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by Ranger Kidwell-Ross, editor, WorldSweeper.com
For the past week I, along with many millions of others around the globe, have been transfixed by a nightly dose of Olympic fever. Basking in the comfort of my recliner I watch as the best athletes in the world perform what appear to be individual miracles. From twirling poetically on ice to jumping hundreds of meters down snow-covered hills, the Winter Olympics always make for a wonderful show.
The inherent ability of these Olympic athletes no doubt played a role in getting them to Vancouver, BC, which is a mere hour north of my home. However, my guess is that virtually none have the raw ability that would allow them to excel amidst their peers, and before the eyes of the world, if they didn't also have an absolute dedication to being the best they can be. To cite the often-misquoted words credited to the immortal football coach, Vince Lombardi, "Perfect practice makes perfect." That's where we come in. Read more.
February Newsletter Contents
- WorldSweeper.com's 2010 Award of Excellence in Power Sweeping
- The Possible Role of Facebook in Your Contracting Business
- Upgrade Your Management Capabilities With WorldSweeper.com's 2010 NPE Coverage
- An Overview of Sweeping in Kuwait
- Featured Contractor: Ontario, Canada-based Tim's Water Service
- Washington State Issues New Stormwater Permit for Industrial Facilities
WorldSweeper.com's 2010 Award of Excellence in Power Sweeping Goes to Allan Heydorn
Each year WorldSweeper.com honors some individual who has an extensive track record of making a positive difference in the power sweeping industry. This year, the award went to Allan Heydorn, editor of PAVEMENT Magazine and Conference Coordinator at the National Pavement Exposition.
For two decades, Heydorn has done what he could to promote power sweeping as an important cornerstone of pavement maintenance. In recent years, this has included offering free seminars to NAPSA members as a way to advance education throughout the sweeping industry. Heydorn well knows that the contractors who attend his shows are among the most successful in America, and his positive actions have exposed more sweeping contractors than ever before to the great ideas gained from show attendance. Read about it and see acceptance video.
Just when you finally became convinced of the importance of having a website, along comes Facebook and other 'social media' ways to communicate with your customers. The statistics about Facebook are phenomenal.
Users now number over 400 million, with 50% updating their Facebook page every day and 35 million of those checking out their Facebook home page. More of these than ever before are business people, looking for business-related updates. Marty Hugie, owner of Utah-based Clean Sweep Enterprises, Inc., shares his story of building and using a Facebook Fan Page for his company.
In just two months, Hugie boasts 111 fans, most of whom are business customers who now turn to their Facebook account for the latest news from Hugie's company. This story is the first in our new 'Internet Usage Ideas' category for sweeping contractors. Read the entire story.
This year's NPE 2010 offered a wide variety of seminars of interest to those in power sweeping. I was very impressed by turnaround CEO, Kraig Kramers, insight into how to manage and motivate those around him, including his seminar audience. His real gem, though, was his system for tracking just about any recurring aspect of a business, from sales to costs to complaints.
The rest of the stories offer equally great 'take home' concepts, and topics included electronic messaging etiquette, employee manuals, accident readiness tips for drivers, marketing, presentations and more. Topping it all off was this year's "Best Practices for Power Sweeping" seminar.
You'll also find a wide variety of product information via our courtesy audio and video vendor presentations. These covered 10 different sweepers and sweeping-related products on display at the show. Before now, there was no way to get exposure to these ideas without actually being at the trade show. Be sure to avail yourself of this information before you wake up someday and find to your dismay that, among all the contractors in your market area, you were the only one who didn't! New coverage continues through March 4th. Go to the coverage page.
Situated on the Arabian Gulf and bordered by Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Kuwait City has beaches, a number of excellent resorts, shopping malls, a marvellous old souk (open market), good museums and a fish market/marina that has a stunning range of flip-flopping fresh fish and plenty of restaurants ready to serve them. No alcohol, but you will find that doesn't hurt you.
There is nothing easy or ordinary about sweeping in Kuwait, a country where strong winds in June and July can blanket everything in quite deep sand drifts. Imagine this sweeping problem: Cleaning up miles of highways outside of the city that are frequently covered up to 15" deep in dry, gritty, machine-destroying sand!
In this interview with M.P. Jagdish, manager of the engineering department of the largest cleaning contractor in Kuwait, National Cleaning Company, we learn how this difficult task is accomplished in such an extreme climate. Read the entire story.
Tim Kukovica started out as a farmer in Canada's Ontario province, just north of Niagara Falls, New York. How could he know when he bought a municipal water truck at auction for its transmission that the purchase would change the course of his business life.
In addition to its two street flusher trucks, Tim's fleet of equipment also includes a fleet of mechanical and regenerative power sweeping vehicles and an assortment of trucks and trailers. Kukovica has even built a one-of-a-kind piece of specialty pavement drying equipment powered by a fighter jet engine. Although the 'turbine jet dryer' burns a spendy 300 litres of fuel an hour, during Ontario's inclement weather season the machine is sometimes just the ticket needed to get a pavement-related job accomplished.
Read the entire story.
Washington State's Department of Ecology has issued a new Industrial Stormwater General Permit that places additional requirements on stormwater dischargers at over 1,100 industrial facilities in the state.
The New Permit requires — for the first time — that all industrial facilities sample and meet aggressive compliance benchmarks for discharges of copper. It also retains stringent restrictions on discharging zinc, another metal that has been very difficult for industrial facilities to control. The new Permit also sets new operational conditions, including mandatory quarterly vacuum sweeping, and modifies sampling and reporting requirements.
There is no question that Washington State sweeping contractors, especially those savvy enough to target affected industries and facilities, should benefit from increased business. And, because Washington's stormwater permit requirements are often used as a model by other Western states, the new, more stringent runoff requirements will likely affect other area states, as well.
Jeff Kray, a water resources and environmental attorney who is a partner in Seattle-based Marten Law Group, has written an extensive, easy-to-understand overview and analysis of the new permit requirements. Check it out.
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