In recent years, municipal and other authorities in many areas have begun collecting a stormwater fee from the business community. This is usually based on the amount of impervious surface area of a given property. The more pavement and roof areas, the higher the fee. And, in some of the larger complexes, the cost per month can run to a significant figure.
As a result, property managers are trying to find ways to reduce or eliminate their liability through showing they are handling their stormwater runoff such that pollution from their property is not ending up in the runoff stream.
Pre-employment testing can provide a significant boost in employee longevity and safety. Turnover is expensive. Some contractors cite the cost of hiring and training a new employee to be well over $1,000. Even then, hiring good employees is often a considerable challenge, since interviews and reference checks often do not accurately detect all the good and bad qualities of an applicant. And, although a variety of generalized employment tests are available, these can be challenging to understand, administer, score and interpret.
Bidding sweeping jobs is one of the toughest, most time-consuming aspects of the parking lot sweeping business. For that reason, there are a number of techniques people use to determine their bid pricing. This article discusses use of GLA (Gross Leaseable Area) and CAM (Common Area Maintenance) to determine bidding.
One of the most important factors is to hire the right person to start with. Because of the pressures of time, one of the tendencies is to hire anyone with a clean driver’s license. The fact is, there are some other important determiners of how well an operator or other employee will do.
The California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA) offers a fact sheet on how parking areas should be maintained in order to minimize pollutant runoff and maximize surrounding water quality. Although somewhat dated, this is the latest bulletin on this topic by CASQA.
Title:Envirosweep Takes the High Road in Servicing Customers
In 1981 Robert Pitman started a commercial lawn care company known as Pitman Mowing Service. As time went on some customers requested parking lot sweeping services. Twenty years later, in 2001. Robert purchased his first parking lot sweeper, a slide-in AATACH. With that sweeper he started a parking lot sweeping company he named “Envirosweep.”
When he first started, Robert had just one sweeping account, which he personally handled every morning before going to work running his lawn care company. Now, in 2010, Envirosweep has over 300 customers, 22 sweepers and support vehicles, and 23 full time employees.
Title:West Michigan Sweeper Owner Stresses Hard Work, Accountability
Like so many sweeping contractors just starting out, Dennis Gillean had a job when he bought his first sweeper. And, as has also been the case with many other contractors, the small Minuteman unit that he ended up with – which had only a 3.5′ sweeping path – wasn’t the best machine for cleaning parking lots.
Throughout this problem, working two jobs and being enmeshed in a Michigan economy that is among the worst in the nation, Gillean persevered to develop West Michigan Sweeper, Inc. into a company with the kind of ethical standards that would make any business owner proud.
Employee leasing firms can reduce responsibilities and increase productivity.
Title: McDonough and Sons Stress Environmentalism in Full Slate of Services
Thirty some years ago, when Pat McDonough started his own sweeping company, he was already a somewhat experienced hand at the job. That’s because as a newly-married nineteen-year-old he’d joined the father he’d never really known in a sweeping company in Minnesota.
Even though that didn’t last long, when McDonough started a business of his own over 10 years later, it was to found a parking lot sweeping company.
Gale Holsman, Jr., has been in the sweeping business for almost a quarter of a century. During that time, he has bought and sold numerous sweeping companies spanning several midwestern states. Here in our popular audio interview format are his tips for the process you should follow if you are considering purchase of a sweeping company.
