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Tips to keep busy in winter

We are getting to that time of year again where I start to stress about keeping my men busy.  

At the moment the phone is barely ringing and it seems we are now feeding off of jobs that have been lined up during out busier period - but they'll soon run out as we get through them twice as fast when grass cutting stops (probably end of next week) as Ive to fill those days with other works.

On the grass cutting / existing customers - those that we see regularly (mostly fortnightly) seem desperate for the grass to stop growing as it saves them some pocket money yet I feel we should be trying to squeeze more out of them on other jobs.  What do you offer? How do you convince them to keep spending?

I feel I should be pushing more to keep the work coming in so Im keen to hear some suggestions.

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  • mulching beds, leaf clearances, gutter not sure theres much else to be honest where in the uk are you?

    • Scotland. We do do Gutter cleaning which gives a reasonable turn but thats a one off. We go from seeing the customer twice a month to

  • B F, how many notes have you taken about your clients' gardens? You're already cutting grass so how about adding treatments to begin your winter marketing programme? A good low N "autumn and winter" now and to all comers over the next few months; preempt known moss problems; scarify now, it's not too late; aeration from January onwards; fallen rotting leaves ruin lawns so add in the leaf clearance service already mentioned.

    Other ideas include hard cutting back of overgrown shrubbery areas, more normal pruning of shrubs and trees, hard cutting back of evergreen hedges in February (so the ugly looking cut leaves get covered quickly by new growth).

    Then you can divide and replant overdeveloped perrenials, plant new spring bulbs.

    As deciduous growth dies back you can suggest structural modifications such as extending a flower bed here, putting a new one there, how to plant the area you just exposed with that cut back. You can see where to put structures to tie those unruly climbers back to so upsales of trellis installation and the like.

    Also, those broken pieces of fence, snapped fence or gate posts, loose pieces of gate furniture are now more visible.

    Within the next week or two the major trade nurseries will have the bare root hedging and shrubbery plants available, an opportunity so many of us totally ignore. They also have many tonnes of low price chipped and shredded, by now reasonably well composted, material gifted from our tree climbing friends, ideal for overwinter mulching. Just take your builders' bags along and fill them up for extra profit.

    Ample opportunity to show your versatility before creeping into the odd-job-man shell for the winter. And I have no doubt several others will be able to add ideas I have either forgotten to put down or wasn't aware of. But just like you, I will run out of this kind of work fairly soon. It needs constant reinvention and sales effort.

  • Just one thought, and it's repeated often.

    Why not try to get the clients on a monthly contract? That way the income's over 12 months, regardless of how much work needs doing, and you get paid whatever the weather.

    Sell it as a discounted option to get people keen to accept it, and the other benefit is that they are less likely to think about changing gardeners.

    • PRO
      Never tried it not had chance to be honest.
      I don't want it if I'm honest!
      Phone has not rang at all this week but again not concerned as its half term and people know I'm not about as kids are off and I never work this week(October 1/2 term!).
      Save money in summertime , relax in winter.
      I do have 2 days a week all year though so that pays the bills!! I did used to worry but not any more.
  • Another thing you could do is to service their lawn mowers (assuming that you might use some of your customers' mowers instead of yours). Pressure washing patios and paths. Cleaning garden furniture and treating with paint or oil but these need to be housed in the dry so that it can be worked on in wet weather. Snow clearance is another possible task.
  • Winter planting, baskets and tubs. Planting bulbs. Building a compost area if they don't have one. Re- painting decking, fencing tables and chairs. Pruning smaller trees. Manure on the beds. Lawn treatments. Snow clearing. Getting shopping for the elderly customers if they cannot get out. Rubbish clearance. I tell all my customers that I have to still earn through the winter months so if I cannot do the garden is there something else they would like us to do, ( within reason!!)
  • Hi all, 

    I'm new here, and this is my first post, but I specialise in marketing for fast growth gardening businesses.

    I kept all my teams flat out until Xmas last year with advertising winter tidy ups, then Christmas garden tidying.

    By tidying I mean leaf clearance, pruning, strimming etc and tidying away furniture, kids toys etc

    Bulb planting worked well as most people hate planting bulbs, but tarting gardens up so the customer isn't embarrassed  when the family descend over the festive period was a real winner. 

  • just took my last booking for this year, finishing the weekend of the 19th of december

    up until then i have artificial turf, decking, turfing (this week), slabbing, gutters and monoblocking

    of course its all weather dependant but i have gritting to do through the night aswell so there is plenty work out there mate just keep at it

    i'm on the west coast so the cold weather hasn't really hit us yet, not had a frost yet either

  • Thank you all for taking the time to reply with some good ideas.  

    What I seem to find with quite a few of our customers when we do get the chance to try and sell ourselves a little is they quite often dont realise the full range of services we actually offer.

    As a result I am now considering sending out a letter to all existing customers along the lines of:

    Dear Mrs Smith,

    Firstly I'd like to thank you for your custom over the last year / season / months.

    Not that we are getting in to Autumn / Winter we are now *insert services (top up bark, hedge cut, pruning etc).  We also provide fencing / paving etc etc

    Get in touch

    Yours sincerely

    Any suggestions or ideas of what else should be there and have you done this yourself in the past.  Has it worked well?

    Also, I've had my lads on the phone this morning to let me know that they will be finished early - is there anything else to do.  So I've made half a dozen calls to existing / previous customers that we've done similar work for in past (hedges / trees) as that the gear they have in van today.  Ive generally found that if they want us they would have phoned and almost feel like Im cold calling.  Thus, I feel letter is a softer more palatable approach to drum up extra work.

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