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Fall 2007

Starting Small Leads to BYOB Success



Bob Aldous

Bob Aldous believes that Bobcat compact equipment is still the best in the industry.

Bobcat Customer Starts Company with a Pickup Truck and M371 Loader

Imagine starting your own business with simply a truck and a borrowed Bobcat skid-steer loader, then watching it dramatically grow. That is exactly what Bob Aldous did in 1988 with great success.

Aldous is not alone. In the 50 years of Bobcat, and the hundreds of compact products introduced during those years, a new crop of entrepreneurs was born. Individuals quit their full-time jobs and took on the challenge of becoming their own boss, a concept known in Bobcat circles as “BYOB” — “Be Your Own Boss,” or “Build Your Own Business.”

Aldous’ story is not unlike many other Bobcat owner-operators. “I got started while I was working at a saw mill,” he says. “My buddy had an M371 that he would let me take to do projects after work, like backfilling pools. I quit my full-time job and bought my first machine — an 863 skid-steer loader. I haven’t looked back since.”

Once Aldous realized how he could become his own boss, he researched which compact equipment maker was the best. It didn’t take long for him to settle on the Bobcat brand. “I saw that Bobcat was the one who invented it, and I compared it to all the others,” Aldous says. “I quickly realized that Bobcat was a better-built machine. I could work circles around other equipment and I didn’t tear up the turf.”

Doing More than Ever

Thanks to Bobcat attachments, Aldous is able to do more with his existing machines and maximize their versatility. Aldous needs fewer machines to complete projects when attachments are available for his Bobcat equipment, and that equates to less overall costs in machinery.

“I probably have 20 attachments for my Bobcat loaders and excavator, and I use them all,” Aldous says. He particularly likes his dozer blade on his Bobcat T250 compact track loader because of the impressive performance.

In addition to Bobcat compact loaders, Aldous relies on a Bobcat 337 compact excavator and many attachments, including various buckets, a hydraulic breaker and a ripper. Thanks to an innovation from Bobcat called the Hydraulic X-Change™ system, changing attachments is even easier for Aldous. Aldous can hydraulically activate attachment retention pins that retract to release the attachment.

“I’m always changing attachments; I bet I change the attachments 10 times a day,” he says. “I always keep a bucket here, and I can easily switch into my 1-foot bucket if needed because we dig a lot of electrical trenches.” It is tough to find another invention in America’s history that has empowered people to be their own boss as much as the Bobcat skid-steer loader. Today, Bobcat manufactures more compact equipment than anyone else in the market. With these products, individuals are carving out their own name in the construction industry.

Attachments enable Aldous to maximize his compact equipment’s versatility. Below is a list of Bobcat attachments he uses at his jobsites:

  • Angle broom
  • Clamp
  • Dozer blade
  • Excavator buckets
  • Hydraulic breaker
  • Loader buckets
  • Pallet fork
  • Ripper
  • Sweeper
  • Tiller
  • Vibratory roller