There is big money to be made in getting rid of snow, and that’s why it’s important to know exactly how to start a snow removal business.

Since the snow industry is different from other industries, this means you’ll likely have less competition. 

But with that said, your knowledge and resources are also just as limited as theirs. 

So here’s your guide on how to start a snow business.

Step 1: What services will you offer?

Before you do anything else, you need to know what types of snow removal services you’re going to offer.

Depending on your location, you may offer just snow or just ice services, or even both snow and ice.

Think about the area around you - do you get more snow or ice? That will help you make a decision on the best services to offer.

Then, decide if you’re going to do residential or commercial accounts.

As you’re first starting out, you likely don’t want to do both; just focus on one and you can always expand later.

Residential and commercial snow accounts could require different types of equipment so tackling both might require twice as much equipment.

If you own a lawn care business too, you should probably pick the same type of accounts you work with in lawn care (residential or commercial) so you can offer these services to your existing clients. 

This is the best way to get snow clients fast!

Step 2: Choose Your Snow Removal Business’ Name

Every business has to have a name and it needs to be done right, the first time.

As you brainstorm name ideas, consider these things:

• Longevity
• Your audience
• Buyers’ appeal
• Unique qualities
• SEO and brand signals
• Permanence of the name
• Simplicity and memorability
• Clear representation (Does your name clearly show your services?)
• Your competition (is anybody around you using a similar name?)

Every time your clients or leads think of snow removal, they should think of your business.

Also, make sure the name you’ve chosen isn’t trademarked by searching the US Patent and Trademark Office. 

If you’re registering in Canada, you can search the Intellectual Property Office.

If it’s not trademarked, you can decide how you want to register your snow business’ name:

• Entity Name: state level protection
• Trade Name: federal level protection
• DBA: no legal protection, but might be legally required
• Domain Name: protects your business’ website address

After you’ve registered your business name, you’re ready for the next step!

What if You Already Have a Business Name?

If you are already well-known in your area for lawn care, we recommend associating your snow services with your existing brand in some way! 

One thing you could do is create a sub-brand of your existing company that's dedicated to snow.

Step 3: Start Your Snow Business With Clear Branding

In a world with other snow businesses, branding is an important part of how to start a snow removal business.

Branding is your promise to your clients. It tells your clients what sets your products and services apart from your competitors.

Your branding is:

• Who you are.
• Who you want to be.
• And who others perceive you to be.

The key to any effective branding strategy is consistency.

You’ll need to choose how, what, when, where, and to whom you’ll communicate and deliver your messages.

Now, you need to define what actually is your branding which includes:

• Mission (and then, mission statement)
• Image (in the eyes of your leads and clients)
• Key benefits and features of your products and services
• Redeeming qualities (the ones you want others to associate with you)

Really get to know your target market, and find out their needs, habits, and desires. 

Now, you need to start marketing your brand:

• Create a logo and share it
• Decide which brand colors and fonts to use and be consistent
• Ensure your team knows your key messages and services
• Generate a tagline that embodies who your business is
• Create a voice for your brand (i.e. formal, friendly, etc… )
• Integrate your branding (i.e. how phones are answered, your email signature, etc… )
• Create uniform templates using your logo and colors (i.e. email templates, estimate templates, etc… )
• Deliver on your brand’s promises

If you do all of these things, your brand will be consistent - then your customers will be impressed with your brand’s professionalism!

Step 4: Protect Your Snow Removal Business

After you’ve trademarked a name for your snow removal business, you’ll need to do a few additional things if you’re just starting out:

• Register your business
• Become licensed to remove snow and/or ice
• Make sure your business is bonded and insured

Before you register your business, you’ll need to know what you want to register your business as: 

• Sole Proprietorship: You’re the only operator of your business and are personally liable for all assets and liabilities.
• LLC (or Limited Liability Company): Provides limited liability to the business owner with a few tax benefits and exemptions.
• Corporation: Typically, this is for larger businesses with taxable employees.

Don’t forget, you can change your registered business type at any time. 

More commonly, new business owners can start out as an LLC and then switch to a Corporation once they’ve grown a few years down the road.

And just so you know, your registered business type is primarily for tax purposes.

Now that you know your business type, you should register your business.

You can check with your local government to find out where to go (by the way, if you click the link and scroll down a little, you can look up your local site for registration). 

Plus, they should have information on licenses and permits as well. And don’t forget to get your tax ID number too!

Then, you should sign up for bonding and insurance.

If anything is stolen, bonding protects your snow removal business. 

Also, in order to sign up for insurance, you’ll have to be bonded first.

And even if you’re a solo or duo crew, insurance and bonding are still important. 

On top of it relieving you of significant liability, it’s also a major benefit to your clients for hiring you.

Step 5: Open a Checking Account for Your Snow Business

Congratulations! Your snow business is now registered and official, and you now need to create a business checking account, so you can start getting paid right away.

There are several reasons why you should get a business checking account (instead of a personal checking account for your business):

• Protection: Banks offer businesses LLC protection (keeping your personal and business funds separate).
• Professionalism: Clients can make payments via credit card and check directly to your business (instead of directly to you). Plus, you can authorize employees to access your account for you.
• Preparedness: Usually, banks provide business accounts with a line of credit for emergency expenses.
• Purchasing Power: By having credit card accounts, you can help to establish a credit history for your business. This may allow you to make large purchases, like snow plows or trucks.

Step 6: Use Snow Contracts to Protect Your Snow Business

Drawing up contracts is an important step in how to start a snow removal business.

Contracts create a sense of transparency between you and your clients.

Simply put contracts force your clients to uphold their end of the deal, and it’ll likely protect you from any misunderstandings.

In other words, clients can’t come back and say you did/didn’t say something about their property or your services.

Here’s a template to get you started.

You should also include a section in your contract about payments. 

Decide on a set billing cycle for all of your clients. 

Then, state if said payment isn’t made by said date, you can immediately terminate their services.

Additionally, you should also consider stating in the contract that you reserve the right to terminate their services at any time for any reason. 

That way, if for unforeseen circumstances you have to drop a client, it’ll protect you later on down the road.

By the way, you can create an estimate that doubles as a snow removal contract using Service Autopilot. Plus, it’ll track the date, time, and IP address of your clients, so you’ll have further proof they signed their contract.

SA also allows you to take payments on the spot with credit cards, so you can cut down on delayed revenue! 

Step 7: Choose Your Ideal Client

It’s time to determine who your target market is going to be, and who is your ideal client.

In order to identify your target client, answer these questions for yourself:

• Who would you like to market to?
• What type of clients do you want?
• Where do they live?
• As you were branding your snow business, did you have a particular person in mind? Who was it?
• Do they have long or circular driveways? Are they a homeowner, renter, or commercial business? The more detailed you get, the easier the audience is to market to.

Now that you know your audience, you should ALWAYS keep them in mind every single time you market to them.

Step 8: Choose the Right Snow and Ice Removal Equipment

Getting reliable equipment for your snow business is just as important as building it. 

After all, there’s no point in owning a snow business without the right equipment.

The equipment you purchase depends solely on what services you want to provide (snow and/or ice).

For snow removal work, you’ll need things like:

• Ergonomic shovels
• Snow blower(s)
• Truck + Plow (i.e. straight plow, v-plow, skid steer, etc… )
• Rock salt (or other alternative) + Salt spreader (or other salting equipment)

For ice removal work, you’ll need the same equipment as with snow. Plus, you’ll also need salt and equipment for salting.

Find the right equipment for your snow business!​

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Step 9: Choose Your Snow Removal Software

Choosing a snow removal software for your snow business is one of the most important (quite possibly the most important) steps in your startup process.

Snow removal software should ensure everything is running smoothly… 

• Clients pay on time (every time) – they’re automatically charged
• Routes are more condensed
• Estimates and invoices are automatically sent to clients
• Job notes are readily available on your clients’ accounts
• Payroll reports are easily accessible within your account
• And so much more!

And the best part? You’ve already found the best snow removal software.

See why snow removal experts trust Service Autopilot:

• Schedule jobs based on priority
• Easily schedule recurring jobs
• Get more efficient routes with one click
• View and update your calendar anywhere
• Automatically sync your accounts with QuickBooks
• Automatically send out estimates and invoices
• Auto-charge clients with a partnered credit card processor

With Service Autopilot, you’ll save time and money on the tasks that used to take you HOURS to complete.

Step 10: Decide on Your Snow Removal Pricing

In the snow industry, there are a lot of factors involved in properly pricing your snow removal services.

You’ll have to find out things like:

• Product cost (for example, salt)
• How long it will take to complete the job
• Your overheads (i.e. wages, drive time, fuel, insurance, software expenses, etc… )

All of these factors determine your pricing and allow you to set a base price for your services.

By the way, Service Autopilot allows you to easily input, track, and charge your prices accordingly.

In addition, you’ll also have to decide on your pricing model:

• Per push
• Per event
• Per inch
• Seasonal contracts
• Multi-season contracts
• Or hourly

Once you decide on a model, you’re ready to start finding clients.

A word of caution: If you’re entirely new to the snow industry, you should be cautious with signing commercial contracts. There are a lot of other factors involved with commercial jobs than there are with residential contracts. Be sure to talk to a financial or business advisor about this!

Click here to read our full guide on properly pricing your snow removal services.

Price Your Snow Removal Services In 10 Minutes Or Less

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Step 11: Set Your Snow Business Up for Success With Goals

This step is where some business owners get lost… but hang in there!

By setting your goals before accepting new clients, you’re setting the pace of success for your business. 

Here are a few steps that will help guide your goal setting:

• Decide how much profit you WANT to make in snow for the year
• Then, add up your prices and costs and you’ll know how many jobs you need to complete to meet your overall profit goal
• You can see if you will realistically be able to acquire the minimum amount of jobs you need to meet this goal.

If not?

Don’t worry. It just means you’re probably not pricing high enough.

Pro tip! You need to know the average yearly snowfall in your area to determine if your prices are realistic enough to meet your goals.

Service Autopilot can track your goals by calculating your profits for you. This allows you to see the progress you’re making as you go.

Step 12: Start Winning Snow Removal Clients

If you’re a lawn care owner transitioning into the snow business during the off-season, this step is pretty quick and easy to complete.

Your first action should be to reach out to your loyal lawn care clients and let them know you offer snow and/or ice removal services too.

If they are a happy client, they are likely to buy other services! 

Make sure that you aren’t pushing new services to unsatisfied customers… they will not appreciate this! 

By the way, if you’re in lawn care, this step is especially easy in Service Autopilot, since your client list is already within your account database.

And if you don’t have a big enough client base or are starting from scratch, you should consider putting out Google Ads.

The best part is that you can set your daily budget, and Google will stop running the ads for the day once it’s met.

You can target new clients based on location and keywords -even with a small budget, these ads can be really effective. 

In addition to Google Ads, you can also try Facebook Ads as well. 

They can be more cost-effective, however, the results might not be as effective as Google Ads. 

This is because people are actively searching for a snow removal solution in the Google search engine… but they’re not necessarily looking for that solution on Facebook.

You can try both and see which one yields better results for your business.

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Additional Pro Tips

This step is extra, because it’s not an essential step on how to start a snow removal business, but it can really help! 

Consider building relationships with lawyers, bookkeepers, accountants, HR professionals, and all alike.

In the unfortunate event you run into problems or have questions, these types of connections can assist you.

Plus you never know… someday they might need your snow removal services!

Starting and Building a Long-Lasting Snow Removal Business

And now you know how to start a snow removal business. Starting your own snow business can seem a little intimidating, however if you follow the tips in this article, you’ll have the resources you need to start building your successful, long-lasting snow removal business today.

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Related: How to Grow Your Snow Business

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Originally published Sept 19, 2019 7:00 AM, updated Nov 22, 2023 12:50 PM