Last year, I learnt quite a big lesson.
Although we all have a seasonal business, I didn't start advertising until around March in 2012. At this point though I found out the hard way that a lot of clients may have already chosen their contractor for that site already, thus meaning that I missed out on a lot of potential work because I did not keep letting clients know of our presence during the slower colder months.
So this winter I have been working on a sustained `campaign` so that I can keep nudging potential and current clients of our existence so that in spring time (When we pick up most our new sites) they may instantly know that we are there and willing to look at sites.
To put it another way, if I only start to let them know of our services in March (Just before the growth spurt) they wont have a Scooby doo who we are!!
So although its nice to have earlier days and give our bodies a rest during winter months. Its also VERY important to plan for your business future. It may be cold outside but it doesn't mean people aren't looking for new contractors to start on site, when the weather gets warmer.
Has anyone else found this?
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I haven't had any work since first week of November, but I've been active making my mark online, social media and have started a blog on Wordpress.
And your right, time to start advertising now to kick in for the start of the season. It's strange but I found last year when I put an ad on Gumtree local, it was 2-3wks before I got enquiries through it, so much so - I took my laptop to Haggerston Castle Holiday Park and put an ad on while I was away, so that by the time I got back I might have enquiries. Which I did. :)
All the best to you in 2013
Scott
hello ,
Jan Feb are our slower months. I normally have a plan to put in to action for getting new contacts for a busy year. I am constantly keeping my eyes peeled for targeting new customers.
waiting till march before looking and advertising I think its too late, now is the time.
This year it also contained deals that i'm offering and also my plan to start a plant swap group between my regulars and possibly a propagation service.
We are mainly domestic with a couple of commercial sites. I am currently building a new web-site which details all we do but leans more to getting one off jobs and hopefully appeals to the professional domestic market (i.e. people with no time but easy access to the internet).
I will also be designing a targeted advert for our local weekly rag, so rather than advertise everything we do I will just advertise those Winter jobs that need doing. I can only afford a small ad so have to be specific and this generally pulls in work from the "older" generation who don't use that internet thingy.
I have also decided to cut back quite a bit on mowing only jobs as last years poor weather showed as over reliance on these jobs.
Updating Yell ad, setting up a Facebook presence, a Twitter account and a Blog.
We are also about to inform all our customers that our pricing is going up, first time for 3 and half years, so I expect to loose some customers, plus we are dropping a couple of customers as well.
I will be booking in the odd day or two for training/certification courses (chainsaw use/marketing etc.) plus continual research on all things garden maintenance related.
I now have a spreadsheet that details all our finances in one place, all those income & expenditure stuff over a calendar year so I know exactly what bills are coming in and when. I've also broken down every bill into an hourly cost spread over the year, after first taking out Bank Holidays, all Sundays, Xmas break, the whole of January. This has given us our minimum daily/weekly/monthly target, so any earnings exceeding targets goes on beer!
"Err, yes dear, I mean into the savings account."
Wishing you all a Sunnier, Drier, Profitable 2013!
There's something wrong here ;)
Similar to Nick, above, Winter can be some of our most profitable months for two reasons;
1 - We push out planting, bed work/mulching, fence, paving, repairs & commercial based "(hard)landscape maintenance" to this time of year (..and this can be done no matter what your sector is), or
2 - Winter Work - gritting & snow clearances
So if we can't do 1/, we can do 2/ and all this starts being planned from summer onwards.
In addition, there is also time to look at the business, set plans in place, sort out marketing, start engaging with clients, look for new machinery (good time to negotiate on equipment :-), sort out any training needs, and any other requirements ...
Given our market sector, I tend not to spend effort on Yell etc & limit our social media and typically spend ££little on printed advertising. I tend use any other spare time meeting clients, arranging site visits to try and understand where else we help them.
As mentioned in other posts, when you have employees to look after you look longer and harder at what you can do and when.
For us; No work is not an option, when the other choice is lay-offs.
Chris I will send you a message with answer cos if I post here it will no doubt open up a huge new discussion on pricing and go off topic.
I've found advertising to be a gamble at anytime of the year so spend my money on web sites and SEO , during the winter I have being pushing mature tree and bulb planting, so much so that I buy in trees and pot them on for summer sales , I've sold out this year so will try bigger numbers this year, we also hand to take on more staff and have being busy all year round,
Regards S. Murphy Lavender Landscapes .