Creative Off-Season Ideas for Your Seasonal Business

Small business owners understand the challenge of bringing in customers. A lot of work goes into offering the right products and services, as well as marketing them.

So what do you do when your industry has an off-season? Hopefully your answer isn’t “board up shop until summer comes back.”

We put together a list of industry-specific ideas to keep your services rolling, even during the slow months. So whether you own a landscaping business in North Carolina or a pool-cleaning company in California, there’s plenty you can do to grow your business all year long.

General Off-Season Tips

Regardless of what industry you’re in, here are some general tips you can use to market your products or services during slow seasons:

1. Offer high-worth discounts and coupons for your services or early bookings.
2. Sell services or product bundles early for the following year.
3. Ramp up your online review efforts.
4. Dedicate time to getting referrals.
5. Temporarily change or add additional product/service offerings.
6. Host a contest and offer a free giveaway.

Customers respond strongly to sales, discounts, and free offers. Odds are, you’ve booked flights early or signed up before a deadline to get the best price available. Give people a deal they won’t want to miss out on...and they won’t!

Let’s explore some more specific marketing ideas for businesses with obvious off-peak months.

Landscaping

Landscaping is a lucrative industry during the summer, but is a difficult service to provide all year round. Depending on where you live, there are a few possibilities for off-season services:

1. Snow Removal Services

Offering snow removal services during the winter is almost a no-brainer. It’s a much-needed service that is easy to offer and can even be worked into long-term contracts with customers.

There’s little required when it comes to additional purchases, as landscapers will usually already have the tools for it—such as shovels and leaf-blowers, which can be used for lighter snow. While snow may be pretty, it’s not fun to move. People will pay a decent dollar to have it disappear, making this is a feasible and desirable landscaping add-on service.

2. Holiday Decorating

Depending on where your landscaping business is located, snow removal may not be necessary. But you don’t need snow to get into the holiday spirit. Another in-demand service offering for the winter season is holiday decorating.

Everyone loves admiring Christmas lights, but most people hate doing the legwork required for hanging them up around their own home each year. Consider offering services for light hanging and fixture installations—it could earn you hundreds in profit depending on the size of the property and level of extravagance.

3. Early Planting

While it’s true that spring brings the bloom, winter can be a great time to plant the seed for certain projects (pun intended). Foliage takes time to grow, so for certain plants and vegetation plans it’s beneficial to start the planting process in the winter so they can blossom in full effect come spring.

Meanwhile—if snow isn’t a legitimate issue for your area—you can continue offering certain maintenance tasks, such as removing weeds, adjusting sprinklers, fertilizing, and even moving outdoor furniture.

Pool Cleaning

Summers mean swimming, and swimming requires proper pool maintenance. So what should pool cleaning services do during the winter? Here are some creative and feasible ideas:

1. Winter Preparation

Just because people may not use their pool during the winter, doesn’t mean taking care of them is no longer required. A great off-season task for pool cleaning services is to offer winter preparation services.

This could include proper chemical balancing, pipe preparation, pool cover installations, draining or filling, and more. These services sell, and can easily be made available to both new and existing customers.

2. Maintenance for Other Areas of the Home

This idea falls into the category of temporarily changing a product service or offering.

If people don’t feel the need for their pool to be maintained during the winter, use your equipment to clean other areas of the home. This could include showers, spas, floors, or even windows. The possibilities for cleaning and maintenance are endless during the off-season!

3. Indoor Pools

The winter season is a great opportunity for pool cleaning companies to expand or begin their focus on commercial work. Plenty of cities have indoor aquatic complexes that require regular maintenance, and facilities will pay big money for it.

To secure a spot as your location’s go-to provider, you may consider offering an initial discount or valuable product offering if they choose to sign with your team. Indoor pools are a great way to stay in business—and inside—during slower, cold winter months.

Contractors

The peak season for construction projects is typically in the spring and summer. This is especially true for places that experience harsh winter weather.

So while a contractor may be able to accept work year-round in Southern California, those in Michigan may need some alternative ideas for inspiration. Here are a few:

1. Focus on Indoor Projects

Outdoor home renovations may be a no-go, but one off-season idea for contractors is to focus on indoor contracting projects. This may include room renovations, room additions and expansions, insulation work, basic fixture installations and updates, etc.

The market for indoor construction services is large, and you may find a lot of existing and new clients in need of these services.

2. Conduct Behind-the-Scenes Work

More often than not, construction projects are time-consuming, so the off-season serves as the perfect opportunity to take care of administrative tasks that may otherwise be forgotten.

During winter, it’s wise to have some desk time where you can:

• Get your finances in line.
• Order materials.
• Find ways to grow your business.
• Catch up on paperwork.
• Hire new employees.
• Plan out potential future projects.
• Update your licensing.

3. Expand Your Services

The need for a handyman will never cease—regardless of the season. Winter may be slow for large-scale construction work, but it won’t put a stop to the need for services like painting, fixture repairs and installations, flooring, appliance maintenance, and more.

If you have the skillset and capability to transition into a wider spectrum of handyman work during your slow season, the world of possibilities—and income—is endless. Just be sure to receive the appropriate licensing and paperwork for these respective projects.

Event Planning

Those who work in event planning are acutely familiar with the off-season struggle. You go from planning to hosting and execution, then right back to planning the next occasion. Depending on your exact line of work, you may be building your timeline around certain holidays, city events, or business functions.

Here are some other ideas to keep you busy in the interim:

1. Network

Gaining new clients for event planning is done largely in part by networking. The downtime between events may best be used for:

• Attending other events to get ideas and meet people.
• Starting a blog or establishing an online presence to collaborate with those in your field.
• Researching events in your area that you could assist with or sponsor.
• Seeking out conferences or conventions to attend.

Networking is crucial in nearly every industry, and it’s especially necessary for event planning. Consider using any of these networking tips to keep your business in-the-know and scaling during the off-season.

2. Host a Company Event

If you find your team with too much time between events, consider planning an internal gathering, such as a party, meeting, or conference.

The off-season for event planning companies often coincides with the off-season for hotels, so it may be relatively cheap to travel and host an event for your colleagues. This bodes well for team rapport, and can also serve as an additional networking or fundraising opportunity, if you decide to incorporate things like sponsors, raffles, or auctions.

Grow Your Business All Year Round

Whether your business strongly relies on seasonal customers or not, you should never stop building your company.

Year-round, you can do so by:

• Expanding your digital presence.
• Investing in quality payment options.
• Creating or perfecting your website.
• Gaining positive online reviews.

Be sure to reference GoSite’s resource page for more tips on how to easily scale your small business’s digital presence—even during the off-season.