Tim Mason saved thousands of dollars and hours of time for his business by adding one word to its name: recycling.
“If you Google ‘lawn mower recycling,’ I’m the only one that comes up,” he said.
The 60-year-old owner of All-Pro Lawnmower Sales, Service & Recycling at 555 Santa Fe Drive in Denver spends his days toiling on small engines. He’s been working at the shop for a decade and has owned it for five.
The business brings in $250,000 annually with $160 carburetor fixes and $140 tune-ups. But the number of lawn mowers he services goes down each year.
“So many people have jumped on the electric [mower] that gas has slowly phased out,” he said.
The shop used to be a two-man show. When Mason started working there, one person would go out and buy unwanted mowers to resell; the other would repair ones that came into the shop.
The business would spend between $3,000 and $5,000 each winter to get enough stock in store for when the spring used mower season begins. Now, with recycling in the name, people bring in enough products for him to sell so that he can spend all his time making repairs. All customers have to do is roll them through his front door during business hours. He said he made the change after seeing how many people were taking their old, “perfectly good” mowers to the landfill.
About 20% of his revenue comes from selling used mowers. And for the used mowers that can’t be fixed, he’ll take the working parts and slap them on other ones to save money.
Thatap a boon for the small-business owner, who doesn’t have to pay another employee Denver’s nearly $20 hourly minimum wage.
“They’re lawn mowers. You’re not going to make a ton of money,” he said. “But I make a living.”
During the busy season, about 10 mowers come through the doors each day needing service. Most of the work is replacing a faulty carburetor, usually because the owner left gas inside the mower all winter.
It takes Mason just a half hour to do the repair.
The Arvada native has spent much of his life in Colorado. His dad was a diesel mechanic for Safeway, working on its truck fleet at its distribution center off of 40th and Colorado.
“I always loved little engines,” Mason said.
He served in the Army at Fort Hood and painted custom homes in Austin, then returned home to paint schools for Jefferson County.
But all the while, he battled alcoholism and wound up in trouble with the law, serving a 10-year sentence related to his addiction. When he was released, the first job he applied for was at All-Pro Lawnmower.
In the years since, he’s worked on everything from the traditional lawn mower engine to an antique John Deere. Last week, his shop had a moped and jet ski inside, with dozens of push mowers around them.
He’s seen seven competing shops go under during his time working there. He doesn’t repair electric mowers, which he said are “disposable.”
“There’s nothing to work on,” he said. “Itap not like the old days where everything can be replaced.”
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