Credit: Maxwell Tharpe

Fresh Cuts, the student-run landscaping business founded by freshman Maxwell Tharpe, is a locally focused group that does lawn care for homes across Wayland.

The typical 15-year-old isn’t busy thinking about running their own business. However, for Wayland High School freshman Maxwell Tharpe, his business has been a big part of his life since he first started mowing lawns at the age of 10. Tharpe is the founder of Fresh Cuts, his very own landscaping business that he started at 12 years old. Tharpe has been running this business for almost five years now with services including leaf blowing, cutting lawns, mulching, pool cleanings, snow blowing and more.

Though the business started out as a one man lawn mowing operation, it has since grown in both scope and size. Fresh Cuts now has about 10 workers who work on and off. One of the business’s full time employees is freshman Jonah Theobald, who acts as a second-hand man to Tharpe. The scope of the business has also grown over the years. Lawn mowing has turned into a wide variety of landscaping services that vary from season to season. These services include raking leaves, blowing snow and mowing lawns.

“[For] a typical job in the spring, we blow out the lawns and as much of the beds as we can,” Theobald said. “Then rake it, bag it and then mow, so it leaves the lawn looking really nice and sweet.”

Tharpe’s role as the founder of Fresh Cuts involves more than just working on lawns. He is also responsible for training new employees to make sure they can properly handle machinery. This training includes teaching the employees how to operate lawn mowers, leaf blowers and weed wackers, as well as the optimal strategies for each device.

“I went over to Max’s house, and he had me do a trial [job] because I had really never mowed before,” Theobald said. “Then after I’d mowed a few lawns he trusted me more, so I got access to the leaf blowers and then the weed wackers.”

For Fresh Cuts, trust is a fundamental part of their business and how they expand.

“We started out with friends and family lawns because they trust us and need it,” Theobald said. “But developing that sort of presence in an area, people see us mowing and so they know that they can trust us.”

One of their long term and consistent clients is one of Tharpe’s neighbors, Brad Young. Young has known Tharpe for around seven years and expressed his support for Tharpe’s efforts as a businessman. Young started getting services from Fresh Cuts around two years ago.

“[Tharpe] is an energetic and hardworking young man,” Young said. “He would ask me from time to time when I would see him if there were any projects around the house that I could use some help with.”

Because Fresh Cuts is not a large corporate landscaping business, they can offer lower prices than those of larger business, while still providing what they call “the best and nothing less.”

“[Tharpe’s] Fresh Cuts is very focused on helping out Wayland homes and Wayland families, and that’s something that I want to support,” Young said.

While the business started in Tharpe’s neighborhood, they have had a number of clients near the Wayland Town Beach area and are looking to expand towards areas around Happy Hollow and central Wayland.

According to one of Tharpe’s newer clients, Jennifer Pearlman, their services were great. She added that her neighbors had complimented her lawn after they came home from vacation.

“I was really impressed with his work ethic for being 15 years old,” Pearlman said. “I definitely am willing and happy to have them come back.”

Pearlman is already looking forward to having more work done by Fresh Cuts over the summer.

“I wasn’t quite ready to get involved with a big landscaping company at this time, but I needed to have work done on my properties and I’m really happy with the results,” Pearlman said. “[Tharpe] actually communicated with me about how we’ll go forward with service throughout the summer.”