In this solo business talk, Mike Andes explains how the offseason devastates home‑service companies by slashing leads and draining cash reserves, recounting his own $70‑100k loss. He outlines five concrete strategies to survive winter: (1) Lockdown mode – slash expenses and lay off staff with a return‑to‑work bonus; (2) Do more and better – ramp up advertising, run creative campaigns, and rigorously test offers (giveaways, discounts, free services) to capture the scarce demand; (3) Offer an adjacent seasonal service that can be performed in winter without launching a new brand; (4) Sell recurring services or annual warranties that generate steady revenue regardless of season; (5) Launch a new brand dedicated to winter work, a last‑resort option that can lead to brand sprawl. Andes emphasizes that his current focus in Dallas’s $1 M‑in‑1‑year challenge is the second strategy, using aggressive ad spend and offer testing to improve a very low close rate during the low‑demand period.
Chapters
The offseason is what kills so many home service businesses. The offseason is when leads drop off a cliff, revenue dies down, and ultimately you start losing money during the offseason. And I know what it's like because I would lose $70,000 to $100,000 of my cash reserves simply because I didn't have a plan for the winter. And so there are 5 ways to fix it. I'm going to share the one that I'm using here in Dallas on the $1 million in 1 year challenge. So number 1 is lockdown mode. This is where you're gonna lay off your team, you're gonna give them a return to work bonus, but ultimately you just drop all your expenses as low as possible, 'cause there's just no work to be had. That's option number 1. Option number 2 is do more and better, meaning you do advertising, you do marketing campaigns to take what few leads and what few amount of customers want that service and try to get as many as possible. This takes a lot of creativity. Number 3 is an adjacent service. That's a service that can only be done during your off-season. It's not your primary service, but you don't have to go start a new business. You don't have to have a new brand. The 4th option is a recurring service that you can sell during the off-season on a weekly, biweekly, a monthly, or quarterly basis, or even like a warranty where you show up once a year and do an inspection and then do that service during the winter. Now, the 5th option is the last option. I don't wanna do it unless I have to to fill the off-season, and that is start a new brand. For example, we have Augusta Lawn Care. We have also Augusta Lights, allowing us to do Christmas lights during the off-season. But this is the last resort. This is the last one you want to do. Otherwise, you're gonna have 10 different services. You have electrical and decks and fencing, and now we're doing HVAC. It gets crazy. Now, the one that we're using here in Texas is option number 2. That is the ability to be able to do more and better. That is ads, offers, and try and take what little amount of demand there is And try to get all of those customers. But that takes a lot of creativity, and that's why we've got to really test offers here in terms of giveaways, in terms of free services. What's the discount that I've got to offer that allows me to convert customers? Because my close rate's going to be really low because no one needs my services. So when there's not a lot of demand, how am I able to force customers into a buying decision?
