Moe Mitchell owns Moe Mows lawn care service and has been since high school at Neuqua Valley. Now at North Central College, the entrepreneur is transforming his business and taking the business industry by storm.
Moe Mitchell: the entrepreneur
January 8th, 2019… North Central Wrestling is preparing for a duel with Elmhurst… the Battle for the Bird’s Nest… and Head Coach Joe Norton is taking to the Elmhurst’s Head Coach
Norton: He looked at me and said ‘I didn’t know Moe was that good’. So not only does Moe set his phone down and get on the scale, because he was on his conference call at 6 o’clock. Sets the phone down, gets on the scale, makes weight, picks up his phone and finish the conference call. Then he goes out there and beats the Elmhurst kid 22-8… right after their coach told me he didn’t think Moe was that good. It’s unreal, to have someone who can do that, it’s crazy. Yeah, I’m lucky.
If there’s a story that sums up Moe Mitchell well… it’s that one. Not only is the North Central junior a conference champion wrestler at 125 pounds, he owns his own business.
Moe: Originally in high school it was Pristine, but a lot of my friends, they used to make fun of me like Moe… mowing… Moe mows. So that’s when I thought the name would be genius… to go with Moe Mows.
You heard him right… high school. The company started with Mitchell mowing two lawns a week while at Neuqua Valley… before growing and adding sub-contractors in 2016, when he was just about to go into college.
Moe: It was really interesting to me, just to see the dynamics of it. My whole thing was like, I can’t do this in college and wrestling. We’re sub-contracted, so when I hired my first sub-contractor, it was super interesting to me. The fact that I could be somewhere but still making money.
Growing to 15 sub-contractors and servicing more than 200 houses weekly, Mitchell is planning for a pivoting of the business.
Moe: We’re turning in to a full software company, so no longer servicing houses after next year. What we’re going to focusing on is building out that technology. So what we have right now, it’s going to be sold as a subscription base for other lawn care companies so they can use our platform and have the value proposition that we have.
Mitchell can do this because Moe Mows… is now a full-fledged app. Automating the lawn care service was the next step and he developed while still running the business, going to school full-time and competing on the mats.
Joe: Every, what would be considered down time to someone else, is spent working or chasing something down. He’s constantly on the phone, if something is wrong, he’s fixing it.
Moe: There’s a lot of things going on in my life and I’d say my freshman year and sophomore year I really struggled with time management. So I would come into practice with two or three hours of sleep and I’m cutting weight as well. This year I’ve done a lot better with getting the sleep that I need in order to practice and train at the level that I need to be at.
Joe: It sets an example for other people where, I won’t take excuses. Because no matter how busy you are, I promise you that Moe Mitchell is busier than you are. And he’s still here every time.
Studying Entrepreneurship at North Central, Mitchell has come a long way in the class room, with his business, and especially on the mat
Moe Mitchell: The Wrestler
Joe: When he got here, I could go 50% and just put it on him. On any given day now, two years later, I can’t step on that line across from Moe Mitchell unless I’m ready to go. Because I’m going to get my butt kicked.
Moe: I came in here not really having skills, I used to get beat up all the time. Just the program in general, all my teammates, all my coaches, but I have to thank Joe. Because all of the sacrifices from him… probably not wanting to come in, but always coming in with me to train over the summer.
Moe may now longer mow… but he does know where his path is heading in the future… Mitchell wants to ultimately become a real estate developer, focusing on eco friendly home development.
Just another goal to go out and pin down.
Reporting for Sports Story Sunday, I’m Kevin Jackman
