First of all, if you are reading this article, you are probably deciding whether or not you should work at Spring Masters for some spare cash. The answer is no. A certain one as well, and I will explain why.

My Experience
I would like to share my personal experience with you. I worked for Spring Masters for one day, and I realized it's not a job for me. In the morning, I was picked up at 7:00 AM with several other clients. Then, we were brought to this warehouse-like facility where there are the so claimed "core-aeration" mowers and gigantic driveway sealing machines. I was quite content and excited for the day of work, and I realized I was even more excited after they brainwash you by going through the list of different prizes and rewards. After, we were assigned in teams and were sent off to training. At this time, it was around 10:30 AM yet we still haven't started working.

Finally, work started at 11:00 PM when I was dropped off at the entrance of an unknown neighborhood with a map, a recording sheet and a few fliers. At this moment, I was filled with questions and concerns yet I was not able to get an answer to as the instructor was rushing off getting everyone else to their locations. Therefore, I kept these concerns in my head and carried on as an official contractor for Spring Masters. However, my hopes and dreams were soon crushed to pieces as I realized that people don't actually want their lawns to be core-aerated! Most of the people I have spoken to was quite frank, they told me that they had it done before and it was ineffective. So all they said during the training presentations were lies?

I quickly removed those thoughts, and realized I did the impossible. I was able to negotiate with a house owner for his lawn to be aerated at the cost of $65.00 (not including HST). So I was left to experience the core-aeration mower. It was frankly quite easy to turn on, however it automatically stops working after about 1-2 minutes and you have to start it again. It was a quite frustrating experience as the house owners don't want a broken machine to operate on their "precious" lawn. Also, the machine quite heavy! At certain times, even the house owner have to come to aid because I wasn’t able to control the machine. After that house, I was tired and I needed to use the washroom. However, the question was, where could I find one? Well, the correct answer would be to knock door to door and ask the permission to use a house owner's washroom. This is a joke! Who would want a sweaty and dirty stranger to be in your house and use your washroom?

Anyways, after a day of hard work, the instructor picked me up and transferred everyone back to the warehouse for the end of the day payment. This is probably the happiest hour of the day since I made about $200 dollars (including tax) and I was expecting something good in return. However I was deeply disappointed when the instructor handed over about $20 dollars. Really? I get about 10%? Are you serious, after about 12 hours of work? I sat down and looked over the paper, and this is how the calculation went:

You get paid around 28% of the total payment.
$200 x 28% = $56
The payment does not include tax, therefore, 13% HST must be taken out from the total payment.
$56 - ($200 x %13) = $30
Then you must pay the $10 fee for the core-aeration mower.
$30 - $10 = $20
Furthermore, if you are a loyal citizen, you must also pay the tax to the government.

At the very end, I was sent homework through a “shuttle” and arrived at almost 12:00PM.

In Brief
In brief, Spring Masters is targeting high-school kids and they claim you could make more than $500 dollars working for them in a day. If you are doing decent in school, this is definitely a waste of time. Working for more than 12 hours a day yet still make most minimalistic income is definitely not worth your time. If you are desperately looking for a job, work at a fast food restaurant instead, at least they pay in $10.25 an hour. Also, the machine is heavy and some people will not be able to operate it properly, and the strong smell of gasoline (which is in everyone of those machine) is toxic and harms you health permanently. Furthermore, if you want join Spring Masters, practice not using washrooms and working for more than 12 hours. Most importantly, if you want to work for spring masters, you must believe whatever they are saying is true; even if it’s full of lies and heresies.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME HERE. I worked there over the summer for about two weeks, maybe less. Those posters every spring go up all over town claiming "You can earn $100-$500 a day!" So bogus. So completely bogus. You have to be a completely great seller to make any decent money at this job, and let's face it, if you're a great seller you're NOT working at places such as Spring Masters; you'll be working at car dealerships or cell phone stores. Where you DON'T have to push a 100lb aerator machine around neighbourhoods all day long with no place to take a crap or eat.
Spring Masters hires people on as independent contractors. You don't work for SM technically, you're representing yourself. You're charged $10 a day to rent the aeration machine and then driven out to a route, handed a map, and left there for 13-ish hours (literally, from 8am-9pm). You don't know where you're gonna go to the bathroom at all day, and if you haven't packed a lunch, oops, you don't eat! Spring Masters likes to tell their people to "just use other people's bathrooms, " but in reality, what woman who's home alone all day will let some dirty, sweaty person into her house to use the bathroom? Not safe for her, how does she know who you are or that you can be trusted?
So you push this huge yellow "lawn mower on steroids" around, knock on doors, ask people if they want holes poked in their lawn, and sometimes you might get a "yes." Most of the time it's a "no, " because the people who work for Spring Masters are probably not the greatest sellers on the planet. Average Joe's just wanting to make some money to pay their bills. If you make any money at all, you give it all to SM at the end of your 13hr day and you get a percentage back from it. So many people work all day long and make NO money. People make $0 for all their efforts. But you still have to pay SM your $10 rental fee!
You begin the day at 8am at SM headquarters for an UNPAID training session, then around 10am you're driven out to somewhere in the area and left until they get you at around 8pm. No bathrooms, no places to eat, you're responsible for the equipment if it gets lost or stolen, and possibly very little pay at the end of the day. I made $60-$80 a few of the days and then $20-$0 towards the end of it so I quit. The CEO of this company likes to pretend that only "hardcore" and "dedicated" people work for them and the rest are "lazy" and can "get a job at McDonald's." Well McD's will pay you more than Spring Masters, that's for damn sure. Rather work there; at least they have a freaking toilet.