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Put on a rain coat and keep going!
Don't have any employees, so I lie in bed playing Angry Birds on the new phone..... :-)
Then get up to do accounts, and wish I had a larger business!
There is rain and there is RAIN! Nobody can (or should) work in REAL rain - especially doing hard or soft landscaping and even garden maintenance can eventually become impossible. Yes, rain gear helps 95% of the time, but paddling around in puddles and mud will do the garden, or your credibility any good.
Annual maintenance contracts are the answer and factoring in a number of 'rainy days' into your labour charge.
Yes of course, to a degree, you can get on with it, but we know what the lawns are like given the saturated nature of them this year resulting in pools as soon as any new rain falls... simply can't run mowers over that as it leaves deep tracks all over. BUT, of course, there is lots of other stuff you can do so I find managing tasks on each visit carefully helps you press on (i.e. leave trimming to wet days, mowing/spraying for dry days).
You have to do some careful juggling but work goes on.
We work in light rain. But if its pouring down its a waste of time. Customers don`t want you paddling mud everywhere. spending valuable time endlessly cleaning up is not great either, and of course there are a lot of jobs you simply cannot do in the rain. Paving being one of them. I also hate my expensive power tools being soaked through.
Don`t beat yourself up over it is my advice, just put the extra hours in when its dry. The end result will look so much better too.
Work on - reorganise the diary - eg: Hedge work can be brought forward a week or so to the rain days, and the day that frees up used to cover the re-scheduled maintenance regulars.
If the ground is very wet, and the hedge is on soft ground - Scafold planks spread the weight well so I found only the worst weather this year has resulted in a totally lost day.
We have endless amounts of leaves and shrub beds that need tidying up on commercial contracts at this time of year; the rain doesn't stop us regardless. By rain, I'm not talking RAIN, as colin puts it; if it is RAINING and you start doubting your sanity or you wonder what people will think of you working in it- maybe best call it a day! In saying that, there are usually 3 or 4 days a year for us when this happens.
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