Warren Landscaper a 'Diamond' in the Rough

Four years ago, Warren resident Aaron Weisman was heading toward a career in management, studying for a degree in business administration at Fairleigh Dickinson University and working part-time at a bank.

But he couldn't help yearning to be outside, and he'd jump at chances to mow a neighbor's yard just to enjoy the outdoors.

"I'm an outside guy," Weisman said. "I needed something that would put me out there."

In 2008, he chucked the BA program and bank, and with one mower, dove into the already-crowded local landscaping field to launch Diamond Cut Landscaping, Patch's 2012 Readers' Choice as the best landscaper in Somerset County.

Weisman said his company's growth from a handful of friends to a client list of more than 100 is the result of one old-fashioned business concept: service.

"Everyone of my customers knows they can call me 24 hours a day," Weisman said. "They all know when they call me, they're going to get a call back before the end of the day.

"There's a lot of competition out there—how are you going to keep up without doing it a little better?" he added.

That service idea took hold with him when he first started, he said. As a 20-year old knocking on the doors of potential customers he'd been recommended to, Weisman said he could tell some weren't too sure about relying on a "kid."

"It's like they wondered, 'what's this kid doing at my house?'" he said.

So he had to deliver.

His single mower has grown into a fleet of equipment, and his services have also grown to include lawn maintenance, light masonry, lawn treatments, snowplowing...just about anything his customers might request.

Which has kept his business growing year-round—and Weisman very busy.

"In a day when young people find it easier to sit around and buck the system, Aaron is out there very early every morning and works until well in to the night," customer Deneen Kirstein said. "I can truly say I have never seen a harder working young man."

Perhaps hard work was the second lesson Weisman learned in that business administration program.