Business is growing for 16-year-old Armando Gonzalez, a sophomore at Papillion La-Vista South, who has been in lawn care for most of his life. 

Gonzalez said he had wanted to mow lawns with his dad since the age of 4, but started at the age of 7. After years of hard work, Gonzalez and Sons started to really take off in May 2024, when Armando bought his own equipment using money he earned from working at McDonald’s. 

That early interest sprouted into a very small business and now has grown into a $25,000 undertaking that is currently in the process of filing for LLC status.

As an active member of the school’s NJROTC unit, Armando Gonzalez said time management is essential to his success: “I start off by not playing video games. Like, I don’t play video games at all. Always, always watching the clock,” he said. 

On the business side of things, time well spent is always valuable, he said. 

“I just make sure that I’m doing things most efficiently,” Armando Gonzalez said. “If you find systems and you set a very solid routine in – like, if you tell yourself that you’re gonna be done at this time – that means you’re gonna work fast enough and efficiently enough so you can be done at that time, with whatever it is you’re doing.”

So as the mowing season revs up, Gonzalez and Sons is ready to roll, providing lawn care, landscaping and handyman service to customers throughout Papillion and parts of Omaha.

“I wanted to do this for myself,” Armando Gonzalez said. “So, I took all my McDonald’s money that I made, and I put it into my equipment, and I just hoped for the best. I took a risk, and it paid off.”

To hire Gonzalez and Sons, call (402) 406-2024.