Wondering how you can keep your lawn care business going when lawns aren’t growing? It’s important to keep cash flow moving and find ways to make money during the off-season. One way is to turn your lawn care or landscaping company into a snow removal company. Once you’ve got the right gear in place, you’re ready to start plowing, shoveling, and snow-blowing your way to growth. Here’s a look at the top five things to consider when you’re trying to go from green to white for winter.
1. Focus Your Efforts
One thing to consider is whether you want to concentrate on residential or commercial snow removal services. Commercial properties might offer larger jobs with fewer stops, but also might require larger equipment and specific time constraints. Residential snow removal means smaller jobs, more frequent stops and the potential for more hands-on labor like pushing a snow thrower.
2. Position Yourself As A Four-Season Business
When you offer winter-season services, no season is the off-season! It’s important that your current and potential clients are aware that you will be offering snow removal services. Dedicate a section of your website to snow removal, update your online business listings, and post on social media. Consider a direct mail campaign or door hangers to spread the word even further.
3. Be Prepared For Scheduling Complexities
Snow removal and lawn care have very different scheduling needs. Where you can plan out your lawn schedule in advance, snow removal is almost always an urgent need, and the timing is almost never great. Residential customers will want the snow gone ASAP, even if that means a middle-of-the-night visit. Commercial customers might have certain municipal regulations and restrictions they need to follow, with parking lots and sidewalks needing to be cleared by a certain time. Robust scheduling software will be essential for this.
4. Have A Plan In Place
Weather is unpredictable and we all know that forecasts don’t always get it right. You need to be able to have tight control on the things you CAN control, so that you can get moving right away when it does snow. This is especially true when dealing with major snow events like heavy, multi-day accumulations that might require multiple visits per property. Effectively communicating your “snow day” plans to your customers is a big part of this, so that you can manage their expectations and avoid conflict down the road.
5. Staffing Challenges
The current labor environment has created multiple challenges for all field service businesses. It’s important to realize that the expectations for snow removal are different – and in many ways more difficult – than lawn care. Snow removal teams can expect to work at virtually any time of the day or night, in harsh weather conditions, with less-than-ideal road conditions. Make sure your team is up to the task, so you don’t find yourself stranded in the middle of the snowy season.
If you already use RealGreen for your business software, one thing you won’t need to worry about is switching up your software game. We offer all the functionality you need to manage your snow removal services – from scheduling and routing to marketing and billing, and everything in between. In fact, we’ve recently added new features designed to make your snow removal business easier. We’re here to make sure your business is in growth mode every day, all day – no matter the season.
Want to learn more? Schedule a quick demo to see how RealGreen can help you run an efficient, effective and profitable snow removal business during the off-season!
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Shayla started at WorkWave in the marketing department in August 2022. As Senior Product Marketing Manager for RealGreen by WorkWave, Shayla spends her days researching the lawn and landscape industry, strategizing go-to-market efforts, and building relationships with customers to better serve and communicate.