Seasonal business is a STRUGGLE… LETS TALK ABOUT IT!

[@markhannan6109]

I would reccomend getting into basement reno's. Painting,floor,drywall ect. Promote to you pool clients and it will start building steam.

[@ajdetri6795]

I think junk removal would be a good idea. Think of services people need . Nobody is thinking excavation when it’s 20 degrees out, but junk in a corner will make people want to get rid of things.

[@crowleypoolservices]

Thats not a bad idea we do have the dump truck and everything needed for that.

[@vitalej00]

My opinion I like the idea of possibly changing the name of your business to encompass more services. Obviously you will definitely still focus on pools . I'm an owner-operator of a landscape and snow removal business for 30 years. 20 employees in the landscape season and 40 to 50 employees in the winter. Snow can definitely be tough. I realize you are having trouble getting seasonal contracts and that may be due to the area you live in. I'm not sure. It would be good to try to mix some of those in for cash flow. Even if it possibly meant a lower profit margin. Due to the fact that the name of your company is Crowley pool, I do feel that it narrows your clientele to thinking that you only do pools. Unless you kicked up the marketing like you were talking about. You could also do something like Crowley outdoor services DBA Crowley pool. You say that snow is extremely profitable for you so I would possibly think of sticking with that. At least until you get older and it becomes more of a grind. I would add more outdoor services related to landscaping and generally enhancing your clients outdoor spaces. Even if you have friends in similar businesses there should be plenty of work to go around. Everyone will understand that you have to do what you have to do. You are extremely humble and modest from what I see on your videos. Can you possibly network with fellow business owners to bounce ideas off each other and learn from one another? Feel free to hit me up if you'd like to explore more. I am in the Midwest area. Near Chicago

[@crowleypoolservices]

Appreciate the advice I definetly am leaning towards changing the name and branding a bit so that we can get into the outdoor and landscape space a bit and keep pools as our main offering and snow during the winter. As the business is growing the winters are getting tougher and tougher to get thru with all the expenses so ideally we need something that can carry us thru or something we can do to extend the season later in the fall or earlier in the spring season. Thanks for the comment I appreciate it!

[@meadowviewlawncarellc8079]

You are already in the pool industry, do commercial pool maintenance. Trust me. Schools, ymca colleges clubs town pools ect. Big money in it. Service calls, filters plumbing ,maintenance contracts, chemical controllers and feeders. sell chemicals. Swim season for schools is now. Install diving boards starting blocks, tile plaster repair ect. Do that get some good accounts and then the only thing you’ll need to snowplow is your new shop. You won’t or need to plow anything else, if you’re lucky you won’t even wanna do residential pools anymore because it won’t be worth it. Trust me I watched it happen myself.

[@crowleypoolservices]

We have taken care of commercial pools in the past and it is something I never want to do again. There is too much liability and they require too much attention and just not worth our time. The pools that we did in the past required morning and nightly visits for chemical testing and we also needed to be on call For any needs. We also do not carry an active CPO license and the requirements and liability needed for commercial pools in my opinion is just too high and something I just do not ever want to deal with again we really do not have a background in tile work gunite pools which is why if you watch our channel all of the pools we work on are mostly vinyl liner and above ground pools that is our specialty. I’ve been in this industry for almost 20 years now there is plenty of money in residential pools. it’s just tougher for us as it’s a seasonal market.

[@meadowviewlawncarellc8079]

@ yeah there is a lot more liability and they do need a lot more attention and require being on call. I just figured with the pool knowledge it would be easier without having to invest in any other equipment or vehicles. If you plan on staying with residential, my next advice would be going to Hardscapes to go along with the pools that would help the income in season. Unless like you said you wanted to change the company and expand in a different direction. That’s gotta be something you wanna do tho. The off season not doing anything can have you thinking things you shouldn’t if you have nothing or no where you can do stuff everyday.

[@rws99l]

I've been in the landscape/snow business up around the merrimack valley going on 24 years now. We do similar size properties as you, 90% of my properties are seasonal with a bonus. If we get over 60" in a season that bonus gets triggered. That's the way I've always done it. Always extra work with the melt & re freezes ,skid steer work as well. I have one property that we have serviced for over 20 years. You might want to change up the name of the business to something like Property Service's. That might open up more doors for better snowplowing opportunities. Any bigger landscape jobs you could always refer to a friends business. Also it seems like their is a shortage of pool service companies up this way. This past season i must have had a dozen or so residential customers ask me if we do pools or know someone who services them.

[@crowleypoolservices]

The pool industry is small up here in the northeast and most of the companies in it are trying to only do installs and large scale projects which is why we stay so busy with service and repairs. I really think the name change and rebranding is the route we are going to go thanks for the feedback!

[@ryanlrules16]

I live not too far away from you, doing some minor construction projects, maybe some small concrete walkway repair for you seasonal accounts and stuff related to that, also maybe minor tree work (nothing crazy!) but stuff to keep busy could work

[@crowleypoolservices]

That’s exactly what we would like to do just don’t know if we need to rebrand the business to get those types of jobs. Very tough advertising that stuff when our name says we are a pool service.

[@ryanlrules16]

@@crowleypoolservices absolutely, seems like I would make some sense but also quite the undertaking

[@CalderonServicesLLC]

Great video man! Seasonal business can be hard. I run a concrete business here in WI. Even though we do well during our busy season. When it came to winter instead of waiting snow to fall. What i did was contact my old boss and i work for them building garages all winter long. Because the bills never stop and i as much i love relaxing with my daughters and wife. I go crazy just sitting around. haha Also, i thought about getting into epoxy flooring too or doing concrete countertop. Another important thing is making sure i can give my guys some hours because their unemployment don’t cover anything. Keep on trucking brotha! 💪🏽

[@crowleypoolservices]

Thanks man just followed your channel!

[@coreym.2627]

I live a few miles from your shop location. Im starting my 11th season of being a lawn care business owner (we do lawn maintenance, fertilization, mosquito control) this year and winter can definitely be tough. I been plowing since 2001 and have done very well over the years and obviously the last few years have been awful. With inflation and cost of everything being as bad as it is it’s getting bad. I’m able to stash enough away for the winter but like you said the bills don’t ever stop coming. In the past I’ve done junk removal, metal scrapping, log splitting and things like that to get by but without committing to it year round it’s too inconsistent to invest into it imo. My bread and butter is Turf management and I think there’s too many “companies” out there doing too many services. Basically jack of all trades and master of none. I’ve gained a bunch of clients over the years from those type companies that can’t satisfy their obligations because they are all over the place service wise. I know you guys are busy as hell during the warm season like I am and know exactly where you’re coming from. I’m currently going nuts having nothing to do in this cold with no snow 😂

[@crowleypoolservices]

Thanks for the comment, Im definitely torn because I don't want to spread ourselves to thin adding too many services like you said I completely agree. Just need to find something to carry us either later into the winter or another service to help stash more cash away. Ive been able to do it for 9 winters but as Im trying to grow the company the expanses are just getting more and more every year. This cold and snow pattern sucks! little bit coming tomorrow but nothing to get excited about

[@samjonhanson3906]

30 years in biz......get out of the snow business.......no money in it. IF you're hell bent on staying in snow business pick up seasonal accounts.....so you KNOW you'll have income each month. I will say this.......over my 30 years in the snow biz I felt that if I had a mix of about 75% seasonal and 25% per push worked well for me......took a lot of the stress off of things. But things now have gotten TOO expensive (commercial plowing insurance, payroll, repairs, cost of quality equipment/trucks etc etc).....and there's TOO many no names working for NOTHING!

[@bjgarbacz1]

Doesn't seem like you get a lot of snow then? We only do commercial snow here in NY and money is amazing insurance is creeping uo every year but.

[@crowleypoolservices]

Our insurance is insane that's another thing I didn't mention in the video but the cost of that is going up every year.

[@bjgarbacz1]

@@crowleypoolservices same here we are at like 25k a year

[@MatthewThornton-hk9rf]

Processing and delivering firewood could be some additional revenue in the winter months.

[@crowleypoolservices]

Honestly, that is something we have considered and I really thinking about definitely could be a little side hustle to make a few extra bucks

[@bjgarbacz1]

​@crowleypoolservices you already have the dump truck too

[@evanwalker8924]

Hey man great video ! Maybe consider doing some junk clean outs for some of your existing customer base, people like to purge their junk after the holidays.

[@justinparks3312]

Just had a great day plowing and right when I finished my last property power steering went out on my truck thank God I have a great mechanic but always something lol nothing wrong with adding grass will bring in a lot of landscaping and clean ups in general

[@crowleypoolservices]

Just don’t want to get in over our heads if we started getting into landscaping also have a lot of close friends that do that type of work so don’t want to take any work from them, but it’s definitely something we may consider in the future

[@jebthomas6074]

Flip house