When the sun is shining and the grass is growing, there is no shortage of lawn care work. However, what happens when winter arrives and the green carpets of grass have turned gray? The best landscapers get creative and branch out into other areas of work to continue making a living.
In this article, we’ll look at 7 winter jobs for lawn care businesses:
1. Clean out gutters and pressure washing
After a long season of leaves falling from the trees, many homeowners will find their gutters clogged and in need of a deep cleaning. This can be a labor-intensive job, so many will call on their landscapers to do a thorough gutter cleaning and pressure washing.
As with most jobs, landscapers can get more work as the cold weather approaches at the end of the fall season. Many homeowners plan to do this work themselves, and later find the job is more complicated than expected.
Landscaping companies will often offer pressure washing of decks, roofs, patios, porches and fences. As a landscaper, you can even expand your services to include driveways and sidewalks. A good pressure washing machine should cost about $200, and you can easily earn that back in one or two jobs.
2. Christmas light installation and removal
You have all of the equipment and the manpower, why not make some extra cash installing Christmas lights?
Many homeowners love the idea of a dramatic light display, but don’t have the ability or equipment to do it themselves. Holiday lighting is a profitable venture, and most installation jobs can net you up to $1,000 per house, depending on the size and complexity of the job.
Some landscaping companies even offer to store the customer’s lights until next year for a fee.
You will need to consider your insurance coverage when offering to install Christmas lights. Because you will have workers on roofs and ladders the majority of the time, you may need to add a rider to your insurance policy that covers accidents.
You will also need coverage in case you blow a circuit in a client’s home. Despite this added need for insurance coverage, installing holiday lights and removing them is a good money maker for a lawn care business in the winter.
3. Christmas tree installation
In addition to Christmas light installation, you can also offer Christmas tree installation services.
Many office buildings and apartment complexes feature a large Christmas tree in the lobby during the holiday season. You can find extra work by purchasing, transporting and installing this tree.
In many cases, office buildings and apartment complexes will hire a separate designer to do the decorating, but your company can handle the tree delivery and removal.
In most major cities, there is no shortage of work for companies that can install Christmas trees.
4. Leaf removal
While you might already provide leaf removal services in the fall, some customers might still have piles of leaves that they haven’t disposed of in winter, and they don’t want to deal with them once snow starts falling.
Other people forgo landscaping services with the plans to remove the leaves themselves, only to find that they have grown too busy to complete the task. With leaf removal services, you can service the same customers again and again. You can even combine this with gutter cleaning to earn extra money per job.
5. Yard winterizing
At the end of the fall season, yard winterizing is one of the best winter jobs for lawn care business owners.
You can help your customers get ready for winter by:
- Trimming shrubs and trees
- Wrapping young trees in burlap
- Removing dead plants from planters and flower beds
- Fertilizing the lawn
- Planting bulbs in advance of the spring growing season.
Some landscapers aerate and dethatch the lawn in preparation for winter. You can also offer to store heavy furniture like grills, lawn chairs, and patio tables for your senior or disabled customers.
You also should adjust the settings on your customers’ sprinkler systems to the appropriate frequency for winter months.
6. Snow removal
Snow removal is usually the most popular service when it comes to winter lawn care business ideas.
Many customers will need their snow shoveled on a regular basis in areas like the Northeast that receive many days of heavy snowfall each season.
You can earn money shoveling out driveways and removing snow from cars before customers leave for work.
Many landscaping companies secure contracts to shovel snow for small businesses and corporate office parks.
There are also many private homeowners and businesses that will need your services, so it pays to start offering snow shoveling before the first snowflakes fall.
7. Window cleaning
Most landscapers don’t think of themselves as window cleaners, but often the two services go hand in hand. Instead of hiring two different companies, homeowners can hire one company to handle both jobs.
You can use some of your same equipment to complete window cleaning for your existing clients. Your company will only need to invest in some additional cleaning tools to profit from a thriving winter business of window cleaning.
The off-season is the perfect time to train your crew.
Training and hiring
The off-season is the perfect time to train your crew for the upcoming spring and summer seasons. If there are new trends in landscaping, now is the time to start researching them and training your team members so that they are ready to go by spring.
If you are planning to purchase new equipment, start testing it out and working through any bugs before you need it. Many landscape business owners attend trade shows, conferences, and industry events during the winter months.
Winter jobs for lawn care pros? There are so many options
When it comes to finding the best winter lawn care business ideas, the sky’s the limit. Many landscape companies will install Christmas lights in addition to shoveling snow and salting driveways.
Some other great winter jobs for lawn care business include pressure washing, cleaning gutters and winterizing yards. No matter what jobs you can find for your lawn care business in the winter, you can rest assured that your customers will come to you year after year for all of their home care needs, regardless of the season.
Main Photo Credit: kozmoat98 | Canva Pro | License
