Royal Oak Woman Goes from Trimming Nails to Trimming Lawns

While polishing nails and mowing lawns may not sound related, Royal Oak's Juli Siagkris-Seymour disagrees.

Each week she said you arrive and the property is in need (like nail polish that is chipped, or a broken nail needs repair). The lawn needs to be cut (like a nail needing trimming and filing) and edging and cleaning up (a new shade of shiny polish applied.)

Siagkris-Seymour recently submitted information about Two Bags & a Mower through the Patch Small Business Spotlight. She told Patch about grooming for life-changing events (both with nails and lawns) and how the company has helped women who have found themselves down and out.

Here are her answers.

How did your business come to be? 

Two Bags & A Mower began as an additional income source for Juli Siagkris-Seymour, a 20-year seasoned nail technician. As that industry began to change with the influx of small, low cost nail salons, Juli knew she had to do something else as a single parent.

Siagkris-Seymour began to acquire equipment of her own and with the help of her mother buying a trailer, launched Two Bags & A Mower.

Siagkris-Seymour spread the word through her work at the upscale hair salons she continued to work in, through her sons grade school Mom's newsletter and joined the Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce. The business took off with a strong client base of 20 accounts. Starting this business allowed Juli the flexibility to be a "stay at home" mom, working only when her son was in school.

What's your most popular product or service? 

Two Bags & A Mowers' most popular service is weekly lawn care, spring and fall cleanups, aerations and thatching, and mulch.

What's a fact about your business that most customers probably don't know?

Most people do not realize what Two Bags & A Mower has done for women.

Over the years, there have been many women who have found not just a place of employment during a lay-off or in between jobs or when in desperate need of additional income, but a place of peace, serenity and solace. Working outdoors being physical, the laughter that is always shared in the beloved "Hooptie" company truck, being in nature, in solitude which has offered them reflection has been a place to discover their direction in a place of support of other women.

This includes women who during their employment have discovered, battled, and beat cancer, lost jobs and fought to get them back, gotten into and out of financial ruin, into and out of battered situations, fighting for and losing family through custody issues, through the donut-hole of retirement and medicare, through relationships starting and ending, through the challenge of kids straying off their path, to loss of parents, and relocation.

Siagkris-Seymour set out to build a place where women who have faced challenges could find a place to land even temporarily, and find income for their hard work, and value in themselves and those around them. That was the goal of a former company she had started, but it ended up being just that with this company.

What does your business offer? 

Two Bags & A Mower offers commercial and residential properties dependable service, attention to detail and hard work.

Weekly services include  mowing, edge concrete driveways, curbs and sidewalks trimming, clean up.  Seasonal services include Spring & Fall clean-ups, aerations & de-thatching, mulch or shredded bark delivery and installation,Top soil or fill dirt delivery and installation, Sod.

Landscaping services include Landscape design/ideas, Annuals, shrub installs, using a rototiller and veg garden base..

When was the business founded?

Founded in the fall of 2004.

Why did you choose the area you did?

The landscaping industry is ever changing, similar to a salon atmosphere. Each week is different. In the salon, you have a different client every 30-60 minutes. Each week with your client, there is different conversation, different needs of the client, different applications and polish color applied, and client life changing events that you become instrumental in: job interviews, weddings, charity events, vacations ... Same with landscaping!

You also get to be involved in client life events: backyard graduation parties, yard crashing (re-purposing and changing the landscape), landscaping in general (a new do) and when you are done each week, the clients' property has gone from unruly to beautiful and they are happy!

Contact information:

Website: http://twobagsandamower.com/

Phone: 248-980-3604

• Royal Oak
• Ferndale
• Birmingham
• Berkley
• Huntington Woods
• Pleasant Ridge

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