HR Sweeping: Strong for Generations

by Keith Chambers

HR Sweeping was originally founded in the 1970s by a former airplane designer. The business was started with a Bel-Aire sweeper with the somewhat new business model of getting parking lots clear of debris. The company’s use of technology has changed somewhat since its inception, as has their service area, and the firm’s legacy is now carried on by the founder’s daughter, Sharon. What hasn’t changed is HR Sweeping’s commitment to keeping their customers satisfied no matter what — even if it comes to using a broom, dustpan and wheelbarrow.

Current owner/operator, Sharon Bausch, has been involved with the company in a full-time role since 1999, which was the year HR Sweeping’s founder and Bausch’s father, Vincent Hacker (shown in the photo to the right), passed away. Hacker was originally an employee of Douglas Aircraft and worked there for 25 years before the division of the company he was working for got bought out. Hacker then found a sweeping route for sale in a California newspaper, investigated and then bought the route, and that is how HR Sweeping came into existence. Bausch enjoys sharing memories of her dad’s first sweeper.

“The Bel-Aire was like a mini truck,” Bausch said. “Essentially, it was a wood box, it had horizontal long doors on the side that opened and slide bolts you locked it with. We used to place those plastic bread rack trays inside there so we could just pull those out, dump the stuff [that would collect on it] and then shovel the rest of the dirt out. The sweeper’s engine was on the very back and it had a pyramid-shaped pickup head that hung behind that off the very back of the truck.”

Bausch and her then husband worked together as California-based sweeping contractors from 1973 to 1993, but then moved to the Las Vegas area in 1993 when her mother fell ill. HR Sweeping maintained its Californian routes but extended their operation to Clark County, Nevada, around this time. When Vincent Hacker passed away in 1999, that was the end of their sweeping tenure in California. The company moved to the Las Vegas area for good, with Gary Hacker, Bausch’s brother, taking the reins as primary owner/operator while Sharon primarily handled office paperwork.

Then came another big change in 2011, when Gary Hacker unfortunately and unexpectedly passed away on Valentine’s Day of that year. Bausch then had to take over the operations side of the company, as well. This did not come without a great deal of difficulty, as the legal aspect of documents suddenly became an issue. “I was kind of unprepared — a lot of paperwork should have been done differently; power of attorney, permissions with the bank accounts and more. I learned that you have to be real careful how everything is worded because a lot of the time [if it’s not spelled out correctly,] when somebody passes away it voids the contract. My name wasn’t listed in some important documents. As a result, we had a loss of business because they had only talked to him and I wasn’t on the accounts.”

Bausch was able to turn this struggle into a learning experience and now advises that contractors should have a worst-case scenario plan in place so they can continue to keep the business running if tragedy strikes.

Currently, HR Sweeping is just a two-sweeper operation and they have been fortunate to have two long-time employees as operators. “Jim worked for my dad, then my brother, and now me; in December it’ll be 26 years. Mike has been with the company for nineteen years. So, they’re part of the family.” Bausch credits the value of the two employee’s knowledge and longevity when it comes to solving problems that can develop during a night’s sweeping: “If, God forbid, we have a problem with one of the sweepers, oftentimes they’ll go out on the routes together. We’ve had times where both sweepers have broken down – the ultimate worst-case scenario – and they’re out there with a broom and a box, along with trash bags and the blowers. And, I’ve been out there helping them. Through those times we’ve had no complaints; you wouldn’t know they didn’t go out in the sweepers. They’re very dedicated. I don’t even have to ask them [to help extra] if there’s a problem like that. The work still gets done and it’s not a problem.”

With long-term employees and an owner/operator that has been involved in the sweeping industry for over 30 years, HR Sweeping prides itself upon is the thoroughness of the company’s work as well as their ability to respond to a customer’s immediate concerns. “I’ve got an out of town owner that texted me at 10:30 on a Sunday night that somebody dumped a couch, a mattress and some pieces of concrete blocks behind one of the big chain places that we do. ‘Can you get it out of there tomorrow,’ he asked? I was out there with my son and a pick-up truck that morning and had it out of there and to the dump. You’ve got to keep your customers happy. If they can’t depend on you they’re going to get somebody else.”

There are some intricacies as far as working in Las Vegas is concerned. The first is the heat, which Jim and Mike beat with two bottles of iced tea. One is refrigerated and ready to drink, the other is frozen and becomes ready to drink by the middle of the shift. Bausch says that makes a big difference in combating the heat. A more serious concern is the fact there is 24-hour drinking and gambling in the state of Nevada. Bausch warns: “When you sweep here, you’d better watch out when you’re out there on the job.” Owing to this, HR Sweeping takes one day, New Year’s Eve, off every year in order to keep its employees safe.

One of the subjects discussed in the interview was cash flow; in specific, how to deal with late payments from major corporations and chain stores. In the attached podcast interview, Sharon discussed how to ask for money in advance from any such companies if they begin to pay you late. If you’ve been an efficient vendor, she says, the store manager should have no problem asking the parent corporation to allow you to bill, and get paid, a month in advance.

She told a cautionary tale about one well-known chain store that fell into a bit of a bind as far as payment. “One store of theirs we swept didn’t pay for six months,” said Bausch, “and they had outsourced their accounts payable to India. I was having trouble even communicating with the people I was talking to. I finally had to go down to the store location; the store manager sent them a letter; we got on the phone; I sent them copies of all the statements… it took a month of arguing and then they finally paid me for all six months. However, almost immediately they got four months behind again… and then they caught back up.”

The solution was to have them quit paying by check. Now that company pays via direct deposit. So far, Sharon says, this has worked out better .

Even though the recession might have technically ended, as many contractors can attest there are still situations where a store gets in a bad spot financially and begins to cut back on what they don’t consider as essentials. Sometimes this includes the cleanliness of their parking lots. Bausch relayed a semi-ironic story about one of her former clients where she had been sweeping once per week: “…I actually stopped there to go in and buy something on my way to taking my boat out to the lake. I got glass in my tire and got a flat in their parking lot. Here I am trying to be nice, thinking, ‘Well, even though I got fired I’m still going to shop there.’ Then, I came back out and my tire’s flat from this big chunk of glass and I’m thinking ‘Oh, really?!’”

One helpful hint that was discussed during the interview was that when you are on the phone with a new or an existing client, let them know about all the services beyond sweeping your company can provide. Present these as a la carte options, as if you were showing them a menu. Bausch also includes HR Sweeping’s entire service list on the back of the company’s business cards.

Bausch has learned that listing all the services your company provides can help you achieve long-lasting relationships with your clients. It can also help you avoid situations like a rare one Bausch had with a long-time customer: “I lost an account a few months ago that we’d had for 28 years. It was a seven-day-a-week sweep and it was still priced at only $400/month. I don’t think my brother had ever raised their price. For that matter, I don’t know if my Dad had ever raised their price.

“However, they let me go because they found a cheaper price. They got somebody that is now sweeping the property only three days, but the new contractor is also pressure washing the sidewalk for them once a month. However, at no point did they come to us and say ‘Hey, will you do it for this much money and will you pressure wash the sidewalk?’ So, that was one that I felt really bad that we lost that because we had never gotten a complaint on it. When asked, the client told me ‘You guys didn’t do anything wrong, we just needed more service for less money.’”

Though HR Sweeping has been around since the 1970s, in current times they have seen the benefits of Internet marketing as far as generating new business. Bausch said at least fifteen big companies call her up each month owing to her presence on search engines like Google and Yahoo!. However, the way she drives most of her new business and gets most of her new clients is still somewhat old fashioned — she does it by calling a property manager, telling them she noticed they had a dirty parking lot, and asking if she can submit a bid. Because her company has done quite a bit of good work in and around Las Vegas she also gets some of her new business thanks to referrals, which goes to show that a track record of good service will never go out of style.

If you would like more information on the company, please visit the firm’s website at www.hrsweeping.com or give them a call at 702-283-1979.

Keith Chambers is a freelance writer located in the Pacific NW. Although his typical writing audiences involve a variety of sports-related topics, on occasion he writes articles for the World Sweeping Companies organization. He may be reached via email at greatkeith@gmail.com.