Paradise means getting “Quality For Less,” according to the Paradise Sweeping slogan embedded with the company’s logo. The tagline for this North Carolina powersweeping and maintenance service further asserts the Paradise team’s priority: “Helping your business make a winning first impression.” This package of introductory catchphrases is a bit of creative marketing handiwork that captures the inspiration and drive of Paradise Owner, Michael Reyes and his talented team of service professionals. Here, Michael talks about Paradise:
How Michael Reyes Found Paradise
My dad, Jorge Reyes, started a lawn care business before I was born. I grew up in that business. My dad and brother still have the Paradise Lawn Service. I kinda fell into the sweeping idea from there. I saw the big sweeper trucks in my area and thought it would be cool to work with that kind of heavy equipment. My dad was on his way out of his days of interest in that kind of idea; he didn’t want to start something new. We were all doing the lawn care then.
It was a perfect storm really when I started the business. There was a company that came out and bought a lot of sweeping companies during that time. It was a corporation and their service was suffering. So, it was a good opportunity for me to enter the market. A lot of people are used to the direct connection with the owner, and the big company didn’t offer that. But I could.
Early Days of Paradise
Starting out, I did a lot of phone calling and knocking on doors. Luckily, I had developed some name in the game with the commercial work that the lawn care company was doing. I spent a lot of long days calling and on the computer to get new contacts. My go-to first action was to get a website going. Derek [Rayburn] was the first person I met about that.
That helped a lot. Leads started pouring in. Two main things made a big difference for us at that time: #1: People not knowing who to call for the kind of service they need. #2: him [Derek] getting my name out on the web. It was all me during that time. I know, for me, I enjoyed that part of it, the selling. It’s the high of the chase, getting the leads. That, to me, was the fun part.
I wish I could say it was a team effort, but it was all me. My friend, Dustin Bush, when I was starting out, wanted to do it too. He started in Raleigh. It was just him. He kinda started like I did, doing it all himself. I helped him, and he helped me. But then, three months in, we merged the two small operations and made it one business under one name. So then we had him doing sales in Raleigh and me in Charlotte.
Expanding Paradise
Not long after we merged, Dustin went from just part-time to full-time. Then, we grew to 3 trucks. Now, we have 3 full-time in Raleigh. It was harder to grow there, because they had the stable footprints. [Michael refers to footprints of the industry, meaning there had already been commercial sweeping operations in that area for some time.] I went from just me working part-time in Charlotte to now 8 trucks in Charlotte and 3 in Raleigh, for 11 sweeper trucks total. We’re really located in Salisbury [about 40 minutes from Charlotte], between Greenville, Moresville, and Charlotte.
I have the 704 area code of 1-800-SWEEPER. From the time I started sweeping, while I still did landscaping with my dad, I was no longer a paid employee. After 2 years, I went full-time. I was working doing landscaping for 40 hours or more, and I was pretty much running the business for my dad, which was 2 crews. Then, I would sweep Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights, starting at 8:00 pm and work for another 5 hours.
Trouble in Paradise Outmatched By Passion
I started the business in 2020, in the late spring, late March. [Those were the first days that COVID-19 became a national panic.] It’s hard to say what the effects of COVID were on those first months or years of the business. I was too new to it to know the effects. Some sweepers said customers went from having sweeping done 3 times to 1 time weekly. For me, it all seemed normal. I assumed people just wanted less sweeping sometimes.
About 2 to 3 years in, there was a surge in business. I was big on investing back into it. I’d buy more trucks and more. It’s a hard business to start because of how expensive these big trucks can be. To minimize breakdowns and downtime, I wanted to have a spare truck always on hand.
I wasn’t going to wait. For work my company could do, the first things that came my way, I accepted. I didn’t throw any opportunity away. Instead, I threw myself and my resources into it. Anything that came my way, I’d say Yes. Even when it got to the point of having employees. I was doing the oddest jobs for people, and that led to taking on growth. There were so many leads for sweeping jobs that came to me by just saying yes to everything. I have a buddy, an old farm boy, who just does everything. I would bring him in to do what I didn’t know.
Unbridled Passion Tempered By Experience
Yes, as we have grown, I’ve tried to narrow and organize the service lines. We train the employees to do the work in ways that produce consistent quality. I have good contacts with others who bring needed skills and equipment for special projects.
We have organized more and have gained more expertise through these nearly 6 years. So, now if I say yes to asphalt work, portering, powerwashing, signage repair, water main leaks, or any other request, we go in well equipped and with highly skilled people. We use excavators, put down asphalt, do landscaping, etc., and still provide the widest possible range of services our customers need.
A lot of people don’t like having too many eggs in one basket. But a lot of people like having a one-stop shop that is convenient for everything they may need to have professionally done on their properties. We’re there to meet those needs.
Paradise Sweeping Fleet
I bought 3 sweeper trucks during our earliest years, then began buying the NiteHawks. We now have a total of 11 sweeper trucks, all NiteHawk. Here in the Southeast we have really bad red clay. When it rains, you’re not going to sweep that. It just smears. So, I also bought a 2,000-gallon water truck, which helps for that. For landscaping, we have 7 lawn care trucks, plus 1 for commercial lawn maintenance, porters with an additional 6 trucks, and another 2 trucks for full-time portering. All the trucks for those types of work are the Chevy Silverado 1500 model.
The NiteHawks are great trucks overall, and eliminating the auxiliary motor by switching to the NiteHawks has cut down the noise, so I don’t have that issue as much now with people near the sweeping being done. I also like having one less motor to worry about.
The NiteHawk people are very knowledgeable in the parts department about any issue we have. As long as you get a good hold on the maintenance that needs to be done, it’s a very simple machine, and it keeps running.
Paradise Service Lines
We have 5 full-time porters in Charlotte and another full-time porter in Raleigh. They’re in charge of the portering and bulk item removal. We also provide janitorial services, ceiling tile changing, clean-outs after tenant move-outs, painting, parking lot striping, signage replacement, change light bulbs, light soffits, etc. We install concrete, do pothole repairs, change out gutters, and other jobs. We don’t do full-scale paving. The biggest repair we do is a 24×24, hot box for heat saw cut repairs. We sub out bigger paving jobs.
For sweeping, we have 30 employees, and another 30 for landscaping. In the office for landscaping, we have 2 employees, and for sweeping, we have 3 employees in the office. We have 1 full-time mechanic in Charlotte, and 1 full-time in Raleigh, and another 1 who works as a floater mechanic.
I handle the majority of the work as far as payroll, invoicing, a lot of the computer stuff, and I set up the employee benefits and do the other HR work. Dustin does a lot of the work in Raleigh and his wife does a lot too. She helps both of us. If I need help with researching or investigating something, if I don’t have time for the deep diving, she’s got that.
Reyes Management Method
This year, we’ve started to provide health insurance for all employees, and we try to provide a great working environment for everyone. But, even though I always try to keep as many good employees as possible. My first full-time employee is still with us. But sadly, there’s no magic formula for keeping everyone long-term.
I have had my major downfalls in accommodating people when I shouldn’t have. I still help people, within the boundaries of what is reasonable. I don’t ever want to be that guy who has no respect for anybody. I just try to be really approachable. Sadly, this industry can change people. I can’t let it change what I am. Mistakes are going to be made, but when the trust is there, it’s a better way of working and living for everyone involved. So, I tell them I’m always a phone call away.
There’s the first step I took to ensure quality, even when I was a small, one-truck guy busy reinvesting everything I made early on. I needed someone behind the sweepers, making sure they were doing the job, not just leaving. I wanted to have someone, some eyes, behind them. So, I would go out at night after the sweepers and inspect their work. It was all me at that time. Now, we have 4 daytime supervisors, 2 in Charlotte and 2 in Raleigh. They all act as QC managers.
For having the trucks monitored, the GPS and camera have been the answer. You can track the actual movement of the truck on a parking lot. It’s just one click away. If a property manager had a concern, I could pull that up and show them — this is where the truck was. I could send them screenshots of where the truck was too. That’s on top of my going out there behind the sweepers at night, and having day time supervisors focused on sweeping performance quality.
Branding for Paradise
All our employees wear uniforms. We have logos on all the trucks. We have signage by the road at our company location. I’m very proud of my brand. I want people to know who’s doing the shopping and business centers. I want them to know my business name. We’re very big on keeping the trucks clean. I have a guy who comes on the weekends and makes his extra money cleaning the trucks in detail.
We also do a pre-trip inspection before the trucks go out each night. We have our own fuel tanks for gassing up all the trucks. They put bags in them and pre-trip them. We use the Maintx app. Workers relay issues to me, and I put the information from their reports into the app, and the mechanic sees those.
Dream Technology in Paradise Operations
Jim Blackerby has a sweeping company in Louisville KY (Louisville Pavement Sweep). Early on, I was trying to be with the new times. He had a very good software system called Sweep Inspect. It tracks the guys, builds your route for each employee — sweeper or porter. They can use the app on a customer’s site to check in, add notes, pictures, etc. If bulk trash is left on the property, etc., the information comes to me.
Anything unusual, like last-minute calls, or like requests from the customer asking for quick response when, for example, a different contractor has notified them that they cannot come to do the work agreed, I can send pictures to my guys, arrange for the work to be done, etc. We’re very big on pictures.
I put on my most experienced seasoned driver with new employees for a two-week training course with that trainer. He has a list of things he trains them on, including learning the software Jim has designed. Then, I’ll confirm he’s ready to go on his own after training is completed.
Reyes Patterns After Industry’s Best Exemplar
Michael, in his continuous pursuit of learning his industry, also discovered Carl Barton’s exceptionally bold employee incentive program at Aardvark Sweeping Services in Memphis, TN. He has implemented his own version of Carl’s inspiring system, Michael further celebrates his team’s successes and shows appreciation for their efforts with the company’s year-end dinner and bonuses.
I’m always thinking of ideas to make the company better and trying to grow personally. My idea is to try to make it a little more competitive with the guys. I got it from Aaardvark Sweeping. There, each driver can earn well, and the business has a higher rate of retaining good employees. If I’m going to make money working in my business, why not have our guys make money doing it too?
Advice for Industry Newcomers from Michael Reyes, Owner, Paradise Sweeping, Raleigh, NC
My biggest advice for anyone starting in this business is don’t give up. Don’t stop. If you don’t like long hours, or the growth process, or selling, be clear on what you want. It’s not the kind of thing you should think you can just sit and wait for it to pop in your lap.
You have to be okay with being annoying, or thinking you’re going to make somebody mad because you’re bothering them with your selling efforts. Property managers come and go like crazy. So, constantly being on top of it is huge. You’ve got to keep on your toes; stay on top of it. Don’t give up.
For info about Paradise Sweeping Service, Charlotte and Raleigh, NC, you can call (704) 630-0007, or visit paradisesweeping.com.