This audio interview was conducted in 2014 by Ron Barnett, president of Florida-based Blown Away, Inc. Moderator and co-contributor was Ranger Kidwell-Ross, Executive Director of WSA.
The intent was to provide information and ideas for an entrepreneur based in the San Francisco area who was looking to purchase a power sweeping company. Ron has been very successful in the Florida region by assisting individuals in developing their own power sweeping businesses. Along the way, he has purchased a number of sweeping businesses.
If you are thinking about purchasing a sweeping company, you will find the ideas and information contained in this 50-minute audio to be of help.
For the first time ever, our Featured Contractor for this month is not one company, but two. Lexington Pavement Sweep was founded in the late 1980s by Jim Blackerby, Jr., to serve the Greater Lexington, Kentucky, market area.
By contrast, Louisville Pavement Sweep was founded by his son, Jim Blackerby III, only about a year-and-a-half ago. This is, in large part, the story about how a sweeping contractor of high ideals has inspired his son to follow in his footsteps.
John Bailey began his street sweeping career in 1988, leaving the shoe-selling business for a client that paid him $200/month, which was just enough money to cover the loan payment on his single “Trailer Vac” mounted on his pickup truck. That Trailer Vac still runs today, after a few refurbishments, and Bailey now boasts a fleet of a dozen sweepers as well as his own LLC, Bailey’s Sweeper Service, operating out of Las Vegas, Nevada. Bailey credits an old window washer as his motivating factor to go from shoes to sweepers, so it is fitting that Bailey’s Sweeping Services has a window washing crew to go along with their parking lot sweeping service.
