I recently attended a large event put on by Storm Equipment out of Mankato, MN. Great event, nearly 300 in attendance and great opportunities to connect with other snow professionals, vendors, in addition to opportunities to learn through the keynote speakers. Jordan and Bob Marks spoke a little about their two businesses and shared real numbers, then held a Q&A and the day wrapped up with Mark Bradley of Leanscaper speaking about business operations and people. Mark had some great points, our people are our greatest asset and our greatest liability. How we hire, manage, and lead our people plays a major role in the success or failure of the business. He also posed a very good question, "would I want my children to work here?" and if the answer is no, you have some work to do. Overall, the theme of the event was raising the standard, not only for the industry, but for ourselves, call yourself to a higher standard of how you operate your business, how you interact with clients and employees, and finally, how you price and strategize your business. Higher standards equal more value and more value has to come at a cost, charge appropriately and not only will your business grow, but you will find your level of service will also. Tie employee compensation to KPI's and work on improving the culture internally and your team will soar! What are 3 things you plan to work on over the next month in preparation for Winter?

Anything worth doing is worth doing correctly. When snow services are properly costed, bid, staffed, routed, documented, and managed, they can create substantial opportunities for the contractor, the employees, and their families. I experienced this directly with my business partners. We grew a snow operation from approximately $50,000 in annual revenue to more than $750,000 per season in 12 months. That growth required significant time, energy, planning, and organization. It was not easy money. Once the operation was structured properly, however, the snow division became a revenue stream that outperformed much of the rest of the business. When a snow operation is functioning correctly, it can resemble a well-orchestrated performance. Trucks, loaders, sidewalk crews, and application equipment move throughout the service area according to a plan. Properties are cleared, deicing materials are applied, customers are informed, and each part of the operation supports the next. That level of execution does not happen accidentally.

Costs of snow and ice management can be sneaky, creeping up on you and leaving you at the end of the season not understanding why you didn't make any money when at first look the jobs were bid properly. One way to overcome this issue is reviewing your costs on the front end before the bid! In our own business I have built many calculators to help me determine what our costs are from trucking, to application, from raw materials, to production costs, labor, overhead, etc. and giving me a clear understanding of what it actually takes to produce a product or provide a service. Often, there is not great communication between companies within an industry on what to charge or how each company charges for their product or service. This can be the case in snow and ice management. If we are all competing against each other, why would we want to share how we are going to bid or charge a customer? It boils down to knowing the actual cost of the work. Do you know the costs involved with performing every operation of your business? We can help with that. This is one of the many topics covered within Frostline University. Labor burden, fully loaded labor, fuel burn rates, travel time to jobsite, est. time onsite, efficiency rating, overhead, etc. are all factors involved with these costs, but the nice thing is you only have to do the math once. Once you know the costs to perform the work, apart from any major changes in equipment, new costs, or increased efficiencies, you can use those numbers to make sure you are actually turning a healthy profit. I have told my staff for years, I would rather only do $50k in revenue and keep $25k + all day than do $1,000,000 in revenue and keeping $10k. Understanding costs is the root of all profitable businesses. Once you have that nailed down, you will never worry if you bid a job properly again. How do you currently calculate your costs? Wild guess, detailed spreadsheet, rough idea, what a buddy charges, etc.? Everyone has to start somewhere, our goal is to help you make the next step in the right direction!

Here we are June 5, 2026, and looking down the barrel of a likely warm, hot, and dry Summer, but that doesn't mean it's time to put snow and ice business on the back burner! Instead, this is the time to do a solid review of your past season and look into the wins, losses, and draws that you and your team faced. How did your Winter Season go? Enough work? Enough Snow? Too few or too many clients, maybe you figured out you have too many of the WRONG clients? Let's dive into this a bit! Selecting your clients is extremely important in any industry, whether you clean 🪟, pick up dog 💩, or mow lawns, it really doesn't matter, what matters is that you determine what your perfect client looks like and develop your systems, processes, and marketing package around them. Having worked in the restoration industry, I had the luxury of working with high-end commercial clients including hospitals, schools, large commercial property managers, etc., all of whom, typically know what they are looking for in a contractor, or at a minimum what they aren't looking for. That is also an industry that is made up mostly of emergency work where the client needs it done NOW, and done well. I was able to take what I learned in that industry and transition it over to our snow and ice management business and it grew incredibly fast. Knowing what your clients are looking for and the right questions to ask is key to success. Many snow guys just starting out and even those that have been in the industry a while struggle with this at times, as they often don't have a ton of business development or sales experience, but they know what has worked for them and rinse and repeat. They know what hard work looks like and perform well for their clients, but sometimes that isn't quite enough to get the growth where you need it. That is where we are here to help! Our goal is to improve the industry through education and development, to aid you in building the systems, processes, and infrastructure that is required to blow your clients mind, and your competitors out of the water! Let's get to it!

Let’s talk light winters. In our particular region, we’ve had a fairly light winter and then received a massive storm. How are you setting up your accounts to help you protect yourself throughout the winter and have consistent income?