And with what type of work?
Our commercial and residential work is booked a few months out all year. Our regular schedule is set in February each year with limited openings for new customers.
If we get an opportunity for a new customer that we want to add in we will fit it in by doing overtime or delaying a prescheduled customer out further.
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Booked into December except for a week in June, July, August, and September. We set our schedule March1-3. Bout forty phone calls does it.
I like to save some time in the summer just in case a large job falls in my lap…
Mainly Commecial but a few remaining residential jobs we just can’t seem to shake from our schedule.
We operate similar to @jhans in that regard.
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Terrible weather. Booked out 3.5 weeks for pressure washing, gutter cleaning and moss treatment.
Think 1 window job on the schedule and she will cancel. Terrible weather for March, windows will pick up late and die later.
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to clarify: never want to lead someone down the wrong mental path.
We have holes everywhere. However, we’ll fill that time with educational items and maintenance.
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almost 2 weeks, 75% res 25% storefront
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That’s the way it ought to be done…
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If you focus on mainly commercial it’s quite easy to set out your schedule for the season early in the year. Just sit down and write it out. Fill the blanks as the season progresses. Crappy weather always screws your calender but somehow you just work through it. Takes me three days every year after taxes are finished to write it out and make all my yearly follow-up calls.
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This is a real good thread, I hope it gets traction here.
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1 day
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Last week.
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As of two weeks ago im booked 12 days a month from now to…
Currently work on the other 8 week days per month. That could be filled with one of 2 emails signatures.
Corporate chain work and mom and pop route work.
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I’ve only got a few jobs. I have a guy here that I FINALLY got to meet. I cleaned his blinds and his wife told me he literally books out his jobs a year in advance. Granted, his dad started the business in 1980, but his son is way more disciplined and set the current standards from what she told me. He starts at 7 AM with one guy and works until 5 or so. He schedules a year out at the end of every job. I’m sure a lot has to do with the long standing customer base, but man… wouldn’t it be nice to not have to reach for your phone throughout the day as an owner operator? I gave him about 100 cards so he can refer me around. Needless to say, he doesn’t need the work.
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0 days
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…but hopefully April’s EDDM campaign will change that!
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Here many of the people want to wait to weeks of the Easter, but of course we are busy already now.
But I’m certain I will make people disappointed when call they during the week of 15 and 16 and think we can come the day after 
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I am reading that some of you guys are booked out “months”… if assume route work is taking up a majority of your schedule. If you are getting new customers calling and you are turning them down or having to book them way out… its time to hire. My rule of thumb is once I am 2.5 weeks out, I start to hire the next guy. We are mainly residential and larger commercial with zero route work. I dont want my current crew raking up a ton of overtime and I dont want to give the opportunity for any outside competition to see a need to fill.
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Or, time to raise prices,
Or, they like it that way…
“One man’s meat…”
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The larger we get the more we spend on marketing, not only in dollars but as a percentage of revenue. We aim for 30% of every dollar we make to be spent on passive marketing. We doubled in size last year with this strategy.
We are never booked out more than 3 weeks.
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Looking at May with a few small spots to fill in March, but we are only working 3 days a week.
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