What do you do during slower months?

treeweaver

treeweaver

Location
Austin, TX
Just curious to know what you guys do, august is reliable slow here until the beginning of september?
Do you give the crew time off? Do you do email blasts with discounts for the slower month? Do you try to plan some work ahead?
 
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Just curious to know what you guys do, august is reliable slow here until the beginning of september?
Do you give the crew time off? Do you do email blasts with discounts for the slower month? Do you try to plan some work ahead?

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At my office we work all winter. In cleveland. It sucks, but its better than not getting paid. 50+ hrs a week if you want it.
 
The August slow-down is different than the winter stoppage.

I never did any summer marketing. August was time for a wilderness canoe trip or working 'only' 40 hours. Maybe a shop/vehicle project.

Since you're able to email market it seems like it would be easy to remind people to get on the schedule. I'd be reluctant to discount work though. That sometimes gets people to stall or wait until discount season.

Maybe something along the lines of capitalizing on the surprise that they'll have when they come home from vacation, seeing your excellent work done!
 
We don't get an August slow down here NE of Atlanta. Our slow down happens in Dec. and Jan when temperatures dip way below freezing sometimes getting as low as 40F°!
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Dont discount your work. Sometimes it pays to stay home.

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X2

You discount your work and then get a flood of calls, and you find yourself doing discounted work when you should be doing it at full price. Be patient, dont work yourself out of jobs. As other have said, I dont find myself slow... The calls may stop coming in for a week or two but I normally have 6 weeks scheduled out (for the most part year round).
 
I appreciate the responses. We are very lucky to always have work in the end, it's just August comes down to often being booked only a week ahead at the time which makes me nervous but it always turns out okay. Then when I'm slammed I miss these times. You guys are right in not discounting, the more I think of it the worst it sounds.
 
August has been crazy for us. Tough to keep up. I have a few projects lined up for the slow down. For us it seems to be Thanksgiving to Christmas.
 
Keep work steady by scheduling work for those months. It may be a time to allow for vacation time for the guys. It's up to your sales force to best manage the workload.
 
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Dont discount your work. Sometimes it pays to stay home.

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Can't agree more. It seems as though any time I give a discount just to get the job, in order to keep working something goes wrong and it costs me more than the job was worth.

I try to put off "charity" work for slow times. Go to friend's houses to do work there, not profitable, but it kept me busy... and let's face it the work was going to get done at some point anyway.
 
One way around just plain discounting is to offer to reduce the price for not doing some aspect. Raking up, removing wood or even brush. If you do offer to discount be sure to show on the invoice the full value of the work and then "their discount" not as a percentage but it dollar terms. If it is for some aspect of the job not being done. then make it a note with a credit amount against the full price. This makes it clear there is still a value to the job and the work not being done.

Just don't drop the price without it being clear the the client just how much they are saving vs. seeing it as a negotiating tactic.
 
My plan this year is turning trees into something besides firewood and lumber.

I'm looking into live edge signs. A guy in town has a laser engraver that can reproduce designs via software loaded images.

Cutting boards, door stops, paperweights, tables, benches...
 
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