Our next-door neighbour builds the most amazing ice rink in his backyard every year. It’s complete with curved corners, painted 2’ boards all the way around, lights, and netting to catch stray pucks. The only thing that’s missing is a scoreboard and lines in the ice, though I expect those are coming. It’s a work of art. But this year, it’s been more like a wading pool than an ice rink. It’s been so sad.

The weather this year has been unlike anything I can remember in all my years in landscaping. As I write this, it’s February 7 and 9°C in Toronto. There are no snow piles and no frost in the ground. Many of our clients are concerned about what this means for their business, both this year and in the future if this weather trend continues. While a light winter may have its pros and cons, one thing is certain – we need to adapt and make changes in our practices and snow contracts to survive in the face of low snow seasons.

Let’s...

I love the change of seasons. I have family living in west Africa and one of the hardest adjustments for them is that there’s no change of seasons (unless you count the change from “hot” season to “hotter” season).

But here at home in Canada, we get to experience the changing of the seasons. And fall is my favourite. It’s my favourite for all sorts of reasons – for cooler weather, for a return to routine after the summer, for campfires on cool nights, for Thanksgiving, and even for pumpkin spice lattes!

I also love the change of seasons when it comes to our business. The fall brings with it a change in the type of work we’re doing, the start of planning for the snow season, the excitement of new equipment, and the return of everyone back at work after summer holidays.

But the fall brings with it some unique financial stressors for business owners. These include material and equipment expenses, contracts that don’t pay out until...

You can find the original article by Lauren Spiers HERE.  

Properly scheduling and routing crews can often be a complicated, mind-bending exercise.

Ensuring that every crewmember receives his or her required hours per week, creating efficient routes for crews to follow, contending with weather issues or crewmembers who need to take a sick day – it all spells R-O-L-A-I-D-S for operations managers and company presidents trying to make everything fit together.

Creating efficient and effective routes and schedules really is like putting a puzzle together, and finding those helpful edge and corner pieces first can make the process easier. Here are a few tips contractors offered to help ensure the rest of the pieces all fit nicely.

• Work one step at a time. “The more [crews] you have, the more difficult it is to route and schedule, but if you just break everything up into little pieces and try not to schedule everybody at once, it’s much easier,”...

I had the opportunity earlier this month to speak at the Landscape Alberta Green Industry Show & Conference (GISC). One of the seminars I led was Grow Your Snow Business. As we’re just starting the winter season, I thought that some of the information I shared at that seminar might be helpful and get you off to the most efficient start. Although I was speaking specifically about snow businesses, all this information is easily transferable to any contracting business.

We talked about six areas of business: Leadership, Customers, Staff, Finances, Operations, and Safety. Below I’ve listed some key points for the first three areas. each area, as well as some KPI’s to help you have success in that area.

1. LEADERSHIP

• Invest in professional development opportunities: Always be learning. Attend conferences, get involved in your local landscape organization, listen to podcasts, read books, network with others, join a peer group.
• Implement regularly scheduled meetings:...

With winter on the way, it's important to put a client communication process in place for before, during and after a storm. There is really no such thing as communicating too much with clients. With that in mind, we've created the following as a template you can use for your clients. 

If you joined us at our GROW event in Stoney Creek in August, you saw the Metal Pless Live Edge blade in action on the Merlo machine. With that in mind, we are thrilled to hand over the blog to Metal Pless this week as they share more about their company with you. 

Metal Pless of Plessisville, Quebec is a frontrunner in the snowplow manufacturing sector. Clients rely on the company’s products to clear public roadways, commercial and industrial properties, as well as airports during and after a snowfall. It is a task done under intense time pressure and scrutiny; city streets and parking lots must be plowed quickly to maintain access in adverse weather conditions.

The company’s products can be fitted on various vehicles including tractors, wheel loaders, backhoes, skid steers, and tandem trucks. Plows are sold through a North America-wide dealer network. Dealers, in turn, sell to customers – typically snow contractors, Departments of Transportation (DOT),...

Have you thought about adding liquids to your snow operations? It can be a little daunting but the overall benefit far outweighs the learning curve.

A number of years ago, I attended a SnowEx seminar by Daniel Gilliland. He is a pioneer in bringing liquids to the forefront in Ontario. I learned so much through his presentation and I want to share what I learned with you. 

There are four main reasons to use liquid strategies for Snow and Ice Control:

• Improve safety outcomes
• Reduce the environmental impact/property damage and the amount of chlorides going into the environment.
• Drastically reduce your materials, especially if you make your own salt brine.
• Using liquids to anti-ice prevents snow and ice from bonding to the pavement which results in a significant reduction to post-storm labour, equipment, and material clean up costs.

Did You Know?

• Slip & Fall claims related to winter maintenance account for more lawsuits than in any other sector except auto accidents.
• ...

One of the best ways to ensure winter success is to plan ahead regarding your fleet needs.

Your relationship with your suppliers will play a key role in this. You can help them out by getting your equipment ordered early and/or getting your existing equipment scheduled for service before the forecast is calling for snow. Setting up a system where they can call you when they have some time and they know what equipment needs servicing is a small thing that can make a huge impact.

I highly recommend working with local suppliers for ordering and delivery of trucks, equipment and small machinery. I would also choose a supplier that allows you to standardize the equipment you’re using, making it easier for budgeting and repairs. If you’re using all the same equipment (ie, same type of plow), you can order parts that will work for all of the pieces. You can also identify when an issue is a manufacturer’s defect rather than just a one-off. For example, if you use one type...