{"id":4655,"date":"2024-12-05T23:18:05","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T04:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miwf.org\/?p=4655"},"modified":"2024-12-05T23:18:05","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T04:18:05","slug":"mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/","title":{"rendered":"MDS Landscape Maintenance: From Employee to Owner, a Dream Realized"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"520\" src=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-1-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-1-1.png 800w, https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-1-1-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-1-1-768x499.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When opportunity knows, you better answer. That was Dondi Schutt\u2019s attitude when her husband\u2019s boss decided he was closing his business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Schutt had worked for the landscaping business for more than 20 years. He knew the ins and outs of the business, and he knew how to provide a great service to customers. \u201cHe had a lot of ideas of how to do the job even better, with more efficiencies,\u201d Dondi says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the couple didn\u2019t have the funds needed to buy the necessary landscaping equipment to open their own business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And that\u2019s where Michigan Women Forward stepped in. <\/strong>Thanks to a Michigan Women Forward small business loan, the Schutts were able to buy equipment \u2013 some from Michael\u2019s previous employer and some brand new. As a result, they were able to start MDS Landscape Maintenance, named after their combined initials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company, based out of Columbus, Michigan, now helps 10 regular customers with lawn cutting, fall and spring clean-ups and snow removal. Business has been so good that they are looking to add another worker to their two-man team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dondi says that without help from Michigan Women Forward, she\u2019s not sure if they\u2019d have opened their business yet, let alone be ready to expand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy husband was working an extra job, trying to pull in as much money as he could. We were saving $500 a week,\u201d Dondi says. \u201cBut getting this loan allowed us to just do it. And it\u2019s going great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When opportunity knows, you better answer. That was Dondi Schutt\u2019s attitude when her husband\u2019s boss decided he was closing his business. Michael Schutt had worked for the landscaping business for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-business-success-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v26.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MDS Landscape Maintenance: From Employee to Owner, a Dream Realized - Michigan Women Forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When opportunity knows, you better answer. That was Dondi Schutt\u2019s attitude when her husband\u2019s boss decided he was closing his business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MDS Landscape Maintenance: From Employee to Owner, a Dream Realized\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When opportunity knows, you better answer. That was Dondi Schutt\u2019s attitude when her husband\u2019s boss decided he was closing his business.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Michigan Women Forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MichiganWomenForward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-06T04:18:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-1-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Julia Elliott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Julia Elliott\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Julia Elliott\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/#\/schema\/person\/4f68cbe845b39d3ffcfb99b9357540c2\"},\"headline\":\"MDS Landscape Maintenance: From Employee to Owner, a Dream Realized\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-06T04:18:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/\"},\"wordCount\":259,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-1-1.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Small Business Success Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/\",\"name\":\"MDS Landscape Maintenance: From Employee to Owner, a Dream Realized - Michigan Women Forward\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/small-business-success-stories\/mds-landscape-maintenance-from-employee-to-owner-a-dream-realized\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/miwf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Blog-Photo-\u2013-800x520-1-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-06T04:18:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"When opportunity knows, you better answer. 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