Former teen enterprenuer sells homegrown landscaping business

May 13, 2021 | Sarah Heinonen
sheinonen@thereminder.com

Kate DeMarey stands in front of her landscaping company’s truck.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

HAMPDEN – Most teens who find odd jobs to earn spending money don’t go on to manage a crew of employees and serve hundreds of clients, but that is exactly what Kate DeMarey of DeMarey Landscaping achieved. Now, she’s ready to leave that enterprise behind and move on to a new career.

At 11 years old, DeMarey began putting flyers offering help around the yard into neighbor’s mailboxes.

“I really wanted this professional camera and my parents said, ‘This is very expensive. Why don’t you show some responsibility?’” DeMarey said with a laugh. By the time she was 14, she had registered her business with the town of Hampden, where she lived.

DeMarey continued to grow her business on weekends and school vacations, with the help of her family. Her parents have been “super supportive,” she said, including driving her to job sites. Her brother even worked for her for a time. She also said the people in the towns she has served have added to her success.

“Tons of students from Minnechaug [Regional High School] still work for me. I wouldn’t be anywhere without the community support,” she said. DeMarey Landscaping now has eight employees and 700 accounts.

When DeMarey went to college to major in marketing, she decided to run the business remotely. The arrangement worked throughout her academic career. After obtaining a Masters of Business Administration, DeMarey worked at the Wall Street Journal before moving to what she called her “dream job” at Deloitte, a financial services company with offices worldwide.

Now that she lives in New York City and is settled into her career, she told Reminder Publishing, “I just kind of had to give up the passion project.”

Three weeks ago, DeMarey sold the business to Ryan O’Keefe of O’Keefe Landscaping, a company located in Wilbraham. “I am confident in his ownership and acquisition of DeMarey Landscaping,” DeMarey assured her customers in a goodbye post on her company’s Facebook page.

DeMarey said that she’s learned many lessons from her time as a landscape company owner taught her how to deal with the unexpected, manage her time and create a brand. The number one lesson DeMarey said she learned, however, was “how to be a resilient businesswoman. Having a crew that was sometimes twice my age,” especially in a male-dominated profession, prepared her for her current career.

She shared her wish for her former clients on social media, saying “Your weeds will wilt and your sunflowers will stand tall.”

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