August. January. The weeks between public holidays. Every trade has its low season. And if you do not plan for it, it catches you out in the same way every year.
The problem with the low season is not simply that you bill less. Your fixed costs continue: rent, payroll, insurance, van leasing. If you do not have a buffer, every quiet month causes financial stress and hasty decisions.
Plan ahead instead of reacting
Look at your turnover for the past 2–3 years. Which are the quietest months? They are probably the same every year. If you know when they are, you can prepare.
Rule of thumb: set aside 10% of the turnover from good months to cover the bad months. If you bill €15,000 in a strong month, set aside €1,500. After 6 good months, you will have a €9,000 buffer that will see you through 2–3 quiet months without worry.
Strategies for quieter months
- Preventive maintenance. The low season for installations is the high season for servicing. Offer annual maintenance contracts to your existing customers. A boiler service in September, before the cold weather starts. An air-conditioning service in March, before the hot weather. These jobs are small but recurring and predictable.
- Jobs that are always put off. Every customer has that renovation or improvement they will "get round to one day". The low season is the time to call them. "Hello, I have availability at the moment and can offer you a good lead time. Would you like me to prepare a quote for X?" This is not a discount — it is availability.
- Team training. Use the time to take occupational risk prevention courses, learn about new regulations and gain certifications. Better now than when you are rushed off your feet.
- Internal organisation and maintenance. Check the vans, repair tools, update documents, clean the warehouse and renew insurance policies. Do everything that gets neglected when you are busy.
- Controlled diversification. If you are an electrician, could you also offer basic home automation? If you are a plumber, could you carry out heating checks? The point is not to do everything, but to broaden your offering slightly to cover more months.
- Active marketing. The quiet months are when you should be posting on social media, asking for reviews and contacting construction companies. When the high season returns, you want the telephone to be ringing.
What NOT to do
- Slash prices indiscriminately. It is tempting, but cutting your prices by 30% to get work teaches the customer that your normal price is "expensive". It is then very difficult to recover your margin.
- Lay people off and rehire every year. This destroys team morale and costs you talent. It is better to size your workforce for the average workload and use subcontractors for peaks.
- Take on projects outside your expertise. Desperation leads people to accept jobs outside their speciality. That is when accidents and botched jobs happen.