How I went from cutting lawns to running an engraving shop
I’ve had some kind of business going since grade 8. Here’s the short version, from lawn mowers to lamacoids.
My name is Jacob Tyler Reid. Most people call me Jake. I’m a high school student in Burlington, Ontario, and I run two businesses: a lawn care business and Llamacoids Inc., a one-person engraving shop.
Lawns first
I started cutting lawns for neighbours in grade 8, and I still run it every season. I find the customers, set the schedule, look after the equipment and collect payment.
Llamacoids
In 2026 I started Llamacoids Inc. We engrave lamacoids, the phenolic tags you see on electrical panels, breakers and motor control centres. I quote, lay out, engrave and invoice every job myself, and most orders ship the same day.
From there the shop grew two more lines: CEC Section 64 solar PV label kits at solarlabels.ca, and engraved caution and safety signs at cautionsignss.com.
The code side
I write a lot of the software the shop runs on. There’s a Mac app that turns a customer’s spreadsheet into a ready-to-engrave tag set, the websites, and a few AI tools that find and sort leads. I also solder my own electronics.
So my weeks are split between school, the engraver, the soldering iron and a code editor. The rest of this blog is where I write those up.
