Lincoln Southwest students’ summer job turns into full-fledged business

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Summer is in full swing in the Capital City, and with it comes summer employment for students.

For three students at Lincoln Southwest High School, their idea for a summer job transformed into a business concept.

While studying for the ACTs, Griffin Semrad, Madhav Variyan and Nathan Mensah came up with the idea for Spotless Solutions.

“We’re like, guys, we got to get something going for, like, let’s get a summer business going,” Semrad said.

The small business specializes in home services such as pressure washing, moving furniture, window cleaning and landscaping.

With an idea in hand, the trio shifted to the next phase of creating a business: coming up with a name.

“We actually used ChatGPT for a second, just trying to find a name, and that wasn’t really going out well,” Mensah said. “So, we just kind of looked around for other business names, and we came up with Spotless Solutions. And that’s just stuck.”

The students use social media, word of mouth and door-to-door sales to grow their client list.

“We got an email, Facebook,” Semrad said. “So, I mean, it’s pretty easy to contact us, and we’ll get back as soon as we can to everybody.”

The young entrepreneurs have learned a lot about business since beginning this venture, including networking, building a brand, proper communication and budgeting.

Semrad said this is just the start of a growing idea. Opportunities might open up in the fall and winter, when they’re in school, like leaf removal and putting up Christmas lights.

“There’s all that work that, you know, some people don’t want to do, aren’t capable of doing,” he said.

Variyan said this experience is going to help with college applications. He’s trying to get into the computer science programs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln or Berkeley.

“I really want to do something with computer engineering, and then I want to start my own business,” he said.

Nathan said this business lays the foundation for a big long-term goal.

“We all have shared journey together, start our own engineering company,” he said. “You know, maybe go to space one day. That’s pretty big dream, but yeah, this will definitely prepare us for the future.”