Winter Months Are The Time to Restock and Reevaluate

Many in the cleaning industry are either taking time off or have slowed down so there is more time to get things done that can be overlooked during the busier times of your year. Here is a list of things you might want to look at during these slow Winter months.

• Check all your PPE and make sure you have enough, including having backups. Out on a job when something breaks is not the time to realize you do not have another and may not be able to get a replacement immediately.
• That all PPE are in working order, ordering these items that you need while companies have sufficient inventory. Later in the year, there may be shortages and you are not able to get an item right away or have to pay more for it where you can get it to have it.
• Check and restock your first aid kits, spill kits, and parts box for your equipment including tools and needed supplies. Again out on a job is not the time to have a hose bust and have to stop work to go get one.
• Work on your website, check on your links to be sure they are working, and read each page to be sure that there are no changes you need to make. Add more content. Content is what drives people to your site, update and add often with proper tags.
• Check your website analytics to see where visitors are coming from, and think about ways to improve and increase that traffic. Knowing that you are not getting the most traffic from the area you are spending the most on can allow you to reallocate time and funds.
• Work on all your social media content and connections, you might add a new stream if you are not already using all of the ones your customers are. I never tried Pinterest or LinkedIn, but now may be time to try one.
• Go over last year’s and set up this year’s budget; equipment, advertising, supplies, and mandatory expenses. Spending too much on equipment repairs, maybe time to invest in new or increase spending on preventative maintenance, like oil changes.
• Check all monthly expenses to see where you might be able to save; insurance, utilities including phones, etc. Do not just accept yearly price increases to your expenses, price shop each year.
• Make an advertising calendar not just for the expenditures but for what and when you want to make social media posts. Set up and use a program like Hootsuite to do this.
• Go over or start a referral program. Using current customers to find new ones can save you up to 75% of the cost of new customer acquisitions by other means.

Let us know in the comments what besides these we listed that you do in the slower months to make your business more productive during the rest of the year.