Steve Danielson, Vice President and owner of C&S Sweeping Services, Inc., stands in front of the company’s belt-loaded sweeper conveyor, which is perfect for large production jobs.

C&S Sweeping uses a 14-foot Side Cast, which has the ability to control the pressure of the broom using Topcon sensors. Its 200-gallon water system suppresses dust and other airborne particles.

Being a boss and being a dad are tough enough jobs on their own. Combining the two brings a whole new set of challenges.

“It’s sometimes hard to separate being a father from being a boss,” says Steve Danielson, co-owner of the Phoenix-based C&S Sweeping Services, Inc., who works with his three daughters and one son.

“I’m more on the boss side, and my kids tell me that. They say, ‘You can be a dad today—lighten up!’ ” he says.

Steve lets out a big rolling laugh, a recurring sound whenever he’s been talking for awhile. At first glance, however, he’s all business as he talks about transforming C&S Sweeping from a tiny street-sweeping business into a major operation with 75 employees and locations in Phoenix, Tucson and Denver.

“In 25 years, we’ve managed to put together 140 pieces of equipment…and we started with two,” he says. “We’ve been busy and we have been fortunate to build a team of knowledgeable, talented, skilled and innovative employees who grow the business and serve as mentors to new employees. Without the commitment of our employees and the children, C&S Sweeping Services would not be the success that it is.”

Raised in Columbus, Ohio, Steve started in the sweeping business at age 16, moving to Canton and Cleveland, Ohio, as he climbed the ladders of the industry. He and his wife, Christine, launched their first sweeping company in Ohio in 1978, and in 1993, they relocated their family of six to Phoenix, where they launched C&S Sweeping.

The Next Generation

Over the decades, the company has evolved to clean every type of surface imaginable, from roads and highways to construction sites and even race tracks. Along the way, Steve and Christine started putting their kids to work.

“As business grew, Steve and I needed a hand here and there for a few minutes, so we showed our children how to do things and explained the significance of what they were doing,” says Christine, who manages the company’s office. “Eventually, a few minutes led to hours.”

After the Danielson kids graduated from school, most of them found jobs and learned new skills outside of C&S Sweeping. Eventually, however, all four returned to the family business: Heather (43), Abby (40), Sam (39) and Desirae (37).

“Each of our kids works a significant piece of the pie,” says Christine, “from human resources, administration and payroll with Heather and Abby, to dispatching our fleet and employees with Desirae, and Sam spearheading the milling division. With each of our kids handling our day-to-day operations, we are a more robust company.”

Living to Work

All four children have a hard act to follow in their dad. He says people invariably describe him as a “workaholic,” a description he embraces.

“I’m 64 years old and I still work seven days a week,” Steve says. “Some people tell me they work to live, but I live to work.”

Recently, when the C&S crew embarked on an alley-cleaning and milling project in Phoenix, Steve was in front of his employees, leading the way.

“I’m out there cleaning the alleys and picking up garbage, and people are looking at me like, ‘You’re nuts! You don’t have to do this…you own this place,’ ” he says. “But I always tell them I don’t expect the crew to do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Working hard and working smart usually go hand in hand, according to Steve, who says he takes pride in thinking outside the box in coming up with more efficient processes and designing specialty equipment.

For example, C&S designed and built a belt-load sweeper capable of sweeping a road at 100 feet-per-minute and filling an entire dump truck in 10 minutes. Company employees also designed a new piece of equipment by taking the arms off a garbage truck, modifying them, and putting them on the front of a vehicle in order to quickly move trash cans in and out of alleys for better sweeping.

“We like to come up with innovative ideas that allow us to work more efficiently than the other guy,” Steve says.

The Future Looks Bright

An industry that’s been around since the 1800s, mechanized street sweeping will continue to have a robust future for several reasons, Steve says. For one, the increase in environmental regulations has prompted cities to clean their streets more regularly—especially during the winter months.

“Every time there’s a snow storm in Denver, they put salt and grit on the streets, and the next day you need to sweep it up so the saltwater doesn’t run down into the storm sewers,” he explains.

Secondly, he says, more and more cities are hiring private contractors like C&S Sweeping and eliminating city jobs as a way of controlling the cost of employee benefit programs. “That’s the way I see it going in the future, and I think we’re going to get more municipal work because of that,” he says.

Steve and Christine recently added a third-generation family member to C&S Sweeping: their granddaughter, Harley, who’s 18 and now works in payroll. As Steve starts to plan his retirement and contemplates handing over the company to his kids, his perfectionist and workaholic tendencies give him the occasional second thought.

“Sometimes it’s a little scary,” he says. “You think ‘Are they going to have a good enough work ethic?’ ”

Then he laughs, relaxes and reminds himself how lucky he is to have a loving family that he’s been able to work closely with and mentor. “It makes you feel good,” he says.

“Over the years, we have experienced all the typical growing pains and joys other families have,” Christine adds. “But in the end, I feel blessed every day to work with my children. They have the knowledge, ethics and qualities that I’m proud of, that reflect who and what C&S Sweeping Services is. And they can be proud of that.”