North American Sweeper - September 2023

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Stockton New Jersey 08559

Opinions expressed in editorial submissions contributed to North American Sweeper Magazine are those of the individual authors exclusively and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of North American Sweeper Magazine, its staff, its advertisers, or its readership. North American Sweeper Magazine assumes no liability or responsibility toward independently contributed editorial submissions or any typographical errors, mistakes, misprints, or missing information within advertising copy.

ABQ POWER SWEEPING, LLC

ALBUQUERQUE NM

WORK & FAMILY BALANCE

This commercial pavement sweeping company was founded in 1993 by Patricio and Librada Ibuado (a.k.a. Papa and Mama-Lala). They operated their successful small business in Albuquerque for about two decades, until 2013. Their daughters, Yvonne Garcia and Hortencia Semeniuk McDonald, two successful professionals in other fields then stepped in. Yvonne tells the story. Our parents had been in the business for about 20 years and wanted to retire, or semiretire. They were around

76 and 72 years old. My sister and I thought — let’s try to rebuild it.

Yvonne Garcia does not acknowledge any particular difficulties that she and her sister may have encountered in rebuilding a thriving business as Latino women in a very tough industry. They simply don’t let anything stand in their way. But, Yvonne does reflect on what she knows about her parents’ struggle to create and develop their business in the early days.

As immigrants, they did not speak the language and they met with many daily obstacles and larger barriers to success in the United States. But, they persevered. Along the way, they taught their children to respect and follow the rules and to

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value family bonds and a fierce work ethic above all. Inarguably, in addition to growing a strong business, they were highly successful in growing an exceptional family of hard workers who all continue to this day to love and help each other through their respective challenges.

SISTERS REBUILD COMMERCIAL PAVEMENT SWEEPING BUSINESS

My parents transferred all the work they had to us. So, we’ve had some clients for over 20 years. We changed the name of the business and rebuilt it. The equipment was run down. We got a little equipment from my parents and a few other things, but not much, and we were ready to give it a try. We got a small business loan for a used truck.

Yvonne laughs as she recalls buying that first sweeper truck. We went all the way to Alabama to get the truck, and it gave us trouble all the way back.

Our parents were always very hardworking people...

we finally told them — no more helping us. They had been driving, portering, and doing other work, but we finally had to tell them to just stay home...we just wanted them to take it easy and enjoy their lives.

But it lasted long enough for us to get another truck a couple of years later.

Our parents were always very hardworking people. About five years ago, we finally told them — no more helping us. They had been driving, portering, and doing other work, but we finally had to tell them to just stay home. We said that’s enough. They were still healthy enough to work, but we just wanted them to take it easy and enjoy their lives.

FAMILY BUSINESS FUTURE – AT A CROSSROAD

We lost both our parents recently. This is a really hard time for us right now. My mother died from a tragic accident in March last year (2022). They had just celebrated their 60th anniversary. My dad found it difficult to stay at home and would come and do day jobs for us just to stay busy. In January of this year, he passed away too. He wasn’t sick, but after 60 years together… They always worked together. The last 20 years of that was with their sweeping business and another five with us.

We thought — should we even keep going, or sell it? But, it’s a family business. We figured they’d all be proud of it, so we kept going. For the love they’ve all shown us, we’ve wanted to do it for them.

Our sister, Barbara Hill has helped us tons and tons and is still helping. Barbara’s husband, Ken, helped us for years too. My kids and Hortencia’s kids have all helped with it. Hortencia’s daughters-in-law have helped. Barbara and Ken’s kids have helped too.

Before the two women formed their partnership as entrepreneurs in the traditionally male industry of commercial pavement sweeping they were both professionals. Hortencia was in the military and then went on to earn a business degree. Yvonne was a nurse. Actually, I still keep my degree updated and my nursing status active. She jokingly notes, I’m always giving out bits of health advice, especially against smoking.

The business means a lot to us because it was founded by our parents, we do it for our parents and our entire family. We’re always talking about them (Papa and Mama-Lala). They helped in every way possible. Our entire family has helped so much.

CURRENT STATUS OF ABQ BUSINESS HEALTH

We’re doing better now than we ever have in this business. We serve a lot of HOAs and commercial parking lot owners. We do a lot of one-time jobs, monthly, and quarterly jobs. It all adds up. We work hard and we have good, hard-working, dedicated employees. We keep our trucks clean and well maintained. So, our customers know we are taking good care of our equipment and their properties.

We have 12 employees, including my sister and

me. My sister and I do most of the office work, paperwork, etc., and we use an accountant. Our brother, Art, is our Operations Manager. He also does a lot of the mechanical work, and we hire a mechanic occasionally for some of that. Art helped so much from the beginning. He’s very knowledgeable. He’s been a big part of the success of the business.

We have 3 trucks and we’re still growing. We have a shop for working on our trucks. We have a shop where our equipment is stored and our office is at the shop.

We use Schwarze sweeper trucks, and we have an Elgin mechanical sweeper. (The company also has field support vehicles, including a Dodge Ram and a Ford 350 pickup truck, which they use to pull their pressure washer on a trailer.)

We have a few contracts for the pressure washer and usually have 2 people doing the portering. We do some work at night and some during the day. In the last 3 to 4 months, we’ve been able to hire 3 people. For a while after Covid we couldn’t grow because we couldn’t find people. Or, they’d come on for a month and then leave.

ABQ SUSTAINABLE FAMILY & TEAM WORK MODEL

Everybody we’ve hired in the past year has stayed. We do a little of everything. It’s amazing how much we get done with what we have. We do construction cleanups with the mechanical sweeper. We do street sweeping, parking lots, and a lot of movie business. Last year we didn’t do as much of it, but in previous years we’ve had a lot of that. The movie industry has been really big around here.

They had a lot of pressure washing work to do, and

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even indoor cleaning, and movie sets. They needed the dust from building the sets cleaned up. They needed help cleaning warehouses. There was a lot of stuff to do for them. That was good; it kept us running, and they were really helpful. Our kids were allowed to run around the sets.

So, we’ve done lots of work for the movies that the kids could help with. They’ve helped us clean. We helped with the cleanup of the area where they made the second Independence Day. That place was a disaster. They wanted us to clean it up afterward. It was awesome because we could take our kids. The

kids helped us clean it up. It was nice for our kids to get that learning experience to help them get the family work ethic too — as I learned from helping my parents.

When asked about the division of labor in the business, Yvonne explained their system. My sister is better at office management and paperwork. I do the errands and other things in the business and work once or twice each week at night. My brother was in the business with my parents and he stayed on with us. He is very skilled. He does the general sweeper truck maintenance and many other kinds of complex repairs and other work.

COVID 19 PANDEMIC IMPACT ON ABQ SWEEPING IN NEW MEXICO

We’ve been in the business for 10 years now, and we’re doing better every year. Covid was rough, but we made it through that. We actually kept most of our contracts. We didn’t lose any, but we cut back on the number of sweeps for some. So, we still had some income even though it wasn’t what we were used to. But, we were able to keep our core staff.

COMPETITIVE SWEEPING MARKET IN ALBUQUERQUE, NM

We asked Yvonne about competitors in the Albuquerque market area. In the small city of Albuquerque, with a total population of just 563,000, the ABQ owners still focused on running their own race instead of worrying much about what their competitors were doing.

Yes, we definitely have competition. I think there are a couple of larger companies. But, a couple of our employees worked for them in the past and they say we’re a lot better to work with, nicer, and offer an overall better quality of employment.

I think it’s because we’re small and we still care. We just don’t ever want to lose that. Fortunately, we don’t have to watch our employees. We know they know the expectations and that they work hard and always try to meet or exceed them.

ABQ MARKETING AND SALES IN SMALL MARKET, ALBUQUERQUE NM

We don’t have signage around town. We have logos on our trucks, and we use our slogan on everything, “Quality Service You Can Depend On.” We also have a little broom logo (just a regular little broom like one you use to sweep your floors in your house). We have the slogan on our shirts too.

At one point, we started going out to make sales calls, but spent a lot of time and energy and didn’t get too far doing that. So, we hired a new marketing company. They revamped the website. It was very basic before they improved it. The website is just easier for marketing and attracting new customers.

These days it’s all about who you can Google. They (the marketing agency) send us reports about how many people are looking at it (the website), how long they stay on there, and other information. It’s been really worth our money. We got three requests for quotes on Wednesday. We’ve recently got a few more contracts from marketing on the website. It’s a learning process.

Some of our customers say, “You guys are always on

target, and if you have issues you send us pictures.” We increase our business with those clients because they have no problems. When you have trustworthy employees that you know work hard, you don’t have to worry much about keeping or replacing customers.

FUTURE PLANS FOR ABQ POWER SWEEPING, LLC

When asked whether ABQ has any plans for diversification of services, Yvonne offers a more straightforward plan for ABQ. We’re not thinking of diversifying. I was thinking if we did branch out, we might do fleet cleaning. I can’t stand to see the trucks dirty. That’s a reflection of who we are. (It makes sense to Yvonne that fleet owners would naturally want their vehicles clean too.)

But, that’s just an idea. Right now we’re just focusing on the growth we’ve recently had as our priority. We don’t want to grow so fast that we can’t do a good job. Plus you have to have family time. I’m all for doing what it takes to succeed, but we also want to spend time with our family. It’s a balance you have to maintain.

THE FAMILY BUSINESS DIFFERENCE

What’s great about being in a family business? I’ve got a very supportive husband, Albert, and my sister’s husband, Kerry, is very supportive too. Even the kids pitched in during our mother’s illness. No one would have known anything was wrong. Because we don’t stop during times of trouble.

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When you have trustworthy employees that you know work hard, you don’t have to worry much about keeping or replacing customers.

My kids are 18 and 22 years old. Of course, the kids have their own lives beyond involvement with the family business, as Yvonne explains. My daughter just graduated from college with two degrees. My son is just starting at UNM. He’s thinking of going to law school. My sister’s son Jacob is a paramedic, Jackie is a registered dietician, Mike is a military medic in the Army Special Forces, and Kelly is a nurse. My brother’s daughter, Ashlyn, is a school educator and Stephany works for a major financial planning and wealth management organization. We fully support their choices. As long as you’re happy doing what you’re doing, that’s the important thing.

My parents, first and foremost, were very hard workers. They instilled that in us. My father pushed education. He really valued education, and he encouraged and supported us all in getting a good

education. He did the same with the grandkids. My mother was such a hard worker and an inspiration to everybody. She worked in the business and ran the home, and she never complained.

ADVICE FOR INDUSTRY NEWCOMERS FROM YVONNE GARCIA, ABQ POWER SWEEPING, LLC, ALBUQUERQUE, NM

Owning a business is a 24/7 operation. It’s hard and it takes a lot of dedication. At a regular job, you go to work and come home and it’s done until your next shift. But, in your own business, you never turn it off. There’s always something you’re thinking about. That’s what makes it hard. You have to balance, otherwise, you’ll make yourself crazy. If you don’t care enough, the business won’t work. But, if you don’t balance, it won’t all work well that way either.

The takeaway for us from our time with Yvonne was about the deeper value of family engagement in a business and what that means to the quality of family and work life for those with such close-knit families who can really make it work together. Listening to Yvonne, the overarching point to learn from ABQ becomes clear: Having a family business is much more than a job or a business — it’s a way of life.

Yvonne’s other primary point for the industry is also about balance. She spoke of managing quality during growth. That is a critical take-home message for any ambitious entrepreneurs who think that that is something to figure out later, or on the fly, during growth. Seasoned business owners in the sweeping industry understand the uncontrollable loss rates that can start to spiral profitability due to growth plans that do not account well enough for maintaining quality while resources are continuously pulled away for growth priorities.

REFLECTING ON ABQ AND THE NAS MOMENT WITH YVONNE GARCIA

We can’t help wondering if there’s ever been another family business in which so many members of the immediate and extended family have helped a company succeed. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, after two decades in operation, the emphasis of ABQ, and perhaps the true secret of its long success, remains the principle of balance.

Throughout the ABQ team, sustaining quality commitments to current customers and growth activities in the business are understood as equal priorities. And, prioritizing time in ways that work to sustain both business and family success is paramount in the ABQ company culture. For Yvonne and Hortencia, professionally and

personally, it’s about honoring their father’s and mother’s legacy and example of a deep work ethic for their children, and it’s about these forms of balance between work and family time. That’s a simple-sounding message but with monumental implications for the rugged commercial power sweeping industry and every business owner in it.

For more information about ABQ Power Sweeping, LLC., Albuquerque New Mexico, call (505) 238-9181 or visit abqpowersweeping.com.

SPOTLIGHT INDEX

OAKMONT CAPITAL SERVICES RANKS NO. 1622 ON THE 2023 INC. 5000 LIST

West Chester, PA, August 2023 – Inc. 5000 has announced its 2023 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America, and Oakmont Capital Services ranks no. 1622 out of 5000. The prestigious ranking provides a data-driven look at the most successful companies within the economy’s most

expansion to the creation of our Minnesota office; additionally, the onboarding of 40 talented team members at both branches in recent years, and our focus on implementing strategic technology tools. To be acknowledged along with thousands of other independent, entrepreneurial businesses is truly a privilege.”

dynamic segment—its independent, entrepreneurial businesses. Facebook, Chobani, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other household name brands gained their first national exposure as honorees on the coveted list.

“It is an honor to be included on the 2023 Inc. 5000 list. Our organization is also celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023. This milestone, in tandem with the Inc. 5000 accolade, reminds me of how much we’ve grown since our inception, with the past five years having been exponential,” said Joe Leonard, CLFP and Founding Member/CEO/President of Oakmont Capital Services . “We attribute this rapid

The Inc. 5000 class of 2023 represents companies that have driven rapid revenue growth while navigating inflationary pressure, the rising costs of capital, and seemingly intractable hiring challenges. Since 1982, the Inc. 5000 list has analyzed company data to rank the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. For complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database, visit www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Oakmont Capital Services (OCS)

Oakmont Capital Services (OCS) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year! Established in 1998 as an equipment finance broker with Joe Leonard, CLFP, at the helm, the company’s journey has been a winding road to success over the past two and a half decades. OCS has matured into a direct lender with offices in both West Chester, Pennsylvania, and Albany, Minnesota, and a staff of over sixty finance professionals. OCS’s mission is to provide a direct and exceptional commercial equipment finance experience with a focus on building relationships.

“It is an honor to be included on the 2023 Inc. 5000 list. Our organization is also celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2023.

The 2023 International Sweeper Summit & Equipment Expo will be held at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa from October 24th to the 26th. Schwarze Industries has returned for another year as the event’s Title Sponsor. “Schwarze is a proud sponsor of the 2023 Sweeper Summit . The Summit provides a wonderful resource for sweeping company owners and leaders, to expand their business and leadership skills from experts within the industry. We are excited to be the Title Sponsor for another year,” says Joe Hendrickson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Schwarze Industries.

The Sweeper Summit begins October 24th with the Annual Golf Outing at Angel Park Golf Club on the Mountain Course. In addition to the golf outing, there will be opportunities for thrill seekers to put the pedal to the metal at Speed Vegas, where you’ll have the option to either take laps in the World’s Fastest Supercars or rough it on their off-road track in a Baja Race Truck. “Unlike

any other industry trade show, adding activities for our attendees enhances the Sweeper Summit experience. Time spent out of the meeting room with other attendees is equally as important,” says Carolyn Bell, Communications & Event Coordinator for the Sweeper Summit . “The planned sessions and roundtables are going to be very informative, but sometimes the best information you may get is in the off-the-cuff conversations you have with other attendees. We want to facilitate an environment where you’re taking away important information both in our structured sessions and as you spend casual time with other business owners from across the country.”

The Equipment Expo and Vendor Exhibits will open on Tuesday evening, October 25th, with over 20 sweeper trucks from the leading manufacturers as well as industry supplier displays indoors. On Thursday, October 26th they will introduce their unique outdoor Lunch and Learn sessions. Suburban Propane will be presenting on the process of converting gasolinepowered equipment to run on propane. There will also be a session on troubleshooting hydraulics issues with a live demo from one of the exhibiting manufacturers and their truck.

The Summit is more than just the equipment. There will be educational sessions, and roundtable discussions going over the ins and

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outs of working on your business. “While we do have a roundtable discussion with some of the equipment manufacturers, we also wanted to provide resources and education on running your business, best hiring practices, and how to build a healthy and productive company culture,” says Andy Williams, Sweeper Summit  Brand & Business Development Manager.

The Sweeper Summit is doing just that with its keynote Speaker Al Curnow from CultureWise. He’ll kick-off the Summit Wednesday morning explaining how a positive workplace culture improves teamwork, raises morale, increases productivity and efficiency, and enhances retention.

It’s looking to be a jam-packed few days full of incredible information and unforgettable experiences. The 2023 Sweeper Summit & Equipment Expo is open for anyone to attend who has an interest in the power sweeping industry.

The 2023 Sweeper Summit & Equipment Expo is open for anyone to attend who has an interest in the power sweeping industry.

HOW TO BALANCE with Quality Service Quick Growth

ASSOCIA TION INSIDER

PRIORITIZE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

SPOTLIGHT INDEX

Running a street sweeping/paving contracting business has its fair share of challenges. For newbies, it is a cycle they can’t wait to escape. The veterans see it as another day at the office. Imagine how defeating this can make one look if it goes on endlessly. Every business person gets to contend with this idea at least once in a lifetime.

Asthe demand for your services grows, the pressure of balancing quality service delivery with rapid business expansion increases. How you survive this period is a crucial aspect of long-term success.

In this article, we will explore actionable strategies that street sweeping/paving contractors can implement to find harmony between providing quality service and achieving rapid growth.

One of the fundamental pillars of success in any business, especially in the service industry, is customer satisfaction. As you scale your street sweeping or paving contracting business, you must keep your existing customers happy while attracting new ones.

To achieve this, implement a robust feedback system to gather customer Insights and invest in employee training. When you adopt this cycle of feedback and service improvement, you show your customers that you care.

BUILD SCALABLE SYSTEMS AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Efficiency is key to managing rapid growth without compromising service quality. By building scalable systems and processes, you can streamline operations and enhance productivity. First, identify bottlenecks in your current workflows and seek ways to optimize them.

Use workflow automation tools to handle repetitive tasks, such as invoicing, scheduling and reporting. By automating these processes, you free up valuable time for your team to focus on delivering exceptional service.

EMBRACE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

As your business expands, you may encounter increased client demands that could stretch your resources. Strategic partnerships can be a gamechanger in such scenarios. When you collaborate with suppliers and vendors aligned with your business values, you slowly infiltrate new markets while upholding your commitment to providing top-notch service. Reliable partners can provide you with the resources you need to scale your operations without sacrificing quality.

SMART FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

Financial prudence is essential when growing your business rapidly. In every stage of your business journey, manage your finances intelligently to ensure long-term sustainability. A well-crafted business plan is essential for guiding your growth journey. Include realistic projections for revenue, expenses and cash flow.

Set specific financial goals and outline the strategies you will employ to achieve them. Strike a balance between reinvestment and maintaining quality service and allocate resources strategically to support both objectives.

ADOPT STRATEGIC HIRING AND WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

As your business expands, you’ll need to scale your workforce to meet the increasing demands. Ensure a thoughtful approach to workforce expansion. Analyze your organizational structure and identify key positions that are vital for business growth. Fill these positions

with qualified professionals who align with your company’s culture and values.

To ensure that you retain talent and keep everyone happy, offer competitive compensation packages and implement positive work culture. Encourage open communication, recognize employee achievements and provide opportunities for growth and advancement.

HAVE A RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

With growth comes an increased exposure to potential risks. Safeguard your business by effectively managing risks and ensuring comprehensive insurance coverage. Regularly assess potential risks that could impact the quality of your services. This can be as simple as addressing safety concerns and implementing measures to minimize operational risks.

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As your business expands, you’ll need to scale your workforce to meet the increasing demands. Ensure a thoughtful approach to workforce expansion. Analyze your organizational structure and identify key positions that are vital for business growth.

requires careful planning, strategic execution and a commitment to customer satisfaction. Remember, success is not just about reaching a destination; it’s about maintaining a consistent commitment to excellence and continuous improvement.

ASSOCIA TION INSIDER

By implementing these strategies and fostering a customer-centric approach, your street sweeping/ paving contracting business can thrive. For more advice on maintaining quality service delivery while growing your street sweeping business, subscribe to the North American Sweeper Magazine today.

SPOTLIGHT INDEX

Prioritize safety in all aspects of your business and work with reputable insurance providers to obtain comprehensive coverage. They are complementary measures. Training employees to follow best practices and safety guidelines is a good place to begin.

LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY

Incorporating technology into your operations can significantly improve service delivery efficiency and branding efforts. Here are some ways to do it:

4 Utilize advanced street sweeping and paving machinery for better results

4 Implement route optimization software to improve service efficiency

4 Adopt Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to enhance customer interactions

With these measures, you can efficiently serve more customers without compromising service delivery.

ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS THROUGH BALANCED GROWTH

Achieving the delicate balance between quality service and rapid growth is challenging but rewarding. It

Sources

https://www.thryv.com/blog/business-growth-better-notbigger/

https://blog.landscapeprofessionals.org/how-i-do-itbalancing-quality-and-growth/ https://hbr.org/2009/03/strike-a-balance-between-custo https://luxa.us/blog/finding-balance-growth-quality-andcustomer-satisfaction

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-do-you-balancinggrowth-quality-your-business-ian-crates

Incorporating technology into your operations can significantly improve service delivery efficiency and branding efforts... you can efficiently serve more customers without compromising service delivery.

WE CAN CREATE A RENTAL PROGRAM TO ALIGN WITH SWEEPING CONTRACTS YOU HAVE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

5 Big Problems for Small Pavement Sweeping Businesses

ASSOCIA TION INSIDER

Starting a new business can be the most exhilarating time of an entrepreneur’s life. Of course, not everything about the experience is a heady adventure. Owning a business is a daunting challenge. There are often severe shortages of money and/or time, problems hiring and keeping top talent, a poor internet presence, trouble maintaining quality while striving to grow, and so on. Such issues can threaten the success of the enterprise. Below are some common major problems for small business owners and ideas for avoiding or reducing the impact of these on your goals.

5 SERIOUS PROBLEMS FACING MANY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

SPOTLIGHT INDEX

Potentially ruinous problems like poor leadership, unreliable workers, low cash flow, and others can cause new businesses to stall or decline beyond salvageability. To maintain progress and build a thriving, sustainable company there are straightforward approaches most business owners depend upon, like creating a sound financial strategy, practical marketing, building a strong team, and outperforming the competition on quality and service. But, unexpected issues can undermine the best of plans:

1. SHORTAGE OF FUNDS

Insufficient cash flow can be a crushing problem for a new business owner trying to build a strong team and customer base. Larger and better-established competitors are likely to have sufficient funding to implement broad-ranging growth plans. But, in the early stages, small sweeping business startups often struggle mightily just to cover payroll and fuel

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INDUSTR Y NEWS

If you’re having difficulty managing finances, even if you have very little income to manage, first, speak to your local SBA financial advisor. Also, gather advice from trusted, knowledgeable friends and family members. Slash business and personal expenses to the bare minimum. Seek temporary volunteer help from acquaintances, on a mutual-help basis, if necessary. Further, consider talking with local lenders about unsecured and secured personal loans to fund startup growth.

ASSOCIA TION INSIDER

2. SHORTAGE OF TIME

SPOTLIGHT INDEX

expenses. If a client is late in making a payment it can lead to the collapse of the operation. Small companies often fail due to running out of funds.

In a fledgling pavement sweeping company, the owner may be filling all the work roles simultaneously. In a solo business, you may be running the sweeper truck, selling services, answering phones, communicating with

Recruit from close family, friends, interns, and any others who may be willing to help.

Perhaps you can offer to help them with a later project in exchange.

vendors, paying bills, performing truck maintenance and repairs, and so on. In the smallest businesses, the owners naturally have the most personal tasks to do. This leaves little time to manage critical success factors, such as quality, value-added customer service measures, and so much more. You can’t just create more time, so what can you do?

Ask for help. If the above describes your circumstance, it’s probably time to enlist some short-term temporary volunteer help, if you can get it, for a few hours per week each for a month or so. Recruit from close family, friends, interns, and any others who may be willing to help. Perhaps you can offer to help them with a later project in exchange. If this is not a realistic option, consider outsourcing some tasks to inexpensive online resources for everything from phone answering to processing bill payments, to general bookkeeping, to sales appointment setting.

3. DIFFICULTY HIRING AND RETAINING TALENT

With nearly half the U.S. workforce employed in small businesses, it might seem that hiring workers is easy enough to do. However, as a small business in the employer market, you may be unable to compete effectively with all that larger companies have to offer new recruits. Further, you are likely to need multi-talented people, vs. specialists with narrow, highly refined skill sets. Your ideal continued on page 30

® Street Sweeper

Model 500x® High Side Dump

hire will also need the array of soft skills to help grow the team and the client base and adapt to the constant changes over the coming years.

customers what your group cannot realistically deliver consistently.

5.

INSUFFICIENT WEB PRESENCE

There’s no easy way out of this difficulty. When you start looking to hire, expect a process of trying and trying again with candidates. Focus on potential instead of developed skills. People new to an industry may be likely to be more appreciative of a new opportunity to develop in a growing business and may have a stronger sense of need to prove their value. They may have lower expectations of the new organization. But, you may also find great candidates in industry veterans who prefer working for a smaller business and are enthusiastic about being a part of growing a company from the ground up.

4. STRUGGLING TO MAINTAIN QUALITY DURING GROWTH

All too often just when a small business team is excited about getting a major new client, they find themselves beginning to strain to meet the client’s many needs and requirements. Workers become stretched too thin, efficiency suffers, and important details begin to fall between the cracks. It’s a rough irony that the very process of growing a business can be the problem that weakens its likelihood of lasting success.

Management must determine priorities and make tough decisions about scheduling and ensuring necessary downtime for rest to preserve productivity and morale. It can be very difficult to give customers and workers everything they all need and want from your business. Hire people with a strong track record of consistently high performance and expect maximum productivity and quality from them. But, do not undermine your team’s potential by over-promising

ASSOCIA TION INSIDER

SPOTLIGHT INDEX

A standard marketing program is often not feasible for new, underfunded sweeping businesses. Especially those with the classic history in the industry, in which the new business owner is still working his/her day job and running a sweeper truck all night, and knocking on property management office doors somewhere in between. Formal advertising can cost too much and word-of-mouth does not necessarily generate enough new business fast enough to get things off the ground in all markets.

The Internet offers a wealth of low- or no-cost resources for attracting new customers. So, make the most of your website. Understand what must be done to it for SEO to maximize its effectiveness for you. Further, establish a social media presence, and ask customers to place positive reviews on Yelp and elsewhere.

HOW TO MANAGE DAUNTING BUSINESS CHALLENGES

Running your own successful sweeping business is an exceptionally rewarding endeavor. However, you should be prepared to face the many difficult challenges that are to be expected when building a good business from zero. Before you launch your company, create a business plan that you are confident can succeed and obtain the best support you can find to help you get up and running.

Many successful sweeping business owners tell their story of brothers and sisters and spouses and friends temporarily helping with tasks during the initial months and/or during the busy season or major growth periods until their companies could hire.

When you fully establish your business and can attract more customers and talented workers, prioritize building a company culture that makes people want to stay and grow with the company. Perform an employer market analysis as well as a competitive market analysis to more fully understand your local business environment.

The U.S. small business subsector is growing at an exceptional rate. The current period is assessed by business analytics experts as an excellent time to have a small business in this country. So, perhaps you will not experience any of the above issues over the coming years. But, you should anticipate some typical difficulties and proceed with full awareness that there are still common planning and management challenges that can be hard to bypass or overcome.

Ultimately, if you find yourself struggling with any one or all of the above problems in your pavement sweeping business, identify the best solutions available to you and be assertive in reaching out for the resources you need.

Sources

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/small-businessproblems-and-failure

https://www.waldenu.edu/programs/business/resource/ top-five-challenges-small-business-owners-face