# How many properties can a solo operator handle?



## By-The-Lake (Nov 23, 2007)

I wanted to get some opinions on how many full service residential properties (drive, and walkway, salting) could be reasonably handled by a solo operator. Also how many could be handled by a driver with a helper. I know this will vary depending on experience but I just need to get a general idea for how many clients to book. This will be my first year working with my own equipment which consists of a Blizzard 7600LT on a F-150 4x4 and a Toro 3650 blower. Thanks for you help.

All drives are speced at 2" trigger for falling or drifing and clearing by 7:00am.


----------



## buckwheat_la (Oct 11, 2009)

need more info:
how long do they want to work for
how much snow is average
are you doing walks and steps (i am assuming based on the snow blower)
how large are the residences (approximately, one car drive, two car drive, back yards, etc)

now i can only tell you what i expect from my crews, two guys, shovels/snowblowers, usually a one car, sometimes two car driveway, front walk, steps, and path to garbage in the backalley, 1-3inches average, with snow drifts (we get a lot of wind here) i expect them to do 4-6/hour including drive time, as a average, there is 5-10 min inbetween each place, and allowing 2-10min for shovelling/snow blower,


----------



## dingybigfoot (Jun 12, 2008)

30-35 solo no shoveller.
40-45 with a shoveller.


----------



## buckwheat_la (Oct 11, 2009)

dingybigfoot;886602 said:


> 30-35 solo no shoveller.
> 40-45 with a shoveller.


definetly shows the different dynamics of different regions, we do approximately 50-55/two man crew, but i am pretty sure you guys get more snow in a dumping then we do


----------



## hydro_37 (Sep 10, 2006)

Alot depends on the operator's experience level


----------



## Matts Kitty (Nov 14, 2009)

When my husband had a heart attack at 36 he had 34 residential customers. I had very little experience but got a grip real quick. Most of the drives over 200' long. My brother in law has 60 and he's a one man operation w/no shoveling. Good luck to you.


----------



## KBTConst (Oct 25, 2009)

I have 72 but only about 30 involves a shovel it will take me about 10 - 12 hrs to get them all done 12 are commercial accounts and are all done buy 7 am this is all based on 4 in snow fall


----------



## martyman (Nov 11, 2000)

I've worked solo now for around 12 years and I've gotten wise about how many walks I do on my own...as little as possible. I've done over 60 and I'm down to 35 to 40. I was trying to figure out the money aspect of doing residential plowing.

Okay here is a very rough estimate

I have very little or no income November and April.

December 1st to March 31 if you get 40 homes at $350

$14 000.

Okay an average amount of fuel I used last year over 4 months was

$300 per month (February I actually used $400)

leaving you with

$12 800.00

I spend around $1500 to $3000 in repairs depending on the year and severity of the winter...(I will subtract the lowest amount).

So will end up with a grand total of

$11 300.00

An average of $35 to $40 per hour...

This is a rough calculation (fuel prices/different vehicles/distance to each home/amounts of snow).


----------



## shott8283 (Feb 17, 2008)

i cant even begin to imagine the ops tempo of myself, running more then 25 accounts.


----------



## By-The-Lake (Nov 23, 2007)

Thanks for the responses everyone. I think I am going to play it a little conservative this year and start turning people away after 25 clients. I just want to make sure everything goes as planned and that most people are happy with the service provided. At the end of the plow season I think I will have the enough perspective to see how many clients to take on and how to increase my productivity. I think my biggest increase to productivity will come when I tighten my route. Right now I think I am sitting at 22 clients which is all residential with the exception of 2 small commercials.


----------



## Mister Nature Lawn Care (Oct 26, 2019)

I have average 22 to 30 clients as I still wanna figure out how to cover a shoveler so I can have 2 men on the job. How do your guys cover yours as a solo proprietor.


----------



## Kinport (Jan 9, 2020)

Help me out here- what are you referencing when you say “cover a shoveler”? Are you wondering how to pay them and yourself or are you asking how to employ a shoveler legally while still being classified as a sole proprietor? Or something else entirely?


----------



## BossPlow2010 (Sep 29, 2010)

What do you man an average of 22-30 clients? Does the amount of clients differ for each storm?

do you mean cover Insurnace wise, or labor rates wise.


Wonder what buckwheat and hydro are doing these days.


----------



## DeVries (Nov 27, 2007)

11 year old thread Thumbs Up


----------



## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

All of them....


----------



## theplowmeister (Nov 14, 2006)

In my younger days (20 years ago) I was doing 75 solo no shoveling in 7 hours. Now 50 or so.


----------



## 97BlackDiesel (Dec 2, 2016)

20 years ago it actually snowed during winter. To answer ur question get a federal ein and find a good accountant.


----------



## HALH VT (Nov 14, 2003)

Doing 40 +/- , depending on storms. Rural residential, with quite a few vacant or weekends only, which gives me a little slack if I need it. NO SHOVELING!! I am physically incapable of it any more. Takes me between six and seven hours to run through everything on easy storm, starting at one end of my route and taking it in order. A difficult storm, especially one lasting over a day, and requiring me to play whack-a-mole with call outs can take twice that.


----------



## Jake's Lawn and Snow (Mar 20, 2020)

I have 8+ yrs experience operating a plow truck. I'll be starting my own business this winter. I'll be doing everything on my own this winter.
Sounds like a lot of people do a lot more residential than I thought in a storm for 1 truck and 1 operator no shoveled.
I'm debating on how to sell just drives and not do walks. Any advise.
Should I do walks?


----------



## snoboss (Oct 19, 2012)

Good business is where you find it. depends how hungry you are.


----------



## snoboss (Oct 19, 2012)

Around here it seems a snow shovel is possessed by satan, everyone avoids them!


----------



## SnowHampshire (Nov 8, 2020)

My company is very young...when I started out I wouldn't take anything that needed shoveling. Well, because I haven't put any work into advertising to the customers I actually want, I wasn't gaining new customers. I was missing out on wayyyy too much business by not doing walkways. I had to cave in and get shoveling/snowblowing. On the bright side, these customers wanted to be salted also, so that's some bonus $ I wasn't making before. 1 yd of bulk salt all put in sandbags. I plan on taking anything I can get for the foreseeable future, untilI can afford to sub it out and do the good ones myself. One day I won't be getting out of the truck...not anytime soon though


----------



## snoboss (Oct 19, 2012)

Running a dedicated sidewalk crew with truck trailer 1025r snowblower box scraper loaded with salt has gained so much work for the business it seems to be a necessary evil anymore. That being said it is the most demanding challenge to keep the crew ahead of the plowing equipment. The sidewalk crew is so important to the overall success of the accounts that in reality they are unsung heroes.


----------



## kg26 (Feb 5, 2013)

If your route is right you can do a lot


----------



## Kman2298 (Dec 24, 2015)

I do mainly commercial lots and I dedicate 3-5 lots per truck( Just one guy per truck) The problems occur when we get a long storm over 10 hours or a lot of snow. Than even the simplest lots become completely unmanageable. 

Id rather take on less work and be less stressed than jamming in a ton of work, anyway every customer likes to act as if they are the most important and need their property done first.


----------



## scaypa (Jan 12, 2016)

SnowHampshire said:


> My company is very young...when I started out I wouldn't take anything that needed shoveling. Well, because I haven't put any work into advertising to the customers I actually want, I wasn't gaining new customers. I was missing out on wayyyy too much business by not doing walkways. I had to cave in and get shoveling/snowblowing. On the bright side, these customers wanted to be salted also, so that's some bonus $ I wasn't making before. 1 yd of bulk salt all put in sandbags. I plan on taking anything I can get for the foreseeable future, untilI can afford to sub it out and do the good ones myself. One day I won't be getting out of the truck...not anytime soon though


The same thing happened to me. It seems like no other company around here wants to shovel. It's not glamorous shoveling sidewalks and steps, but there seems to be plenty of work out there.


----------



## jato (Dec 3, 2020)

snoboss said:


> Running a dedicated sidewalk crew with truck trailer 1025r snowblower box scraper loaded with salt has gained so much work for the business it seems to be a necessary evil anymore. That being said it is the most demanding challenge to keep the crew ahead of the plowing equipment. The sidewalk crew is so important to the overall success of the accounts that in reality they are unsung heroes.


Sidewalks are taking forever, residential so there's half a minute to 3 mins between stops. Any suggestions? Even if we allow for more than $1 per man-minute for the shoveling, it is costing a lot (almost zero margin), and my guys are taking forever to get it done. I'd buy another truck and send 1 guy out solo for more productivity if we had the money now, but we don't.

Is anybody doing residential sidewalks and front door paths? Any suggestions? Our plow/tractor drivers cannot get out and shovel. There is no time for that.

How do you find guys with any work ethic who will shovel correctly? Offering about $20-25+ per hour and 1/3 of the time is riding in a truck, and I can't get guys to get it done. I'm going out the next morning for 2-3 hours fixing their screw ups.

On advice from a couple guys in I considered not shoveling at all next year. But we will have trouble getting accounts. I'd charge more for the shoveling, but people are already pushing back on $100-125 per season for it. (I am in SE Michigan and we get 8-13 storms a year at 2" trigger. Last year was 8. This year is only 4 so far.) 
This year we charged $95 for front door path only, and $125-150 if the property also had a public sidewalk to clear. I'm thinking about pushing that to a flat $150 across the board, but I'd say 20-40% of our accounts will claim they're too old or disabled to shovel and will take their business elsewhere. Most of them are telling the truck but a few are just lazy.
I had planned to seek out neighborhood high school kids in each area to do the shoveling, on foot, but that will take all summer to set up, and I'm worried they will drop the ball.

another thing I considered was putting a snowrator in every square mile of homes we have, and then going door to door and selling the sidewalk service for $50-60 per season. Then having a guy drive the full neighborhood for about 2 hours, clearing almost everything. I think that would be profitable. Especially after we drive the snowrator over the non client sidewalks and pack down the snow. That would convert new customers pretty fast. (I'm kidding on that last idea)

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!


----------



## Fourteen Contracting Inc. (Jul 5, 2019)

jato said:


> Sidewalks are taking forever, residential so there's half a minute to 3 mins between stops. Any suggestions? Even if we allow for more than $1 per man-minute for the shoveling, it is costing a lot (almost zero margin), and my guys are taking forever to get it done. I'd buy another truck and send 1 guy out solo for more productivity if we had the money now, but we don't.
> 
> Is anybody doing residential sidewalks and front door paths? Any suggestions? Our plow/tractor drivers cannot get out and shovel. There is no time for that.
> 
> ...


Do most of your accounts want the sidewalks / walkways done?


----------



## SnowHampshire (Nov 8, 2020)

jato said:


> Sidewalks are taking forever, residential so there's half a minute to 3 mins between stops. Any suggestions? Even if we allow for more than $1 per man-minute for the shoveling, it is costing a lot (almost zero margin), and my guys are taking forever to get it done. I'd buy another truck and send 1 guy out solo for more productivity if we had the money now, but we don't.
> 
> Is anybody doing residential sidewalks and front door paths? Any suggestions? Our plow/tractor drivers cannot get out and shovel. There is no time for that.
> 
> ...


I do paths and walkways but it's minimal and I'm solo... I'm kind of stuck in between using a shovel and a single stage snowblower. Single stage snow blowers are great for walkways and it's easier for a guy to toss in-and-out of the truck. Are your walkways long enough to necessitate a snowblower or power shovel?


----------



## jato (Dec 3, 2020)

Fourteen Contracting Inc. said:


> Do most of your accounts want the sidewalks / walkways done?


Yes I think so. But I've realized I need to poll them and ask how important the walks are. I posted this Q as a separate thread and got some feedback there. too.

Do you offer shoveling at all, or just stick to drives / lots?


----------



## Fourteen Contracting Inc. (Jul 5, 2019)

jato said:


> Yes I think so. But I've realized I need to poll them and ask how important the walks are. I posted this Q as a separate thread and got some feedback there. too.
> 
> Do you offer shoveling at all, or just stick to drives / lots?


I'll reply in your other thread


----------

