Smart maintenance includes care for your equipment, as well as attention to your balance sheet, and it will yield true benefits when the recession passes.

Even when cash flow is tight, and the markets for your products or services are uncertain, your equipment must still be maintained. Well-maintained machinery will hold its value, and will be an asset when you decide to upgrade.

John Doyle, factory sales manager of Sidney Manufacturing LLC, in Sidney Iowa, recommends that you maintain your equipment so that it is as good as the day you bought it new.

In the fabrication business for over two decades, Sidney Manufacturing LLC produces the Gorilla Grapple attachment for the skid steer, and Timberline tree shears. The company has been a leader in the field in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska with some of the best cutting edge fabrication tools available.

“Take good care of it,” he says. “Get it done, and get it done right. Re-touch any paint in areas that might need it. Take pride in owning and using your equipment.”

Your pride in your equipment will also help you in growing your business. “Go the extra mile to get and keep business,” he advises. “There’s no traffic jam on that extra mile.”

With equipment in mint, or near-mint condition, operating as well as it did when new, you will be productive and competitive. And your well-maintained “legacy” equipment will have respectable trade-in value when you do move up.

Don’t be tempted to delay your maintenance activities: deferred maintenance costs more. A repair that you supposedly can’t afford now will inevitably become a larger and more costly situation when you think you can afford it.
Smart maintenance can mean using aftermarket parts instead of OEM parts. Tonya Bair, of Bair Excavating and Bair Products, in Louisburg, Kansas recommends fixing only critical parts to keep the machine running, to eliminating excessive repair costs and to minimize down time on a job.

Bair, a family owned business for three generations, specializes in after market parts that fit CAT/ASV and undercarriage parts for MTL Skid Loaders.

After market parts are often less expensive than OEM parts, and to keep the machine operating, after market solutions may be a good bet. The objective is to avoid recurring repair costs, and to maintain the machine’s profit-making hours on the jobsite.

Leo Maestranzi, who has been in the power equipment sales and service business in the same location in Beverly, Mass., for 45 years, reports that equipment users are doing their own work. “Guys are doing it themselves,” he says.

Likewise, Bill Linsky, of Linsky Construction, in Salem, Mass., saves money by making repairs in his own shop. “We’ve rebuilt equipment in-house,” he reports.

Linsky operates from a position of financial strength: “We have a lot of equipment sitting in the yard, not being used,” Linsky says, “All of our equipment is paid for. We don’t owe anything.” He can ride the recession out.

Pete Henk, Treasurer of John Brown & Sons, Co., in Weare, N.H., suggests, “If you have bills, and have to make payments, go out and find work.”

Brown & Co. both manufactures and sells the Brown Brontosaurus Forestry Mower, and operates about 20 Brontosaurus mowers, as well as other clearing equipment in central New England. Typical uses for the mower include maintenance of electric utility rights of way, oil and gas pipeline installations, ski area maintenance, railroad vegetation control, and many other applications.

“To find work, you may have to relocate. If you can’t move, you may be able to renegotiate with your lender,” Henk explains.

If you’ve been good about making payments, and can show that in the winter, for example, when business is seasonally slow, and your income decreases, then in good faith, the lender might arrange interest-only payments during the slow months. “The financial people just may help you a little bit,” Henk suggests.

Another tactic is to build up your savings in flush periods so that you have a cushion in lean times. This is easier to accomplish if you are in Bill Linsky’s position: little to no debt. It requires foresight, and planning. When this recession is past, work on your balance sheet, so that you’re ready for the next challenge.

Your comfort in these bumpy economic times will derive from a strong balance sheet, like Linsky’s, and well-maintained equipment. Your assets are both mechanical and financial. Both should be kept in good repair as you prepare for improved business conditions in the future.