Hey Guys! A fellow power washing company I work with has mentioned to me that he has the same problem every single year throughout the season due to that there is little to no work during offseason- problem being employee retention. What do you guys do to keep your guys around? Do you hold some of their pay and give it out throughout the offseason? I’m sure he’s not the only one that faces this issue.
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My guys all get 40 hours a week thru the winter. Granted, we are only shut down about 6 weeks, but they still get paid. They have bills and mortgages also. I have to make enough in the good times to carry thru the winter. $75k tucked away will let me cost for a month and a half if I only take a check every other week.
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I’m starting a separate snow removal company because of this exact issue. Not really looking to make much §§ … but create employment opportunity year round. Can’t expect someone to support their families only working 7 months out of the years.
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Unless I land a BIG JOB I will not make as much washing this summer as I did plowing over the winter. But I know you run a crew and I don’t yet. Show is big money if you do commercial. If it’s a fluffy snow I can average $450-500 an hour with 2 trucks running.
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Has anyone considered doing interior pressure washing and reclaim in the winter? I have thought a lot about building a reclaim system in an enclosed trailer just so I can do work inside shops and factory’s in the winter. I know I have an auto repair shop that has called me 3 times in the last 3 years asking me to get a reclaim so I can wash their shop quarterly.
Yah, there’s way to much competition up here to compete with on commercial contracts… my thought is to just try and convert pressure washing customers who already trust us into snow removal customers.
I honestly thought the same thing my first year. But I was persistent and bugged factories in the off season. Walked into my second year with 6 acres of commercial property and 1 truck. Now we have about 11 acres 2 trucks a skid steer with a box pusher, and we rent a backhoe ever time a snow over 10 inches is forecast.
I also softwashed the manager of Walmart’s house 2 weeks ago and she noticed we did snow. She immediately started talking about getting me the contract because the current guy “does a horrible job and makes a fortune doing it” come to find out he is on a yearly contract where he gets paid the same if it snows or not.
The city came to me last fall asking me to put in a bid for the city sidewalks. I had about 1 week to lock in a price and decided to pass. Too much to put together in a week. The guy who does it (also plows walmart) and he makes a fortune off the city. They emailed me back what his price was the last 4 years so I could “compete” next year. Honestly his price was about 30% higher than I was going to bid it at.
Great information! Seems like snow removal is the way to go. Only issue is that the weather here gets more bipolar as the years go on.
I can agree with that! Here’s the skinny on snow removal. I have been in the snow business for nearly 10 years now. My equipment is all paid off and has been for many years. When guys go out and put 5-8k plows on trucks and it only snows 2 times the first year and they don’t have many accounts they end up selling guys like me the plow for 1/3 what they paid for it. If you get into snow you need to expect to not make anything and be happy when you do. We do not budget our bills on snow income. I would have been out of a home many moon ago had I been this way.
Bad winters are good for snow guys like me. We had 2 years of almost no snow here and MANY big plow outfits sold off because of it. Why? because they had big fancy trucks and new plows that they couldn’t afford. My advise is pay cash for the equipment and forget you even have it during the summer. When times get tough --forget you have it-- because guys like me are waiting for you to slip up and sell it. I will buy the plow and end up with your customer.
Our trucks are pretty (good shape, little to no rust, always washed and lettered nice) but not expensive.
You will win more bids with a clean rust free shined up 15 year old truck than the guy charging 2x because hes in a 40k truck with a 8k plow and has to charge more. You will also loose jobs if you show up in a rusted out truck. I have had many customers hire us just because we “look more reliable” than the guy they have doing it now.
On a side note if you have never plowed snow you are going to feel like you are ripping your truck in half sometimes. It will be fine… Just remember to go through the carwash AS SOON AS YOU ARE DONE PLOWING and put it in the shop to thaw. Get all that salt off the truck and plow.
Salt spreading is a whole different creature! Ive made 3k in an hour before laying down pallets of salt so factories could stay open lol. I like salt spreading more than I do plowing snow!!
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