I put all of my eggs into one basket with the snow removal business. I put everything but my first born on the line. I put $1.5 million into the salt storage dome, I got the contract and did a marketing campaign for the salt and snow removal combined. I wanted to get the attention of the snow removal contractors in the area and I wanted to get some more snow removal business going. I designed Abraxus Salt so that as Abraxus Snow, I would want to do business with them.

The first year I built the dome I went from doing $770,000 in snow and we jumped to $1.7 million. The salt did $500,000 in its first year, and that was a mild winter.

What did it was putting all my efforts into the business and diversifying the business into something that has to do with snow removal, which is the salt. And then the advertising campaign helped bring everything together.

I honestly had no idea that I gave birth to a giant because, together, the business has grown by leaps and bounds. I did nearly $5 million in snow removal and salt last year.

When you have growth that fast you’ll have problems. The controls are much tighter now and the people I have in place are much better. I didn’t realize how many hangers-on I had at the company until we made that growth and then I could finally see it.

The growth, at first, was overwhelming. You have to adjust your thinking. Reaching seven digits is an amazing accomplishment but you have to adjust how you approach the business after your reach that point. When you do that, you have to sit back and take a look at everything and relearn how you manage something like this because it comes with its own problems.

A family owned business with over 37 years invested in the trade, Abraxus provides complete snow and ice management services to Industrial and Commercial accounts in Cuyahoga, Lorain, Medina, Lake, Ashtabula, Summit and Geauga counties in Northeast Ohio. The key to the company’s longevity is consistent performance, fair pricing and loyal customer service.

In other words, failure to perform is not an option…a commitment Abraxus fully understands and executes!

Abraxus is serious about managing the business of snow-so that snow doesn’t manage your business.