When two young boys were looking to make a bit of extra cash, the entrepreneurial pair never thought their venture would become a community-wide sensation.
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12-year-old Leiland Smits and 11-year-old Dylan McKeown were riding their bikes around the their street in Gulgong one afternoon when Leiland said he really wanted to buy a VR headset - a Meta Quest 3. When Dylan suggested they should start their own lawn mowing business, it seemed like an obvious answer.
They went to their parents with the idea and after a little planning they started The Two Boys Company, a lawn care business based in Gulgong.
"They come up with a plan of lawn mowing, and we just got a piece of paper and an idea and went from there," Leiland's mum Tegen said.
"We sat down and we said to him, you know, you've got to commit," Dylan's mum Jessica said.
Tegen shared a post on social media advertising the business and soon after the boys were inundated with requests for work and hundreds of supportive comments.
"It is a really good community here though," Tegen said.
"It's one of the reasons we chose to move here rather than Mudgee or Frog Rock. And it's definitely highlighted it with what the boys are doing."
Just three weeks into their venture they have already completed nine jobs and have six regulars on the books - and Leiland has taken delivery of his VR headset and is now looking forward to buying a whipper snipper with a strap while Dylan has his eyes on a ride-on mower. The boys split their earnings and put the rest away for operational costs like fuel.
"[It feels ] good. Because when you buy stuff, it just feels really nice," Leiland said.
Now that the boys are back at school it doesn't mean the hustle has stopped. They duo spend some of their afternoons mowing lawns around Gulgong for happy customers, with a little help from their parents who transport them and their equipment about town.
"We just get to run around, have a bit of fun," Dylan said of the work.
Dylan's mum Jessica said since he was a little boy he had always loved mowing the lawn. "Ever since he was like three years old, he used to hold on to the lawn mower - where it sort of bends - he'd be down there and he'd be walking across doing the front lawn, it was so cute," she said.
Tegen and Jessica admitted that they were worried early on that some of the bigger jobs might be too much for the boys. But they haven't yet met a lawn they couldn't handle.
"They've been really, really amazing at it and having a really good go. We're just happy to support them in what they want to do," Tegen said.
