If you’ve ever wondered if any business could somehow survive, if not thrive, in the modern era without a dazzling website, social pages, strong customer reviews, and an overall robust web presence, the answer is this: Just consider the example of Sweep It, LLC in eastern central Florida, servicing the greater Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville areas. On the periphery of metro Orlando is this humble but phenomenally strong small family business group that has shattered the modern marketing mold and lived to tell about it.
The Sweep It Mission
Industry expert Juan Rocha and his professional team specialize in pavement sweeping services to meet any need, as indicated in their listings on various online business directories. Sweep It, LLC is licensed in Sanford and is ranked in the top 37% of over 191,400 licensed contractors in Florida by BuildZoom.
In 2014, Sweep It only provided clean-up services for road construction projects. In 2022, the company added its own asphalt milling division — an exceptionally bold and virtually unprecedented form of expansion among US pavement sweeping service providers. Juan reflects on the business’s history, current operations, and plans:
The business was started by my brother, Lupe Aranda, in 2014. Lupe had asked me from the beginning to come and run the business with him, so I came on board in 2016. Previously, I was in Wisconsin as a supervisor at a foundry (over the operations for melting and molding metal into parts). I’m the COO of Sweep It now. It’s a family business, with Lupe, myself, Kevin, who is Lupe’s son, and my granddaughter Atiyanna all working in the company.
The Sweep It Team
We operate as two businesses, Sweep It, LLC. (for clean up/sweeping) and Superior Roadway Services of Florida (for milling). Between the two, we have about 75 employees, with about half working at each company. In the office, we have Gary, our CFO, myself (Juan, COO), Mandy, our Controller, Kevin, our Estimator, Atianna, who assists with general office work, and 2 Operations Managers – Alan over Milling and Pete over the clean-up business. So, we have about 8 people in the office, about 4 in the shop, including Tom, the Shop Manager, and around 63 operators out in the field.
We recently opened a second location in Tampa and have some clean-up equipment and sweeper trucks there. Tom oversees the shop at the Tampa location as well as the one here, and Kevin and Pete also go over there once or twice a week.
We have many employees who have been with us for over 10 years. Several started out as equipment operators and have moved into management roles.
The Sweep It Fleet
We have almost 100 pieces of equipment between the two businesses, including sweeper trucks, water trucks, milling machines, broom tractors, skid steers and foremen’s trucks. For sweeping, from parking lot cleaning to milling cleanup, we use the ODRAs. We’ve been running ODRAs for a long time so we still have Elgin Broom Badger branded units made by ODRA from when they partnered (ODRA manufactured the MT4H branded as Elgin Broom Badger from 2012-2020). Right now, we have 7 Badger-branded ODRAs and 3 ODRA MT4H units. We just got one delivery of an ODRA about a month and a half ago.
The ODRAs are our preferred sweeper truck for several reasons. You don’t need a CDL to operate them. They’re easy to maneuver. They don’t have the bulkiness of other sweeper trucks, which makes them better for sweeping smaller areas. They basically do the same job as those that do require a CDL And, price-wise, they’re an economically better choice.
Safety is our number one goal. We like the superior safety features on the ODRA trucks. We’re focused on making sure we’re keeping our workers, pedestrians, and others in the area safe. The external cameras are very helpful.
The newest trucks even come with a camera in the hopper too, so you can see when it’s time to empty it. Anything that helps make operations smoother helps the operator do the job better.
How Does Sweep It Succeed Without Web Marketing?
We all know that a business, or anything else at all, cannot exist if it’s not on the web, right? Turns out that that is not really true after all. In researching Sweep It, before the interview with Juan Rocha, we found the company listed in multiple online business directories but did not find a website or Facebook page. We knew the company existed because we had just been referred to its COO by a prominent sweeper truck equipment manufacturer.
So, contrary to common belief, a highly successful business can be built in modern America without a website and even without so much as a Facebook page. Beyond having logos on their trucks and uniforms, we discovered no notable efforts being made to promote the Sweep It, LLC business in the bustling central Florida market.
Yet, the company has now opened a second location in Tampa! The Sweep It leadership team has proven that a company that builds a regional reputation on a consistently strong rate of customer satisfaction can become widely known enough in an area to thrive entirely offline. Juan shares his insights:
A lot of our business comes from word-of-mouth from satisfied customers. My brother Lupe has been in the industry in this area for over 20 years, so he’s well known here. The bulk of our business in road construction milling and clean-up comes to us from general contractors who hire us as subcontractors. We are rarely the prime contractor on our jobs. Sometimes our subcontracting work on road construction projects is just milling, or just sweeping, or both.
Sweep It Operations
The employees use their phones for just about everything. They log in and record their hours, report maintenance issues, take pictures of before-and-after conditions at job sites, and do other tasks all over the phone. The information they need to convey is noted in reports they complete over the phone. The Operations Managers review their nightly work reports the following morning. They look at the documented details they provide and the pictures they send by phone to see what happened on the jobs.
We keep some parts on hand in our shop, and our 3 mechanics, including our shop manager, basically do everything here in-house. It’s rare that we take any of our trucks out to a dealership unless it has something to do with warranty work.
The management team visits the job sites and are available to all the employees whenever they need to discuss anything. Management works staggered shifts so they are available for both day and night shifts.
We provide extensive benefits, including uniforms, health/dental/vision/life insurance, continuing education, and employee referral bonuses. We also provide an annual bonus. Employees receive monthly scorecards based on their work performance. At the end of the year, they are compensated for their commitment to safety, and their work performance history.
Advanced Technology at Sweep It, Sanford, Florida
We keep an eye out for new technologies that may be good for us to use in our milling or sweeping clean-up operations. One of our managers is at an asphalt conference in St. Louis this week. We participate in trade shows. We usually like to go and learn and see what the industry is doing.
We have GPS tracking, using ClearPathGPS, in all of our vehicles. The software provides extensive reporting and provides real-time alerts for events like speeding, excessive acceleration and hard braking. It’s also how we track maintenance, oil changes, and other information for the trucks, and we use it to audit payroll, etc.
We’re adding dashcams in our trucks now. This allows us to ensure our team members are following our safety procedures. In the event of an accident or incident, we can receive greater insight into what actually occurred.
Safety Practices at Sweep It
The operations software we use is called mHelpDesk. We use it to generate estimates. During the work week, we generate a ticket for each job. The ticket includes information regarding the job location, timing, and who is assigned. The foreman inputs information using these job tickets and submits pictures of the day’s progress.
Any equipment or job issues are entered. Maintenance issues and payroll entries are reviewed, and we get a clear picture of how things are being done. At our quarterly safety meetings, we bring all the employees together and do safety discussions based on the reports.
Workers out on job sites also have required weekly safety meetings. We give them a binder with safety topics, and they need to pick one per week. It might be about heat exhaustion, overhead electric lines, or proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), etc. They gather together on the job site where they’re working and have their safety topic ready to discuss. While they’re together, they take pictures, so we can see that they have completed the safety meeting.
Advice for Industry Newcomers from Juan Rocha, COO, Sweep IT, LLC, Sanford FL
If you’re trying to get into road construction, be sure to purchase good equipment, and maintain it regularly. Surround yourself with good people and provide them with the tools they need to succeed. You will only be as good as the team you build around you.
For information about Sweep It, LLC, 5300 Vista Club Run, Sanford, FL, call 407-915-5123.