In this episode, Corey will ‘sell’ Adam on the concept of a Skid-Steer For Snow Plowing. Adam owns and operates a snow and landscape company made up of himself, his wife, and 7 other employees. He’s small, but wait till you see how quickly he grows when he decides to dedicate his efforts on his Snow Business! Adam and his crew are fictional, but you’ll get subtle hints of the Experience Driven Innovation we hold within KAGE Innovation!
Skid Steer Plowing Snow Are Awesome
Corey – “Adam, I’m done. Do you want me to salt this lot now?”
Adam on the other end of the phone – “WHAT??? You’re done already?” That skidsteer can’t plow that fast. You’ve only been there for 35 minutes?!”
Corey has just plowed a 2.3 acre office building parking lot, sidewalk, and drive-up entrances in less than 35 minutes. The same site that Adam had bid, and lost to Joe’s landscaping. Adam had carefully measured the lot using his google map technology. The lot looked something like a large rectangle, and was separated by a main drive aisle, and a few randomly placed islands for ‘green space’. The snow plowing of this lot was straightforward, except there was a large retaining wall at one end, eliminating any snow storage there. That meant the bulk of the snow had to be pushed all the way down the long way, or off to one side. The problem with pushing the snow off to one side was that meant more time spent backing up rather than pushing snow forward.
Using A Skid Steer For Detailed Snow Removal
As Adam pulls in to check the lot, he’s amazed. The lot is not only plowed, but it’s practically the cleanest plowing job he’s ever seen. It looks like it was scraped down by a road grader. The corners are perfectly square, every curb line is visible, and even the islands are – well – clean and there’s no snow piled up on them. “Corey, you did awesome here. How did the skid-steer work?” “Well,” says Corey “I found out that you could not only plow snow with it, but it can trim around curbs better than a truck. I was even able to do the sidewalks and front entrance with it! I thought you’d really appreciate that. Less hand work!” Corey was bursting with enthusiasm. This was NOT normal for the placid over-all wearing farmer. It took a lot to get him going, and boy was he ever! “I even plowed the lot in both directions. I’ll take care of that leftover pile there by the retaining wall with my tractor and 3 point blower later today.”
Plow Deep Snow In Less Time
“Corey, do you think that you could plow this lot that quickly on a consistent basis? Even if we have 10” at once?” asks Adam.
“Well, I just snow plowed the lot at 8 inches and it took less than 35 minutes. I guess that if there were 15 inches on the ground I’d do it in about 1 hour!” Stated Corey as he climbed out of the machine. He climbs out and starts scratching his head. “What if we tried to mount a snow plow to this skid steer? Then I’d be able to really move snow. I wouldn’t have to worry about dribbles from the bucket, and I could windrow rather than push.” Corey was a farmer, so naturally he was around plenty of heavy equipment. He was used to fixing things and really took an interest in creating tools to make the job easier or faster. “Time is money” – he always said. “I’ll go salt this lot, are your other sites ready to be salted?” “No, not yet” replied Adam. His mind was spinning from the lack of sleep, coffee, monster energy drinks, but most of all the opportunity that was in front of him!
A Skid-Steer Snow Plowing Will Make More Money
Adam’s thoughts were going a mile a minute. If he were able to add this professional building to his snow plow contracts, he could leave the skid steer plugged in at the clinic. Then do the clinic, AND the new professional building in less time than it takes to do just the clinic with two trucks. Not to mention if Corey was right about that skid steer plow – what kind of efficiency would that create? Adam was excited. This was the kind of stuff that he lived for. If anyone could build that plow attachment for the skid steer, it was Corey. Now Adam needs to sell the property owner his seasonal snow contract VS the hourly contract he was used to. Last time he had approached that guy he was turned down on price and a seasonal contract VS. hourly rate. “Ugh, he thought, I’ll have to think hard on how help that guy understand the win – win benefits of a seasonal contract.
Well, Adam will get to work on his proposal for this new property. Corey will get to work on fabricating a snowplow attachment for their old skid loader. I’m excited to see what they both come up with. Next week Adam will meet with the property manager about the seasonal contract. Corey will drive over to the local truck shop to get a couple of heavy duty plow cylinders for his project.
Mike Stephan
President
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