Young landscaping entrepreneur takes Shrewsbury by storm

By:  | January 24, 2025 |  Local |  Shrewsbury

By Emma Sylvia

Not a lot of high schoolers can say that after the class day is done, they get to work on their very own business. That’s not the case for 16-year-old Charlie Silvestro of Shrewsbury, however. The founder and owner of landscaping company Stop In The Name of the Lawn, Silvestro took up his mower when he was just 10 years old – and he has no signs of slowing down any time soon. We spoke with Silvestro about how he began his business and where he plans on going next.

Community Magazine: Tell us a bit about yourself and how Stop in the Name of the Lawn came to be.

Charlie Silvestro: My name’s Charlie Silvestro. I’m gonna be 16 next week. I started this business when I was 10, so it’s been a bit. I used to live in Rumson. I moved to Shrewsbury and started the business with two or three lawns around the block. I’m a sophomore at Red Bank Regional – but work takes up most of my time.

CM: What inspired you to start your own business?

CS: I got a couple little tools when I was younger for Christmas. When I got to Shrewsbury, I had to mow my own lawn. A neighbor saw me and reached out and asked, “Do you want to mow my lawn?” I spent money and bought the equipment, but I didn’t want to waste money when the job was done. So, I put flyers around town. It grew from there. It was a lot of word of mouth. I have a trailer for my bike – people see that and think it’s really cool. People post me on the resident Facebook page, and I get recommended further and further.

CM: Tell us about Stop In The Name In The Lawn – love the name, by the way.

CS: Thanks! I came up with it when I was younger, and it just stuck. It’s me and a couple friends. People would rather hire the local kids than a big company. It’s not like we have 10 trucks. We don’t get our [driver’s] licenses until next year. People see me on my bike. We serve all of Shrewsbury. It’s expanded from my street and everywhere else – hopefully next year, I get my [driver’s] license. We’re about half mowing and half landscaping. We do a lot of mulch and leaf cleanups for spring cleanups. We’re doing some shoveling now. I have a church in our area that we shovel up. We don’t get too much snow, but in the fall, leaf cleanups are the big ones. We’ve done a couple renovations, too, where we rip everything up. 

CM: What does it feel like to be a young entrepreneur?

CS: It’s pretty good. The only con is that people don’t take you seriously. A lot of the times we show up – and I’m short, too – and people think I’m a little kid. They think, “Oh, you’re just a high school kid, you’ll show up and pull a couple weeds and leave, and we’ll have to call a big landscaper.” But after explaining my past and the work we do, people warm up to us. They’re surprised by a good job. They say, “Let’s hire you, you’re local.” So, I love being a young entrepreneur. That’s always good to hear and good to see. When people post me, I think it’s so awesome. 

CM: How was 2024 for you?

CS: 2024 was definitely our best year. We started with 20 clients and got to about 60. I started marketing more and I built our trailer, and that got us a lot of customers, just from people seeing and posting about us.  It used to be, people saw me and they said, “How old are you?” Now, people say, “Is this Charlie?”

CM: What do you have to look forward to in 2025?

CS: I’m gonna get a new mower. I’ve been push-mowing everything and saving up for a commercial, stand-on mower. It’s pretty expensive, but that’s definitely a goal. Just expanding and growing. I want to get into more project-based work – more planting and full renovations. That’s more profit at one time. At the end of the year, I’ll probably get a truck when I start driving.

CM: What’s it like to be so young and dealing with all that money?

CS: I’m a spender, so it’s been tough for me. I have to save up and manage my money. It’s a steady flow, and I need to realize I have expenses and that I can’t just spend everything away. If I’m gonna expand, I need a truck and mower – I need to save. With school, it’s tough, because people always ask me how much I make. But I don’t want to brag. That goes into one of the problems – finding people to work with me. I have clients that are surprised I’m so young, because other people my age don’t really want to work hard labor. We’re getting to a point where I can’t do everything myself. That’s a good problem, but still a problem.

CM: What has been your family’s reaction to your business?

CS: Everyone’s pretty stoked about it! They think it’s pretty awesome. Some of them don’t know because I try not to go too much into finances. So, they think I might mow five or six lawns – they don’t know I have this many clients. Everyone likes it and thinks it’s great. Some people think it’s just a hobby and I’ll drop it. For me, though, it’s definitely shaping up to be a career. 

CM: What lessons have you learned from this experience?

CS: One of the big lessons is my first client that ever fired me. When I was about 11, I didn’t have a big business. I had maybe four lawns, and I didn’t know how to manage my time. They had fired me because I wasn’t able to get to them – I had overbooked. That was my biggest lesson. People aren’t always going to be, “This is the young kid, I have to keep him on.” I have to manage my time and actually do a good job. My first clients, most of them are still with me. And my client I lost, I have a good relationship with today.

CM: What’s it like to be in school and having a business?

CS: It’s tough because the main problem I face is that I’m trying to grow. I get calls every day from people, especially in the fall. I have all my old clients, and now my new clients that I’m scheduling during school. It’s been a challenge. I try to go on Saturdays. After school, it gets dark early. 

CM: Would you trade this experience for something easier?

CS: Honestly? I wouldn’t. I’ve always worked. I’ve always liked what I’m doing. With the cashflow, and with the relationships I’ve built with suppliers and clients. One of the things I’ve talked about earlier with people not taking me seriously reminds me of once, someone recommended me to their friend. I spoke with them for 10 - 15 minutes, and then they asked how old I was. When I said “15,” they said, “Never mind. I need someone professional.” But we are professionals. We do the same or better work than big companies.

To hire the local professionals at Stop in the Name of the Lawn, you can reach Charlie Silvestro at 848-466-4981