By early fall Mother Nature had already kicked off the 2011-12 winter season for many contractors across North America.

Hopefully, the early snow that many areas have received already this season has been nice from a profitability standpoint, but has not caught you off guard or unprepared. Being prepared includes much more than simply having your contracts in order and your routes established.

Snow and ice management offers all of us great opportunities and rewards. Along with those opportunities and rewards comes a great amount of risk. There are many different ways we can help minimize the risks associated with this service for both our clients and our company. Equipment and property damage are two risks that we can reduce or virtually eliminate by implementing a very simple tool. Damaging a plow, pusher or frontend loader can quickly cut into our profit. Not only do we have the damage to our equipment and the expense of those repairs, we also have the downtime of that equipment and the expense of repairing what was damaged on our client's property. All of these costs can be controlled by implementing one simple technique that I call "plowing by the book."

Each and every property that you look as a contractor has its own challenges. Some of the challenges that we face on a regular basis are:

• Obstacles in the lot such as speed bumps, traffic islands and parking stoppers
• Water drains
• Handicap ramps at entrances and exits of facilities
• Loading docks
• Curbs

Why are these things such a hazard? All of these are easily seen during your estimating process, but quickly disappear when you add four or five inches of snow to the property. Yes, the curbs and landscape beds can be marked with snow poles, but what about the many other potential obstacles lying under the new cover of snow? A lot of the damage we do to our equipment and to our client's property could be eliminated by simply taking pictures of these obstacles before plowing begins. We generally don't think about it when we are looking at the property, but when we show up to plow we start scratching our head and saying, "I think there was… in this lot. Where was it? I don't want to hit it." And all of a sudden we hit it and say, "Gosh, there it is. I thought it was further back." So how can you reduce repair cost and eliminate downtime?

Take pictures of all your properties each year before the season begins and put them into a binder and keep that binder in your truck. When it snows and you get to a specific job site, you can open your binder and see where all the obstructions are for the property and almost eliminate the surprise of hitting something and damaging your equipment and your client's property. Your pictures will show you in detail where everything is located. If you are running multiple trucks or utilizing subcontractors, have a book for each and every piece of equipment. That way if one truck goes to help another truck, they too will have the site pictures to use as a guide. This simple technique can save you a considerable amount of money and increase your profit dollars.

There are many uses for these pictures. Not only are they your site guide, they also serve as your documentation for pre-existing damage. Let's say you notice a curb, landscape bed and a light pole that is damaged during your preseason site evaluation. Take a picture of that damage with the date stamp activated on your camera, and you will not be expected to repair that area after the plowing season is complete. Provide that picture to the property manager or owner as preseason documentation that the damage existed before you ever provided service to the property. You will find that your clients appreciate this added service as well.

You can also use these pictures as a selling tool to new customers. Potential clients are always worried about damage. Take your book of pictures with you and use them as part of your selling process. Show your potential client the extra effort that you make to help reduce the risk associated with clearing snow. This is a simple yet very effective way for you to demonstrate to your client that you do care about their property and you are different and better than your competitor. It's the little things that we can do as a contractor to help make the sell. This is certainly one tool you can have in your toolbox to help close the sale, look more professional and help increase profit.