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!

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for joining our community. Please share a little about yourself, maybe where you are located, what type of work you do in the off-season of Snow and what some of your goals are as we progress forward. I was a snow contractor and managed one of the strictest contracts in our area, successfully building a snow business and increasing efficiency of our team through processes, procedures, forms, equipment selection, etc. It was quite the journey, but a blessing all the way. Fast forward a few years and we were blessed enough to purchase the manufacturer that supplied our de-icing products. This was a great leap of faith, but has allowed us to focus on improving the industry and helping our customers grow their businesses. We have incorporated education, training, and development of spray systems as well. Our true passion is the growth of your snow and ice business. There are so many ways to handle snow and ice management, so we will never tell you your way is wrong, rather we want to bring this community together to help you grow through information, education and connection with other contractors dealing with the same issues you are. My team and I are also in the development process of technology and training that will assist not only your team, but your client base as well. We look forward to offering certifications and lead generation opportunities that don't break your season and ultimately, we would like to see you and your team overcome the many issues facing our industry from labor struggles through TPA (Third Party Administrator) issues, product selection to marketing and estimating, and everything in between! Let's GROW! Bryce Lund Founder Snow and Ice Management Skool