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Are you ready to take the plow?
1 Aug, 2008 By: Heather Gooch Landscape ManagementStarting and expanding a snow division is easy, once you overcome the challenges involved.
Like many landscape professionals in the Snow Belt, Steve Rak decided to get into the snow business for one main reason: cash flow during the winter to keep key employees on payroll. For Rak, vice president of Southwest Landscape Management in Columbia Station, OH, the decision to jump into snow about six years ago just made good business sense: "We already had a built-in customer base that needed the service to begin with."
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But the follow-up decisions to put the plan into motion successfully are not always as simple. Rak recognized the risk and brought in snow removal industry consultant Rich Arlington about a year ago. Arlington is enjoying a successful run with both his landscaping and snow companies in Erie, PA, and has recently begun using his business experience to help others.
"I have learned over the years that hiring the right consultant pays off if you actually follow their advice," notes Rak, whose company has been around since 1990. "I brought in Rich because I don't know the snow business as well as the landscape business, and I wanted to improve my estimating process. In addition, I wanted to see how a larger company like Arlington handles things like using sub-contractors and managing the actual snow event."
 Steve Rak, VP Southwest Landscape Management |
Top 5 challenges
Arlington says he's been impressed by how many of his clients bring him in before a problem arises. "Of course, you don't have to bring in a third-party consultant necessarily, but it is important to get help from the start. It could be from an association, or from a non-competing colleague who's been through it."
Based on his own experience and what's he's seen in the industry, Arlington identifies the following as the biggest challenges facing landscaping professionals when trying to either get a snow division off the ground or take their existing snow business to the next level:
1 They don't know the numbers and don't know how to bid. Arlington says the root cause is because no one is taught how to do it. "One client did research on the Web and has more 'profit' formulas than he knows what to do with," he says. "But within 30 minutes, I can find your break-even point, then add in the profit margin." Arlington notes his formula literally took years to develop "because no one showed me, either. I understand the frustration behind it."
2 They don't have the structure in place to adjust to emergency services. Arlington points out that when you take on a new lawn customer, it may be an entire week before your crew gets to the account. "But with snow, you often have only a few hours to get there," he says. "You've got to be structured for response time, and most LCOs are not used to a third-shift arrangement."
3 They don't have the right equipment to use. One common "rookie mistake" is bidding shopping centers when you just have pickups as your fleet. In other words, it's easy to get in over your head. "I teach my clients to scale up equipment slowly. If you have a pickup, I show you how to use a skid steer with a pickup box, and from there, a backhoe," Arlington explains. "By the time you get to the larger accounts, you understand the philosophy." If he's brought in when the large accounts are already under contract, Arlington says he catches his client up more quickly.
4 They don't know what they've just signed in the contract. Arlington often serves as an expert witness in lawsuits, and he often finds the problem lies in an interpretation of liability: "That's a big thing for newbies out there — and keep in mind a 20-year-old company can be a 'newbie,' too, if a large-scale contract is unfamiliar to them."
5 They are afraid to pull the trigger. While landscape professionals need to go into snow removal with eyes wide open, Arlington notes, "it's important to not analyze it to death. You have to get your feet in the pond and go swimming." It's understandable to hesitate about the possibility of one bad situation sullying your reputation, but on the other hand, the business can be a tremendous growth opportunity for your company, as well as a stabilizing one. And at the end of the day, Arlington assures, "it's not as complicated as it seems."
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