Mike Andes explains how lawncare businesses should handle the off-season: do not aggressively sell year-round contracts in the slow season because seasonality raises customer-acquisition costs; instead, focus on upselling existing customers on high-margin ancillary services to stay busy and profitable, and reserve hiring and marketing spend for the spring rush when demand creates tailwinds.
How we get clients to sign up for year round contracts even in the slow season. Very, very difficult in my opinion. I am not going to try to sell the unsellable. Also, I don't want to sell into headwinds and headwinds in this industry is seasonality and so I'm not going to try to sell someone lawn care in the middle of winter. I can do that all day long and you will get some, but your customer acquisition cost will be three to four times what will otherwise be when demand is high. So I would not be trying to sign up year round contracts in the slow season. I would be trying to upsell my existing customers on ancillary and upsell services that are high margin to keep busy and then during the spring rush staff up for being able to take advantage of the tailwinds. So when I do spend that cash and I throw that money at my marketing, that actually goes a lot further.
