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There was a point in time when Jasper Jacobson found himself looking out the window at work, thinking about owning a landscaping business.
“I would look out the window when the lawn crew came by and think, ‘Dude, I really need to do this, my health is gonna suffer if I sit in this office for much longer,’” said Jacobson.
The competition wasn’t tough in Mayville, North Dakota (just a few fly-by-nighters/part-timers), so Jacobson founded his full-time lawn care business, Jacobson Brothers Outdoor Services, in December 2017. Starting a snow removal business in winter is always a challenge, but in North Dakota, it always snows.
“A few companies had big loaders, so they were taking on some accounts to stay busy in the winter, but there weren’t a lot of people doing sidewalks,” said Jacobson.
Jacobson met a gentleman who was plowing sidewalks and bought him out of his accounts to get started. He kicked things off with a skid-steer and a 60-inch snowblower.
“I quickly realized that we needed to do something different since the skid-steer was way too hard on some of those sidewalks,” said Jacobson. “I bought a Steel Green and ended up getting the plow the next winter.”
A Lot of Work Turned Into Just a Little
Running a lawn care company comes with its challenges, but Jacobson’s Steel Green makes things easier on crews during the snowy months.
“Our big thing is labor,” said Jacobson. “People don’t want to shovel in the winter, and I’m right there with them.”
The SG Snowplow has saved Jacobson and his crew a lot of time, effort, and shoveling.
“Me and my main guy, Jake, we love the thing just because we don’t have to shovel,” said Jacobson. “Before, we were shoveling with four-foot shovels on one-inch snows and running push snow blowers. That’s hard on people,” Jacobson continued. “I thought, ‘Well, why wouldn’t we just put this rubber-edge plow on and go to town?’”
Jacobson says they can get around 95% of areas cleared with just the SG Snowplow.
“We carry a touch-up shovel to do little entryways, but since the rubber on the plow sticks out a bit, we can rub up against buildings and it peels the snow away perfectly without damage,” said Jacobson. “We can get 95% of it with the Steel Green and just use a shovel for those little door entries.”
Jacobson also pointed out that his Steel Green helps make short work of other wintertime tasks.
“We don’t just use the plow; we use the machine for sidewalk salting as well,” said Jacobson. “We also put liquid fertilizer nozzles on the machine to put down brine. Still, to this day, we don’t have a better way of putting salt or brine on sidewalks.”
Very Easy Installation
Jacobson told us that the SG Snowplow is very easy to attach and remove.
“We leave the undercarriage on all summer on that machine, and just make sure the connection points are lifted up so we don’t dig into yards,” said Jacobson. “The plow is cake to throw on and off. One bolt and two hydraulic hoses. You can’t go wrong with that.”
It Paid for Itself in One Storm
Jacobson told us about a storm that happened two years ago, and it was a whopper.
“We had probably a six-inch slop of snow come down, and it’s one of those where it’s too much for a snowblower; it would’ve gotten clogged,” said Jacobson. “We were debating how we were going to get those sidewalks cleared.”
Jacobson suggested using the Steel Green with the SG Snowplow.
“We were pleasantly surprised at how much slush it cleared. I mean, it basically squeegeed off the sidewalks with six inches of slush on there,” said Jacobson. “I felt like, wow, this thing kind of paid for itself in one storm. I don’t even know how we would’ve done it. We probably would’ve just struggled with the snow blowers or attempted to use them as plows because there was no way we could shovel that. We would’ve all been in the hospital.”
A Parting Thought
“There’s a snow show I watch on YouTube, and there’s a company that sends out 40 shovelers for every storm to clear out a whole entrance to a warehouse building. In my brain, I’m like, ‘I could’ve done that with 10 people, and maybe two Steel Greens with the rubber plows,’” said Jacobson.
Check out the SG Snowplow and tackle snow and ice with ease this winter!
