Of all the services landscape contractors can provide, plowing snow has to be among the most risky. Unless a company is located in a snowbelt region, snowfall can vary anywhere from a few inches one year to several feet the next. Yet, no matter how much it snows, equipment costs are constant " high. So why would any landscape contractor, especially one located in the Midwest and on the wrong side of Lake Michigan for consistent snow, decide to sell his exterior maintenance business and put all of his proverbial eggs in the snow basket" According to Jeff Tovar, CLP, owner of Tovar's Snowplowing Company in Elgin, Illinois, the answer can be summed up in one word, focus.
Focus pays off
In its first two "totally dedicated" snowplowing seasons, Tovar's company has managed to exceed its budget both years, despite two subpar snow seasons. Throughout, he has maintained a business relationship with 270 subcontractors and has kept 40 salt trucks and 120 sidewalk-crew members ready to go at a moment's notice. During a full-scale event, the company can have upward of 500 people working at one time. This virtual snow army takes aim at 120 customers (for a total of 200 sites) " including retail outlets, industrial facilities, office complexes, and health care organizations " within a 20- to 30-mile radius of Tovar's headquarters location.
This contractor started maintaining quarter-acre residential lawns full-time in 1990 and, for the next five years, grew his business by adding services. He added seal coating, snowplowing, and landscape construction, eventually forgoing his residential customers for commercial accounts. Thanks to healthy growth, he was able to drop his seal coating and construction services in 1996 and, three years later, took a serious look at eliminating exterior maintenance.
"I talked with green industry consultants Frank Ross and David Minor, who both encouraged me to get more focused," remembers Tovar. "They suggested that we look at dedicating ourselves exclusively to either plowing snow or maintaining properties. After conducting a few activity-based studies, I learned that, if done correctly, we could be successful providing either service." Tovar selected snowplowing because, in his words, he "would rather work hard in the winter than the summer."
Yearlong activities
Tovar's snow season begins on November 1st and ends on March 31st. During that time span, all 14 of his year-round employees are involved in the operations side of the business. After March 31st, they change hats and become part of the company's sales team, which works throughout the summer contacting prospective customers. As Tovar explains, April and May are spent cleaning up from the winter's activities and attending training seminars. In June, the company attends the annual Snow and Ice Management Association (SIMA) Symposium, and then it is straight-through sales and marketing until snow season preparation begins in September.
"We are truly pleased with our decision to focus sharply on one service," says Tovar. "The decision has allowed us to be better at what we do " in this case, plowing snow " but the same strategy can apply to any business or service. Instead of always playing catch-up and not having time to do the best job possible in any one area, our employees now have time for training, for development, and for taking care of our snow customers exclusively." Tovar, who is serving a two-year term as SIMA president, notes that education and training have become a fundamental part of his company's refocusing effort, with 2 percent of sales being budgeted for education and 4.5 percent going for training purposes. Of the company's 14 employees, seven have MBAs, four are Certified Landscape Professionals (CLP), and four are Certified Snow Professionals.
"Our experience has taught us an important lesson, not just about plowing snow, but about doing great business in general," says Tovar. "Again, I think most any landscape contractor can look at his or her business and find a way to sharpen his/her focus and become a better businessperson. In our case, thanks to Frank Ross, David Minor, and other ALCA members, we have been able to find a formula that works for us. We set our overhead so we can survive the lean years, yet prepare ourselves on the operations side to be able to successfully handle a heavy snow year. Approximately 15 percent of our accounts are locked in for the season and the other 85 percent are on a "per-occurrence" basis. So far, the program has worked for us."
If Tovar's company can be successful plowing snow when there is only a trace of snow to plow, imagine the year he will have when Mother Nature cooperates. In the meantime, it is business as usual for this entrepreneur " focus, focus, and more focus.
4/03
By Rod Dickens, ALCA Contributing Writer
