What I have learned about … OPERATING A PART-TIME BUSINESS
“ BRIAN BENIEK
Minnesota police offi cer and owner of a property maintenance company using Bobcat equipment
pair of Toolcat™ utility work machines, along with several attachments, including a snowblower, sweeper, landplane, tree spade, pallet fork and grapple bucket.
One of his loaders is a new M-Series S650, a machine Beniek says is “awesome, with unbelievable comfort and visibility. I have never seen a machine as good as this model.”
Or maybe he has. “Hands down, the Toolcat 5600 is one of the best pieces of equipment available today,” he notes. “For landscaping and snow removal, there is nothing better than the utility work machine.”
Beniek now has 95 commercial accounts in the winter, 60 in the summer. They include strip malls, campus-type industrial parks, warehouses and retail establishments such as banks and service stations. One of his clients is the Minneapolis-area offi ce of the National Weather Service where 24-hour snow removal service is required.
As my part-time business grew, the biggest challenge was to allocate enough time to manage it. When revenue got close to a million dollars a year, it became a real struggle. I was forced to look at the company differently. Luckily, I hired an offi ce manager and two other managers to operate the business for me. If you cannot be there full time, you better have good people working for you.
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In the spring, summer and fall, Beniek’s company does lawn maintenance; landscape installation; fertilization and weed control; property cleanup; retaining walls and patios; and stripping, seal coating and pavement repair.
Beniek says he is very satisfi ed where his company is today.
“Since I have a number of good people operating the business for me,” I intend to remain with the police department until retirement (he’s a sergeant ranking No. 5 in a department of 70 sworn offi cers).
“The relationship with Bobcat and Lano Equipment, Shakopee, Minn., has been an important part of my success,” he says. “Bobcat is the only type of compact equipment I have ever owned and have found it to be very useful and profi table. There’s nothing like it.”
FIREMAN USES DAYS OFF TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Before Gary McCord began his career as a fi reman, he operated McCord’s Tractor Service. Once he joined the San Bernardino (Calif.) County Fire Department, his company became his part-time business, and for the past 23 years, he’s had success in both.
Today he is a captain with the fi re prevention program, supervising the fuel reduction crew that has a large inventory of construction equipment to create fi re containment lines, clear access routes, recover fi re engines from off-road locations, separate burned from unburned materials and knock down structures damaged by fi re or structural collapse.
18 WorkSaver Fall 2010
And, when time is available, he operates his Bobcat® S220 skid-steer loader and valuable attachments — a backhoe, auger, hydraulic breaker, combination bucket and Brushcat™ rotary cutter, purchased from Inland Bobcat, Riverside, Calif.
“A lot of fi remen have to choose whether they want to work overtime for the department or supplement their income with a secondary occupation,” McCord says. “I wanted to do something that is calmer like digging a trench or backfi lling a foundation. Also, it enabled me to spend more time with my family instead of being at the fi re station for 24 hours. The income was about the same and it was nice to do something different.”
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