about us
our story
the early days
Our story begins at the childhood homes of two kids, Joseph DiGrande and Jonathan Rizzo, in Macomb, MI. Growing up around role models in business, we always had a dream to own our own company. In March 2014, at the age of 12, Joey sent a text message to Jonathan suggesting that they begin mowing lawns together. On an old Samsung Brightside, Jonathan texted back, “Let’s do it.” We then discussed prices. Little did we, as young entrepreneurs, know, these were the beginnings of a company that would come to shape our goals and futures.
2014
J & J services is born
In the spring of 2014, under the name “J & J Services,” we began borrowing our parents’ Toro and Honda push mowers, going door to door and asking residents if they needed their lawn cut. It was rough in the beginning, but word soon got around and neighbors started calling and texting to ask if they could be put on our list. Our very first clients gave us the best lessons in business and customer service. After mowing lawns for just a few weeks, we began accumulating requests for weeding, cleanups, and plant removals. We were unsure at first if we could handle these sorts of requests, but with hard work and persistence, we persevered and kept growing.
2015
investing and expanding
Following a successful start during our first season, we began upgrading and making investments into our business. We first went to Tractor Supply Co. and bought a small dumping trailer to attach to the back of Joey’s father’s old riding lawn mower, which we used in return for work around the house. Two kids driving around the subdivision with a lawn mower and trailer with a magnet was funny to some people, but many neighbors were impressed and began to recognize our company. Crossing a major subdivision road for the first time, we were able to expand into a whole new market of clients. Learning from mentors in the industry, our business exploded this year, expanding to many houses all over our neighborhood, and taking the one-mile block by storm.
2015 was a big year for the company. Beginning with a power washing job at the home of John’s neighbor, we continued to expand into new services such as paver repair, small landscape and sod installs, and even painting. We began keeping track of income and investing into more equipment like a Subaru power washer, a RedMax bush trimmer, and a RedMax weed whacker. We also started hiring help from friends and neighbors to handle the workload. We went through a number of employees early on and learned a lot from these experiences. Looking back on those days, one of our funniest memories is when our trailer popped a tire on the road, which went unnoticed until the rubber tire fell off on wet grass. The rim sod cut into the muddy grass and got our mower stuck. At the time, this was horrible, but it’s humorous to look back at now.
As this summer came to end, we began brainstorming about ways to keep our company operating year-round while still in junior high. We started offering fall cleanups and snow removal to keep income flowing. In the first year of year-round operations, we invested in a snow blower and serviced around 20 driveways.
2016
broadening our range of abilities
In the spring and summer of 2016, J & J continued to expand. Now 14 years old, we built a larger trailer for pulling around our new, larger push mower. After relying on equipment borrowed from our parents for a couple of years, we finally had all of our own equipment, including a brand new tractor mower and more. We constantly reinvested in enhancing our quality and efficiency. Accumulating well over 100 clients, we were on our way to becoming what J & J Landscaping is today. We worked hard to grow our business and keep our clients happy. Over the next year, we broadened our list of services while constantly working to improve those that we had already been providing for years.
With a lot of hard work and determination, we were eventually able to start installing brand new paver patios and larger landscapes at several homes in our neighborhood. Our first ever paver patio and firepit was installed just in time for a graduation party that the homeowner was hosting. We worked late into the night alongside our employees to finish the project in time.
All of this hard work was done while still participating in school activities, drivers training, and sports, among other activities.
2017
year-round services take hold
During the winter of 2017, we got into one of our now-favorite services, holiday lighting. This season, we completed work for several homes in our neighborhood and beyond.
2018
rebranding
In 2018, we were finally 16 years old and able to drive, allowing us to make a large expansion into other areas around Metro Detroit. We acquired accounts from companies that were going out of business in multiple areas and increased our advertising using door hangers and social media. We purchased our first two full sized trailers and a stand on mower. J & J was ready to make its mark on Metro Detroit. After school, we divided and conquered, each with an additional employee, to complete lawn maintenance and landscaping simultaneously. Still in early-to-mid high school, our hustle was definitely very real. We were well known by all of our classmates and others online as “the young hustlers.”
We also began to rebrand during this year, changing our name from J & J Services to J & J Landscaping LLC and adopting a new logo. That summer, we completed a number of large projects, rehabilitating commercial and residential properties, enhancing numerous landscapes and hardscapes, and increasing our lawncare and maintenance presence. In this year, we began a mission to grow our company to be one of the biggest in the area truly unparalleled quality and service. With this goal in mind, we continued to reach out to new customers and improve the quality of our work. With every mistake made, we corrected it and learned from it.
2019
expansion into commercial services
After a big 2018-2019 holiday light and snow removal season, we moved out of our parents’ garages and into a temporary storage unit that was able to get us through the summer. We purchased a Ford F250 and assembled our first lawn-specific crew, allowing us more time to focus on landscaping installs and maintenance. Over this year, J & J found its footing, hiring more employees and completing some of our largest jobs to date in various cities across Metro Detroit, including Grosse Pointe, Troy, Macomb, and Clawson. With more experience and care under our belts, we were ready to step into the world of commercial lawn and landscape at several businesses across Metro Detroit.
Always focused on providing the highest quality services available, we attempted to be on site, monitoring the work as it happened, even as we began to quickly expand.
2020
immense growth & giving back
In 2020, the world changed drastically. With the onset of a pandemic unlike anything seen for generations, J & J had to adapt and change with the times. We had just signed a lease on a building in Roseville, bought a brand new truck, and hired several new employees when we were forced to shut down during March and April. Despite the stressful and quickly changing circumstances, we did not buckle. Instead, we continued our work, implementing safety measures such as mask wearing and sanitizing. This year, we more than tripled our sales, bought two new trucks, a dump trailer, and more. We hired six new employees and handled maintenance for over 120 lawns, installed and renovated hundreds of landscapes, and focused on customer care and quality.
Because of the major success that we had despite the circumstances, we decided that we wanted to find a way to do something good and give back to the community. We chose a family in need and donated a holiday light display, a Christmas Eve dinner, and gifts donated by a generous client. The family chosen consisted of a single mother and two children. Her son, Luke, has cerebral palsy, a disease causing him to need a trach and feeding tube, as well as round-the-clock care. Around Christmas of 2019, the family went through tragedy when Luke landed in the hospital in critical condition. With the help of the mother’s friend, we were able to put a smile on their faces and help give them a good Christmas.
present day
Today, J & J Landscaping is ever-growing and changing. We are always striving to develop new strategies, find unique opportunities, and achieve the highest customer satisfaction possible. Our main goal at J & J is to become the highest quality one stop shop for landscaping maintenance and construction in the Metro Detroit area. At the end of the day, our top priority is the happiness of our customers.