of their own,” said Wagner. “That's when I knew my parents were right and I needed to go back to school.”

Billy had a hectic yet successful spring and summer of 2021, working mostly alone as Leo prepared for the Naval Academy. He was forced to cut out smaller clients or clients who were not as good at paying on time to get everything in. As Billy prepared to attend SLUH for his second junior year, he realized he needed some help in order to keep the business afloat. Enter: Javier. Billy met Javier during his time at the construction site. He connected Billy with dozens of Mexicans who were willing to work at a moment's notice.

 “Everyone that has worked for me has been great,” said Wagner. “They work really hard and I try to treat them well. Some of those guys are like family to me.”

Billy prides himself on how he treats his employees. He pays over market rate and buys them lunch and snacks during the day. 

“I get more joy out of just being kind to them and getting to know them as people than making a few extra bucks,” said Wagner. 

As he returned to school, Wagner crammed all of his clients in on Saturdays, so his workers are a vital part of the process. He even picked Spanish once he came back to SLUH so he could talk to them in their language. 

Even though his email address remained the same, Billy Wagner moved from the Class of 2022 to the Class of 2023. 

“It first hit me that I wasn’t in the same grade anymore when Senior Project started and I had to go to school while they didn’t,” said Wagner. “And then it was tough when they were celebrating graduation while I had exams to take.”

Even though Wagner is now the oldest student at SLUH, his transition into the Class of 2023 went smoothly.

 “I knew maybe five people in the Class of 2023 going into that year,”  said Wagner. “So I was glad that they welcomed me with open arms.”

As Billy approaches college, the future of Wagner Brothers Lawn Care is uncertain. 

“I’d like to sell it and have somebody else keep it running,” said Wagner.

The most likely candidate is Nick Bertram ’19, who owns Tier 1 Landscaping, a large lawncare and landscaping company based in Fenton, and has expressed interest in buying it. The acquisition would entail selling the customer list, equipment, and branding. But for now, he is living in the moment. He will wake up on Saturday morning before the sun rises, put on his Wagner Bros. hat, and serve the city of St. Louis high quality lawn care and landscaping.