Caring for landscaping for a home or business during the winter is not a case of set it and forget it. Despite a slowdown in plant growth, there still is lots to do for a landscaping professional during the cold months of the year.
But the work can be challenging. From winter storms to frozen ground to limited daylight hours, working outdoors on landscaping during the winter is complex. For a professional landscaping business, the winter months mean a slowdown in operations, resulting in decreased revenue. To overcome these challenges, creative approaches and solutions are necessary.
With an average profit margin of about 10%, there isn’t a lot of room for downtime in the landscaping business. Depending on your location, the winter months can pose significant challenges to your landscaping business. Naturally, the further north you are, the greater the chance of winter storms and freezing temperatures. But even if you are located further south, you still have to contend with shorten daylight hours and plant dormancy.
Working safely in the landscaping business is a priority, and conditions during winter can pose some extra risks. You may encounter slippery surfaces or obstacles hidden under snow or ice. In the summer, you must take care to prevent heat stroke, but in winter, exposure to freezing temperatures can result in frostbite. Protective gear and winter clothing is essential for winter landscaping work.
Caring for plants, shrubs, and trees is also a challenge. You can’t transplant or move plants and bushes. The health of plants and trees is tricky to assess, and you’ll often encounter damage from heavy snow and ice accumulation.
Finally, your landscaping equipment can be impacted by cold temperatures and frozen ground. You’ll have to step up maintenance of your equipment and take extra care when transporting or storing it.
Surprisingly, many landscaping customers continue to seek out the services of landscaping professionals during the winter months. Jake Hundley, CEO of Evergrow Marketing, a digital marketing agency for the lawn care industry explains,
“Data shows that people who contact lawn and landscaping businesses in the spring started their search during December and January. So even if you are working less, you should still spend some money on marketing during the colder off -season.”
Despite all these wintertime challenges, there are some projects that are well suited to the colder months of the year. You can offer your customers some creative and attentive services during winter. This will not only serve your customers well by maintaining their lawns, planting beds, and trees.
You will also continue to generate income during what is typically a very slow season for the landscaping business. Check out these ways to keep busy all winter long.
A summertime tree, covered in leaves, can easily hide limb damage or structural issues. But in winter, all the leaves are off the trees, giving you a clear look at every part of the tree. Obviously damaged, dead, or overgrown tree branches are more easily cleared when they are bare.
After flowers have died back in the fall, there are several caretaking activities a professional landscaper can offer a homeowner or commercial customer. It’s easier to clean up flower beds, trim back ornamental grasses, and remove any debris after the growing season is over. Offer a bulb planting service for the fall so your clients can enjoy colorful beds in the spring.
Add a mulching service to expand your business. Explain to your clients the importance of soil health and how a layer of mulch can help insulate the ground and protect plants from extreme temperatures.
Doing this work also improves the look of the landscaping, even if nothing is actively growing. Having neat and tidy beds looks great and makes it easier to get a jumpstart in the spring when the weather warms up.
Before a deep freeze sets in, sprinkler systems should be winterized. This will prevent freezing and bursting of pipes. A professional landscaper can easily add sprinkler blow-out services to existing customers.
In fact, you may be able to gain some new clients in the spring through the marketing of a fall or winter sprinkler maintenance service. If you’d like to expand your business further, offer a spring tune-up and system check. While you may not be up for making extensive repairs, you can turn on a sprinkler system for a fee in the spring.
It’s not easy to work on plants and beds during the colder months. However, winter is an excellent time to install a new patio, walkways, or build retaining walls. Frozen ground can be handled using the right equipment. Working on these projects during the winter months also lets you offer your clients a jumpstart on spring landscaping activities.
Provide design services, with a solid plan for doing the work right when the spring thaw starts. Having new beds, garden borders, and paths in place makes designing a new garden look fast and easy. Beautiful hardscape landscaping will become the perfect focal point in your customers’ yards.
If you live in a snowy region, adding on snow removal service is a great compliment to your summer offerings. Since you already have a customer list, you can market this service easily. Depending on the amount of snow that falls, you could develop a lucrative income stream.
If you want to expand to commercial properties, apartment complexes, and municipal locations, consider investing in heavier snow removal equipment, such as a truck mounted snow plow blade, heavy-duty snowblower, and a salt spreader attachment for your truck.
Winter doesn’t mean that your landscaping business has to go dormant. There are numerous opportunities to stay busy and increase your cold weather income. Focus on offering services that are easier done in the winter, such as garden maintenance and cleanup and pruning, as well as additional winter services like snow removal and sprinkler system maintenance.
By capitalizing on these opportunities, you’ll increase year-round income, maximize productivity, ensure customer satisfaction, and position yourself well for a great spring and summer season.
Whether you’re working in the summer heat or the freezing months of winter, you need a reliable and affordable way to dispose of waste while you’re on the job. When you’re planning a big landscaping project, give Discount Dumpster a call.
We’ll get you a low-cost winter dumpster with fast delivery and flexibility to allow you to work on your schedule. Call us to discuss your winter landscaping plans and to get a free quote today.
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