How to survive winter

This simple step will keep your business humming during winter

Pre-charging your customer has three major benefits:

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If you have been in the landscaping maintenance business for a few years, then you know that winter can be a daunting period: customers are much less interested in mowing, trimming, pruning or mulching their properties, while your employees and your rent still needs to be paid. The loss in cashflow may lead you to consider furloughing staff, or considering new money making opportunities such as snow removal or Christmas lighting.

We would encourage you to consider a simpler alternative: pre-charge your maintenance customer for the following year’s services. And offer a discount in order to incentivize your customers to pre-pay you.

Offering a discount in exchange for a commitment is a compelling way to boost your cashflow during the winter months.

Pre-charging your customer has three major benefits:

It smoothes your cash-flow over the course of a year. And that not only makes it easier to go through winter without drastically changing your habits, it also makes your business more attractive to external investors.
It increases customer loyalty: everyone likes a deal and customers will appreciate getting a discount in exchange for their commitment. And of course, once they have signed a contract, they are locked in for the year.
It frees your time to grow your business: you can spend more time during the year closing new customers rather than trying to re-sign your existing ones.

Rather than starting a new business line during the winter, pre-charging allows you to focus on finding new customers for your existing business lines.

Now you may think “this is not realistic, my customers are not going to pre-pay for their services”. We would encourage you to think again: this is a tactic that is used by many of the largest landscaping companies in the country to boost their cashflow during the winter season. And we also see some of our smallest customers pumping out proposals during the slow season, helping secure their revenue for the following year.

Many of the largest landscaping companies in the country boost their cashflow during the winter season by pre-charging their customers.

Businesses and individuals love a deal, and if they can save money by committing to services they are confident they will purchase anyway, many will gladly take you up on your offer. It smooths cashflow for you (and them), increases their loyalty and frees up your time to focus on growing your business next year.

Feb 12, 2025

How to survive winter

Pre-charging your customer has three major benefits:

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