Business Owner Gives Back

It has been nearly two decades since Cole Weller was a student at Southeast Tech, but the co-owner of Weller Brothers Landscaping is still in touch regularly with his classmates and instructors.

He and his brother, Brent, started the business while still in high school mowing lawns. So by the time he arrived at Southeast Tech in the early 2000s, he’d already started his entrepreneurship journey.

He graduated in 2006 with a degree in landscape design, and the business expanded into that service along with construction work.

“Without a doubt, Southeast equipped me with the knowledge to expand from lawn care into landscape design,” Weller said. “I apply those same fundamental landscape design and plant ID skills every day in the landscape projects we work on today, albeit they are a bit more complex than the projects I was doing right out of school.”

He recalls one class in particular – Woody Plants and Perennials with instructor Kate Parkinson – which “I did not enjoy,” he said. “Her classes were tough, but she helped me learn so much about plant ID that I still use almost daily.”

His advice to other entrepreneurs: Consider what you really need in an education.

“Trim the fat. I knew I was going to own a landscape company,” he said. “I didn’t need to spend my time in Anatomy 101. That is why the Southeast Tech route was right for me.”

While it’s easy to glorify business ownership, the reality is that you’re not your own boss exactly, he said. You’re always answering to someone.

“New entrepreneurs need to understand that because it doesn’t seem like people want to talk about it,” he said. “On the flip side, if you can figure out how to lead people and build a good team, owning your own business can be super fulfilling.”

He now shares his lessons learned and connects with others entering the industry at Southeast Tech. Weller serves on the school’s advisory council for the horticulture and sports turf programs and has hired many graduates and interns.

“We also offer scholarships to students where we pay half of their tuition, either through the Foundation or through Build Dakota,” he said. “Graduates come out with the skills needed to make a great career in the green industry, and we have had great luck turning them into long-term and high-achieving team members.”

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Read about more STC graduates that own their own businesses