Jenna Louk brings a bit more entrepreneurial experience to the business world than one might expect from a newly minted college graduate.
Not many 21-year-olds have already been running their own business for nearly seven years, even keeping things going through college.
Louk, who started this month as the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce’s new communications director, simply couldn’t let it go.
“Our customers are like our friends, and we didn’t want to give it up,” Louk explained. “And it was too hard to let anyone do it for us.”
Louk and best friend Chloe Sell started J&C Weedwackers just after their freshman year at Iola High School, in 2019.
“We didn’t want to be a waitress or a lifeguard,” Louk laughed. “Her brother had mowed a couple of yards, so we figured we’d give it a try.”
It was Louk’s first-ever time mowing a lawn.
“I don’t know if our parents thought we were crazy,” she laughed. “Thankfully, I have a family that said, ‘Hey, you can practice here.’”
Their first year, Louk and Sell had four yards to mow. The second year, that number bumped up to 16.
By year three, the partners were mowing 40 yards in the Iola area.
“Every year, we’d say this might be our last, and every year we’d agree that we couldn’t give it up,” Louk said.
The work continued into college, with the partners dedicating their weekends to mowing.
For Louk, that meant a 2½ hour commute from Manhattan every weekend.
“I’m thankful we have great customers,” she said. “They understood our schedules.”
Louk kept the business going after Sell had to call it quits in order to attend ophthalmology school two years ago.
In stepped her fiance (and now husband) Nathan Louk.
