The fear of not making it through the winter season is always a nail biter. This article will attempt to outline just a few things to help improve your business, and give you ideas of how to get through the winter.
When October or November rolls around, do you get those butterflies in your stomach of how you’re going to financially get through the winter? I have and it will never end, to be absolutely honest with you. Try not to be fooled by companies rolling around with their fancy over-priced landscape trucks or high dollar equipment. They too are thinking just as you are how to improve their lawn care business.
Tips During The Lawn Care Season
1. Money. Save money during the season. Stowing away certain amounts of money per month or week can help you make it through the off season. After paying quarterly or monthly taxes all year, this just does not seem possible. Ever since I was old enough to make money, I have saved. Ask yourself, “Are you above saving loose change or one dollar bills?”
2. Customers. If you have been keeping in touch with your customers via email, this is a great way to stay connected. In today's world calling customers is slowly becoming obsolete, although I recommend this anyway. Making videos of your crew/s working, or offering discounted services will speak volumes. Just stay connected year-round so you build trust with your lawn care customers.
3. Free. Who doesn't like free stuff? Hold a drawing for a FREE service on your Facebook Fan Page. This will not only increase the "likes" of your Fan Page but also more web exposure for your business.
Tips During Lawn Care Off-Season
- Equipment. There is nothing more disappointing then a piece of machinery that breaks down. Use the off-season to grease, fix, change oil and take inventory of your equipment will save you potential hours of down-time on the job. How many times in a season has your equipment broke down or just stopped working, due to the lack of lawn care equipment maintenance?
- Early sign on. Offering discounted lawn care services for the next season to customers who pay early. This is a great way to keep income rolling in and help with your over-head costs. This is another way of letting your customers know you are thinking of them.
- Business Listing. Have you listed your business on the internet? Many people don’t realize they can list their business for FREE! Yes I said free! Google of course is the king of the online world, offering a great way to sign your business up to be found locally and around the world. Yahoo and Bing offer this also and should not be over looked.
- Website. Do you have a company website? If not you are losing! If you do, now is your opportunity to optimize those web pages or fine tune it. Have you been taking pictures of your work? Photos can be optimized too by simply adding descriptions of the work being performed. Adding photos to your website will give potential and current customers a better feel of your lawn care business. Google will search those descriptions which help your business get found online. Now that you know, dust off that camera and snap snap snap!
