Do fall cleanups
Fall is the time when plants stop growing and the leaves starts falling. Cleaning the yard, garden, or even the garage is a daunting task for most homeowners, and they are more than willing to let someone else do the job. Outdoor living spaces filled with dead leaves and broken twigs are an eyesore, so use this to your advantage and offer yard cleaning services.
Aside from fall cleanups, there are many services you can offer such as trimming, pruning, dead plant removal, gutter cleaning, covering shrubs, and more. And if you have the right tools, it wouldn’t hurt to include lawn furniture removal and storage options. This might sound far from being a landscape design artist, but it helps pay the bills and diversifying your services keeps your customers happy.
- You can start as early as September when the leaves starts falling.
- Explain the benefits of maintaining a clean and well-protected garden.
- Try to offer a complete fall cleanup package to help prepare lawns for the winter season.
During the spring and summer, landscaping can be a very lucrative business and the list of clients waiting to be serviced can be extensive. From lawn cutting services and yard cleaning to plant re-arranging and gardening, everybody wants to prepare their yard for various outdoor events and activities while there is favorable weather.
However, when the fall and winter period comes, it could mean a quiet off-season for your business. Landscaping companies located in regions that get a significant snowfall may even halt operations due to bad weather conditions and declining job requests from clients. Although landscaping is thought to be seasonal, there are things you can do to take advantage of the quiet season and keep your trade profitable all year long.
Read on for landscaping tips and ideas to keep your business thriving and your customers happy until the next spring and summer season.
Get ahead with spring prep
Continuing on these landscaping tips and ideas, it is just as wise to prepare your client’s lawn for the upcoming spring. Plants grow quickly as soon as winter is over and your schedule might be jam-packed with tons of projects at the very beginning of spring. Even though the growing season is just about to start, there are certain things you can do to extend winter workloads.
Garden centers and other landscaping businesses usually offer straw layering and removal to prevent the land from freezing. Likewise, you can put some weed killer on top of plant beds to stop unwanted grass buildup once the temperature gets warmer. Maintenance is the key towards keeping a healthy garden, so use this opportunity to offer services like pot cleaning, replanting, creating new borders, removing dead trees, and other services.
- Keep in mind that even in winter some plants require moisture and hydration.
- Explain the need for slow release fertilizer as this helps ease pruning once winter is over.
- Avoid cramming and use the last part of winter to plan ahead of time with clients.
Offer consulting and landscape design services
The spring and summer seasons are great time to start new projects with clients and execute, but don’t forget to take advantage of the winter months to discuss new work with customers and offer proposals to them. Provide them with options such as putting in a rock garden for barbeque parties, a vegetable garden for healthy living, a new patio with perennial flowers, a focal point with water features, and other enhancements for their outdoor space.
This is also a great time to exhibit your landscaping skills by showing your clients beautiful garden designs. Without leaving their home, you can present them with various lawn concepts perfect for the new season. If you are not great at sketching designs, there is modern landscape software readily available to help you out.
- Offer consulting services and bring that plan to life when the weather permits.
- For clients who wants to add color to existing gardens, showcase beautiful floral arrangements.
- To keep your slow season overhead costs affordable, try offering basic consultancy services first.
Keep busy during winter months
Winter months are tough when lawns and garden beds freeze over or are covered with a thick blanket of snow. But don’t let these weather conditions slow down your business. Instead use it to expand your services. Offering snow removal will definitely keep your employees busy and will also help keep the cash flow moving during off-season months.
You don’t need to have hardcore snow removal tools and equipment -the trailers and trucks you already own are likely more than enough to provide basic services. Small jobs such as clearing snow from driveways, parking lots, walkways, and garages will only require vehicles that can remove snow with ease and comfort. On the other hand, if you’re targeting large commercial clients, more industrial tools and plows are needed to be able to push wet snow more efficiently.
- Do your assignment and research the market before offering snow removal services.
- If your area doesn’t get much snow, try offering holiday décor installation and removal.
- Expand your front door business by offering other work such as handyman services.
Note: If you keep your annual revenue resulting from snow plowing at less than 40%, you can get more affordable insurance plans than you would need to get for a Snow Plow Removal Business.
Don’t forget to advertise
Last but definitely not the least of these landscaping tips and ideas, invest in advertising during winter months and reap your benefits when the spring and summer season comes. Since there will be plenty of work during the warmer months, why not use the reduced activity of the winter period to focus on promotional efforts that often get left behind.
This is the best time to produce marketing materials to promote and expand your business. Make flyers to be distributed, brochures showcasing your past and latest projects, new services that you offer, and other things to widen the scope of your trade. Don’t forget to utilize the powers of social media and use Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to increase online visibility.
- Create a referral program that will reward clients for every successful recommendation made.
- If you already have one, try affiliate marketing programs to strengthen business ties.
- Try to be present with all advertising efforts to personally explain your products and services.