Graduation means teen devotes more time to his business

After starting his own business and spending years working hard to make it a success, Christian Dagenais of Wheaton is finding time to do some volunteer work and move on to the next phase of his life. After all, he's 18 and done with high school.

"As soon as I was strong enough to push the mower, my dad let me do it because I wouldn't give it back," remembers Dagenais, who, as a first-grader in Winfield, was years away from owning his first landscaping company. "I didn't even consider starting a business until I was 10 or 11."

He and a buddy started a lawn-mowing business. His friend lost interest. Dagenais did not. As he entered his teen years, Dagenais landed a spot with Voegtle's Landscaping.

"I was out on a crew every day," says Dagenais, who credits the Voegtle family for helping him learn all aspects of the business. "That's where I learned to speak Spanish. You learned how to speak Spanish or you couldn't do your job."

Working from 8 a.m. until as late as 7 p.m., Dagenais also learned, "these guys work really hard."

That was fine with him. When a typical kid might have been worried about his freshman year at Aurora Christian High School, Dagenais was starting his career. With help from his parents, Douglas and Christine Dagenais, the teen formed Wheaton Landscape Specialists, got the necessary licenses and insurance, and learned about things such as workman's comp.

"God has blessed me so greatly with mentors who are all business owners," says Dagenais, who thanks God often and whose family has been involved with Calvary Church in Naperville for his entire life. "I don't mean to push that on you, but it is important to me."

While his younger sister, Gabrielle, was more involved in high school activities, Dagenais started his school mornings by showing up by 6 a.m. at the garage he rents in Warrenville. He'd make needed equipment repairs in his shop and start work.

"My crews got out at 7 a.m. and school didn't start until 8 o'clock. I was always in my work clothes and dirty by the time I got there," Dagenais says. "I had no social life at high school. I didn't want one. I love doing the work. That's why I'm in this business."

For those worried that all work and no play might make him a dull fellow, the teen says that he does have a Jet Ski, a serious girlfriend and almost all the training he needs to become a firefighter ("I love to help people") and an emergency medical technician.

Starting with some of his neighbors who have estates no smaller than 1 acre, Dagenais has expanded his Wheaton Landscape Specialists to contract accounts that pay as much as $50,000 a year. In the first three months of this landscaping service, his company already has made half as much as it did all of last year.

"My financial adviser recently talked me into paying myself," says Dagenais, who just now is starting to have money left after his annual reinvestments in the company. His company owns two pickup trucks with trailers, three top-of-line mowers and tens of thousands of dollars in equipment. He now does much more than lawn maintenance and snow removal. He hired two employees with construction experience and subcontracts with a landscape architect.

"I knew this is what I wanted to do, so I really stuck my head into it and made it go," says Dagenais, whose staff now includes four full-time and two part-time employees. While his right-hand man is another 18-year-old, David Todd of Batavia, Dagenais says he has no problems being the boss of older men.

"I pay them all good money," he says, noting that pay starts at $10 an hour. "I don't like to give orders to my employees. I like to ask them to do things. There's a way to be positive and encouraging, and there's a way to be a jerk. Being a jerk doesn't get you anywhere."

Dagenais, who just returned from a volunteer construction mission for a church in Missouri, says he tries to incorporate his faith into his business.

"It was always 'Trust the Lord, and see what comes along,'" Dagenais says. "It's all in God's hands. We'll see what the Lord does with it. I'm anxiously awaiting answers. Trust me."