Mid-spring slam job
1 May, 2005 By: Ron Hall LM Special ReportsLow pressure squatted over Lake Erie's western basin and spun curtains of wet snow as far southeast as the Appalachians. Heavy snow. Bough-busting snow. Heart attack-shoveling snow.
It's April 24th for crying out loud.
Enough. Enough. Enough.
Six inches of the white stuff flatten the tulips and silence the nesting killdeer in my backyard. We're lucky. Further east, the storm checkerboards the Cleveland suburbs with 10, 12 and a few reporting as much as 16 inches of snow. Winter's last capricious trick — coming as it does a mere week after blue skies and 80 F. temperatures — seems a fitting finale to a snow season that began with an equally dramatic Christmas Eve storm.
Our mid-spring storm reminds us of one of the big challenges of being a landscape professional who also provides snow services. Or, visa versa, of being a snow pro who does landscaping. Snow and ice don't wait for anybody's convenience. Early-fall or mid-spring events can swoop down upon us when we're ramping to full landscape production. This can be a huge disruption to our schedules and it can strain our workers.
But the cash it can generate is sweet indeed.
How efficiently can you shift from full-bore mowing or installation to snow and ice management when you get slammed with a freaky out-of-season event? Do you have systems in place, checklists and procedures for breaking down your equipment and getting it into action? How about your workers? Your subs?
The other key to profiting from the out-of-season storm is pricing. Many experienced snow pros hedge their bets with a combination of seasonal contracts, with monthly charges whether there's an event or not (your clients should view it as insurance), and pay-per-occurrence customers, usually at a higher rate.
Beyond that, smart snow pros spell out exactly what's expected of their services and, of course, any price adjustments for unusually heavy or wet snows. We're talking contracts here.
Please send any technical comments or questions to our webmaster.