Fall and Winter Planning Begins Now

I was just telling my wife yes­ter­day that I wish the month of July would stand­still for a lit­tle while longer. Now that it is August means that school starts in just a few weeks for many of our kids. August is also the month when many Amer­i­cans make a last minute ditch for vaca­tion and put home improve­ment on the back­burn­er. So how can painters, builders and oth­er home improve­ment trades use their time wise­ly in the month of August? You got it: Start the fall and win­ter mar­ket­ing plan­ning now.  Spend time this month plan­ning out how you will reach out to your exist­ing clien­tele. How often will you be send­ing an email newslet­ter to them? What about call­ing up cus­tomers and check­ing in about book­ing work for the cold­er months ear­ly in the fall sea­son? If you offer a painter for a day ser­vice, try sell­ing that ser­vice now for a lat­er date. Some clients of mine begin their win­ter dis­counts in the fall months so that short­ly after Christ­mas through Feb­ru­ary begins to book up with inte­ri­or work. How­ev­er you reach your cus­tomers, start the plan­ning now and put some mar­ket­ing dates on the cal­en­dar. The soon­er you plan and exe­cute your late fall and win­ter plan, the more work you’ll book for your crews and not stress so much when the sea­son has arrived! One final tip: It is bet­ter to keep your crews work­ing at a low­er rate than to have them sit­ting at home col­lect­ing unem­ploy­ment or worse, look­ing for anoth­er job. There­fore, do not be afraid if you have to book work at a low­er rate dur­ing your slow­er sea­son. Raise the rates when you know the work will be hot and heavy! If you are look­ing for a good way to plan and exe­cute mar­ket­ing and oth­er busi­ness task and events, I would sug­gest look­ing at Base­camp 3. Here’s to a pro­duc­tive and prof­itable 2016 – 2017 Fall/​Winter sea­son! I know…sounds weird to already be talk­ing about the cold months in August!