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.
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.
This article is an expert from the CEO Toolkit series, done by Kraig Kramers. In this article he describes the importance of trailing 12-month charts, including what it is and how to make it work for you. A podcast is embedded at the end of the article.
Kramers, who has been the CEO of 8 different companies, offered a wealth of information applicable to anyone who runs a business. During his presentation, the dynamic Kramers offered a number of proven techniques for improving business forecasting, sales and management. These were taken from what he calls his “CEO Tools.”
