When snow is in the forecast, clients of Lake Mills Lawn & Snow hear from the company before the crews go out. The notices lay out what the storm looks like and what the company plans to do about it. If the storm changes partway through, clients get an update.
The company puts that habit at the center of its own description, next to the backgrounds of the people who started it. By its account, the founders bring more than 12 years in commercial insurance, more than 10 in workplace safety and more than five in real estate and property management. That mix, the company says, gives it a different perspective on the work.
It pitches snow and ice work in terms an insurer would recognize. Clearing a lot, in the company’s framing, is risk management for the property, and the point is to let owners run their businesses instead of chasing down contractors. Commercial property maintenance is the focus, year round, and a property manager can put all of a site’s exterior work under a single contract.
The properties the company singles out are the ones where a missed plow causes real trouble: hospitals and clinics, retirement communities, condo and apartment buildings, homeowners associations and large retail centers. Equipment is sized to the lot, with skid steers, loaders and trucks on the list. The company also uses liquid de-icing, which it says cuts salt use, limits damage to the property and leaves lots cleaner.
The work is physical, and the company’s own posts show it. One described a crew installing 35 yards of mulch and hauling off five loads of brush and tree trimmings at a local church, all in eight hours. Homeowners use the company too. One plowing customer praised it for something small that matters, noting the snow always ends up where he wants it.
The business is based in Lake Mills. Its listed service area runs through Cambridge, Deerfield, Johnson Creek and Jefferson to Madison, Monona and Sun Prairie. Cody, one of the owners, describes it by where the trucks actually go. “We’re all over Jefferson County and then into Cottage Grove,” he says, “and creeping our way to the west at this point towards Madison.”
Closer to Madison, the company is still making a name. “We’re still new to the area,” he says. “We’re kind of just getting our foot into Cottage Grove.” He calls the growth quick and says the clients the company has taken on have stayed.
His plans for the company reach well past the next storm. “It’s all about trying to create something that I can hand to my children at some point,” he says.
He knows that is the harder road. “It’s easy to find a job,” he says, “but it’s hard to create something like this.”