In 1910, at the age of twenty-one, he moved to Winter Haven, Florida, where he began working as a fertilizer salesman.

[3] A few years later, just before the Florida land boom of the 1920s, Snively bought his first grove, a ten-acre site near Lake Eloise in Winter Haven.

[1][4] In 1934, he established the Polk Packing Company, which later became Snively Groves Inc. Snively Groves was the largest fruit packing and canning company in the United States during the 1930s; with 1,500 employees, it was the largest business in Winter Haven.

[1] Snively also served on the boards of the Tavares and Gulf Railroad and the Winter Haven Exchange National Bank.

[4] He served a three-year term as City Commissioner and built several housing sub-divisions on some of his grove land, including the Winter Haven communities of Inwood and Eloise Woods.