BLIZZARD ACCELERATES GROWTH OF POLICE OFFICER’S COMPANY
By the fall of 1991, Brian Beniek had settled into a nice work routine — suburban police offi cer and owner of a property maintenance and landscaping services company. Working rotating shifts for the Plymouth (Minn.) Police Department enabled him to spend two to four days a week tending to his part-time enterprise — including mowing lawns, landscaping and snow removal.
A record-breaking Halloween storm changed his business forever.
“I did lawn maintenance on the morning of October 31, 1991, and then went to my regular police job,” he recalls. “When I got off work at 11 p.m., I started plowing snow, and continued doing it for the next three days. My only sleep was a couple of naps.”
The three-day storm dropped more than 28 inches of snow on the Minneapolis-St. Paul area (Plymouth is a suburb just west of Minneapolis). That was 8 inches more than the previous single storm record.
“At that time I had 10 commercial snow removal accounts,” Beniek says. “I got a lot of new customers out of that storm and made enough money to purchase an engagement ring for my future wife. Talk about life-changing events.”
through high school and college. In 1985 he graduated from college and, unable to fi nd a law enforcement job, expanded his company by adding snow removal services and hiring his fi rst employee.
“My father, George, has been my inspiration, teaching me the value of hard work and listening to the customer,” Beniek says. “I would not have been as successful without his support.”
The City of Plymouth (population: 72,000) hired Beniek as a police offi cer in 1988 so he had to scale back his business, turning it into a part-time endeavor.
After the 1991 snowstorm and with all the new customers it brought in, he had little choice but to grow the business. He added managers, other employees and equipment. Today the company has seven full- time, year-round employees, and seasonal help ranging from 20 in the summer to 56 in the winter.
Beniek was renting a Bobcat® 773 skid-steer loader
from Lano Equipment, Shakopee, Minn., when the Halloween blizzard began. He quickly called the dealership for more loaders to handle the infl ux of new customers. The next year he purchased his fi rst loader and has added many more Bobcat products since then.
“One thing I like about Bobcat equipment,” Beniek says, “is you can buy one machine and do almost any
“One thing I like about Bobcat equipment is you can buy one machine and do almost any type of job because of all the attachments available. You don’t have to purchase multiple machines to
do different types of work. And you don’t even have to buy attachments — you can rent them.” — Brian Beniek
Brian Beniek pairs his new M-Series S650 skid-steer loader with an angle broom attachment to effi ciently clean a parking lot.
Started young
Beniek began cutting grass at age 13 when his grandfather gave him a lawn mower. His fi rst customer was the Chanhassen (Minn.) post offi ce, an account he still has today. He kept the fl edgling business going
16 WorkSaver Fall 2010
type of job because of all the attachments available. You don’t have to purchase multiple machines to do different types of work. And you don’t even have to buy attachments — you can rent them. You can really control your equipment expenses with Bobcat because one machine can do such a variety of work.”
Today Beniek Property Services Inc., headquartered in Chanhassen, Minn., operates six loaders and a
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