Crazy_Jimmy
Participating member
- Location
- Texas
WE NEED SNOW.
how do you get work in the winter?
- Thread starter 6t56
- Start date
- Location
- Longmont, CO
[ QUOTE ]
An observation of mine is that tree guys and gals often expect work to come to them. Other sales industries are often better at aggressively marketing themselves.
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Totally true. I learned my second year in this business not to wait for work to come to me.
But, for the sake of the thread. This winter I had only a couple of weeks worth of work in fruit tree trimming. I had and am working on a HOA job...All of this I lined up ahead of time. So, that's sort of my point. We should be setting aside work for the winter...
As the years go by, I plan on setting aside work for the winter months in the summer time. Some guys over here have their winters full. It must be nice.
An observation of mine is that tree guys and gals often expect work to come to them. Other sales industries are often better at aggressively marketing themselves.
[/ QUOTE ]
Totally true. I learned my second year in this business not to wait for work to come to me.
But, for the sake of the thread. This winter I had only a couple of weeks worth of work in fruit tree trimming. I had and am working on a HOA job...All of this I lined up ahead of time. So, that's sort of my point. We should be setting aside work for the winter...
As the years go by, I plan on setting aside work for the winter months in the summer time. Some guys over here have their winters full. It must be nice.
- Location
- Longmont, CO
[ QUOTE ]
WE NEED SNOW.
[/ QUOTE ]
I need the discipline to wake up early enough to plow and shovel snow.
WE NEED SNOW.
[/ QUOTE ]
I need the discipline to wake up early enough to plow and shovel snow.
tomthetreeman
Participating member
- Location
- Rhode Island
Go to bed!
Here in Jersey people pay a lot to have their parking lots and driveways free of snow and ice. I make about $1500 in about 6 hours plowing and salting with one guy and a pickup. When I said a full day I mean one around the clock storm. I get $800-$1000 a day for two guys doing tree work.
tomthetreeman
Participating member
- Location
- Rhode Island
Wow, that's good pay for plowing! Good for you! You must LOVE the snow!
-Tom
-Tom
Crazy_Jimmy
Participating member
- Location
- Texas
Or dont go to sleep at all .
Crazy_Jimmy
Participating member
- Location
- Texas
That spelling was good.
- Location
- Fayetteville AR
[ QUOTE ]
Here in Jersey people pay a lot to have their parking lots and driveways free of snow and ice. I make about $1500 in about 6 hours plowing and salting with one guy and a pickup. When I said a full day I mean one around the clock storm. I get $800-$1000 a day for two guys doing tree work.
[/ QUOTE ]
Dude That almost makes me want snow here. A good snow for us is <2" and then is usually gone in a couple days and that usually happens maybe twice a year. Once every 10 years or so you'll get more than 5-6"
Here in Jersey people pay a lot to have their parking lots and driveways free of snow and ice. I make about $1500 in about 6 hours plowing and salting with one guy and a pickup. When I said a full day I mean one around the clock storm. I get $800-$1000 a day for two guys doing tree work.
[/ QUOTE ]
Dude That almost makes me want snow here. A good snow for us is <2" and then is usually gone in a couple days and that usually happens maybe twice a year. Once every 10 years or so you'll get more than 5-6"
OasisTree
Branched out member
- Location
- Central Missouri
[ QUOTE ]
I agree with you 100% on the warmer approach and the lead in!And as a matter of fact,last night I was trying to find some contact information for home owner's associations in my area.Of all the web searches I did,I couldn't find an address or phone number for the association itself.I just come up with links to realty companies selling homes located in these places.I'm going to keep trying,but does anyone know a good way to get that kind of information?
[/ QUOTE ]
Have you tried the Local Yellow Pages? Thats where I found 'em.
I agree with you 100% on the warmer approach and the lead in!And as a matter of fact,last night I was trying to find some contact information for home owner's associations in my area.Of all the web searches I did,I couldn't find an address or phone number for the association itself.I just come up with links to realty companies selling homes located in these places.I'm going to keep trying,but does anyone know a good way to get that kind of information?
[/ QUOTE ]
Have you tried the Local Yellow Pages? Thats where I found 'em.
marlinspiker
Participating member
- Location
- Pennsyltucky
i like to volunteer in the slow times of winter at local non profit places, in exchange for a mention in their newsletter. its created alot of business for me in the long run.
- Location
- Springfield, MO USA
Here are my ideas, that seem to be working for us right now.....we have about 3 weeks of work ahead of us while most of the other services here in town have none.
Pre-sell winter work all year long, offer them 10-20% discount if they will let you do the work Dec. thru March. I even put that right on the bottom of my estimate sheet so that it is offered to everyone I give an estimate to. The downside: prepare to lose 25% of the winter work you confirm. You call to set it up and they say they can't afford to do it now. It is a tough break, but a trade-off you have to take if you want to have work to do in the winter.
Dig out your file of unconfirmed estimates for the last 6 months. Mail a copy of the estimate with a letter saying that you will give them a winter discount if they would like to do the work now. I mailed out 200 of these 2 weeks ago, at a cost of less than $100.00, and have confirmed 5-6 days worth of work off of them, and I didn't even have to go give the bid, it was already done!
If you have a conservative talk radio station in your city, find out advertising rates, pronto! The people that listen to this station have money, and are homeowners. Last winter, we spent $5000 on ads and sold at least $50,000 off of them in the next 4-5 months. We are on pace to do the same this year again. Make your ad interesting and informative, tell them why you are different than the rest.
Visit one of your local BNI or similar networking groups. You don't have to join, tell them you just want to see what it is all about. It is a chance to get your face and card in front of 20-30 people, who would like for you to join their networking group. (you don't have to join, you can visit once or twice and say it is not for you.)
Find out what your local chamber of commerce offers for networking opportunities, and go to them. You can go as a visitor, and if you like it, go ahead and join. I get tons of work from our local chamber of commerce, all year long.
Paying for membership is not enough, you have to go to the networking events for it to pay off.
OK, I'll stop there. Just put yourself in front of people relentlessly, ask for referrals, push, push, push.
Pre-sell winter work all year long, offer them 10-20% discount if they will let you do the work Dec. thru March. I even put that right on the bottom of my estimate sheet so that it is offered to everyone I give an estimate to. The downside: prepare to lose 25% of the winter work you confirm. You call to set it up and they say they can't afford to do it now. It is a tough break, but a trade-off you have to take if you want to have work to do in the winter.
Dig out your file of unconfirmed estimates for the last 6 months. Mail a copy of the estimate with a letter saying that you will give them a winter discount if they would like to do the work now. I mailed out 200 of these 2 weeks ago, at a cost of less than $100.00, and have confirmed 5-6 days worth of work off of them, and I didn't even have to go give the bid, it was already done!
If you have a conservative talk radio station in your city, find out advertising rates, pronto! The people that listen to this station have money, and are homeowners. Last winter, we spent $5000 on ads and sold at least $50,000 off of them in the next 4-5 months. We are on pace to do the same this year again. Make your ad interesting and informative, tell them why you are different than the rest.
Visit one of your local BNI or similar networking groups. You don't have to join, tell them you just want to see what it is all about. It is a chance to get your face and card in front of 20-30 people, who would like for you to join their networking group. (you don't have to join, you can visit once or twice and say it is not for you.)
Find out what your local chamber of commerce offers for networking opportunities, and go to them. You can go as a visitor, and if you like it, go ahead and join. I get tons of work from our local chamber of commerce, all year long.
Paying for membership is not enough, you have to go to the networking events for it to pay off.
OK, I'll stop there. Just put yourself in front of people relentlessly, ask for referrals, push, push, push.
- Location
- Bangor, PA
Noel, are you a member of the BNI network group? I was thinking of joining as I went to a meeting yesterday. If you are a member what do you think? Do you get much work out of it? Is it worth it?
- Location
- Cleveland,oh
[ QUOTE ]
Here are my ideas, that seem to be working for us right now.....we have about 3 weeks of work ahead of us while most of the other services here in town have none.
Pre-sell winter work all year long, offer them 10-20% discount if they will let you do the work Dec. thru March. I even put that right on the bottom of my estimate sheet so that it is offered to everyone I give an estimate to. The downside: prepare to lose 25% of the winter work you confirm. You call to set it up and they say they can't afford to do it now. It is a tough break, but a trade-off you have to take if you want to have work to do in the winter.
Dig out your file of unconfirmed estimates for the last 6 months. Mail a copy of the estimate with a letter saying that you will give them a winter discount if they would like to do the work now. I mailed out 200 of these 2 weeks ago, at a cost of less than $100.00, and have confirmed 5-6 days worth of work off of them, and I didn't even have to go give the bid, it was already done!
If you have a conservative talk radio station in your city, find out advertising rates, pronto! The people that listen to this station have money, and are homeowners. Last winter, we spent $5000 on ads and sold at least $50,000 off of them in the next 4-5 months. We are on pace to do the same this year again. Make your ad interesting and informative, tell them why you are different than the rest.
Visit one of your local BNI or similar networking groups. You don't have to join, tell them you just want to see what it is all about. It is a chance to get your face and card in front of 20-30 people, who would like for you to join their networking group. (you don't have to join, you can visit once or twice and say it is not for you.)
Find out what your local chamber of commerce offers for networking opportunities, and go to them. You can go as a visitor, and if you like it, go ahead and join. I get tons of work from our local chamber of commerce, all year long.
Paying for membership is not enough, you have to go to the networking events for it to pay off.
OK, I'll stop there. Just put yourself in front of people relentlessly, ask for referrals, push, push, push.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for all the good information!I'm going to look into the things you mentioned.What you said about planning through the summer to work in the winter,is a good idea and i've been told that before.The only problem that i've had with this,is during the summer I don't like to try to put people off until winter,even if they say there not in a hurry.My experience has been 9 out 10 times they get someone else to do the work.I don't know if they see another company working at the neighbor's or down the street,then they just have them do it because "they are there".We always work as much as we can to get as much done as possible in the busy months.Around here people just won't wait,I don't know why
Here are my ideas, that seem to be working for us right now.....we have about 3 weeks of work ahead of us while most of the other services here in town have none.
Pre-sell winter work all year long, offer them 10-20% discount if they will let you do the work Dec. thru March. I even put that right on the bottom of my estimate sheet so that it is offered to everyone I give an estimate to. The downside: prepare to lose 25% of the winter work you confirm. You call to set it up and they say they can't afford to do it now. It is a tough break, but a trade-off you have to take if you want to have work to do in the winter.
Dig out your file of unconfirmed estimates for the last 6 months. Mail a copy of the estimate with a letter saying that you will give them a winter discount if they would like to do the work now. I mailed out 200 of these 2 weeks ago, at a cost of less than $100.00, and have confirmed 5-6 days worth of work off of them, and I didn't even have to go give the bid, it was already done!
If you have a conservative talk radio station in your city, find out advertising rates, pronto! The people that listen to this station have money, and are homeowners. Last winter, we spent $5000 on ads and sold at least $50,000 off of them in the next 4-5 months. We are on pace to do the same this year again. Make your ad interesting and informative, tell them why you are different than the rest.
Visit one of your local BNI or similar networking groups. You don't have to join, tell them you just want to see what it is all about. It is a chance to get your face and card in front of 20-30 people, who would like for you to join their networking group. (you don't have to join, you can visit once or twice and say it is not for you.)
Find out what your local chamber of commerce offers for networking opportunities, and go to them. You can go as a visitor, and if you like it, go ahead and join. I get tons of work from our local chamber of commerce, all year long.
Paying for membership is not enough, you have to go to the networking events for it to pay off.
OK, I'll stop there. Just put yourself in front of people relentlessly, ask for referrals, push, push, push.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for all the good information!I'm going to look into the things you mentioned.What you said about planning through the summer to work in the winter,is a good idea and i've been told that before.The only problem that i've had with this,is during the summer I don't like to try to put people off until winter,even if they say there not in a hurry.My experience has been 9 out 10 times they get someone else to do the work.I don't know if they see another company working at the neighbor's or down the street,then they just have them do it because "they are there".We always work as much as we can to get as much done as possible in the busy months.Around here people just won't wait,I don't know why
treehumper
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Ridgefield, NJ
That's not unusual. Make sure you're talking to the husband and wife, he may say yes while she wants it done now. What could be done is some fall season advertising for winter discounts. Look closely at the ground conditions for signs that it would be better to do come winter. That may be a way of selling the deferral of the work to later.
- Location
- Springfield, MO USA
Not a member of BNI. It was just too Nazi, requiring weekly attendance and all these referral cards and documentation to prove that you were indeed referring the others in your group. I don't have time for that.
