Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
S2-81: J&H Outdoor Services, Stacy Minnesota
1k Plays3 months ago
The guys welcome Jeremy Harris of J&H Outdoor Services to the show to talk about his over 30 years in business with J&H, as well as talk about the Facebook Snow Pro chat group they manage for Minnesota snow pros
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction & Hosts' Banter
00:00:40
snowjobspodcast
All right. Here we go. Snow jobs nation episode 81 of the snow jobs podcast powered by top gun backblades is off and running as always. I'm Steve. That's right. You know, who's with me? Snowby one Kenobi, Chuck Norris a snow. Mr. Rick James.
00:01:05
snowjobspodcast
Jeremy Lindstrom is here. What's up? Snow bully.
00:01:08
RICK JAMES
It's not a lot, honestly. Just getting by day by day here.
00:01:12
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, doing it, choosing.
00:01:14
RICK JAMES
Yes,
Jeremy Lindstrom's Event Excitement
00:01:15
RICK JAMES
juicing. Always juicing.
00:01:17
snowjobspodcast
Looking forward to your big black tie event.
00:01:21
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah. That's, yeah.
00:01:23
snowjobspodcast
That'll be before this drops.
00:01:23
RICK JAMES
Oh, wow. Yeah. That'll be before this. Yeah. I guess. Yep. That's tomorrow, actually.
00:01:28
snowjobspodcast
And then on the Minnesota mountain, what is it called?
00:01:30
RICK JAMES
Minnesota mountain. Detroit mountain.
00:01:34
snowjobspodcast
Detroit mountain.
00:01:35
RICK JAMES
It's probably an old landfill or something.
00:01:35
Jeremy Harris
you
00:01:36
RICK JAMES
Who knows?
00:01:38
snowjobspodcast
ah Oh man. Yeah, that'll be fun though, man. Luke, uh, Luke put out a nice little thing with all the sponsors on it last night. Proud to proud to help them out. Right. It's nice that we're in a position to do that.
00:01:48
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. It'll be fun. It should be a fun night with all the guys. And look i ah it looks like I know quite a few guys that'll be there. So
Charity Event & Humor
00:01:56
snowjobspodcast
ah Sweet. Good times. Good times. i I told Luke that he should raffle off a ah date with Jeremy Lindstrom as one of the, uh, the raffles, but you know, he said, uh, he'd think about it.
00:01:58
RICK JAMES
yeah.
00:02:03
RICK JAMES
Ah, yeah. I don't think that'd bring much money.
00:02:09
snowjobspodcast
Every little bit counts. It's a charity.
00:02:11
RICK JAMES
Jesus.
00:02:11
snowjobspodcast
It's for charity.
00:02:12
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:02:12
snowjobspodcast
but ah there But you should have a good time and see the two Luke's and a bunch of other guys. You know, it'll be good time.
00:02:19
RICK JAMES
Yeah, definitely.
00:02:20
snowjobspodcast
Glad to be there. Glad to help out. Glad to represent. And ah let's hope they get over. I think they're going to blow away their $30,000 goal
00:02:27
RICK JAMES
Yeah,
Excitement for 'Storm Day'
00:02:28
snowjobspodcast
this year.
00:02:28
RICK JAMES
it's like Kyle was a sponsor too.
00:02:30
snowjobspodcast
Oh, UD maintenance.
00:02:32
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:02:32
snowjobspodcast
Mr. The latest, the the winner of the, uh, they released that, right? They released that information.
00:02:36
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:02:37
snowjobspodcast
So the, the winner of the storm chasing, uh, at large episode is going to be UD maintenance in Ohio. Mr. Kyle. That's awesome.
00:02:46
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:02:46
snowjobspodcast
Good for him. So he's he's a sponsor, but he ain't going to go right to the black tie thing.
00:02:51
RICK JAMES
No, I don't think so.
00:02:52
snowjobspodcast
All right.
00:02:52
RICK JAMES
I'll be cool if you did.
00:02:53
snowjobspodcast
And then, uh, what do we got about two weeks till, uh, till Jordan and, uh, storms event.
00:02:58
RICK JAMES
Storm day. Yeah.
00:03:01
snowjobspodcast
There we go. Storm day should be a lot of fun.
00:03:01
RICK JAMES
I just called store. I just called storm day.
00:03:03
snowjobspodcast
Storm
Introduction of Jeremy Harris
00:03:04
snowjobspodcast
day. I like it. I like it, brother. We're going to run with that. Storm day.
00:03:07
RICK JAMES
Storm day.
00:03:08
snowjobspodcast
That's it. The storm.
00:03:09
RICK JAMES
Everybody likes and everybody loves a storm day.
00:03:11
snowjobspodcast
That's it. I love it. Oh, man. All right. Well, if you got nothing else. So today, guys, we got a good one for you. All right. We're going to talk to Mr. Jeremy Harris of J and H Outdoor Services in Stacey, Minnesota. All right. Jeremy not only plows snow, but he also does his part just like we do to promote and help fellow snow pros. Right. Jeremy manages the Minnesota Snow Pros 2.0 Facebook chat group.
00:03:35
snowjobspodcast
and He's going to tell us all about that and his business. So if you're a member of that group, then you already know how great a thing it is, you know having a resource like that for snow guys in that area. ah you know But it's great for not only the guys in Minnesota, but but guys and snow guys in general. you know I look in time to time. I don't post much on there. It's not my not my place, really. But ah there is some great information being passed back and forth. And you know you pick up a lot from the guys in there. And um you know its it seems generally ah genuinely helpful.
00:04:04
snowjobspodcast
Like it's not like a back and forth, you know, ball breaking or anything.
00:04:06
RICK JAMES
Thanks.
00:04:07
snowjobspodcast
It's like general like professional information getting passed. So it's a great, great resource. If you're not a member there, Jeff, definitely check it out and see if they'll let you in. um You know, just a lot of great conversation, exchanges of knowledge, ideas.
00:04:21
snowjobspodcast
they' They're great values to snow guys. All right. so A lot of guys in that group are also die-hard listeners and supporters of this show, and we just want to bring attention to them as well like they do for us. so
Origin of J&H Outdoor Services
00:04:32
snowjobspodcast
Jeremy is here with us today. He's going to tell us all about his company, J&H Outdoor, and he's also going to talk about the Facebook group and how that got going because it came from another old technology that's no longer around, really, the old medium.
00:04:45
snowjobspodcast
Plow site so while we learn that so he's gonna take us through the whole lineage and tell us all about J and H But before we do that guys as always let's hear from the great team over at Top Gun and we'll do a quick week in review
00:04:46
RICK JAMES
Mmhmm. The last night.
Operations of J&H Outdoor Services
00:05:31
Jeremy Harris
the
00:05:31
snowjobspodcast
All right guys, we're back. So last week we had the big one. All right. We were lucky enough to have the legend himself. He came on and gave us the time. Mr. Randy straight, the founder of Arctic snow and ice control and Arctic snow and ice products. All right. Randy was absolutely phenomenal.
00:05:48
snowjobspodcast
um We want to thank him again so much for coming on and sharing from his 47 years of experience out there. ah It's awesome. It was a great show. If you haven't listened to it yet, it's, like we said, two and a half hours, basically college degree in in stone management wrapped into two and a half hours.
00:06:04
snowjobspodcast
and ah We didn't have to do much, right? Just basically press record, say, hey, Randy, tell us ah tell us about it.
00:06:07
RICK JAMES
No. Yeah. Yeah, that was good. Not a lot of good feedback on that one, so.
00:06:14
snowjobspodcast
yeah Anytime you can get somebody with that much experience on all
Snow Management Tactics
00:06:18
snowjobspodcast
you say is thank you and you just take notes and listen It was ah it was great ah But now, you know, he's kind of created a monster We're getting so much positive feedback about his episode from guys and they're all wanting to hear from Randy again And ah I think we're just gonna have to tell him, you know You started the monster and now you're gonna have to keep coming on with us and doing more episodes and while you're at it Maybe have the whole straight family on make it a family deal but
00:06:21
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:06:32
Jeremy Harris
you
00:06:43
RICK JAMES
ah Sounds like a good time. Good times.
00:06:44
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, it was it was a great time having Randy. um We really appreciate the time and ah we look forward to the next time he yeah he feels like coming on with us. What else? Upcoming events, guys. September, as we've been saying, S&S is field day out in Taylor, Pennsylvania. That's Scranton-Wilkes-Barr area.
00:07:03
snowjobspodcast
It's Thursday, September 19th. Tony did just put out the flyer. We posted on Snow Jobs Nation. I saw it posted in a couple other places. So you can scan that link right there and on the ah flyer and register for the event. It's a great time. It's got some vendors, seminars, a lot of networking. I think the
Community & Collaboration in Snow Removal
00:07:21
snowjobspodcast
after hours ah after the event concludes at four, I think he's got food and drinks and networking session from like four to nine or some, five to nine maybe.
00:07:30
snowjobspodcast
But it's going to be a great day. A lot of great guys there. i I went last year with Matt Young from Young Landscapes. We had a great time, met a lot of great people. So ah if you're around in September in the Pennsylvania area, definitely come check it out.
00:07:43
snowjobspodcast
ah What else you got, Jay? Any shout outs we got to do?
00:07:46
RICK JAMES
Mmm, no, I don't think so.
00:07:49
snowjobspodcast
No. No, we're good.
00:07:50
RICK JAMES
I don't have a shout out.
00:07:52
snowjobspodcast
Well, ah we we do have to make a shout out to what was Extra Mile Snow in Wisconsin.
00:07:57
RICK JAMES
Oh Yeah Yep
00:07:57
snowjobspodcast
We we told Steve Smythe, we got to get Extra Mile Snow in there. ah Aaron and Harry saved his butt. Apparently, Steve got banned from the western ah Western Snow Products Factory Tour.
00:08:08
RICK JAMES
Hi, yep
00:08:10
snowjobspodcast
So to make matters worse, not only did he get banned, but his
00:08:11
RICK JAMES
mr
Equipment Strategies of J&H Outdoor Services
00:08:14
snowjobspodcast
truck broke down.
00:08:15
snowjobspodcast
And the guys from Extra Mile gave him a truck to get him home. so
00:08:19
RICK JAMES
Well, I'm sure they want to get them out of their state more than likely.
00:08:23
snowjobspodcast
Oh man.
00:08:24
RICK JAMES
It's just a cost of a truck. No big deal. Take it.
00:08:27
snowjobspodcast
Give him a truck. Get him out of here.
00:08:29
RICK JAMES
Get them out of here. I don't need them.
00:08:31
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. I don't know.
00:08:31
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:08:32
snowjobspodcast
Apparently I'm intrigued though. Apparently there's some big secrets at Western that they might be innovating something that they can't show anybody.
00:08:37
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:08:39
snowjobspodcast
i mean
00:08:39
RICK JAMES
Must be. They tapped them on the shoulders when I heard during that class and said, excuse me, sir. Come with me.
00:08:46
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Yeah. You are not allowed to go tomorrow, but yeah.
00:08:49
RICK JAMES
You have been flagged on the no fly list.
00:08:52
snowjobspodcast
So that's a shame. and Maybe they have something big secret in there that we can't see yet. I mean, it may be, it's been 20, it may probably been 20, 25 years since they innovated anything.
00:09:01
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:09:02
snowjobspodcast
So yeah, well.
00:09:02
RICK JAMES
That's just no, we cannot see. No, Steve cannot see, but all the other, all the other people got to see.
00:09:08
snowjobspodcast
That's true. Yeah. Just Steve was singled out and he was not allowed to go on the Western tour, which is ridiculous.
00:09:11
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:14
Jeremy Harris
Bye.
00:09:14
snowjobspodcast
Uh, but
00:09:14
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
Challenges in Snow Removal
00:09:15
snowjobspodcast
you know, the boys from extra mile, you know, thank you to Aaron and Harry, you know, you got them home to Minnesota, whether you wanted to get them out of there or not, you know, we appreciate you helping them out and getting them home.
00:09:26
RICK JAMES
Well, it's debatable.
00:09:28
snowjobspodcast
that You got anything else brother? You want to shout out?
00:09:33
RICK JAMES
That's about it. I got to take enough shots at guys.
00:09:35
snowjobspodcast
All right. All right. Good enough. Well, then that's going to do it and we'll hear from our awesome partners and we're going to be right back and we'll get this going with Jeremy. All right. We'll be back in a minute and a half.
Minnesota Snow Pros 2.0 Facebook Group
00:11:12
snowjobspodcast
All right, guys, we're back, so let's just get this going. All right, we'd like to welcome Jeremy Harris to the show. Jeremy, how are you, brother? Welcome to the Snow Jobs.
00:11:20
Jeremy Harris
Doing well, guys. Thank you. Thank you.
00:11:23
RICK JAMES
Hey Jeremy.
00:11:24
Jeremy Harris
Hi, Jeremy.
00:11:26
RICK JAMES
Got a cool name.
00:11:29
Jeremy Harris
Right. Exactly. None better.
00:11:30
snowjobspodcast
what We'll go Rick and Jeremy for today. We'll call Jeremy Lindstrom
Real-time Updates & Forecasting
00:11:35
snowjobspodcast
Rick James, and Jeremy Harris can be Jeremy.
00:11:37
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that sounds good.
00:11:37
Jeremy Harris
Right on.
00:11:38
snowjobspodcast
Just keep it straight.
00:11:38
Jeremy Harris
Right on. so
00:11:40
RICK JAMES
must All right, Jeremy, let's get into it. Let's tell everybody about J and H outdoor services when you got started and how long you guys been in business and what you all do.
00:11:49
Jeremy Harris
We got started in 1989, so this is our 35th year. Started by my dad putting an ad in the paper for me to start cutting grass at 10 bucks an hour when I turned 16.
00:11:55
snowjobspodcast
Wow.
00:12:03
Jeremy Harris
Just kept going. Went to college. Went to St. Cloud State for three years. Said it's not for me. I was coming home on the weekends to work, skipping class to work. Figured I can make more money doing this. Just kept going. Just kept building it. Just, you know, let's see. We added snow about five years after we started. So this is probably my 30th year doing snow.
00:12:29
snowjobspodcast
Wow.
00:12:30
Jeremy Harris
and
00:12:30
RICK JAMES
no
00:12:30
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:12:31
Jeremy Harris
We, you know, I run seven, we're pushing 10 guys now full-time in the summertime time and wintertime we run about 50 guys,
Vendor Support in the Community
00:12:41
snowjobspodcast
Wow.
00:12:41
Jeremy Harris
guys yeah guys and gals, I should say, you know, we're we're heavy into apartments.
00:12:45
Jeremy Harris
I, um' unlike a lot of you guys, I like apartment buildings. So we're, we do, we do 65, you know, two to 400 unit apartment buildings.
00:12:50
snowjobspodcast
I do too.
00:12:57
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:12:57
Jeremy Harris
so we try to you know stuff that's you know decent size not you know 20 unit apartments where you're not making much money on them and so yep exactly you know and
00:12:58
RICK JAMES
No.
00:13:08
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, you want the complexes.
00:13:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:13:12
snowjobspodcast
Yep. Gotcha. And they pay on time, correct?
00:13:15
Jeremy Harris
Yep. You know, most of them now they're set up.
00:13:16
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:13:17
Jeremy Harris
Most of ours are set up. You can follow the invoicing, you know, through through the whole process online so you can, you know, your invoice was accepted. You know,
Weather Forecasting Importance
00:13:27
Jeremy Harris
it's been approved.
00:13:28
Jeremy Harris
It's been pending payment. You get the email when payment's sent. So there's a lot. It's a, it's, you know, pretty good benefit for us.
00:13:37
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:13:38
RICK JAMES
Nice.
00:13:39
snowjobspodcast
So what kind of services, like what is J and H doing? Is what you said lawn, you said snow, you know, are you doing a lot of different things in the summer or just, uh, just lawns basically? like Smart.
00:13:49
Jeremy Harris
how We, like for our apartments, we want to be the only contractor on site. So we're doing, we're doing their mulch, we're doing their fertilizer. You know, I do all my own irrigation repairs.
00:14:01
Jeremy Harris
I don't do any heavy install with, and you know, as far as landscape. I don't do boulder walls.
00:14:06
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:14:07
Jeremy Harris
I don't do retaining walls. I don't do irrigation installs. I'm just, you know, maintaining an existing property the way the way it's been set up.
00:14:18
Jeremy Harris
The winter time, you know the winter time ah typical plow, salt, sidewalks, you know that type of stuff.
00:14:19
RICK JAMES
Mmhmm.
00:14:19
snowjobspodcast
Awesome.
J&H's Contract Approach
00:14:28
Jeremy Harris
anything Anything not attached to a building outside, I'll get it done for them.
00:14:29
snowjobspodcast
Very cool.
00:14:36
snowjobspodcast
No changing light bulbs though are sweeping.
00:14:39
Jeremy Harris
Nope, nope, we've dabbled in sweeping.
00:14:40
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:14:43
Jeremy Harris
the The biggest problem with sweeping is you can't dabble. You either gotta to go all in or you you can't do anything.
00:14:46
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:14:47
RICK JAMES
All in.
00:14:48
snowjobspodcast
Yup.
00:14:49
RICK JAMES
so No.
00:14:51
Jeremy Harris
You can't make money dabbling.
00:14:53
snowjobspodcast
Amen. I agree.
00:14:55
Jeremy Harris
it's It's too easy just to call somebody and say, hey, can you can you sweep this for me sometime?
00:15:01
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:15:02
Jeremy Harris
Sub it out, vendor partner.
00:15:04
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:15:06
RICK JAMES
Well, I'll get right into it. You're doing the 65 big apartment complex as you were talking about, right?
00:15:12
Jeremy Harris
yep
00:15:12
RICK JAMES
Jeremy.
00:15:13
Jeremy Harris
yeah
00:15:13
RICK JAMES
So how do you guys, how do you guys do these big complexes? I mean, I'll tell you how we do
Adapting to Unpredictable Snowfall
00:15:19
RICK JAMES
ours, but I mean, how do you do yours?
00:15:22
Jeremy Harris
You know, it's, you go in, you do your open-ups, you get, you know, we've, we last winter we partnered with a Hispanic roofing crew for sidewalks, and they seem they seem to have an unlimited labor supply.
00:15:31
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:15:31
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:15:37
Jeremy Harris
So that worked out that worked out well for us now.
00:15:37
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:15:40
Jeremy Harris
You know, just working with them, I pay the company, you know, as a subcontractor, and then
00:15:46
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:15:47
Jeremy Harris
you know, as far as the the parking lots, you know, you do, we plow everything at an inch or more. So any snowfall, we have one inch triggers with four inch open up.
00:15:55
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:15:59
Jeremy Harris
So, you know, we'll go in and do the drive lanes. Then after the snow, we'll contact the property managers. Some will have us come back and do the, you know, curb to curbs, get the cars out of the parking lots.
00:16:10
Jeremy Harris
Some don't want to do it because they don't want to hear the complaining from the residents. I mean we have we have properties where there's 12 inches of snow where the cars are parked and you know ice heaves and everything else and but they don't want to hear the residents complaining that they have to go move a
00:16:14
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
Competition & Community Engagement
00:16:25
Jeremy Harris
car so um we don't do their curb to curbs but you know we also don't we also have line items in our contracts where we're not held liable for this fall.
00:16:34
snowjobspodcast
I was just going to ask you that.
00:16:36
Jeremy Harris
you know we we we tell them okay if you're not gonna we need an email saying that you are declining the curb to curb or a text message so that when somebody falls i can go back and say you guys declined the curbed curb to curb like and they'll try to call and have us you know do a salt application and you'll try to drive you know right up behind the cars and shoot
00:16:36
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. That was my next question.
00:16:47
snowjobspodcast
Yep. Amen.
00:17:02
Jeremy Harris
shoot the salt you know between the cars under the cars whatever you can but you're obviously not scraping that parking lot and by the car by the time the cars have driven on it three four times it's packed down it's not going to melt it's shaded in between the cars and under the cars and it's heated up from the engines enough to glaze over and freeze again so you're not getting the job done but you know
00:17:13
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:17:13
snowjobspodcast
ye Yep.
00:17:14
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:17:25
Jeremy Harris
So, and
Future of J&H Outdoor Services
00:17:26
Jeremy Harris
and most of ours, you know, a lot of our stuff, the parking's underground. The one thing that I really target is in the urban setting, like downtown Minneapolis, downtown St.
00:17:38
Jeremy Harris
Paul, where all of the parking is in the building, because then you're just there then you're just there with sidewalks.
00:17:39
RICK JAMES
Oh,
00:17:42
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:17:45
Jeremy Harris
you know but you can You can put a guy there with a Toro 721 and just tell him, this is your job.
00:17:45
RICK JAMES
so yeah.
00:17:53
Jeremy Harris
you know Very minimal overhead, because you just have a snowblower.
00:17:53
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:17:57
Jeremy Harris
You have a guy at $30 an hour. And you just say, hey, for the next eight hours, just keep walking back and forth and back and forth on this sidewalk. This is all you're doing tonight.
00:18:07
snowjobspodcast
There you go.
00:18:08
Jeremy Harris
you know, and you can, you know, you can snag guys off a Craigslist, you know, guys that, you know, you'll have people that'll call because
Broader Industry Challenges
00:18:15
Jeremy Harris
they don't have work the next day and hey, you guys got any work tonight or something. So it's it's kind of easy to throw guys in when it's one specific spot, you know, just straight sidewalks on a city block and you're good to go.
00:18:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Hmm.
00:18:31
snowjobspodcast
Amen. So would you say the apartments are your bread and butter? Like that's, that's what you guys special in, but i' specialize in.
00:18:36
Jeremy Harris
oh
00:18:37
snowjobspodcast
Sorry.
00:18:38
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, it pretty much as we used to chase, you know, the strip malls and the gas stations and stuff like that, but where I live, I actually live about 30 miles north of Minneapolis, you know, in my town.
00:18:49
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:18:50
Jeremy Harris
My town's pretty small, you know, my actual town's like 250 people. you know the next town about four people away or four four miles away is about 10,000 but it's just strip malls and you know gas stations and you know nothing where you can really make any money at it so um so we go down to the cities and we're we're a little bit spread out through Minneapolis and St.
00:18:55
snowjobspodcast
Oh, wow.
00:19:07
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:19:13
Jeremy Harris
Paul but each truck has an area of town that it covers so they'll get like six apartment buildings in like say the east side of St. Paul or the north side of Minneapolis or downtown St.
00:19:26
Jeremy Harris
Paul and then they just once they're in that area they just do their own region let's say you know they're just you know because we're not we're not sending guys from say Maple Grove on the northwest side of the cities down to say Cottage Grove on the southeast side of the cities and then back up to Blaine on the north side
00:19:34
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:19:45
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
00:19:45
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:19:48
Jeremy Harris
Everything was within probably five miles of each other once that truck, once that crew is in that area. But we also we also do the local school district. We've been doing their work now for 22 years. And they feed us all of their outside work that they have one grounds guy. They do their own salting. And in the winter time heat ah er and the summertime, he does the field striping. But we do everything else for them there.
00:20:16
Jeremy Harris
They're mowing, they're fertilizing, they're irrigation, all of their plowing. you know So that's probably our best account because it's local. You know you're going to get paid because it's government.
00:20:29
Jeremy Harris
And you know it's pretty easy.
00:20:29
snowjobspodcast
sure Sure.
00:20:32
Jeremy Harris
we've you know It's pretty easy work. There isn't too much demand there other than you've got to have everything done by 5 AM. But you know over 22 years, there's been a lot of times that they've canceled school because they couldn't get you know get on the roads to get to the parking lots but the parking lots were plowed yep yep the schools were open but the roads weren't so yeah 50 55 depending on you know if you're taking your you know what year average but yeah right in there so those guys are pretty dead on
00:20:49
RICK JAMES
Great.
00:20:51
snowjobspodcast
School's open. Yeah.
00:20:52
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:20:52
snowjobspodcast
The parking lot was open. Amen.
00:20:57
snowjobspodcast
Amen. ah So your annual, I think we covered this with curbside in the cities, like 50 inches, your annual snow.
00:21:10
snowjobspodcast
Sure. Gotcha. Yeah. Oh yeah. They seem to know what they're doing. What do you got, Jay?
00:21:19
RICK JAMES
Well, getting back to your apartments, um, is there much for green space there to pile snow or what do you guys got a hall snow away there or what's your, what do you guys got going on there?
00:21:22
Jeremy Harris
Yeah.
00:21:29
RICK JAMES
Cause we do apartments and the you know, they don't, they don't build any of these places for snow to go anywhere.
00:21:35
Jeremy Harris
No, not at all.
00:21:35
RICK JAMES
So.
00:21:36
snowjobspodcast
No.
00:21:37
Jeremy Harris
And ah you know some of ours, we actually do have quite a bit of green space if you're in the suburbs. You know you can find spots. But the stuff that's right downtown, I mean, you're jamming corners.
00:21:48
Jeremy Harris
you're You're squeezing in against the dumpster enclosure. you know If you got a strip of rock that's five feet wide you know along a fence line, you're you're rolling it up to that fence, but not you know on the fence.
00:22:01
snowjobspodcast
Yup.
00:22:03
RICK JAMES
on the fence
00:22:04
Jeremy Harris
Yeah.
00:22:04
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:22:04
Jeremy Harris
you know And then you know you keep trying to windrow it up onto that row as best you can. you know we've We'll haul out maybe two or three times a year.
00:22:14
Jeremy Harris
And in fact, Joe Ergen from Nordic does a lot of my hauling for me because we don't have dump trucks.
00:22:20
RICK JAMES
oh yeah
00:22:21
Jeremy Harris
so So I'll call him up or a couple other guys that you've talked to. you know Going back to that Snow Pros page that you mentioned, that's where you know a lot of that a lot of that work comes in.
00:22:29
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:22:33
Jeremy Harris
Because you'll throw out, hey, anybody, you know even even something we can do, like say a curb to curb, you get ah you get a customer that calls out of the blue.
00:22:33
RICK JAMES
ah
00:22:42
Jeremy Harris
They're saying, hey, can we get this done?
00:22:44
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:22:44
Jeremy Harris
And you don't want to go do it. You just make a post on there saying, hey, anybody going out tomorrow?
00:22:47
RICK JAMES
hell.
00:22:49
Jeremy Harris
to do curb to curbs, you guys want to hit this one for me. I'll Venmo you at 200 bucks.
00:22:53
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:22:55
Jeremy Harris
you know And somebody's be like, yeah, hell yeah, we'll go do it.
00:22:56
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:22:58
Jeremy Harris
Or the snow hauling, you know you say, hey, I need you know this pile. You post a picture, you know get a couple of measurements, and say, hey, who can haul this for me? And guys will jump in.
00:23:09
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, we'll be hauling tomorrow night. you know Get the cars out of the way. We'll get it taken care of for you. so
00:23:15
snowjobspodcast
That's cool.
00:23:15
RICK JAMES
Does it turn into an auction then or is it a first first come first serve deal?
00:23:20
Jeremy Harris
Um, it's you after a while you learn who the guys are that are legit.
00:23:26
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:23:27
Jeremy Harris
And who are the guys that kind of leave you hanging. So you'll you you build relationships, the you know, the vendor partners that you guys talk about.
00:23:31
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
00:23:39
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:23:39
Jeremy Harris
You know, ah you you kind of, you know, that's kind of an aspect that you figure out who's worth calling. And if they can't, you know, usually they know as somebody else, hey, call this guy. He'll help you out. We're just stuck.
00:23:53
snowjobspodcast
Cool. That's awesome. I mean, that's, that's a great, great resource to have right there for that kind of stuff.
00:23:55
RICK JAMES
Mm
00:23:59
snowjobspodcast
I wish I had that around here. We don't have anything like that.
00:24:01
RICK JAMES
hmm.
00:24:02
Jeremy Harris
or Or, you know, salting a parking lot. You'll get a call out of the blue and you'll throw up a post because your salter's empty. You don't want to go throw two yards of salt in your salter, you know, and go clean it out.
00:24:13
Jeremy Harris
You just throw up a post. Say anybody out salting and somebody will say, yeah, I'm here. You know, call them up or you call them and give them address and they'll go out and take care of it for you.
00:24:20
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:24:25
snowjobspodcast
Awesome. That's, that's, that's really sweet. Actually. I love that.
00:24:28
Jeremy Harris
All right. All right.
00:24:30
snowjobspodcast
Oh, Jeremy, you want to, ah I'm sorry, Rick, you want to take Jeremy, uh, your favorite, uh, favorite time.
00:24:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:24:36
RICK JAMES
Yeah, we can do that. All right, Jeremy, what do you what do you have? And for what do you what do you have for equipment out there? What are you pushing with and sidewalk machines and what do you got?
00:24:45
Jeremy Harris
um Our trucks, we're all running RAM ram trucks. You know, we got, let's see, six 3500s, a RAM 5500 with DXTs on all of them.
00:24:50
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:24:58
Jeremy Harris
The 5500's got a 10 foot. DST, the restaurant 9-2. We run a deer 40-66 hour with a with a Quattro on the front for one townhome that we do up here in Chisago City and then our schools we plow with a deer 51-15 with a 11-foot Quattro you know with the wings that go up to 15 feet.
00:25:22
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:25:23
Jeremy Harris
You know, then we're running. We got a regular snow raider. We picked up a snow raider mag with a V plow last year for a spot, so we're using that.
00:25:33
snowjobspodcast
Have they been for you?
00:25:33
Jeremy Harris
You know, we we, you know, knock on wood, we had zero issues with ours.
00:25:39
snowjobspodcast
Oh, that's awesome.
00:25:40
Jeremy Harris
Our mag was able to stay, it stays onsite in a heated garage and an apartment building. We do one apartment building with a courtyard Marriott net store, right in that store to XL Energy Center.
00:25:53
Jeremy Harris
And that machine plows everything on that city block. So, you know, I have a guy that goes down there, has access to the garage. The machine's always heated, so it starts right away, no issues.
00:26:06
Jeremy Harris
um One thing we did,
00:26:08
snowjobspodcast
It's almost like cheating.
00:26:09
Jeremy Harris
almost that's what that's what we try but what yeah yep yeah we got two properties right across the street from there so ah one thing we did pick up last summer that we put into service last year was a forward high roof long wheelbase transit van
00:26:13
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:26:14
RICK JAMES
Steve Steve's XR Energy Center is where the wild plays hockey team
00:26:18
snowjobspodcast
Oh, okay. Nice. Nice. Very cool. That's sweet.
00:26:34
Jeremy Harris
all-wheel drive dually so we can load a pallet of salt in the side door and then in the rear we can run a snow raider up in the back into the rear of the van on ramps and still have room for shovels and snow blowers and salt pushers So the sidewalk crew is all contained and they can buzz around you know to all the apartments and you know kind of be a ah support type for my separate um my separate sidewalk crews that are that staged at different apartments.
00:26:52
RICK JAMES
If.
00:27:00
snowjobspodcast
That's phenomenal.
00:27:05
Jeremy Harris
So if something breaks down or they're having problems, they could run the snow raider over there, you know cleaner clean a sidewalk off quick and and come back and go off to the next job and be mobile instead of trying to tow a trailer through town in the middle of a
00:27:20
snowjobspodcast
Jeremy, that's phenomenal.
00:27:21
Jeremy Harris
yep
00:27:21
snowjobspodcast
I've been thinking about that for about three years now, trying to get a Sprinter type van.
00:27:26
Jeremy Harris
yep yup yup yup yup yup yup yup yup yup yup yup yup yup yup yup
00:27:26
snowjobspodcast
And they don't make, they don't make ah like, what, four wheel drive in the Sprinter. I've been having a devil of a time trying to find ah a dual rear wheel that's a four wheel drive.
00:27:37
snowjobspodcast
I can't find it. This, you found what, like, what did you get? ah It's a ah ah transit and it's a dually rear and it's a four wheel drive.
00:27:42
Jeremy Harris
lord or transit yep
00:27:45
Jeremy Harris
Yep. Eight. Yep. allwheel drive ye All wheel drive.
00:27:48
snowjobspodcast
Six actually. Wow. Six. Well, yeah.
00:27:51
Jeremy Harris
wheel drive 350 HD.
00:27:51
snowjobspodcast
Wow.
00:27:55
Jeremy Harris
ninety
00:27:55
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:27:56
Jeremy Harris
9900 pound gross vehicle weight. So you're under you're under the 10,000 pound with DOT issues.
00:27:59
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:28:05
snowjobspodcast
Is it a height thing with the you're putting the regular the old ah the original Snow Raider in there?
00:28:11
Jeremy Harris
No, we put the mag in there.
00:28:12
snowjobspodcast
You put the mag in there, OK, because I'm.
00:28:13
Jeremy Harris
we We could put them both in. The mag's a little tougher because the the blade won't lift up as high.
00:28:15
snowjobspodcast
out
00:28:19
Jeremy Harris
So it's a little tougher.
00:28:20
snowjobspodcast
gotcha Gotcha.
00:28:21
Jeremy Harris
You got to get the ramps just right. But we can run either one. The high roof is nice because then guys can just stand up in it. you know They don't have to duck when they're trying to load the snow raider and stuff.
00:28:31
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:28:33
Jeremy Harris
So um yeah.
00:28:34
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:28:35
snowjobspodcast
I got to find out if it'll fit an SSV in there. If it'll fit a, fit a Ventrac SSV in there, I'm sold.
00:28:41
Jeremy Harris
It should. you know you're you're the only thing you The only thing you'll have to check out is find some long foldable aluminum ramps.
00:28:42
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:28:50
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:28:52
Jeremy Harris
Because that's going to be your angle, your loading angle, you know just like a trailer or whatever.
00:28:55
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:28:58
Jeremy Harris
so
00:28:59
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Awesome.
00:29:03
RICK JAMES
That's cool.
00:29:03
snowjobspodcast
What else you got, Jeremy?
00:29:06
RICK JAMES
Um, with your pickups, what do you say you're running for V, for V-plaws on them? Boss?
00:29:11
Jeremy Harris
Boss, yeah, DXTs.
00:29:11
snowjobspodcast
Bosses.
00:29:12
RICK JAMES
Boss. Okay.
00:29:13
snowjobspodcast
You guys must have phenomenal boss dealers out there, right? Jeremy, correct me if I'm wrong.
00:29:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Bosses are, bosses are big around, at least, yeah, around here.
00:29:18
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:29:20
RICK JAMES
They are. I think down there, they are too.
00:29:21
Jeremy Harris
wo We had an unbelievable boss dealer and then he closed up shop and got bought out and went to metal fabricating for another company.
00:29:22
RICK JAMES
I'm not sure.
00:29:31
Jeremy Harris
So that sucked, because now the the east side of the Metro is, you know we don't have a boss dealer on this side now.
00:29:33
snowjobspodcast
oh
00:29:38
Jeremy Harris
so
00:29:39
RICK JAMES
How about Cushman? Do you do the way any work with them guys downtown there?
00:29:43
Jeremy Harris
No.
00:29:43
RICK JAMES
Is that Am I right though? That's that dealer, right?
00:29:46
Jeremy Harris
Yep, yep.
00:29:47
RICK JAMES
Cushman, they do Ventracs and holders and stuff like that, I think. so Yeah.
00:29:51
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, i'm I'm a pretty loyal guy. So once I get stuck on a brand, I'm i'm kind of stuck. And if I got a dealer that supports me, you know I don't really go out looking for more or looking at other options.
00:30:02
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:30:03
snowjobspodcast
Yep. Amen.
00:30:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah, years ago when we got our first couple of Ventracs, there was no dealer around here. So thats that was our dealer, that was Cushman. So that's one of the reasons I know of them. and They were great to work with. They were kind of neat. They just got to a little place right downtown Minneapolis.
00:30:20
RICK JAMES
I don't know, what is it, Minneapolis, St. Paul? It's all the same to me.
00:30:22
Jeremy Harris
Yeah.
00:30:22
RICK JAMES
but
00:30:24
Jeremy Harris
and MSP. That's what we just said.
00:30:25
RICK JAMES
Yeah, MSV. There you go. Yeah. But yeah, it was just like a little, little building in the middle of nowhere, you know, just so, but they had everything just jam packed in there.
00:30:31
Jeremy Harris
Yep.
00:30:33
RICK JAMES
It was, but yeah, they're good people. So what's good. Uh, what to keep talking about this, uh, Facebook page. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about that?
00:30:45
Jeremy Harris
it ah It started back on Plow site for the guys that have visited that. i I check in once in a while to see if anybody still posts there or if they don't.
00:30:53
RICK JAMES
It's still on there. Is it still up?
00:30:54
snowjobspodcast
Is it still alive?
00:30:56
Jeremy Harris
i I looked once last year and you could still access it but there's there were still a couple guys up posted and but so that started I think about 2008 we started a page on there and then the group built so large that they essentially kicked us off of Plow site because we were using up their resources
00:31:01
snowjobspodcast
Really?
00:31:15
RICK JAMES
Ha!
00:31:20
Jeremy Harris
So another so yep and so another guy ended up creating the original Facebook group and he ended up leaving the leaving the industry and I think he moved to Texas so I and a couple other buddies created a new group and 2.0 and
00:31:20
snowjobspodcast
Too much bandwidth.
00:31:40
Jeremy Harris
our Our main reasoning behind it was to give contractors a resource, one for snowfall totals because there's a lot of guys that keep pretty detailed notes, you know, so end of season or hey how much do we normally get, you know, new guys that don't really think about this type of stuff and
00:31:58
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:32:01
Jeremy Harris
But the main, the main resource is every time there's an event, like if they start saying, hey, on Tuesday, if they start saying, hey, Saturday, we're supposed to get, you know, 12 inches of snow.
00:32:15
Jeremy Harris
We'll start a discussion thread, pin it to the top of the page, you know, and then that's where everybody talks and we'll, they'll post weather models and we'll think, hey, you know, kind of the, bant you know, the banter that, you know, hey, what do you think is going to happen?
00:32:28
Jeremy Harris
Or, you know, everybody got their stuff in order. or you know all this is going to be a bust or you know all that stuff and then the go ahead oh so oh there's
00:32:36
RICK JAMES
whats What's the, so sorry, what's the weather guy that that's local or not local, but he always is predicting 50 inches.
00:32:42
snowjobspodcast
Bo?
00:32:44
RICK JAMES
No, not bull.
00:32:45
snowjobspodcast
Oh, no, different guy?
00:32:46
RICK JAMES
What's the other and like who's that guy that he's always outrageous amounts of snow. That's not even close. That's going to hit. I can't remember.
00:32:53
Jeremy Harris
There was one guy, Dave Dahl, and we always called him Drama Dahl, or Drama Dave, but he's he's retired. and you know it's There's a couple guys that just go completely crazy. but um
00:33:10
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:33:11
Jeremy Harris
it's so then the day of we'll make an official post you will put official three asterisks we'll have the date you know three slash 31 slash 24 you know three more asterisks and we want to do it specifically so that um I myself were you know sent a slip and fall notice last week for one from last March. you know So then you can go onto that page up at the top, there's a search bar and you can search the specific date and it'll pull up all of the postings from that date you know for the for the storm threads.
00:33:53
Jeremy Harris
so now you can go back and like a lot of times guys will start posting saying and hey we have a quarter inch at 694 and 35w and you know another guy hey we got two inches in maple grove at 805 pm or whatever and you know so guys will constantly be posting totals so you know if you've got a say a larger company where you have multiple sites throughout the metro area you can kind of use this resource as a way to see what's actually on the ground throughout the Metro without having to drive from site to site.
00:34:29
snowjobspodcast
Hmm.
00:34:32
Jeremy Harris
Now, myself, I still drive from site to site to site. I can't i can't help myself. I just do it it.
00:34:40
snowjobspodcast
It's tradition, it's habit.
00:34:40
Jeremy Harris
I'm OCD that way. It is, it is. And that's kind of how it started because I was literally driving from site to site to site, so I would you know just post hey you know you got 18 snowflakes at 36 and White Bear Avenue or whatever you know and it got to be such a joke that one time I was driving around and it was I think 2 30 in the morning or whatever just stupid time I was sitting in an intersection waiting for the traffic cam
00:35:13
Jeremy Harris
to bring up my truck so that a guy could post it on plow site you know let everybody cheer like hey we got chair we on plow site there's trucks in the middle of the intersection so you know it's one of those things where you're just sitting there um
00:35:22
RICK JAMES
ah
00:35:29
Jeremy Harris
guys are out all the time right you know steve smith steve smith i mean he'll he'll probably start driving around god probably next month he'll probably start driving around looking for snow if he isn't already um you know
00:35:32
snowjobspodcast
Sure September 1st
00:35:41
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:35:44
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, exactly. He'll get those contracts going. But um you know if you're out and about, why not just put up the info that you see? you know Why have all these other guys driving around? And then the same thing with the ending time. you know A lot of times, your snow is coming from west to east. So the guys on the west side of the metro will say, hey, the back edge is here at 4.38 AM. And then you can look at the radar, and you can start seeing it.
00:36:12
Jeremy Harris
so you can tell your crews on the east side of the metro, hey you know the next time you make this path down the sidewalk to go ahead and start spreading salt because by the time you're done and you get that salt spread it's going to be melting the last you know sixteenth of an inch of snow that falls and then you're able to get onto to the net site sooner.
00:36:33
snowjobspodcast
Amen. ah It sounds awesome. i mean I've popped in there. i kind of Every now and then, I always like to talk snow and look at who's talking snow and what what they're saying. It's a great resource. It's a great site. yeah You got a ton of guys on there. and it's The nice thing is it doesn't it doesn't seem like it's it's very community oriented. There doesn't seem to be a lot of guys tearing each other up.
00:36:56
Jeremy Harris
No, it's not.
00:36:56
snowjobspodcast
Like I've been on some other snow groups at times that, uh, you know, it's just kind of brutal in there. And this seems more like supportive, like a community type deal. Like you're all kind of supporting each other and helping.
00:37:07
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, it's definitely not the mafia, so.
00:37:07
snowjobspodcast
I like that.
00:37:11
Jeremy Harris
one yeah
00:37:12
snowjobspodcast
I didn't say that.
00:37:13
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:37:13
snowjobspodcast
but They're, they're good for a lot of things too.
00:37:13
Jeremy Harris
um
00:37:16
snowjobspodcast
I liked that group too, but they are much more cutthroat sometimes.
00:37:20
Jeremy Harris
But I mean, we we have vendors in that group. So if a guy, you know, they'll post if they're going to be open overnight, you know, plow shops and stuff, say, hey, we're opening at eight o'clock tonight, you know, give us a call, you know, here's our number or, you know, a guy blows a hose.
00:37:35
Jeremy Harris
He posts, hey, anybody, you know, nowhere I can get a hose made. And, you know, four guys will post, you know, a portable hose.
00:37:42
snowjobspodcast
It's phenomenal.
00:37:43
Jeremy Harris
number or they'll say hey i got one over at my shop you know you're on over here here's my you know i've seen guys say hey get over there give me a call i'll give you the code you know here's there's a hose in there or whatever and you know and stuff like that so um like i said the vendors the vendors being on there whether it's selling equipment or um you know servicing it help out a lot too because there are guys will ask questions then a vendor will chime in and say hey this is what we can do or this is
00:37:56
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:38:12
Jeremy Harris
This is what you should look at. They are not even saying, hey, come by from us, or hey, bring it over here. This is the stuff that you can try and see if you can get it running. Once you're done with your job, then come back over here and we'll get you taken care of.
00:38:25
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome. So you have total buy-in from vendors as well. That's that's phenomenal.
00:38:29
Jeremy Harris
Yep.
00:38:29
snowjobspodcast
And you you still have plow shops that open up during storms at night?
00:38:34
RICK JAMES
It's
00:38:35
Jeremy Harris
Yep, we got a we got two or three of them around, so it helps.
00:38:35
snowjobspodcast
Oh, that's that's nice.
00:38:41
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, we don't have that here.
00:38:43
Jeremy Harris
It helps for sure.
00:38:44
RICK JAMES
pretty good.
00:38:44
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. oh I'm sure it does. I mean, that's awesome. Like here you you blow a hose at 501 p.m You better be the first one in line at 6 a.m Because by 7 when they open there's gonna be 14 other trucks there ready to to go in the gate It's nobody stays open anymore here during storms Wow
00:38:53
Jeremy Harris
yeah
00:38:59
Jeremy Harris
Right, no. A couple of them even have couches in their lobbies so you can take a nap while your truck's getting worked on. It's nice.
00:39:08
snowjobspodcast
oh
00:39:08
Jeremy Harris
It's that's a good community for sure.
00:39:10
RICK JAMES
Minnesota nice, Minnesota nice, Steve.
00:39:11
Jeremy Harris
so
00:39:11
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. You guys are spoiled out there. That's awesome. That's so great. I'm jealous.
00:39:17
Jeremy Harris
All right.
00:39:18
RICK JAMES
ah
00:39:19
snowjobspodcast
Oh man. How have the, um, how have the snow Wolf, the Quattro has been for you.
00:39:24
Jeremy Harris
We've had pretty good luck. Our bigger one, you know we've had some wing issues. There were a couple cylinders that were bad, but Snow Wolf stepped up.
00:39:36
Jeremy Harris
They said, here's new cylinders. They they acknowledged that there was an issue.
00:39:43
snowjobspodcast
Good.
00:39:43
Jeremy Harris
you know They sent me cylinders.
00:39:43
RICK JAMES
I think they had a bad batch or something.
00:39:45
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And name they, they stepped up and I mean, we bought it from a demo from Ziegler, you know, so Snowwolf didn't have to warranty it because it was a demo. But they, they sent me cylinders and we slapped them in. And, um you know, the the site that we have it on is about four and a half acres. So it's not, you know, a huge school. It's my schools, you know, there's about 3,600 students in the district. So We don't have, a you know, 20,000 kids in this district or whatever.
00:40:15
Jeremy Harris
It's five buildings and my 5115 with that plow just sits on this four acre lot and plows a church in that store once they're done with the high school. So it's not but it's not getting beat to death and it doesn't have to push, you know, 300,000 cubic yards of snow a quarter mile to where the snow is supposed to go.
00:40:34
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
00:40:36
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. We keep hearing Snow Wolf does the right thing when they, they have, when they have issues that they at least stand behind the product and make them right. So that's great to hear.
00:40:44
Jeremy Harris
you know And plus for us, they're local. I mean, it's it's no different. you know So you get an issue, you can just run down to Lakeville.
00:40:48
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:40:52
Jeremy Harris
It's 45 minutes from me. You can run down to their factory, grab a part, and come back.
00:40:55
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:40:59
snowjobspodcast
That's convenient. That's definitely ah that's pretty good. um What else you got, Jay?
00:41:03
RICK JAMES
I think I got a
00:41:05
snowjobspodcast
Go ahead.
00:41:05
RICK JAMES
Well, I think Jeremy might answer this is with his Facebook group, but so do you guys use weather service or is that your weather service to Facebook group?
00:41:15
Jeremy Harris
um You start talking to the guys that you know in there, you'll they'll tell you how much I sit there and you know just obsess over weather models. I mean, I'm sitting there refreshing every every month every weather model we pay for pivotal, um you know which is a source of weather models.
00:41:25
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:41:35
Jeremy Harris
And I'd rather just look at them myself. I mean I can get guys i've I've paid in the past and you can get guys that'll give you a forecast but when you wake up at you know 3 a.m because you're 52 years old and you got to make that bathroom break and you take a peek outside and you know it's you you you look at the ceiling in your bedroom you're like god it looks awfully bright outside you know for 330 in the morning and you walk outside and you look at you look at your car you know your wife's car in the driveway and you can't see the windshield wipers and you're like
00:42:05
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:42:11
RICK JAMES
okay
00:42:11
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:42:12
Jeremy Harris
Nobody said anything about this, you know, you're panicking, starting to make a phone call, you got, you know, an inch of snow, you know, and you got to start going. So, you know, we sit there and look at the weather models all the time in this group and discuss back and forth and, you know,
00:42:28
Jeremy Harris
once the day of, I mean, you're just sitting there looking at the radar, just nonstop. You know, Jeremy, we can sit there and watch it come down 94 from you guys. You know, ah you you guys get hit and, you know, 95% of the time that snow comes straight down 94 from Fargo.
00:42:37
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:42:44
Jeremy Harris
to Minneapolis, you know, and especially our little clippers and, you know, the ones that really screw you.
00:42:45
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:42:50
Jeremy Harris
You know, the big storms, you see those coming all the way up from, you know, Colorado or New Mexico or whatever.
00:42:55
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:42:56
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:42:56
Jeremy Harris
You see those marching across. It's the but's the clippers that come down that, you know, a squeeze a, you know, three quarters of an inch out of no moisture. And you're like, we're, you know, this sucks.
00:43:09
Jeremy Harris
You know, when you wake up.
00:43:09
RICK JAMES
It's not even on radar and it's snowing.
00:43:09
Jeremy Harris
and oh Oh, yeah, that's the worst.
00:43:11
snowjobspodcast
you know Yeah.
00:43:12
RICK JAMES
Yep. That's the best one. where like It's not even on fucking radar. It's snowing. i like
00:43:17
Jeremy Harris
No, and you don't know what to tell guys, because they're all sitting there like, well, what should we do? And you don't have answers, because you can't tell, because you have no idea what this is going to do. you know and and That's the worst.
00:43:27
snowjobspodcast
yeah yeah
00:43:30
Jeremy Harris
But no, i I'll give Bo a nose, whether I'll give him a shot off, because I do a message back and forth with him you know sometimes, just say, hey,
00:43:30
snowjobspodcast
Oh, it's horrible. ah So good.
00:43:38
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
00:43:42
Jeremy Harris
you know What's your idea? you know And he'll he'll he's he's a good guy.
00:43:45
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:43:46
Jeremy Harris
He'll answer. you know He's obviously trying to make some money. you know But you know you you'll see something that's put up by the National Weather Service that that just doesn't jive.
00:43:57
Jeremy Harris
And you'll be like, hey, Bo, what? You know what yeah ask him, what do they see here? Why are they saying this when you look at all of the other info and there's nothing? or it's contradictory and you say hey can I pick your brain like can you explain to me what they're looking at versus what I'm looking at why where are they coming up with and he's he's a good guy he'll he'll sit there and answer those questions he's you know he'll he's a good chatter yep
00:44:09
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:44:25
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:44:25
RICK JAMES
ah
00:44:26
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, and he's been right a lot. like the less I know he's not really doing it anymore. He's working for a network now, but he he um one like I think two years, maybe two winters ago, he put out like something ridiculous, like not ridiculous, but he put out a big snow, like, hey, Minneapolis, St. Paul's getting 20 inches out of this. And everybody was dogging him, saying, no way, no way. And he made some bet. like I forget what the wager was, but he He actually, he stood by it and he said, you watch, you know, at the end of this thing, we're going to have this much snow.
00:44:57
Jeremy Harris
Right, right, right, yep.
00:44:58
snowjobspodcast
And he was right. They went out measured it. And so I liked that.
00:45:03
Jeremy Harris
Hey, Rich James, I think I know who you were talking about earlier. Tom Novak, Novak Weather.
00:45:10
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah, yeah, that guy.
00:45:11
Jeremy Harris
and you no that's That's who you were referencing earlier.
00:45:11
RICK JAMES
yu Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah. He always seems to have like ridiculous numbers. I'm like, where's this guy? even I don't know.
00:45:22
Jeremy Harris
Oh, yeah.
00:45:23
RICK JAMES
I don't know.
00:45:23
snowjobspodcast
you know
00:45:23
Jeremy Harris
ah
00:45:23
RICK JAMES
At least to me, I'm like, everything's like 20 plus or he's, you know, he's looking at models for like.
00:45:28
snowjobspodcast
Was he a TV guy?
00:45:30
Jeremy Harris
No, he's a, he's a, he's a, yeah, he's a private forecaster and he works, I think he's the forecaster for one of the ski hills down by Rochester.
00:45:31
RICK JAMES
I have no idea who he is.
00:45:31
snowjobspodcast
Oh, okay. All right.
00:45:33
RICK JAMES
It's a Facebook guy.
00:45:34
snowjobspodcast
Oh, okay.
00:45:41
snowjobspodcast
I gotcha.
00:45:42
RICK JAMES
Well, maybe he's forecasting underneath the snow maker. Then maybe that's, that's where he's coming up with his totals.
00:45:46
Jeremy Harris
Well, I've been, he's banned about half of the guys from our Facebook groups.
00:45:47
snowjobspodcast
ah You should get 400 inches tonight.
00:45:56
Jeremy Harris
we can't even We can't even see what he posts anymore, because we'd just be like, what are you talking about, dude? It's not even going to be close to that. But you know he's trying to, it is what it is.
00:46:04
snowjobspodcast
Oh my God. So funny.
00:46:05
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:46:08
Jeremy Harris
I mean, everybody has an opinion.
00:46:08
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:46:10
Jeremy Harris
you know
00:46:11
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely.
00:46:11
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:46:12
snowjobspodcast
It's all interpretation. That's the, uh, it's amazing how guys that are trained to do meteorology can look at a weather model and see it completely different outcome wise.
00:46:21
Jeremy Harris
Right. Right.
00:46:23
snowjobspodcast
So it's all like, I think it's like sports. You're, you know, there are guys that have talent and guys that have less talent. So.
00:46:30
Jeremy Harris
Right.
00:46:30
RICK JAMES
Gut feeling, right?
00:46:31
snowjobspodcast
That's it. Yes. Yeah. Go superstitions and stuff. Oh man. So Jeremy, what are your, what are your contract structures like? What goes in that area? Are you guys doing seasonals per push to T and M?
00:46:43
snowjobspodcast
what What's popular there?
00:46:45
Jeremy Harris
I'm 100% seasonal, 12 months, 12 equal months or 12 equal payments for 12 months.
00:46:48
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:46:53
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha. That's nice.
00:46:55
Jeremy Harris
the The one that I've tried to push now is including salting on top of it.
00:47:03
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:47:03
Jeremy Harris
um You know, because like last year, we had 30 inches of snow and I think 28 inches of it was in March. You know, we had almost nothing here.
00:47:13
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:47:14
Jeremy Harris
so Now the year before we had 98 inches of snow, you know, so between the two inches between the two years we were dead on our seasonal average.
00:47:23
RICK JAMES
Average.
00:47:24
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:47:25
Jeremy Harris
So as long as your customers understand that there's going to be years like two years ago where I lose my butt, and then a year like last year where
00:47:35
RICK JAMES
Mm
00:47:36
Jeremy Harris
we get our money to make up for the year before, then you're good.
00:47:38
RICK JAMES
hmm.
00:47:40
Jeremy Harris
It just sucks when you have the 100 inch year and somebody dumps you and you don't have the 20 inch year to even it out.
00:47:48
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:47:49
RICK JAMES
Right. Yeah.
00:47:50
Jeremy Harris
No, like I said, zero tolerance is what I shoot for. If I can and include the salting, you know, the one, we got one account where we have to include hauling and we've only hauled twice on that account.
00:48:04
Jeremy Harris
So we're getting paid without having to haul. So that helps.
00:48:08
RICK JAMES
So you, you want to include something on your seasonal or don't, or really.
00:48:12
Jeremy Harris
I try to, I want it all inclusive. For these apartments, it's easy, like you can sell them on a big number, if you can guarantee it's only that number.
00:48:22
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:48:23
Jeremy Harris
You know, so like we, right, we have apartments that are five to $10,000 a month and it's not that much work, but I can guarantee you that they won't be over.
00:48:24
snowjobspodcast
So they can budget.
00:48:24
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:48:25
snowjobspodcast
So they can budget for it.
00:48:31
RICK JAMES
Great.
00:48:36
Jeremy Harris
Like you'll have, we will have a 30 inch low cap. So if we get under 30 inches, we give them a 20% credit the following spring.
00:48:42
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
00:48:46
Jeremy Harris
So like five months for the winter and seven months for the summer, ah the We'll give them a 20% credit if we're under 30 inches of snow, but it's towards the summer work.
00:48:58
Jeremy Harris
So we might do something in April for free because they get a 20% credit. But typically in April, we're not doing much either because you're waiting for the snow to melt or the snow has melted, but the ground hasn't warmed up.
00:49:11
RICK JAMES
right
00:49:13
Jeremy Harris
So you're not really doing anything anyway. So sometimes that that April payment might just be a watch.
00:49:18
RICK JAMES
Right Evens all yeah So you do have a cap you do have a cap nice
00:49:20
Jeremy Harris
And then the high end will have 80 inches where we get another 20% payment if we go beyond the 80 inches. so then the year yeah But it's a high cap.
00:49:29
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
00:49:33
Jeremy Harris
It's not 50 inches and then you know you're paying part yeah yeah and then you're paying by the inch after that because i mean that blows a lot of people's budget out of water.
00:49:33
RICK JAMES
Yep. Yep. 55. fifty five yeah
00:49:38
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:49:42
snowjobspodcast
Oh, sure.
00:49:44
Jeremy Harris
Well, one of our better accounts
00:49:45
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:49:48
Jeremy Harris
The prior company had one of those where they were at 45 inches and then they had 75 inches of snow. So the budget was double what they were thinking they were going to pay.
00:50:01
Jeremy Harris
I came back in 10.
00:50:01
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that's tough.
00:50:02
Jeremy Harris
I came back in 15% less than what they paid that prior year. But I said, I won't. That's your guaranteed rate. And so no so now I'm getting you know almost there 75 inches, probably like 16 inch worth of work for just doing the same work.
00:50:11
snowjobspodcast
Smart.
00:50:24
Jeremy Harris
And you know if we're under average or if we're at average, then I'm getting more money.
00:50:29
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:50:30
RICK JAMES
Mmhmm.
00:50:30
snowjobspodcast
And it's smart when you can stretch it out over 12 months like that. When you do the green there as well, as far as the mowing, like, cause they don't, I don't know how to say it. Like they complain maybe a little bit or they don't complain, but they're, they're thinking they're paying way over market for mowing when their payments are are larger in the summer.
00:50:48
Jeremy Harris
Right, right.
00:50:49
snowjobspodcast
But in the winter, they're like, wow, you know, you're paying how much for snow? No, we're pretty good. Like they they seem to forget from season to season.
00:50:56
Jeremy Harris
Well, and not only that, but they're set on a budget. I mean, they're getting their rent.
00:50:59
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:51:00
Jeremy Harris
They know what, you know, how many units they have and how much rent they're getting. If I can say this is, you know, 10% of your building is going towards outdoor maintenance, and they know that 10% is, you know, going towards out what outdoor maintenance.
00:51:10
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:51:14
Jeremy Harris
So it's, you know, property managers, regional managers, I mean, we we've gotten into some of the property management companies where the vice president will call us and have us go do a project for them because they can't get anybody else to do it.
00:51:26
Jeremy Harris
And you know ownership is showing up in two weeks.
00:51:27
snowjobspodcast
ah
00:51:27
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:51:30
Jeremy Harris
We need this job done. and you know so yeah
00:51:34
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha. Well, it's good. That's a great niche to be in. Um, now everything like, uh, mulch and stuff like that. Do you factor that all into your seasonal, your 12 month seasonal contract or is that an add on?
00:51:45
Jeremy Harris
that yeah that's an add-on you know like you know replacing bushes you know irrigation winterizing and startup i include but any repairs or an add-on you know the a lot of them will do the do the plowing 12 months but they want the salt extra you know as an add-on but then they want to go cheap and never salt
00:51:47
RICK JAMES
Yep, yep.
00:51:47
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that's what a smart. Yep.
00:51:54
snowjobspodcast
Okay. Yep.
00:52:05
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
00:52:10
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:52:10
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Yep.
00:52:10
Jeremy Harris
you know and then you're you know So if you can get them to salt, you know like Randy said with Target, you know when when he was talking to Target ah before he was kicked out of there and he sold them because he said, hey, you're slipping falls, you're paying out like 75,000 a year.
00:52:20
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:52:28
Jeremy Harris
I forget what the exact number was.
00:52:30
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:52:30
Jeremy Harris
What if I can do your store for that money and you don't have to worry about a slip and fall? Well, you know, you can't do that.
00:52:36
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:52:38
Jeremy Harris
Well, yeah, I can. You know, let's try it.
00:52:40
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:52:40
Jeremy Harris
He did. You know, and that's kind of the that's kind of the same the same way that I go about it.
00:52:42
snowjobspodcast
He did it.
00:52:46
Jeremy Harris
I'm saying, hey, you know, you're going to pay for a slip and fall. You're going to pay twenty five thousand dollars.
00:52:50
RICK JAMES
Great.
00:52:51
Jeremy Harris
Well, how about you just pay me that twenty five thousand dollars and I'll I'll not have you have a slip and fall. I'll guarantee you don't have a fall.
00:52:58
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
00:52:59
Jeremy Harris
You know, and then, and it might be a property.
00:53:00
snowjobspodcast
Amen. I say the same thing. I use the same.
00:53:03
Jeremy Harris
Yeah. And it might be a property that's worth $2,000 a month, but you can convince them, Hey, if we go here, you won't have a slip and fall, you know? And and so then they're, yeah, sounds good.
00:53:15
Jeremy Harris
Let's do it.
00:53:15
snowjobspodcast
Amen. Not smart. That's exactly what we say that that's the same approach. So that it works too. You know, like, you know, it it works.
00:53:23
Jeremy Harris
Right.
00:53:26
RICK JAMES
So Do you see since you you're kind of running this group and stuff and you said everything you're doing seasonal is that what kind of a standard thing is around the cities or is or Guys all over the place
00:53:37
Jeremy Harris
Now, you know, the stuff that you guys are hearing discussed is a lot of it is guys, you know, i I catch a lot of flap because I am a lot of, you know, I'm 100% seasonal guys are like, well, what are you doing a bad year or whatever?
00:53:49
Jeremy Harris
And I'm like, well, I just suck it up and use some credit cards and pay them off on a good year. But, you know, a lot of guys, you know, they want that 60-40, you know, 60% contract, 40% per push, you know, to cover, you know, the the pretty standard
00:53:56
RICK JAMES
of
00:54:01
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
00:54:02
RICK JAMES
the
00:54:03
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:54:06
Jeremy Harris
you know, way to go about it. You know, there's a lot of guys that, you know, or are still like per push or per time because, you know, two years ago when we had 100 inches, they they think, hey, man, this is making some money.
00:54:16
Jeremy Harris
And then last year, you know, you're just you're not making any money.
00:54:17
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:54:17
RICK JAMES
the
00:54:21
Jeremy Harris
you know And then you've got to go get another job.
00:54:22
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:54:23
Jeremy Harris
And then you can't go plow because you've got to work at your other job. You've got to find something that'll let you just take off on a whim if you're you're trying to supplement your income with a real job.
00:54:27
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:54:34
Jeremy Harris
Well, not real job, but you guys know what I mean.
00:54:37
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, no, we absolutely know.
00:54:38
Jeremy Harris
That's no point.
00:54:41
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:54:41
snowjobspodcast
Oh, what else you got, Jay? Anything else?
00:54:44
RICK JAMES
Yeah, well. Like you just said, real job, this is a real job. People got a real, I mean, I know, you know that, I know you know, Jeremy, but it's, that's a, that's a problem.
00:54:49
Jeremy Harris
Oh, yeah, for sure.
00:54:54
RICK JAMES
Everybody, you know, they don't think snow pushing is a real job, but it's, it's a real job and it's a real important job that we do out here.
00:54:59
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
00:55:01
snowjobspodcast
amen
00:55:02
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, like in the wintertime, I sleep three hours a day, you know, cause you just, I just can't, you just don't know when you're going to wake up and, you know, just see that quarter inch that needs to be salted or, you know, the, the three inches that wasn't at all forecast, you know, when you wake up at 4am and there's three inches of snow and you're like, what the bleep.
00:55:03
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:55:07
snowjobspodcast
Oh yeah.
00:55:07
RICK JAMES
you
00:55:24
snowjobspodcast
See, it's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing how much regions have, have differences like that. Like for us, when we got, I think we had two, well, you remember Jeremy, like last, not this past winter, or the winter before that, when we had those two that like all the weather guys missed.
00:55:40
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:55:40
snowjobspodcast
And even as it was snow, upping a half an inch to an inch on us, they're saying there's literally nothing on the radar. Like we're looking at nothing right now.
00:55:47
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:55:48
snowjobspodcast
lake effect, but there's nothing on the radar at all. That doesn't happen. Like that was a once in probably four or five years thing here. But like that happens to you guys enough out there that you guys actually lose sleep over it.
00:56:00
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:56:01
snowjobspodcast
That pops up whether nothing was forecast.
00:56:02
Jeremy Harris
Yeah.
00:56:03
RICK JAMES
All the time.
00:56:04
snowjobspodcast
There's nothing on the radar.
00:56:05
snowjobspodcast
And here's an inch.
00:56:05
Jeremy Harris
100%.
00:56:07
RICK JAMES
Yep. All the time.
00:56:09
snowjobspodcast
That's just that's so funny to me. Like it's amazing how that it just changes from area to area. It's amazing.
00:56:17
Jeremy Harris
Once, once the overnight lows hit about 40 degrees, I'll start having the dreams where I missed a snowfall.
00:56:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:56:18
snowjobspodcast
so different
00:56:24
Jeremy Harris
You know, I'll wake up, I'll have a dream that, you know, there's seven inches of snow on the ground and I'll be freaked. I'll wake up freaking out and look outside and you know, those leaves are still in the trees, but you know, it's, I can't, I can't sleep when there's snow on the ground or, you know, if there's a cloud in the sky, I have a hard time sleeping.
00:56:42
Jeremy Harris
Cause I just, I've been burned enough times over 30, 30 years that
00:56:42
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:56:42
snowjobspodcast
there
00:56:47
Jeremy Harris
It is what it is.
00:56:49
snowjobspodcast
How many times a season would you say that happens where there's nothing on radar and and something shows up?
00:56:56
Jeremy Harris
For us, it's it's a little bit different because we have so much zero tolerance.
00:57:00
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:57:00
Jeremy Harris
you know We have so much that we have to clear or salt you know no matter what falls. so um you know that that That probably keeps me pretty high strung.
00:57:12
Jeremy Harris
Probably three or four, but mostly because I just don't sleep. like
00:57:17
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:57:18
Jeremy Harris
It is what it is. I just, I'm always up. I mean, guys in that group can attest that I'll be posting at three 30 in the morning or, you know, and and then a couple of other guys will wake up and we'll be all, we'll all be like, Oh my God.
00:57:30
Jeremy Harris
And you know, when guys start waking up, they're going to be freaking out. We're already out plowing, you know, cause there was, you know, four inches on this ground at 4AM that wasn't forecast and it fell from 1AM to 4AM.
00:57:35
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:57:43
Jeremy Harris
So if guys were, you know, out at the bar or at a buddy's house or went to sleep at, you know 11 30 12 because there wasn't anything in the forecast and you know have their alarm set for six seven eight o'clock you know you'll it's hilarious because you'll be like all right well get ready for the postings to start up here and you know sure enough by five six a.m. also never you know Holy bleep.
00:58:07
Jeremy Harris
What the bleep, bleep, bleep. You know, guys are post like, you know, and so, um, you know, guys will be driving around like, dude, I haven't seen a plow truck all night.
00:58:10
snowjobspodcast
ah
00:58:17
Jeremy Harris
You know, I'm the only one in this area. You know, and so, um, you know, city, county, state, anything, you know, guys, it'll just be completely dropped.
00:58:25
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:58:27
Jeremy Harris
The ball will just be completely dropped.
00:58:30
snowjobspodcast
Wow. So and that happens like that. You said that happens three to four times a year where you get snow and nothing's is forecasted.
00:58:37
Jeremy Harris
You know, yeah, you know, especially for the, especially for the really low triggers, you know, if you're, if you're a two, two inch trigger, inch and a half trigger, it doesn't happen as much because for us, for us, our main snows are probably that half inch to inch and a half.
00:58:37
RICK JAMES
Oh, God, yeah.
00:58:39
snowjobspodcast
Wow. Sure.
00:58:56
Jeremy Harris
You know, that's probably what we get.
00:58:56
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
00:58:58
Jeremy Harris
I'm going to say 80% of the time, 75% of the time, then, then inch and a half to four, four and a half, five inches, you know, 20% of the time. And then, you know, you'll get maybe four snowfalls a year that are over six inches.
00:59:14
Jeremy Harris
so Average.
00:59:15
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
00:59:16
Jeremy Harris
and And so like the six inch snowfalls don't happen a lot, but they've happened.
00:59:22
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:59:23
Jeremy Harris
They've happened where you wake up and you're, you know, 6 a.m. you wake up and your truck's buried and you're like, what the heck?
00:59:30
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:59:31
Jeremy Harris
And yep, that's exactly it.
00:59:31
RICK JAMES
um I'm fucked.
00:59:35
Jeremy Harris
Cause you start, you know, and then, you know, if you, if you, the biggest thing is as the owner or as, you know, an operations manager, if there's nothing in the forecast, you haven't sent out your texts to your crews
00:59:35
snowjobspodcast
Oh.
00:59:48
Jeremy Harris
you know, or to your regional managers or whatever. You haven't put everybody on notice saying, hey, we're probably going to start at, you know, 1 30 or get started at midnight or whatever. So all of a sudden, you know, it isn't just, hey, I got to go, you know, it's hey, I got to go, but now I got to get on the phone while I'm trying to get and going.
01:00:09
Jeremy Harris
to get the rest of the people calling the people they need to call or get the text messages out to everybody and half the people turn their phones off because I don't know why you turn your phone off in the middle of winter overnight.
01:00:09
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm
01:00:10
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:00:20
RICK JAMES
Adam nobody's here You know, right
01:00:23
Jeremy Harris
and I've never understood why you turn your phone off.
01:00:25
snowjobspodcast
Cause I don't want to work.
01:00:27
Jeremy Harris
That's pretty much it.
01:00:27
snowjobspodcast
They don't want to work that night.
01:00:29
Jeremy Harris
But I mean, you're sitting there just blowing up people's phones, blowing it up, blowing up, blowing it up and saying, you gotta to call me, you gotta call me, you gotta call me. And you'll hang up and you'll just hit redial four times in a row.
01:00:39
Jeremy Harris
So it just, you know, and hang up and redial, hang up, redial, hoping, you know, to ring and they don't, they don't answer. And you're just like, oh Christ, well, who's gonna be the, who's the number one highest priority that we needed to get going at?
01:00:55
Jeremy Harris
You know, you're, you're now your, now your schedule's all screwed up because you're, you're trying to figure out who's the highest priority is.
01:00:55
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:01:01
Jeremy Harris
so You're trying to figure out who's awake, who's able to work and you're sending those highest priorities.
01:01:04
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:01:06
Jeremy Harris
And they may not have ever even been on the property before because they have their own region over here, you know, and it's then you're just, you're behind the whole storm then.
01:01:15
snowjobspodcast
Oh, absolutely. And that's when stuff gets broken, stuff gets hit.
01:01:20
Jeremy Harris
Yep.
01:01:20
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that's yeah absolutely.
01:01:20
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:01:21
Jeremy Harris
Yep, you know, and and, you know, as the owner, you're on the phone starting, you know, nine o'clock. Hey, how come our lot hasn't been plowed yet? Are you guys out plowing? We've never not plowed. You know, if there's four inches of snow in your parking lot,
01:01:37
Jeremy Harris
there's probably a reason why. And most likely, it stops snowing at 8.30.
01:01:40
snowjobspodcast
Mm-hmm.
01:01:43
Jeremy Harris
And you probably drove through the snow to get to your parking lot.
01:01:43
snowjobspodcast
Yup.
01:01:47
Jeremy Harris
you know and And so you know anybody that's been in this industry, you've had a lot or two or five that haven't been done at open time. you know And you still get that call saying, hey, are you guys out plowing today?
01:02:01
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, we're all plowed. I mean, we've never not plowed you in the past. you know We just had some issues. and But you know now we started putting GPS in all the trucks and all the equipment.
01:02:14
Jeremy Harris
So now I can pull up you know on the fly. If you get the call that says, hey, we weren't plowed last night, you can pull up a GPS screenshot showing you know a truck going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, or a piece of equipment on their parking lot.
01:02:26
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:02:31
Jeremy Harris
you know showing that it was clear to say, hey, do you see those snow banks up by your entrances or out in the corner of your parking lot? Wherever the snow is pushed, we were there. But you know it's it kept snowing. We'll be back. you know And then you can pull up and see who's in the area and call them and say, hey, when you're done with that apartment, I need you to get over to this one. Skip the next one you were supposed to go to. This gal called. We got to get over there next.
01:02:58
Jeremy Harris
you know so But like I said, there's a lot of juggling that's got to go on in each event.
01:03:03
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
01:03:04
Jeremy Harris
It isn't, ah you know, I'm not going to lie. It's not, you know, peaches and cream every snowfall, so.
01:03:11
snowjobspodcast
No, no, never.
01:03:12
RICK JAMES
no
01:03:14
snowjobspodcast
Uh, Jeremy, is there a lot of competition in your area for, for what you do for snow?
01:03:22
Jeremy Harris
You know, there's a lot of guys that plow snow. And, you know, I think the the biggest competition and I'm not trying to sound like, a you know, smart ass or, you know, whatever, but.
01:03:31
snowjobspodcast
No, good.
01:03:34
Jeremy Harris
I feel like anybody's competition is yourself. you know Because if you want to succeed, you got to have the drive to succeed.
01:03:47
Jeremy Harris
If you want to make a comfortable living, you can make a comfortable living.
01:03:47
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
01:03:53
Jeremy Harris
And whatever that succeed, comfortable living, beer money level is to you, that's your competition. because Like, will there be guys out trying to take your accounts? Probably. you know You'll always have property managers that want to get rid of, you know make a change for the sake of making a change. But um you know we're in a major metropolitan area. So yeah, there's there's a ton of competition. A lot of guys have been on your shows. you know and so But it it just comes down to being in your own competition, you know making yourself succeed and making yourself have the drive and
01:04:33
Jeremy Harris
you know the gumption to get going you know just like Randy said you know the when he was talking about how he broke down in his in his Jeep and you know killed the battery and he had to go through the snow and you know or shoveling out bank bank drive throughs I've done that you know you've pulled into something back when I had straight blades that wouldn't get through it and
01:04:35
snowjobspodcast
Amen, brother. Love it.
01:04:57
Jeremy Harris
you get out the little rubble rubber paddle snowblower and you're doing a eight foot tall drift that's 14 feet long and 18 feet wide and you're just like oh I gotta get myself through this thing somehow and you know so but yeah
01:05:01
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:05:10
snowjobspodcast
yep Yep.
01:05:12
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:05:16
snowjobspodcast
Oh, Rick, you got anything else for him? Any other questions we didn't cover?
01:05:21
RICK JAMES
Yep Not the second though commercial probably and then we'll ask him to five and five I
01:05:24
snowjobspodcast
Yep. Absolutely. All right, guys, we'll be back in a minute and 15. We'll let Jeremy get something to drink here. Be right back.
01:06:36
snowjobspodcast
All right, guys, we're back. Jeremy hit him with the five and five.
01:06:40
RICK JAMES
All right. Where do you see yourself going in five years, Jeremy? What's what's your what are you looking for?
01:06:48
Jeremy Harris
you know After 35 years of running a business, you know I hold a class A. I've had ah i've had a hazmat endorsement. you know Sometimes I wonder, is it something where I need to just get out of this side of the industry and go work?
01:07:01
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:07:04
Jeremy Harris
you know Running somebody's dump truck, running you know whatever. um there's there's I'm pushing. I'll be 52 in November. You're always trying to figure out where that exit strategy is where where it needs to be.
01:07:18
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:07:20
Jeremy Harris
you know i'm not I'm not the size that I'm not gonna get bought out by Brightview. I'm not gonna get bought out by you know these bigger guys. So you're always looking at that and you know what the with the struggle with the labor industry and you know just, we can find laborers but after a while you just get tired of the,
01:07:43
Jeremy Harris
dealing with dealing with the laborers, just the ah silly stuff.
01:07:44
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely.
01:07:47
Jeremy Harris
And, you know, so, you know, I think, was it the guy from curbside a couple episodes talking about, you know, I'd like to downsize a little bit and maybe back out a little bit.
01:07:58
Jeremy Harris
i said
01:07:58
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Clippers. Yeah.
01:07:59
RICK JAMES
Yeah clippers, yep
01:07:59
snowjobspodcast
Matt from Clippers.
01:07:59
Jeremy Harris
yeah yeah you know and And I look at it like i could use I could do my school district and I could take my two you know highest end apartment buildings and probably make as much for myself as I do now you know doing these 65 apartments in my school district.
01:08:10
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm
01:08:22
Jeremy Harris
you know These other 63 are paying for the employees, for the subcontractors,
01:08:23
snowjobspodcast
Yep. Amen.
01:08:29
Jeremy Harris
for the materials, for the for the trucks I got to have for the equipment. Obviously, I still got to have equipment and trucks to get the school district done in these two apartment buildings.
01:08:34
RICK JAMES
Yep. Mhm.
01:08:38
Jeremy Harris
But you know in the summertime, I could do that stuff
Personal Reflections & Solo Work
01:08:43
Jeremy Harris
by myself. and you know But then I sit there and think, OK, I used to work 100 hours a week, 110 hours a week, as a solo operator till one day I broke my foot and realized I can't do that.
01:08:58
Jeremy Harris
So then do I want to go back to being absolutely married to this job? Because that's the way it'd be if I went back to just being and strictly solo. So um you know in five years, honest to answer, I'll probably still be about the same we're doing now.
01:09:13
Jeremy Harris
you know
01:09:13
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
Reputation & Client Offers
01:09:14
Jeremy Harris
it's yeah you know even today you know we got some regional managers that you know anytime there's a property that comes up they're calling me first and saying hey you know can you take this property on you know we i haven't advertised in 25 years you know it's all strictly work you know the these apartments you know the the uh the people the property managers have worked their way up into corporates so then
01:09:26
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:09:30
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
01:09:31
RICK JAMES
Good for you.
01:09:40
Jeremy Harris
They're telling their property managers that are under them. Hey call this guy. He's a good guy You know I always tell people you know quality service at a fair price and you know as long as nobody's gonna be too much of a hassle to deal with I'm pretty low-key and laid-back to deal with and
01:09:57
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:09:58
Jeremy Harris
Yeah so you know five years I'll probably still be about the same you know we we've been about the same level you know for the last five and and probably continue to be about the same you know unless ah unless somebody wants to give me three hundred thousand and take everything I've got you know to walk I mean that's I probably I probably some days you know 150 bucks and you can have
01:10:09
snowjobspodcast
Awesome.
Securing Long-Term Work
01:10:21
Jeremy Harris
it we're good yep
01:10:21
RICK JAMES
ah
01:10:21
snowjobspodcast
George, you're going to have the headaches, too.
01:10:23
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah. yeah
01:10:24
Jeremy Harris
ye
01:10:25
snowjobspodcast
Oh, man.
01:10:26
Jeremy Harris
oh
01:10:26
snowjobspodcast
What what's been the the biggest decision you've made in the last five years to get you to where you are now?
01:10:30
RICK JAMES
That's
01:10:34
Jeremy Harris
You know, it it isn't so much five, because we've been pretty steady at the five, but you know, about 20 years ago, I ran into ah one of my properties before I really grew to where I am now.
01:10:37
snowjobspodcast
OK.
01:10:47
Jeremy Harris
um I ran into a regional manager at a property that just hated the work we did, and you know, you guys suck, you can't do this work. You know, we got to call in one of the larger companies in town to get this property, and you know, I was pretty dejected, and I walked out, and
01:10:57
RICK JAMES
not bad.
01:11:02
Jeremy Harris
and know I stopped for a couple of minutes and I went back in and I said, hey, you know do you have a moment? Can we talk? And she's like, sure. you know And she put her stuff aside. and um I explained to her. I said, look, the the reason your property is the way it is is because your manager wouldn't approve anything other than us just to cut grass. They didn't want us to you know spray weeds, pull weeds, trim bushes. He said, no, maintenance can do that. Maintenance can to do that. Maintenance can do that.
01:11:32
Jeremy Harris
And it just wasn't getting done. I said, you know give me a chance. We'll come in you know tomorrow. I'll bring my crew in. We'll have this place all cleaned up. you know and And that one and encounter 20 years ago probably accounts for close to 90% of my work today.
01:11:51
snowjobspodcast
No shit.
01:11:51
RICK JAMES
Wow.
01:11:52
Jeremy Harris
ye You know because she worked her way up she sent me to other properties those property managers have worked their way up through different They either work their way up in corporate in that management company or they go to other properties and they bring me to those properties and then you know the I keep the original property plus I get this new one you know and then they move around and you keep you know the existing properties keep adding the new ones and like I said pretty soon your name gets you know passed along all the way up the corporate ladder to where you know the the people the the you know the the big wigs are calling you to do stuff so
01:12:19
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
Direct Offers from Leaders
01:12:30
Jeremy Harris
say hey can you do this or they build a new property and hey Jeremy I know this is in your area do you want it you know and you don't even have to bid it you just say yeah here's our price and okay we'll put it in the budget sounds good all right
01:12:42
snowjobspodcast
Awesome.
01:12:43
RICK JAMES
That's great.
01:12:43
snowjobspodcast
Now it's great. Well, she got Rick. You got anything else for him?
01:12:49
RICK JAMES
I don't think so. was know I don't have anything else. It was fun talking to him. and um I've been on the page quite a few times and read a lot of comments.
01:12:53
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely.
01:12:58
RICK JAMES
It's good to finally meet the guy behind the... or
01:13:03
Jeremy Harris
You know, there's there's a couple of us.
01:13:03
RICK JAMES
like
01:13:04
Jeremy Harris
It isn't just me, so. And, you know,
01:13:07
snowjobspodcast
Anybody want to give a shout out to Jeremy?
01:13:07
Jeremy Harris
what
01:13:10
Jeremy Harris
Steve Smyth, he's, we've got Joe, Joe Uren, you know, Joe and I talk quite a bit.
01:13:13
snowjobspodcast
Ah, forget Steve Smythe.
01:13:13
RICK JAMES
and nah Yeah.
01:13:14
snowjobspodcast
He gets enough shout outs on here.
01:13:20
Jeremy Harris
You know, we've we've hung out and had lunch together and stuff. And, you know, right, you know, and there's there's a bunch of the guys we could sit here and name off, you know, run off.
01:13:24
snowjobspodcast
Joe's good people.
01:13:28
RICK JAMES
Mhm.
01:13:30
Jeremy Harris
I will say this, we do try to keep it fairly local. So you know I know your guys' reach reaches pretty international. I suppose there's some people that'll stumble onto it once in a while.
01:13:44
Jeremy Harris
So you know if they go to apply and they're not in the metro area, there's a good chance we're not going to let them in the group. And it's not because we don't value their opinions.
01:13:52
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
01:13:55
RICK JAMES
How did that get in the group?
01:13:57
Jeremy Harris
Right. you know and so But one thing we do do is keep the nationals out. as you know what if we if we can If we can pick up that there's a national in the group, they're booted almost immediately.
01:14:04
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that's good.
01:14:10
Jeremy Harris
They're just they're just not allowed.
01:14:10
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
01:14:12
Jeremy Harris
i mean Once in a while, we'll keep them in the group because guys know how to pick away at them.
01:14:20
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:14:21
Jeremy Harris
And we'll try to get information out of them. you know without without knowing without them knowing that we're yeah you know and so right
01:14:26
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:14:26
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, without tipping your hands. Yep.
01:14:28
RICK JAMES
You know, play the game.
01:14:30
snowjobspodcast
Although you you just tipped your hand now.
01:14:33
Jeremy Harris
and just
01:14:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:14:33
snowjobspodcast
ah now Now they know.
01:14:35
Jeremy Harris
But but you know we'll we'll boot them pretty quick.
01:14:35
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:14:37
snowjobspodcast
well
01:14:38
Jeremy Harris
you know And even you know at the start of it, we didn't even really want the bigger guys in town involved. But the bigger guys in town are also their own resource.
01:14:47
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:14:50
Jeremy Harris
You know they you you run into, um what's his name, from LADC, Fran.
01:14:50
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:14:56
snowjobspodcast
Brannon, Riley?
01:14:56
RICK JAMES
Brandon?
01:14:57
Jeremy Harris
and Yeah, you know he he's in there. he's you know He's a good resource. And you know some of these other guys, you know So it's not like you're trying to be, it's glued them, but you're trying to level the playing field, let's say.
01:15:06
RICK JAMES
Mm-hm.
01:15:15
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
01:15:16
Jeremy Harris
you know, as
Local Focus of the Group
01:15:17
Jeremy Harris
best you can.
01:15:17
snowjobspodcast
ah
01:15:17
Jeremy Harris
Like I said, if you can, you know, but just like you guys, you know, it's nationals are a big no-no. Guys will ask all the time, hey, you know, who's doing dollar generals or who's bidding the targets or who's doing whatever.
01:15:31
Jeremy Harris
And guys are like, well, if you're not getting it at the store level, don't don't even deal with it.
01:15:37
snowjobspodcast
Amen. Amen. Yep. The low bit Olympics started today. Apparently we got a bunch of them sent to us today from the guys got from national. So yeah, it's, it's, it's the season, but yet you're doing a great job and that that's a hell of a resource out there.
01:15:50
Jeremy Harris
Yeah.
01:15:50
RICK JAMES
Thank
01:15:53
snowjobspodcast
And I understand that it's a local thing.
01:15:54
RICK JAMES
you.
01:15:56
snowjobspodcast
That's why I really don't ever post in there. Uh, but I appreciate you, uh, you letting me in there just to watch and, uh, and pick up on some stuff.
01:16:03
Jeremy Harris
well that That was the whole point, you know just to have you guys in the group so you could see you know what our what our group is like. And like I said, there's some other more national groups that it's it's like any part of social media that half the guys are just to stir up the pot.
01:16:18
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
01:16:20
Jeremy Harris
stir the pot and you know
01:16:21
snowjobspodcast
No, that.
01:16:22
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:16:23
snowjobspodcast
and
01:16:24
RICK JAMES
but but
01:16:24
Jeremy Harris
yeah
01:16:25
snowjobspodcast
ah ah Yeah, no, I know exactly what you're saying.
01:16:28
RICK JAMES
Thank
01:16:29
snowjobspodcast
yeah You guys, ah you guys definitely keep it pretty professional in there and it's a great resource. So just keep it going because it's, ah so I think it's helping a lot of guys.
01:16:37
RICK JAMES
you.
01:16:38
snowjobspodcast
I mean, I know it is, but you know, my hat off to you guys for doing that.
01:16:40
Jeremy Harris
Right?
01:16:42
snowjobspodcast
It's definitely helping the industry in Minnesota. That's for sure.
01:16:46
Jeremy Harris
Yeah, the biggest the biggest thing I said, like, you know, to be able to sit there and research real quick for a slip and fall when it was actually happening that day and, you know, from there, once you know when the storm started and stopped, then you can research the rest of your, the info you need to defend yourself and, yeah.
01:17:04
snowjobspodcast
100% 100%. All right, Jeremy, you got anything else for us? Otherwise we'll let you go here.
01:17:11
Jeremy Harris
No, you guys put it on an awesome podcast. I love listening to the stories because we all got them.
01:17:17
snowjobspodcast
We all got them. That's right, brother.
01:17:18
RICK JAMES
i Thank you.
01:17:19
snowjobspodcast
Well, we appreciate that. And thanks for giving us a time and thanks for doing what you're doing with that chat group and keep it going, brother. All right. We'll talk to you down the road. I'm sure, but we appreciate you coming on.
01:17:29
Jeremy Harris
Yep. I'll see you guys down and down at Storm.
01:17:33
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:17:34
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
01:17:34
snowjobspodcast
Storm day, storm, storm day.
01:17:34
RICK JAMES
um they Storm day.
01:17:35
Jeremy Harris
Yep.
01:17:37
RICK JAMES
Storm day.
01:17:37
snowjobspodcast
That's going to get legs.
01:17:38
Jeremy Harris
Yep.
01:17:38
snowjobspodcast
Storm day. but
01:17:39
RICK JAMES
storm day.
01:17:39
snowjobspodcast
ah
01:17:41
Jeremy Harris
I'll see you guys down there.
01:17:42
snowjobspodcast
All right. Uh, what
Special Episode Announcement
01:17:44
snowjobspodcast
else? I did make a note. I just got, Oh guys. So this is, this is dropping Monday on this Thursday.
01:17:46
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
01:17:50
snowjobspodcast
We will be dropping a special product profile episode. All right. We are profiling view robotics. All right. There's psych camera. So that will be what's that?
01:17:59
RICK JAMES
They're sweet.
01:18:01
snowjobspodcast
They are very sweet.
01:18:02
RICK JAMES
They're yeah yeah yeah And there may or may not be a few shots of some local guys in there.
01:18:02
snowjobspodcast
They are very sweet and priced correctly. So that's, uh, you know, reasonably. So check it out on Thursday and, uh, and give it a listen. Those guys are great.
01:18:13
snowjobspodcast
You know, Chris and Pat.
01:18:17
RICK JAMES
so
01:18:18
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, there are, there are some shout outs and shots.
01:18:19
RICK JAMES
yes
01:18:21
snowjobspodcast
ah So pay attention to, uh, to Thursday. So you get two episodes this week, so you're happy. Hopefully they'll still be at least two or three guys. They're like, why didn't you do three?
01:18:32
snowjobspodcast
Why did you only do two this week? But that's going to do it, boys and girls. All right. Episode 81 in the books. All right. As always, we want to thank Jeremy so much coming on with us, giving us a time.
01:18:44
RICK JAMES
We'll
01:18:45
snowjobspodcast
It was great hearing about J and H and also about the MSP 2.0. All right. That group on Facebook is ah it's a special thing they got going on there. So hats off to all those guys in the group, all those guys that listen and support.
01:18:54
RICK JAMES
do
01:18:57
snowjobspodcast
We we really appreciate it. Couldn't do it without you guys.
01:19:00
RICK JAMES
that.
01:19:01
snowjobspodcast
All right. So we'll see everybody next week, guys. Everybody have a great week. Be safe out there. Keep pushing.