CEO & PUBLISHER
Gideon W. Smith
SENIOR EDITOR
Katherine Nolan
ADVERTISING
Tracy Rodean
Phoenix Global Media Inc.
P.O. Box 235, Stockton New Jersey 08559
866-418-4400 phone 973-532-0319 fax sales@nasweeper.com
CREATIVE
Melissa Kennelly
EDITORIAL
Heidi Karpinich
CIRCULATION
Noah Aiden
SUBSCRIPTIONS
$15.00
POSTMASTER:
P.O. Box
Stockton New Jersey 08559
• Non-CDL version available
• Mechanical sweeping to handle heavy applications like millings
• Independent broom control for in-the-cut precision
• Single engine for fuel economy and less maintenance
• Simple start-up procedure with easy-to-operate controls
Picture the lush green mountains of West Virginia around Wheeling. The song’s not wrong. It’s almost heaven. At the least, there’s no place else like this stretch of Appalachia. Add to the vision the bass fishing here on the Ohio River, upstream from the reserve. Nestled in this rare environment is cozy Bridgeport Ohio, home of Nikki Kryston, President PMSI, and her world-class property services team.
We recently had the opportunity to meet with Kryston and learn from her about the PMSI operations and history of this unique company. It’s a fascinating and deeply inspiring story:
My father, George Kryston, started the company in 1994. He was a coal miner by day. He purchased his first street sweeper and continued to work in the mine
My father, George Kryston, started the company in 1994. He was a coal miner by day. He purchased his first street sweeper and continued to work in the mine until he grew the business to a point that he couldn’t do both anymore.
until he grew the business to a point that he couldn’t do both anymore. My grandfather and some friends helped him during the startup years. The company grew and evolved over time as customers wanted him to provide other services.
I started at 16, while I was in high school, helping the office secretary, taking sweepers to the local tire shop, and doing various other tasks. After I graduated, I started college. I declared a major in Chemistry, with a
Pharmacy degree in mind, but discovered that that was not for me and switched to Business Administration studies.
Around 2013, as a senior undergrad, I worked as a Project Analyst for Contract Sweepers (a sweeper company). Then, I came back to my roots here at PMSI. I went back to school and obtained an MBA while still working full-time at the office. [Ambitious and hardworking like her dad, but starting out with a
Our service area encompasses the entire Ohio Valley, which spans much of Ohio and extends into West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Master’s Degree — a powerful testament to the coal miner and his daughter.]
As I was taking more responsibility and eventually kind of started taking over, Dad stepped back, and now we started sharing the role of running the business. I became President of the company in March 2025 and he became Vice President.
My father is still heavily involved in the business, but this change has made it possible for him to start enjoying more free time. He’s at retirement age. It was time to make the switch. It was a hard transition in a sense, though, technically, nothing changed functionally, just the titles. I had been running the company for a while. But, it was a big step for him. He has taught me beyond everything I need to know. As I said, he’s still very involved. Today, he’s out taking supplies to an employee who is a flood victim. (Bridgeport is currently struggling to recover from a deadly flash flood.)
My father has introduced me to customers who’ve
been in long-term relationships with him, so I can continue those. My step-siblings took other career paths — one in the medical field and one in engineering. So, I’m the person in the family to hand off the role of running the business. After my grandfather passed away, family friends continued to be very active in the company, and they still check in and provide consultation anytime needed. They’ve all helped create the company culture we have. Every 10 years, I put on a big anniversary party, and bring in a band, food, and entertainment, as a big “Thank You”. We invite customers and everyone from the history of the company over the past 31 years.
Our service area encompasses the entire Ohio Valley, which spans much of Ohio and extends into West Virginia and Pennsylvania. That makes things more difficult, requiring licensing for each state, Workers’ Comp, etc. We had a Pennsylvania office at one time but have since consolidated operations here at Bridgeport, which has streamlined our service and management processes, improved overall efficiency, and reduced costs.
Throughout the region, we make every customer and employee a part of our family. We would never overpromise and underdeliver. So, we have to turn
down a new customer if we can’t take on the added workload and maintain quality. Quality over quantity has always been our policy.
We have built strong long-term relationships with the customers, and they have learned to trust us. They look to us to take care of them. They’ve grown to rely on us and call on us to do whatever they need that makes sense for us to do it. For example, one steel producer we serve instructed us to begin providing a service we had not previously offered. They simply said, in effect, “We need you to start doing this for us.” That’s how comfortable they are with knowing we will add what they need, if feasible.
We respect our customers, peers, and employees. Being a female in a male industry, I’ve actually never
had an issue from that. I think that is at least partly due to the way I work right alongside everyone, from dawn to dark, as necessary. Our customers respect the work ethic we and our employees have. And, it’s not a job if you can make it fun. (We have pizza parties after work.)
It’s about 100-degree now, but we keep working.
I think that’s where we’ve separated ourselves too, through the exceptional relationships we’ve built with all the people who count on us to be there and deliver consistent quality, no matter what.
We provide sweeping to commercial, industrial, municipal and county government customers. We provide lawn care, snow removal, and back-end retail management support for long-time customers. Our
commercial accounts include parking lot sweeping for banks, restaurants, and small and large retail centers. Milling cleanup used to be 90% of our business. That switched because we’re not a union business. The ratio has become about 65% industrial customers, 10% milling cleanup or county ops, and around 25% parking lot sweeping.
OF PMSI IN THE OHIO VALLEY
In the 5 to 7 years since 2016, I had started to take on an executive role. The business continued to perform well. Even through COVID [2020-2023], we were very lucky. We weren’t really affected much. We manipulated schedules so that our workers were where they weren’t near each other. Our revenues didn’t decline. continued on page 14
We have continued to grow at around 10% per year, at minimum. It can be a little overwhelming. It’s a lot, but not to the point that we can’t control quality. And, it’s a
lot to think about. I believe we could grow 20% to 30% per year, but we don’t want to lose quality. We once had solely parking lot sweeping in Greensburg PA, but it was very hard to maintain without a manager there locally. If we grew 30 to 45 minutes away, maybe we could put a small satellite office at some location. But, our emphasis is on growing where we are and continuing to build on the reputation we’ve developed in our area over the past 31 years.
My father has built this company on word-of-mouth, and it continues to flourish that way. We have grown organically since the beginning, with no sales personnel. The only thing we do now to put our name out there is work with a marketing person who helps
me keep the website up, works on SEO, etc., and helps with social media. But, I’ve had to tell them not to post anything to draw new business for now, as we are at max capacity.
We have 9 sweeper trucks. We provide service to a lot of industrial facilities. We have a broom sweeper dedicated to steel mill service. We serve mining properties. We’re busier in the spring at those. We service one mining operation a couple of days per week, and we are often asked to do street cleaning in the municipality for a mining company. For example, if they drag some debris out onto the road and need us to clean it up. We also serve gas and oil plants in the area a couple of days per week.
In the last ten years, our work for big gas and oil facilities has grown. It often involves more servicing of gas and oil trucking facilities and haul roads than at the plants. The work is in keeping the community there in clean condition.
We generate about a couple of million dollars in annual revenues. Our equipment list is up to around 300 machines, including mowers, trimmers, blowers, 2 remote controlled slope mowers,
brush hogs, skid steers, many dump trucks, Steiners (articulating mowers), plows, salt spreaders, fertilizing machines, trailers, sweepers, and others. We also have about 40 to 45 service vehicles.
We have about 25 to 35 people on staff. We try to keep people working year-round, even if they do seasonal work. So, they have all received a lot of cross-training and have multiple skill sets. Everyone on our management team does training. Janie is our Secretary and Treasurer, and Jill is our main secretary. We have an operations manager, and myself, my
father, and my stepmother who helps in the office too. There is also John, our landscape manager of 15 years, and my fiancé, Austin, our mechanic, who does a little of everything.
We rely on Austin for many things. He helps get the guys going in the morning, talking with them to see what’s going on that needs to be addressed. And, he is very good at training. John can do anything as well. We count on him for any type of training.
Our staff also undergo training through NPE, and we attend various expos. I have to have continuing education in vegetation and fertilization control. We’re also on with ISNetworld, which provides online training that our guys are required to receive. That sets us apart. We have to pay money for that. It’s especially important for customers in safety-sensitive industries.
For us, reliability is a priority in the equipment we buy. We have Tymcos and Stewart-Amos sweeper trucks. We love them both, and they’re the only brands we keep. Tymco, the Young family company, was our very first supplier. We have been with them for a long time. Their sweepers always run flawlessly. Amos is a great choice for excellent sweeper trucks that can be operated without a CDL. We also like to stick with those brands so that if something happens to one truck, parts from another one can be used.
We’ve always had two mechanics available. We have a mobile mechanic who works on call and will come and help if our mechanic is jammed up. And, a lot of our employees are mechanically inclined. We also have a very long-time family friend who has a shop down the street for oil changes or anything else we need.
John manages all the equipment for the landscaping maintenance. Austin would also take care of that ground-keeping machinery, but that equipment doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. The manufacturers have their individual shops for us to use for that kind of work. We sharpen all the blades and handle general maintenance of the equipment in-house.
We use CLIP software (designed for landscape business management) and QuickBooks®. I use Excel for a lot of things. I learned that in my MBA program. We do have some software for billing integrated, and we use GPS on all the vehicles. We don’t use cameras on the vehicles. I tried them, but, for the money, I didn’t think it was worth it for our particular needs. Our service area is very large, so our trucks cover a lot of distance every day. We’re in Ohio, but some days we may start in West Virginia, travel to Pennsylvania, and land back in West Virginia.
I would say never overpromise and underdeliver. That principle is what we’ve grown our business on, and we
stay true to it every day. It doesn’t build a good name if you don’t.
But, how does she do it? Asked about her schedule, Nikki laughed: My day is 24 hours. I’m normally here at 7 am and I leave when the job is done. My phone rings 24 hours per day. We answer the calls, vs. letting them go to voicemail. I think that’s something else that sets us apart. People know if they need me, I’m always here.
The account of PMSI’s history reads like a movie script about an All-American success story. Local coal miner turns entrepreneur, builds a thriving company across regional commercial and industrial business sectors, and creates many jobs for his community over the following decades.
Years pass, and the coal miner’s daughter grows up in the business to become a force for women’s success in a traditionally male-dominated industry. She grows the company to more than 25% of its previous size in under ten years of her leadership.
Prioritizing the customer experience 24/7, “quality over quantity,” consistent overdelivery, admirable internal culture, and strong brand consciousness are some of the winning business traits of PMSI that make it one of the best regional service companies in the industry today.
For information about Property Maintenance Services Inc. , Bridgeport, Ohio, call (740) 635-0590, write info@teampmsi.com, or visit the PMSI website.
PAVING CONTRACTORS KNOW THE DRILL: WHEN WINTER HITS OR RAIN DELAYS PILE UP, WORK SLOWS, AND BILLS KEEP COMING. YOU CAN’T STOP PAYING RENT, EQUIPMENT LOANS OR EMPLOYEE WAGES JUST BECAUSE THE BLACKTOP IS COLD. THAT’S WHY MANAGING CASH FLOW DURING SLOW MONTHS IS A MUST. HERE’S HOW PAVING CREWS CAN STAY ON SOLID GROUND UNTIL THE CONTRACTS RETURN.
Start tracking income and expenses now. Look back over the past two or three years to see when work tapered off and by how much. That history will help you forecast lean periods. Once you know roughly how much less you’ll bring in, you can set aside reserves in busier months. Even setting aside a small percentage of revenue, say 5 to 10 percent, can build a useful cushion. If you wait until the slowdown hits, you’ve already lost ground.
Mapping out expected income and fixed costs lets you spot gaps early. You can then make decisions instead of scrambling.
Mapping out expected income and fixed costs lets you spot gaps early. You can then make decisions instead of scrambling. For instance, you might plan to pay down a loan faster when cash is good so that the balance drops by winter, or you might negotiate longer payment terms with suppliers ahead of time. Either way, the clearer your picture, the smoother the season.
CONTROL EXPENSES WITHOUT HALTING PROGRESS
When work slows, the first thought is often to cut costs, but deep cuts can hurt when business picks up again. Instead, look for small savings that don’t
continued on page 20
damage capacity. For example, switch to cheaper consumables, like bulk fuel or less expensive sealant brands, only during slow stretches. That trims outlay without forcing layoffs.
Another tactic is to stagger equipment maintenance. If you have three pavers, you might schedule heavy servicing on one machine at a time rather than all at once. This keeps at least part of your fleet ready to roll.
You avoid high up-front bills and spread costs over several weeks or months. It also means you’re ready if an unexpected job comes up.
A long winter break can be an opportunity to explore related work. Many paving outfits pick up snowplowing contracts, parking lot sweeping gigs
or even light excavation and site grading. These jobs may pay less per hour, but they provide steady income when paving jobs come to a halt for the season.
Partnering with commercial property owners or local municipalities can secure multi-year contracts for winter services. You may not even need extra staff; your existing crew can shift into new roles. This keeps people on payroll, avoids rehiring costs in spring and builds relationships that can lead to bigger paving contracts later.
Low-interest lines of credit can ease cash-flow crunches, but they can also trap you in debt if not used carefully. Treat credit as a bridge instead of a safety net. Draw only what you need to cover payroll or
continued on page 22
supplier bills, and pay it off as soon as revenue returns.
Invoice factoring is another option. You sell outstanding receivables — say, large municipal projects — to a factoring company for a fee. You get cash now instead of waiting 30 or 60 days. The fee might be 2 or 3 percent, but that can be worth it when you need to cover a critical expense. Just compare the cost of factoring against the interest on your line of credit.
It isn’t enough to set reserves and cut costs once. You need to watch your numbers weekly or even daily during slow stretches. A simple spreadsheet or bookkeeping app can show you where cash is going and where you might still trim. When the season heats up again, review your forecast
versus reality. Did you set aside enough? Did you spend more than planned on maintenance? Use that intel to refine next year’s plan. Over time, you’ll get a smoother cash-flow curve and fewer nasty surprises. And remember: clear communication with your team matters. Let crew members know why trimming costs matter, and invite them to share ideas for efficiency.
You’ll avoid rumors of layoffs and maintain positive morale.
Slow paving seasons don’t have to drain your business. By planning ahead, controlling expenses, finding off-season work and using financing smartly, you’ll keep cash flowing until the next busy stretch. Then you can focus on what you do best: laying down pavement that lasts.
It’s that time of year again, and we’re getting ready for the International Sweeper Summit & Equipment Expo, November 4th - 6th at the beautiful JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Las Vegas! If you are a sweeping contractor, a municipality, or a supplier within the sweeping industry, this is the must attend event of the year!
For 13 incredible years, we’ve exclusively showcased the sweeping industry, delivering insights into
the latest manufacturer innovations, educational opportunities, and networking that you simply can’t find anywhere else. This year, we promise another informative and educational experience that you won’t want to miss!
Join us as we kick-off the event on Monday evening November 3rd with a cocktail reception for those arriving early. A Top Golf Networking Event is
For 13 incredible years, we’ve exclusively showcased the sweeping industry, delivering insights into the latest manufacturer innovations, educational opportunities, and networking...
scheduled for the afternoon on Tuesday, November 4th, followed by an Exhibitor Welcome Reception to end the day. Connect with over 30 industry suppliers and explore the upcoming trends shaping our industry. Leading manufacturers such as Schwarze Industries, ODRA, Stewart-Amos, ELGIN, TYMCO, XBroom, NiteHawk, Tennant and more will be on display to showcase their latest equipment. In addition, leading
broom suppliers, finance & insurance companies, MROs, and fuel solution experts will also be exhibiting. Education sessions will launch on Wednesday morning, November 5th, featuring dynamic roundtable discussions, insights from our keynote speaker Harry Campbell, a hands-on outdoor equipment expo, and a special celebration of North American Power Sweeping Association’s 25th Anniversary with a
New this year, for those that want to try out a new sweeper, participating manufacturers
will host a Truck Ride-A-Long...
cocktail reception leading into our group dinner that evening.
We’ll continue the momentum on Thursday morning, November 6th, with more education sessions. New
this year, for those that want to try out a new sweeper, participating manufacturers will host a Truck Ride-ALong from 9:00am - 12:00pm.
Registration is officially open and covers meals, beverages, education sessions, vendor exhibits, and special events.
DON’T MISS OUT - VISIT SWEEPERSUMMIT.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION AND SECURE YOUR SPOT TODAY!
November 4 - 6, 2025
Las Vegas, NV
IfYouDon’tGo,YouWon’tKnow!
THE SUREST WAY TO TAKE YOUR COMMERCIAL POWER SWEEPING BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL IS TO COMPETE THE WAY YOUR TOP COMPETITORS DO. IN MOST US MARKETS THAT MEANS LEVERAGING THE MOST EFFICIENT METHODS AND EQUIPMENT. FOR STREET SWEEPING COMPANY
OWNERS WHO WANT TO IMPROVE SERVICE QUALITY AND OPERATIONS
EFFICIENCY, HERE ARE SOME KEY UPGRADES TO CONSIDER:
MAKING A SWEEPING BUSINESS STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD
You want to distinguish your company in your market, but how can you sharpen your competitive edge enough to make your brand the most attractive to prospects? Well, like business operators in virtually every industry, you are inundated with a daily flood of advice for process improvements, new tech
The modern sweeping industry is a national leader in employing advanced technologies throughout all facets of communications, field services, and business administration.
recommendations, and marketing options. The first challenge is sifting out the superfluous from real needs in ever-changing local markets. Here are three of today’s proven winners in sweeping business upgrades that can strengthen your ability to stand out from the crowd of competitors in your service area.
1. Update Technology to Increase Your Effectiveness.
The modern sweeping industry is a national leader in employing advanced technologies throughout all facets of communications, field services, and business administration. Today’s fastest-growing sweeping companies give themselves every modern advantage.
• Advanced GPS: With its broad complement of
downstream software applications to integrated business platforms, it interfaces everything from CRM to full-scale ERP programs. Some track mileage, time on site, payroll hours, and more. Others go much further to monitor driver performance and truck functions, auto-optimize service routes, and generate extensive data for ideally informed planning.
• Data-Driven Sweeping Management: From data analysis of equipment maintenance needs and performance over time, accumulation of debris in various environments, other surface and general conditions, productivity rates, and other factors, industry professionals are leveraging data to drive route scheduling, allocate resources, and determine quality management needs.
• AI and ML Integration: Advanced strategic planners are adopting today’s high-tech tools to penetrate the deeper knowledge to be extracted from information systems. This is nextlevel mining and analysis of previously unseen relations and contributors through the gamut of P&L factors. These revolutionary technologies now enable greater optimization of processes and scheduling, more accurate prediction of equipment maintenance needs, and so much more. They can even help pave the way for the implementation of autonomous sweeping vehicles.
2. Use the Most Efficient Sweeping Equipment. It’s a new age of commercial sweeping equipment. Sweeper trucks fully loaded with ultra-modern features do not resemble earlier models. From
It’s a new age of commercial sweeping equipment. Sweeper trucks fully loaded with ultra-modern features do not
resemble earlier models.
.
vacuum sweepers to mechanical broom models, to regenerative air, all updated designs have been optimized in the past few years for unparalleled safety, efficiency, convenience, and environmental enhancement.
• On-Board Tech: Automated systems, exterior cameras, and electronic controls have changed the game for truck operators, shortening sweeping processes, freeing drivers to add value for customers and increase the number of accounts serviced per route.
• Dust Control: Today’s advanced air filtration systems on sweepers capture more and finer particulates than past models for significantly improved air quality.
• Water Conservation: New sweeper technologies for water recycling and even waterless operation can now minimize or eliminate water use for commercial and industrial sweeping.
• Electric Sweeper Trucks: For the most environmentally beneficial street sweeping, electric sweeper trucks are coming off the lines from major manufacturers this year. These promise to reduce carbon emissions and noise pollution from sweeping operations.
3. Build Long-Term Customer Relationships.
The leading sweeping business owners in markets throughout the country have long expressed their determination to go the extra mile in serving their customers’ needs as their top priority. It’s a time-proven way to build lasting business relationships. These are a few key points of focus for sustaining such critical connections.
• Ensure Work Quality: Employ follow-up inspection and customer feedback systems. Commit to rapid resolution of issues, and directly contact customers to gauge satisfaction levels and help cultivate a loyal base.
• Prioritize Customers’ Interests: From offering ancillary services to optimizing quality checks, to providing urgent response as needed, to diligently maintaining safety training, make your policy to serve your customer’s best interests as your team’s top priority.
• Add Value: A major revenue channel for many sweeping businesses in the US is portering. Also popular are graffiti removal, gum removal, trash
continued on page 32
Keystone Plastics has been manufacturing the industry’s leading replacement brooms for street sweeping and road construction since 1954. At Keystone we believe in reliable quality and strive to make the heaviest, longest lasting brooms in the industry. We also believe the only good broom is the one that arrives to you as promised. Contact us to find a distributor near you.
can service, sign replacement, power washing, striping (often subcontracted), and other exterior maintenance services. These addons offer convenient one-stop shopping for customers who appreciate dealing with the same trusted service vendor for as many tasks as possible.
Naturally, your customers and prospects are advancing in business sophistication along with you and the rest of the sweeping service professionals in your market. With that in mind as you head into the future, you can expect customer acquisition strategies like mainstream and social media marketing to remain important resources. However, you are sure to discover that these are not enough to sustain brand appeal long-term. Neither is good old-fashioned quality work alone. Next-gen customers and sweeping service competitors are aware of new management and service technologies and methods that make their lives easier and more productive, and, ultimately, save them money. So, in two words, how do you make your company more recognizable as an advanced operation? Embrace modernization. That means if you haven’t already done so, warm up to new information technologies and sweeping equipment innovations that can increase your efficiency and boost competitiveness..
Next-gen customers and sweeping service competitors are aware of new management and service technologies and methods that make their lives easier and more productive, and, ultimately, save them money. .
Bensink
/ buchermunicipal.com
855-338-7225 Elgin Sweeper Company
elginregenx.com
909-713-1600 / globalsweeper.com Gregory Highway
866-994-4929 / gregoryhighway.com
/ kpbrush.com
/ nitehawksweepers.com
450-530-9873 / balaisnomad.com
844-888-6372 / odrasweeper.com
