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Our Featured Contractor for July is Orlando-based Blown Away, LLC. You'll find that owner Ron Barnett provides one of our most thought-provoking audio interviews to date.

If your fiscal year is January through December, you are about half-way through the year. Guy Gruenberg's latest article helps you decide what to do if you aren't halfway to meeting your company's goals.

The Town of Crawford, New York, holds an annual town cleanup day each year. This year a local sweeping company, East Coast Industrial Services, Inc., donated use of a sweeper and operator to the event. East Coast's vice-president, Jay Presutti, also pitched in to help for the day, along with his 12-year-old son, Neil.

We got a message from a contractor who does a variety of services for some Eddie Bauer locations. He said that the company appears to be headed for bankruptcy. Don't be caught unawares: Be sure to keep up with our our exhaustive list of troubled companies.

Two Elgin Sweeper models have now passed the air quality guidelines required by Canada's Environmental Technology Verification program, or what has come to be known as the Toronto Sweeper Testing Protocol.

H1N1 virus (swine flu) is sweeping the U.S. Two human resource attorneys offer advice on actions to take--and not take--in regard to your workplace.

How are you when it comes to using technology for strategic planning? Guy Gruenberg offers excellent ideas in his article Getting Your Strategy On.

Roger Sutherland, president of Pacific Water Resources, Inc., has made available a PDF of the white paper on his recent Elgin sweeper testing he will present at StormCon 2009. The paper details the protocol and results for the high efficiency the Elgin sweepers had for removing storm water pollutants.

Wal-Mart contracts are some of the strictest in sweeping when it comes to proving your workers are legal. David Nachman, our contributing Immigration Attorney, provides insight and perspective.

Elgin has announced that its venerable Pelican three-wheel sweeper is now available waterless.

New emissions standards mean big changes for 2010 model sweeper chassis. We offer a first look at the two systems that will be available.

Prices are down; perfect time for established businesses to purchase tough-luck competitors. We have a new article that discusses the seven reasons why many buyouts fail -- and how to maximize your buyout success.

We have a new article that includes an audio interview with Mark Schwarze, president of Victory Sweepers, Inc., about the concept behind the company's new models. The Liberty is a 'fleet-grade' parking area sweeper, and the Liberator is a low cost, Liberty-styled refurbishment kit to fit 2000 and new Schwarze 347s and 348s.

Safety must top the list of all organizations. Our article, from nationally recognized safety manager, John Meola, offers a 'Top Ten' list to ensure that you are operating a safe organization.

Getting plenty of bidding opportunities but not closing enough contracts? Take the suggestions in this article to heart and you'll be well on your way to increasing your closing rate.

If you have an operation where a son or daughter is involved -- or may be someday -- you'll want to read our new feature article by George Hedley, president of HARDHAT Presentations and former TYMCO-sponsored speaker at NPE.

And the winner is...WorldSweeper.com! We're very proud that WorldSweeper.com has been chosen as a nationally award-winning website in content and design in the prestigious APEX Awards for Publication Excellence. This marks the second time in its three years of existence that WorldSweeper.com's website has been deemed worthy of this singular honor. We also won a second APEX for a sweeping industry ad we created that ran in SweeperMarket magazine.

If you're buying a sweeper or other capital equipment, be sure to use WorldSweeper.com's 'One Click' Finance Program. It's the easiest way we know of to get quotes from a number of lenders by filling out just one form. When vendors compete -- you win!

Finally, if you are a vendor to the sweeping industry and don't yet advertise here, please consider doing so with either a banner ad or a Sweeping Products listing. And, with as much traffic as this area gets, all contractors in America are missing a bet by not being in our Contractor Locator.

As you can see from the logo above the headline, we have an RSS feed on the website. This is the latest way to keep up with news at your favorite sites on the Internet, including WorldSweeper.com. Adding the RSS feed also allowed us to add a regular web page that contains the latest articles we've added to the site.

Good Sweeping,

-- Ranger Kidwell-Ross, editor
First time here? Please read my introductory welcome message. Updated information is also periodically available at my blog, The Editor's Notebook.

GUESTBOOK If you haven't filled out our Guestbook, we can't send you late-breaking industry information. If you're involved with sweeping, please take time to provide us with your contact information. PARKING AREA SWEEPERS Here is our area dedicated to the needs of the parking area sweeping community. Check it out. You'll find a wide selection of news you can use in your business, right now, today. DISCUSSION FORUMS Discuss industry topics with others in sweeping. Our discussion forums offer a variety of topics, or make up your own. Plus, we have buy/sell classifieds for sweeping and sweeping-related equipment. (opens in new window) SWEEPER POSTCARDS What better way to show you're part of the industry than by including a sweeper photo, drawing or cartoon in your email? Our online postcards are great to use as industry-related thank you notes, all occasion greeting cards and to show others what a sweeper looks like now or in the past. Choose from sweeper-related cartoons, drawings, photos and toys. CONTRACTOR LOCATOR Do you offer sweeping or related services, or would you like to hire a sweeping contractor? If so, you'll want to check out our contractor locator section. (opens in new window)

WHAT'S NEW Here is where you'll find the latest stories we've posted online. You'll want to check often to find out the latest in industry news. STREET SWEEPING You'll find everything to do with street sweeping here. If that is the segment of the sweeping industry you are involved with, you'll want to check it out. SWEEPER SLIDESHOWS Want to see what sweepers used to be like? If so, you'll definitely want to check out our collection of old sweeper pictures. Some of the photos are even for sale, and what would look better on your office wall?! SWEEPING PRODUCTS Need to fix your sweeper, buy a new one or find the best deals and suppliers for sweeping-related products? As a way to show them you appreciate their support for this site, please do your shopping from manufacturers who support WorldSweeper.com. If you sell to the sweeping industry, be sure to sign up for your free or enhanced product listing! (opens in new window) SWEEPING AROUND THE WORLD Sweeping is a worldwide industry, but the techniques vary enormously depending upon where it's being done. We have a number of stories about how sweeping is done in various locations of the world, many from the award-winning online travelogues penned by our editor while traveling in Asia, Australia and Europe. You'll want to take a look.

FEATURED CONTRACTOR We're proud to feature this professional sweeping contractor on our home page. Blown Away, LLC In 1999, Barnett tried to buy his way in as a partner in an existing sweeper contracting business. When negotiations ultimately fell through, he decided to start his own sweeping firm. Although Barnett says he didn't have a large amount of money to get into the business, he did have a strong sales background and a willingness to work as many hours as was necessary to do whatever was needed to get the job of sweeping done, make the sales calls, keep the sweepers operating well and anything else needed to make his fledgling company a success. In ten years, Ron Barnett has grown his Blown Away, LLC operation from a sweat equity startup to 20 service vehicles and 40 employees. Plus, they are now offering a franchise system designed not just for startups, but for helping ensure profitability to current one- and two-sweeper contractors. Our feature article includes an hour-long, "must listen" audio interview with Barnett that explores many 'big picture' topics for anyone in sweeping, plus offers information about his company's fledgling franchise operation. We will be changing our featured contractor about once per month. If you'd like your company to be considered for this honor, please let us know.

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PLEASE SUPPORT WORLDSWEEPER.COM

Unlike the former website I founded and operated at AmericanSweeper.com, this website totally relies on industry-wide support. The good news is the information we supply can be unquestionably independent. The downside is we must have the support of the sweeping community at large to keep it up-to-date and online.

Because of the relatively small size of the sweeping industry, we need financial support from all areas of sweeping: manufacturers, contractors and the other vendors and suppliers of power sweeping equipment. If you like what you see and value the site, please support it via the low cost enhanced listings in our Contractor Locator and Browse Sweeping Products sections.

If you would like to support the site through a donation of any amount via either PayPal or a credit card, just click on the donation link shown below.

If you would like more information, or to provide your input and ideas on the World Sweeper concept, please contact us via one of the methods shown in the left column of this page. We're trying to represent all viewpoints in the sweeping industry, so please feel free to let us know yours.

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.

He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.