ForConstructionPros.com

Some contract sweepers take to new markets gingerly, easing themselves in, testing the waters tentatively before making a full-fledged commitment.

Great American Sweeping takes its markets by storm.

"So many sweeping companies just talk price, complaining that the other guy is cutting his prices and cutting your throat," says Mike Sanborn, president of the fast-growing sweeping contractor. "Well, in every market we've gone into we've become the price setter, not the price breaker. We're 20% to 30% higher than all our competition in all our locations."

That's not an "extra" level of profit for the Henderson, CO-based sweeping contractor. It's just what the company needs to charge — and what the market should be paying — so a sweeping contractor can make a reasonable profit. The figures are based on the research Great American Sweeping does before deciding to enter into a market. Sanborn says he thinks the contract sweeping industry needs to work together as a team, selling quality work and customer service at a per-hour rate that enables sweeping companies to grow and become better, more profitable businesses. And that's how Great American Sweeping approaches the business.

"Contractors need to analyze the market and go where the price needs to be — not where the price is," he says.

Sanborn cites one market where the going price for broom sweeping on construction sites was $75 an hour. "Before we went into that market we analyzed it and we took a close look at that price and we found we couldn't do business for $75 an hour," he says. "We figured the sweepers already doing business in that market couldn't be profitable at that rate either."