Originally Layne Lozinski wanted to be an agricultural banker.
But the 23-year-old Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) graduate spent the summer before he started college working for a large tiling company and he fell in love with the jobs, the equipment, the variety of projects and working outside in a business that is still tied to agriculture. He also realized the demand for additional tiling operators in the area. So, he switched gears, and founded Maxx Drainage, LLC in December 2020, at the age of 19, fully launching about five months later. He takes a lot of satisfaction in taking ownership of his work.
“There are not a lot of businesses in the ag sector that are unique to yourself,” he said. “If you are selling Pioneer Corn seed you are working for Pioneer. This is a business where you do some work and you put your own name on it.”
Lozinski’s efforts recently earned him acknowledgement from the U.S. Small Business Administration as its Minnesota Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Busy year round
Maxx Drainage, which currently serves Lyon, Lincoln, Yellow Medicine, Redwood and Lac Qui Parle counties in southern Minnesota, does a diverse range of projects. Its specialty is field drainage system installation and repair, but it also optimizes land for agricultural use and performs sitework excavation for various products.
Farm drainage work, he said, is busy in the spring and fall, while site work excavation is hopping in the summertime. He rounds out the year pushing snow for commercial hog farms during the winter. He declines to provide specific financial details, but indicates he’s got more than enough work to stay busy year-round.
Built work ethic early
Lozinski grew up in Minneota, where he played football, wrestled, participated in Future Farmers of America and showed livestock through 4H. He also worked part-time washing swine barns, administering vaccinations, milking cows and picking rocks. The latter work left him with several contacts who hired him on when he started Maxx Drainage.
“That was networking from as a kid,” he said. “A really popular thing for teenage kids in rural areas is work for local farmers. It’s flexible on time, it pays well.”
Lozinski’s success comes as no surprise to Joel Skillings, currently an assistant wrestling coach at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights. Skillings coached Lozinski during a 31-year stint at Minneota and says that while Layne wasn’t the most skilled wrestler he’d worked with, his work ethic and team-oriented nature were unmatched.
“Layne is really resilient,” Skillings said. “He’s out to help a lot of people. He was a great team wrestler. He always worked hard. He had all the characteristics you’re looking for.”
When told Lozinski started Maxx Drainage, Skillings indicated that fit with his interests and added that he’d likely be successful due to his intelligence and work ethic.
“That’s the kind of thing Layne was apt to lean toward,” he said. “He was pretty passionate. He’s an extremely hard worker. I think very highly of Layne – I’m glad he found his niche. He’s a class act.”
While Lozinski has proven himself as a business owner, he’s sought assistance several times from the Southwest Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in his early years. The organization helped provide guidance on his initial strategies and operations and, more recently, has aided him as he’s expanded by purchasing equipment. A consultant from SBDC helped with cash flow analysis and in securing a line of credit for working capital.
He appreciates that the organization can provide him with an unbiased second opinion on his plans. “There’s no conflict of interest,” he says. “You don’t have to go ask people you don’t trust. They’re easy to trust.”
On his way
Truth be told, Lozinski said his first choice would be full-time farming. He finds it unlikely he could own a large enough farm to make that work these days. So, he’s settled on a solid second choice that he enjoys and that keeps him busy.
He explored agri-banking and thinks he’d still do fine at that, even though the work isn’t out in the field. He figures about 30 percent of his job is in the office setting, planning and creating maps.
But Maxx Drainage has provided an enjoyable second choice. Given that he’d done a lot of post-secondary while in high school, he says, he did not want to waste the opportunity to finish his degree at SMSU.
“I had to take a day off of work to go to graduation,” he quipped.
