To grow his snow removal business to a year-round landscaping service, Cory McGuire did his research to find the right equipment. Learn how he uses his Toolcat 5600 — along with a Bobcat S595 skid-steer loader and a Bobcat E35 compact excavator — to tackle any job that comes his way.

Don’t judge a book by its cover — a lesson passed down by our mothers and by our mothers’ mothers.  

If you ask Cory McGuire, owner of McGuire’s Landscaping and Winter Services, one particular machine is the epitome of that moral. 

“Customers are surprised when I pull up to the jobsite,” Cory says of his Toolcat™ 5600 utility work machine from Bobcat Company. It’s not necessarily the first machine many of Cory’s commercial and residential clients expect to see on a landscaping job. “But this machine is no joke.” 

And Cory would know. He currently owns four Toolcat 5600s and puts more hours on them than he does his other landscaping machines, including his Bobcat® S595 skid-steer loader and Bobcat E35 compact excavator. “I use the Toolcat 5600s year-round,” says Cory. The machine’s versatility proves helpful for his landscaping projects in the spring, summer and fall. And they are his go-to machines for clearing snow during the rough Kittitas County, Washington winters.  

Leaving the Last Frontier for greener pastures 

A multifaceted machine is the perfect reflection of Cory’s hardworking, six-person company. “I could probably run five or six crews and 20 to 30 workers with no problem,” says Cory. But this hands-on small business owner prefers spending his time behind the controls of his Bobcat machines. “I like to work, I like to be out there in the equipment,” says Cory. 

Being “out there” takes on a special meaning in Cle Elum, Washington. The area averages 80 inches of snow per year — almost three times the national average. That amount of annual snowfall is good news for snow removal companies, which is what motivated Cory to start his own lawn and snow-clearing business five years after moving to Washington from Alaska. 

“I was pretty much the last person from my family left in Alaska,” says Cory, whose ancestral roots trace back nearly 100 years in the country’s northernmost state. “My wife and I were ready for a change, so we came here.” After working in Washington’s waste management system for five years, Cory took a leap of faith and started his own lawnmowing business out of the back of his pickup. 

Fifteen years later, McGuire’s Landscaping and Winter Services is in high demand year-round. And there’s one trusty sidekick that’s been at Cory’s side for the entire ride. 

Winter machine becomes year-round solution 

Choosing a versatile machine that could help him launch his own business wasn’t a decision Cory took lightly. He spent a year and a half researching the Toolcat 5600 along with a competitive product. 

“I decided to go with the Toolcat 5600 because it’s easy to see that Bobcat is the most popular machine out there,” Cory says. “You go to almost any rental company and three-fourths of their fleet is Bobcat.” 

It didn’t take long for Cory to realize his decision to roll with a Bobcat machine would pay huge dividends for his emerging company. “I bought it with an angle broom and a deicer spreader and figured the only thing I would use it for would be clearing sidewalks in the winter,” Cory remembers. “But we started playing around with it during the summer on the landscaping side, and it just kept impressing me with what it could do.”