Every contractor in the network knows the shape of the year. The phone rings off the hook from April to September, then the clocks go back, the ground goes soft, and the enquiries thin out. It happens to us too. The number of jobs coming through the marketplace follows the grass, and the grass is about to stop growing.
We'd rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. So here's what winter looks like from our side, what we're doing with it, and what it means for you.
Jobs will slow down. That's normal
Topping, harrowing, rolling, overseeding and most of the ground work that fills the summer simply isn't wanted between November and March. Customers aren't being slow or difficult. The work isn't there to do.
Some of it is, though, and it's worth knowing which:
- Hedge cutting. The cutting season runs until the end of February, and most of it happens now.
- Ditching and drainage. A blocked ditch shows itself in the first wet week. Mole ploughing wants the ground wet enough to seal and firm enough to drive on, which is a winter window in most places.
- Fencing. Posts go in easier in soft ground, and stock-fencing jobs come in all year.
- Land clearance, tree work and chipping. Scrub, brambles and overhanging trees are a winter job by tradition, and the sap is down.
- Hay and straw. Deliveries don't stop in winter. They go up. If you supply forage, tick it on your account and we'll send you every order in your range.
- Muck and trailer work. Yards still fill up.
If you do any of these and haven't ticked them on your account, that's the first thing to fix. We can only send you what you've told us you do.
What we're doing with the quiet months
A quiet season is the right time to build. We're putting the winter into the parts of the business that bring customers to the door, so that when the grass starts again the enquiries start with it.
Search. Every service we offer and every county we cover now has its own page, and we're writing the notes that answer the questions people type into Google in February when they're planning the spring: what topping costs, when to harrow, how to get fencing quotes. That work takes months to show in rankings, which is exactly why it has to be done now.
Paid advertising. We run campaigns for customers and for contractors, and we'll keep them running through the winter rather than switching them off and starting cold in March. The customers who find us in January book in April.
New kinds of work. Hay and straw, tractor hire for events, tree work and fencing are all newer to the marketplace than paddock care, and each one brings in people who've never used a contractor before. More doors in means more jobs out.
The product. Over the summer we added texts for new jobs, a reminder when a job you were sent is still short of prices, the option for customers to spread the cost of a job, and a premium membership that gives you first sight of jobs in your area at a lower commission. We'll keep going. Every change is aimed at one thing, which is turning an enquiry into a booked job faster.
What you can do now
Three things, none of them long:
- Check your account. Counties, services, base postcode. We send jobs by county and distance, and nothing you haven't ticked.
- Price the winter jobs that come your way. They're fewer, so each one matters more, and a contractor who priced jobs through the winter is the one customers remember in spring.
- Tell us what you've got capacity for. If you've bought a hedge cutter, a digger or a chipper, or taken on a second machine, tell us. We'd rather send you the work than guess.
Come the spring
We don't know the exact date the phone will start again. We do know what we'll have done by then: more pages ranking, more campaigns running, more kinds of customer finding us, and a network that's kept its details current. That's how a slow winter becomes a busy spring.
Thanks for being part of it. We'll see you on the other side of the frost.
