When you work in the green industry, there are seasonal fluctuations in your business. The lawn and landscaping tasks for spring, summer, fall, and winter vary, and typically your company is busier in the spring and summer than in the fall and winter.
Planning for these seasonal business fluctuations is a key part of a successful lawn or landscape company. During the off-season, you’re likely looking for tasks to accomplish. But during the busy season, it often feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up with everything. It’s a great time of year for green industry businesses, but it can also get overwhelming. There are some things you can do, though, to help you manage the busy season effectively.
1) Prep Early
If you’re reading this article before the busy season starts, you can use the time to get prep work out of the way before you launch into the whirlwind spring and summer seasons. Investing in your equipment and personnel before things pick up pays off big time during the busy season.
Winter is a great time to get any equipment maintenance and replacement out of the way before things pick up in the spring. Get your equipment ready to go so you’re not wasting any of your precious busy season time with tasks like cleaning, repair, and routine maintenance.
Before the busy season is also a good time to invest in employee training. If you plan to change anything or add new services, make sure existing employees are involved in that process and up to date on what they’ll need to do. For new hires, get training out of the way during the off-season or schedule it on rainy days when you can’t work outside.
2) Order and Maintain Inventory
You don’t want to run out of anything important during the busy season. Before things get busy in the spring, take stock of your inventory. This includes everything from lawn signs to advertise your services, to spare parts for key equipment, to fertilizers and herbicides.
It might be worth it to invest in inventory management software to help keep things organized. Whether you go with that option or handle inventory manually, keep on top of ordering replacements as things start to run out. You don’t want to have to pay extra for rush shipping or lose valuable time during the busy season because you run out of something like a key spring herbicide.
3) Be Prepared Every Day
Right before the busy season starts, share customer information with employees who will be working on their properties. Customers’ names, locations, and Google Maps images of their properties will help familiarize employees with the properties before they get there to work. This helps save time and avoid mix-ups.
In addition, take time at the end of the day to prep for tomorrow. Refuel trucks and equipment, charge batteries, and do any necessary quick maintenance tasks (like changing an air filter or cleaning off grass clippings). That’ll help you and your crews get an early start in the morning so you can make the most of daylight hours.
4) Set Goals, Objectives, and Tasks
Make sure your employees—and you—are clear on current goals, objectives, and tasks. Maintain a to-do list and update it regularly, prioritizing the tasks that must be completed first. Making the schedule accessible to employees helps everyone stay on task.
Make sure that it’s clear every day who is assigned to different properties and to the different tasks at each job site. You can communicate this information to employees on paper or digitally. Job reporting software or employee management software can help streamline this task.
5) Stay On Top of Billing and Communication
It’s already a challenge to keep up with billing and customer communication. If you fall behind during the busy season, the tasks just keep piling up. Falling behind on billing can impact your bottom line, and falling behind on customer communication could cost you goodwill and clients.
Set time aside each day to answer emails, respond to customer concerns, and catch up on billing. Rainy days are also a good time to catch up on this task if you start falling behind. If you’re a growing company and it’s too much for you to keep up with on your own, hire an employee or two to handle finances and customer service.
6) Invest in Employees
It’s easy for people to get burned out with the increased workload required by the busy season. Make sure you take time to let people know you appreciate their efforts and to keep them motivated. Spring for a company BBQ every month or some impromptu happy hour meetups. The last thing you want to have is employees leaving during the busiest season, and then scrambling to hire replacements.
In addition to maintaining company morale, provide incentives for employees to stay with the company or to keep coming back. You’ll likely have a core team, where you want to retain good employees, as well as seasonal temp workers, some of whom might come back multiple years. Performance-based incentives can go a long way toward making employees feel valued and convincing them to keep working with you.
7) Have A Dealership You Trust
Here at Richardson Saw, we work with a lot of green industry companies to supply them with top-quality equipment from reliable brands. We carry commercial power equipment from trusted brands including Toro, STIHL, Scag, Honda, Echo, and more. Plus, we always service what we sell.
Our technicians receive extensive service training and we’ve got the certifications to prove it. We’re a STIHL Platinum® Certified dealer, Honda Power Choice dealer, Toro Master Service Dealer, Exmark Turf Star Dealer, Kawasaki® Pro Service Dealer, ECHO Signature dealer, and Scag Pro-Gold Dealers. In addition to the technician training associated with those dealership recognitions, we’re also Briggs & Stratton Master Service Technicians and Kohler Certified Technicians. When you shop with Richardson Saw, you know that you’re getting reliable advice about the equipment you’re purchasing. And if you ever need repairs on that equipment, we’re here to help.
