what do you guys do to get through winter?

[juniorc82]

I had vehicle and machine problems chew up my winter nest egg . I do some vct andother cleaning but have the feeling that this winter is gonna be a tough one. what do you ghuys do in the off season to keep the bills paid

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Schools. Broken pipes. More commercial (demand for it goes UP in the winter).

Treat every day like you are working, get out from behind the computer and go knock on doors eight hours until you hit paydirt. Two weeks and it will happen.

 

[Art Kelley]

I usually have a huge line of credit that I draw upon but my wife blew through it this year starting her new knit shop business so that is maxxed out. I will have to rely upon credit card cash advances once my savings and checking accounts are depleated which will be in March. Huge quantities of drugs and alcohol to calm my nerves until spring is my normal routine.

 

[Brian R]

Get with some other companies in your type of industry like house cleaners and work a referral fee of some sort. Start calling all your customers and let them know you have someone to do the work.

Painters, snow plowers lol...whatever you can think of.

Carpet Cleaning doesn't really get slow for me in the winter so this is something I do year round...but it could work out for you.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

For me last winter was busy due to lack of snow here. This year I started planning for winter about 4 months ago, by prepaying the few bills I have and going to focus on some commercial jobs, realitors and so on.

Its about being smart with your money.

 

[joe harper]

"LOTS OF SunScReeN"................. !gotcha!

 

[Mike Draper]

I spend time with my family and enjoy every minute of it cause once April hits, its work, work , work. SAve yuuuurr monnneeyyy in the summer.

 

[Bob Hauser]

save your money in the summer,pay cash when you can, have no debt havea great offer to the cussy

 

[BLewis]

Harper you and your sunscreen remark make me sick (just jiving ya)! Every year I think "I need to move south" then I realize that I actually like the winter "break".

As to the reply to post, I keep it on my mind all year long and make sure to occasionally push commercial work (yeah, especially restaurants) why because they almost all clean every month. Working on a new client that if I land will result in around 21k per year, they are being tuff and stubborn, I am a little higher than their current guy but they don't even use any chemical.

I start my winter BNI 60 second push for commercial business in October and this landed me 2 new clients this fall. And I got a great referral from a residential customer and she referred me to the auto dealership that she works at and I got 1 med 1 large tile & grout from them. I hit it off with the new head of maintenance there (we had a little background in common) and I ended up bidding for their large window cleaning job (my first). Well, I landed that and my former tech is a professional window cleaner so 2 days and 600 or so windows later we finished their window job and now I feel comfortable cleaning windows to, although the first day we cleaned in 18 degree weather and I froze my arsh off (made me appreciate cleaning carpet in winter "on the inside")

 

[Jim Williams]

Living in N.C. the weather is still warm enough to get calls. I still do enough to pay most of the bills in the winter. I can squeak by on $5000 a month if I have too. Rice and beans baby!

 

[KevinD]

Living in N.C. the weather is still warm enough to get calls. I still do enough to pay most of the bills in the winter. I can squeak by on $5000 a month if I have too. Rice and beans baby!

5K a month I would be living like a King.

I don't spend 5K the entire winter.

 

[Bjorn]

Winter what is this winter thing what the hell is a slow season

 

[Nate The Great]

Winter what is this winter thing what the hell is a slow season

Ya sure, you betcha!! WTF is winter???

 

[Zee]

Winter what is this winter thing what the hell is a slow season

DANG I wana be there somewhat amus ....but then again, if one us posted that picture Terje would be all over us about the poor needing and for us to be donating stuff!

Maybe Saiger's Polaris didn't cost as much as that trip and the golf outings once a day... :shock: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

[steve r]

i work through winter. damn pump froze solid last week. thawed it out repaired it and finished all the work.

i clean apartments when they need me and resteraunts that i do monthly or quarterly.also a few who have rentals that i clean when needed. it does slow down to just a couple days a week but it pays the bills.

i also have some regulars that clean in the winter or when fifi poops all over. have a few elderly who have those problems also. i see them every couple months.

 

[steve frasier]

We just hooked up with a guy that winterizes houses for people that go south for the winter

 

[floorguy]

Living in N.C. the weather is still warm enough to get calls. I still do enough to pay most of the bills in the winter. I can squeak by on $5000 a month if I have too. Rice and beans baby!

lol thats my avg a mth anyway

winter sprint summer....

 

[BLewis]

Jobs are pretty sparse for the next couple of weeks. I told my tech that any new commercial restaurants that he lands for a free demo and free estimate that ends up with the job that I would give him 25% of job plus salary first go around and then 5% residual thereafter. I have been telling him what ones I am currently working on and gave him a few suggestions. Also this week we have some 50 degree weather and I have a surplus of my new door hangers so we may hit a few "selected" neighborhoods this week.

I've got some stuff to catch up on that I have been putting off for sometime, and I want to spend some time with the kids this week. We'll probably go stay in a local hotel (barter trade) for a couple of days and enjoy the pool.

 

[Noidios]

I choose to live somewhere warm enough to keep working all year round - and if the jobs don;t come in it's still warm enough that I can go outside without having my testes freeze up.

 

[Willy P]

I choose to live somewhere warm enough to keep working all year round - and if the jobs don;t come in it's still warm enough that I can go outside without having my testes freeze up.

Do you have room for your very distant cousin Russ? !gotcha!

 

[Noidios]

I choose to live somewhere warm enough to keep working all year round - and if the jobs don;t come in it's still warm enough that I can go outside without having my testes freeze up.

Do you have room for your very distant cousin Russ? !gotcha!

Sure thing. I do have to warn you that this is the first time in the 4 years that I have lived here that there has been snow on the ground for more than a day, but That isn't likely to happen again any time soon.

 

[steve frasier]

commercial, just picked up a church yesterday

 

[neapolitan]

I live in Naples FL so my summer is your winter. Things are very slow in the summer for everyone in Naples so no one or businesses have money for cleaning. I think about 20% of restaurants went out of business last summer. I was cleaning some retirement homes but alot of them went to in house cleaning. I could run three trucks for 8 months and one truck for 4 months. And it is hard to knock on doors or walk and talk is what I like to call it in the florida heat. But I still love florida. The key is save your money for the slow times and use your down time wisely.