6 Fatal Mistakes that Can Kill Your Snow Plow Business

Document your snow operations.

By Ryan Pfeifer

Do you want to make your snow plow business bullet-proof? Then you’ve got to minimize room for errors that can lead to failure.

In this post, I’ll tell you 6 fatal mistakes — based on insights from market experts — that can kill your snow plow business in the long run.

Are you ready? Let’s dive in.

documenting snow

1. Forgetting to Document Everything

 

Running a snow and ice removal company is risky business, especially since there are a lot of slip and fall lawsuits filed each year.

 

If you want to minimize your liability, then you need to document the following three pieces of information every time you step foot on your client’s property:

 

  • The exact time
  • Date and weather conditions
  • Name of employees who did the job

Check out how you can auto-document snow operations: work conditions, temperature, duration, location, and billing >

contractual agreements

2. Failing to Meet Contract Agreements

If you promised to have the parking lots cleared by 4:30 am, then you must ensure that the work is finished before the promised deadline.

Otherwise, you can end up being liable for injuries — which can hurt your business bad.

That’s why you should never take more work than you can handle. In other words, always schedule a reasonable amount of work that can be easily handled on time by your crew.

3. Failing to Teach the Importance of Documenting Operations to Your Workers

As the business owner, your job is to ensure your team knows how to record everything they do, including when they arrived, what they did, and how long they worked for on each site.

This should be a part of your training process. Your crew leaders or team members (in small companies) should document all the important details of their jobs.

Otherwise, you don’t know who’s responsible for what and that is the worst thing for your business.

Snow articles

4. Not Training Your Crew

On top of teaching your team the importance of documenting snow operations, you must ensure that they’re trained well. Otherwise, you may face liability issues, such as equipment damage.

Also, if your crew is not trained well, then they probably won’t make a good impression on your client — which means that a poorly trained crew can cost you potential long-term clients.

 

5. Buying the Wrong Truck

If you want your crew to get the job done right, then you have to give them the right equipment.

By buying small trucks that are less expensive, but not designed to handle heavy snow, you end up wasting your workers’ time and efforts.

Plus, your trucks will wear out quicker because they’re not designed for plowing huge amounts of snow. So by buying a small truck, you don’t save any money either.

If you need help picking the right truck for your plow business, then read my recommendations of the most affordable heavy-duty plow trucks.

6. Forgetting to Keep Your Clients Updated

This is an important one.

According to market experts, clients appreciate nothing more than being kept in the loop, and yet most snow removal businesses don’t provide proper updates.

The best way to keep your clients in the loop is by investing in snow scheduling software that allows you to send up-to-the-minute messages to your clients.

This way, your clients will know when you’re coming to clear their lots and by when you’ll get the job done.

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