mountain town news

Montanan Hopes to Turn Heavy Snowfall Into Big Bucks

By Lindsey Galipeau, Guest Writer, 2-17-11

	Dominico Cianciott (center) started College Fund Snow Removal with girlfriend, Jane McNeill (right) in November. He needed extra money to return to school after having to take a break for a semester. Since then, he has added other employees like Matt Partridge (left). Photo by Lindsey Galipeau

Consider it the grown-up version of the neighbor’s boy coming asking to shovel your walk for a few dollars, but Dominico Cianciotto hopes this unusually snowy winter will help him earn a college degree.

Financial trouble forced Cianciotto to take a semester off from his course work at the University of Montana. With jobs hard to come by, Cianciotto decided to start his own business with an eye toward earning enough money to complete his film-production degree. That’s where the weather stepped in to supply him an opportunity.

Snowfall in the Missoula area, like much of the Rocky Mountain region, has been heavy this year. That, combined with work ethic from a father in the lawn and landscaping business, was all he needed to start the “College Fund Snow Removal” in November.

“[My father] taught me how to be industrious and how to survive,” he said.

Cianciottto recruited his girlfriend, Jane McNeill, and began advertising around the city.

“We spent hours making posters while watching movies and drinking coffees,” he said.

Soon the calls started coming in, but not the ones they were looking for.

“We got a lot of calls from students looking for work,” he said.

With the economy still sluggish and students looking for ways to earn some extra income, he had many new employees, but once the business started coming in, few stayed due to the demands of the snow-shoveling business.

“I would get up at three or four in the morning to see if it had snowed,” says Cianciotto. “We lost a lot of people because of the early hours.”

Many of the customers were businesses who needed their lots plowed or sidewalks shoveled by 8 a.m. He often does the work himself, using a 4-foot or 5-foot shovel. If a job is bigger than average, he’ll ask up to two others to help him out. Unfortunately for Cianciotto, the lack of employees hasn’t been too much of a problem.

Like many new businesses, College Fund Snow Removal has struggled due, in part, to timing.

“We came into the game too late,” says Cianciotto. “Next year we’ll get the awareness out sooner.”

But the shortage of business, even in this snowy season, has not curtailed Cianciotto from dreaming big. He would like to expand his business as far as he can, first around Montana, then hopefully into Idaho and even further south into Utah.

“I’d like to make a nonprofit business for people under a certain income or who are college students,” he said.

Cianciotto also hopes the business will teach employees how to be entrepreneurial while helping them get through school. He also hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps to include landscape work, window-washing, painting and perhaps even Christmas-light decorating. He has already started to think about how to advertise his spring and summer “odd jobs.”

But for now, as the snow continues to fly in western Montana, Cianciotto will be up early, searching the skies for opportunity.

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