startup – Peace Broom

March 21, 2018October 17, 2019

Featherweight Snow Removal Tool Clears Vehicles, Drive & Walk

Make snow removal easy – all with just one lightweight tool. Clear vehicles, shovel snow, even sweep snow in tight spaces, uneven surfaces, cracked driveways, and pavers.

Nearly buried SUV’s, and trucks are no problem to clear, even with nearly 2 feet of heavy snow. I can’t tell you how many times I shoveled snow, as a kid. I always wanted to develop a shovel that also swept into corners, steps, and tight spaces, and went easily over cracked driveways, and uneven pavers. Seeing how well it functions as a snow shovel, you’d hardly believe that its’ a silent leaf blower. I wouldn’t try blowing the snow with it. It truly is a year round tool.

June 4, 2016October 17, 2019

5 Ways Landscapers Win With Peace Broom

Landscapers only carry tools that they use, and need. They already have leaf blowers, rakes, brooms, and dustpans & shovels. Why would they want a Peace Broom – that claims to do all these jobs? What can an oversized hand fan, even with good intentions, possibly do to help a landscaper, grounds maintenance worker, or any other professional that already has the best of these tools?

Why not have one quiet, lightweight tool that does several jobs from blowing, sweeping, and raking, on any surface, does them better & faster with more power, and finesse, is easier to use, and its’ fun. No gas, no cords, no hassle, and people & pets aren’t annoyed. And, it can display your company name, proudly.

Often times, a job may be better accomplished one way, rather than another. “Better” usually referring to cost, time, effort, and risk vs reward. To be fair, please never confuse my intention to justify using Peace Broom as a claim that it somehow blows as well as your favorite leaf blower (it cannot), nor that it is always easier to use than a leaf blower (it often is, though). However, I do intend to attempt to convince landscapers why it should become a preferred choice that quickly and easily accomplishes many jobs, and reinforces your ability to get things done with compassion for your customers, as well as for you and your workers who need to get the job done without wasting time, effort, or money.

Blow, sweep, rake, and pick up - 4 tools in 1 — Blow, sweep, rake, and pick up – 4 tools in 1

Lightweight and durable, the motions you employ are very similar to that of a broom. Short, balanced, cross-body motions that only vary as it is used to blow wind, and then the motions remain similar to sweeping, only slightly resisted by air pressure, and no longer limited to ground or direct contact to move debris. Using walls & the ground to concentrate airflow, just like with your leaf blower, go from blowing to sweeping, sweeping to raking, and back to blowing with the same lightweight tool. Then, pick it all up to bag or put in a trash bin, wheel barrow, or feed it into a monster leaf processing vacuum. Peace Broom will become your next favorite landscaper’s tool.

Save Time and Money by leaving smaller jobs to Peace Broom. Extend the life and reduce wear & tear on your expensive leaf blowers, and on the backs of you and your workers who have to get them out, put them on, haul them around, and put them back. If you have to sweep or rake an area, Peace Broom adds leaf blower power to the job, whenever needed, and it’s quite a good sized debris dustpan, and loader. Clear spaces quickly, quietly, and easily.
Competitive “Green” Marketing Advantage employing a quiet tool that appeases noise-hating leaf blower ban groups, property management boards, city councils, and sensitive neighbors. Where banned, Peace Broom may be your only practical alternative to traditional brooms and rakes. Put your business in the best light possible, and offer cost effective alternatives that are worth paying a little more for, if necessary. You will also be stirring up & breathing less dust, ingesting less blower exhaust fumes, and stirred up pesticides. Being more green is good for everyone.
Be Flexible and Get The Job Done not just for those who want peace & quiet. Use Peace Broom anytime, start early and work later without the noise, because it does so much more than just a leaf blower, broom, rake, or dustpan, and on nearly any surface. 5 times more powerful than a broom, and 30%+ more efficient on leaves in grass, Peace Broom gives landscapers the power you need.
Get and Keep More and Better Jobs How? By accommodating and addressing more needs of your customers into all facets of growing and maintaining the highest reputation possible, using tools that reinforce that total customer satisfaction commitment, and the best way to eliminate noise complaints and show more than just empathy. More than anything, showing that you care makes all the difference. Now, you have that option, and it won’t send you back to the stone age.
Greater Peace and Happiness will be enjoyed by all. Landscapers won’t be yelled at as often, and everyone will enjoy your work with far less annoyance, even you and your workers will get to hear a few more birds, and possibly hear, “thank you!” a little more often. Seriously, loud noise is harming your quality of life, and it has damaging impact far greater than just the annoyance.

As the power, and benefits of Peace Broom are being discovered , it seems to me that this tool should have already been invented by now, but more importantly, it is no gimmick, and it is no wimp. It is also not magic, but commanding the wind with Peace Broom will save you tons of time and effort, and it’s also really fun to use. Blow in peace.

February 26, 2016October 17, 2019

I Can Make That

So, you think you can make my Peace Broom, over-sized hand fan? Well, the short answer is “Yes, yes you can”. However, I’ve spent 4 years refining and redesigning everything from the type and thickness of plastic, to the shape, to the attachment method, and I feel they all add value that can’t easily be duplicated.

January 13, 2016October 17, 2019

Year Round Tool – Avalanche of Wind

Peace Broom does a lot more than just blow leaves. As a year round tool, you will want to keep it handy for all sorts of jobs around the yard: clear your patio of leaves in seconds, rake & blow leaves from your lawn, clear away debris from garden beds, and load it into a wheelbarrow or garbage can, and you can easily sweep a few inches of snow off your walkways, patio, driveway, and your vehicles, too. You can even use it as a squeegee to sweep away water puddles, or to quickly clear a flood accident, like an over-filled pool or hot tub. Stoke a camp fire, and clear a campsite of leaves and debris in minutes. Who needs a leaf blower when Peace Broom is so quick and easy to use? Brooms and rakes are great, but our added shield catches & directs powerful airflow currents that aid each sweep or rake stroke giving you greater cleaning power. Peace Broom’s ability to catch and direct airflow is even backed by NASA aeronautic research. Rockets and planes were designed and tested using the same principles. The process seems obvious enough. However, the amount of air pushed & pulled along with each sweep stroke also creates a powerful, invisible vacuum that, all-combined, pull surrounding air along with it creating an avalanche of wind. Walls and the ground surface aid to focus & concentrate the airflow you create, allowing you to blow leaves and debris out from corners, away from walls, and out from under furniture. Sure, Peace Broom is great for clearing leaves in the fall, but use it as a year round tool, and it will make your life easier, clean up faster, and you’ll have more fun doing it.

June 22, 2015October 17, 2019

My Social Media Tools Exposed – Updated 1/28/2016

Where am I? Might be a better title. 4 plus years into this start up and trying desperately to get serious about my social media presence, branding, and close to producing an actual product or 2, or 3, to sell wholesale, and retail.

Every day there are areas to address that I am not an expert in solving. So, I prioritize. What first? Well, it’s kinda like a fire that is spreading. The more I learn, the more I know that I need to know, but don’t. If I ask for direction, I can assume that each area of importance will and does have immense impact on the success of each of the others. Like pillars supporting an overhead structure, my take is that my website should be sound first (it isn’t). Then, connecting my website presence to social media…? Yes, I know quite a bit more about this now.

I can say that I now (still don’t) have access to all the right tools, apps, apps that work within and between other apps, cutting edge advice from top performers, and I get the feeling that I have been trying to drink from a fire hose to learn it all. Ok, I’ve scratched the surface pretty hard anyway. And, I have several take aways for start ups seeking to launch their products and services while they grow and coordinate their social media presence.

No, I’m no expert, I’m far more dangerous than that. I don’t have the luxury of actually knowing what I am doing. I just have to get it done. The funny part is, all the so called experts are just trying to keep up just like me. There are a ton of free products out there to help you and I will share with you what I can about the ones I am working with and my take on how that’s going for me. Please take this opportunity, everyone trying to market your tools to me and everyone else, to correct my thinking and steer me in better directions, point out when I am flat out wrong, stupid, or just off base, which may be often.

Top of the mind tools that I use: connecting social media and auto re-post on another platform apps that I use a lot, but have unique advantages and problems:

1) Instagram, love it, hate how it posts to Twitter directly, also using Layout, a sub-app within an app, and yes, they get confusing (something about who owns them…?). Solution: use IF (IFTT, IfThisThenThat, also Do, Do Camera – eh, getting confusing, you had me at IF and IFTT) confusing name, but it posts my pics and vids so they actually show up in the Twitter feed, where Instagram slights Twitter by only providing a lame link. Nuff said here. Layout from Instagram is fast and great for adding collage pics to post.

2) Buffer, there is Hoot Suite and others, but Buffer was easy to sign into, has easy to use browser links, and is free so far and works great. It has it’s own issues, but I can use my iPhone 6 or my Apple laptop to repost most anything I find. Again, native inclusion of most all graphics and title work best on FaceBook, where Twitter again is a lame text link, unless you go out of your way to copy the picture and upload it separately for Twitter posting, which seems to work well, and I get more retweets, depending on the subject matter. Take away for all new tools: make signing up fast and easy using FaceBook or Twitter, and make connecting all social media accounts just as easy, or you will not get us to use your tools. Period. *I may unfairly bash or praise tools that I tried before they improved or screwed up their sign up processes, but ease of use is mandatory.

3) CrowdFire provides easy unfollows to those not following back. Bitly to shorten a link to your website, FB page, and save you tons of Twitter characters. Stats iPhone app can track your progress relative to a competitor or benchmark company, product by Twitter name. Rebel Mouse, I want to use more, but remain impressed by the fact that they email you your recent posts and encourage you to forward the email to your email base, which will help grow social media and still connect to those that you can only reach by email, and make you look awesome to those not paying much attention to your Twitter and FaceBook post, but might be greatly influenced by email.

I am writing this post directly in WordPress, but have also found other ways to post, if I can just remember them and use them. Hint, reminder emails that encourage usage of your tools will prompt us to do more than just sign up and forget about your tools. Hey, there’s a lot to remember. Oh, I have a WordPress app on my iPhone 6. Maybe, Ill look at it again. **Update 1/28/2016: I just don’t use it, but it works pretty good at posting, if you are away from your computer, and want to get something out fast. Nice to know that I have this option, mobile.

4) Other impressive tools and companies: Post Planner, helps you find stuff to post and has great analytics. I get stuck on some bloggers posts and try to find stuff on other platforms, but tend to do well with popular posts, and these guys do that for you, probably better than I do on my own, but I don’t want to look like a drone that only posts popular stuff. Commun.it provides a great dashboard combining accounts and adds a way to thank people and identify influencers. I intend to see what else I can do with this one. **Update 1/28/2016: Commun.it is awesome, and makes me look good and responsive, which I pretty much am anyway, but they make sure you don’t miss stuff. Considering upgrading for more goodies from them.

5) **Update 1/28/2016: This is not a tool, but a sage guide through the mess that is social media. Gary Vaynerchuk is by far the most helpful voice out there. The #AskGaryVee Show is my favorite way to consume his topical, in-depth insiders take on everything social media related. You might find yourself going back to older episodes, again and again, to learn even more.