The Seasonal Profit Playbook for Trades Business Owners

In the trades industry, seasonality can wreak havoc on your operations and profitability. In this article, we break down the #1 strategy we use with highly seasonal trades clients to reduce the stress of winter slowdowns—without needing to constantly chase more winter jobs. Below, you’ll also learn the three core ways we implement this strategy so you can apply it to your own business.

The key isn’t just about finding more winter customers. That’s always important, but the real leverage comes from profiting significantly more in the summer so you don’t have to profit as much during the winter.

Summer leads are more plentiful and easier to close. In winter, leads are scarce, sales are harder, and your competitors have plenty of capacity to take jobs—making it a race to the bottom. Instead of playing that game, we focus on maximizing profits during summer when demand is high and you can price more aggressively. Think of how dinner menus at restaurants are often priced higher than lunch—same food, higher demand.

How to Profit More in Peak Season

To offset winter losses, your summer net profit margin should be ~25%. That allows you to weather net margins as low as 5% during winter, especially for seasonal trades like painting and landscaping.

There are three ways we boost gross profit per job:

1. Increase Prices (Strategically)
   Price increases are the simplest way to grow profits, but they carry risk. Instead of raising prices in small steps, we recommend starting at your highest justifiable price, then adjusting down if necessary. It’s easier to drop a price than to sell a high one—and clients love getting a “deal.”
2. Improve Operational Efficiency
   • Travel Efficiency: Schedule jobs in clusters and optimize your daily routes.
   • On-Site Efficiency: Standardize common tasks across jobs. Create repeatable processes so your team gets faster over time.
   • Material Costs: Negotiate with suppliers. Collect data on usage and pricing, then make the ask. Starting with 60% off can lead to surprising results—even 40% becomes reasonable by comparison. Better yet, team up with peers in your industry to negotiate as a group for bulk pricing.
3. Don’t Waste the Extra Money
   The biggest failure we see? Owners burn through profits made in peak season. To prevent this, calculate your winter payroll needs and build a financial reserve each summer to cover them. Don’t aim for zero profits—still strive to finish each year with strong margins, but avoid needing to lay off anyone in winter.

Run Lean Year-Round

Stay lean by avoiding “top-heavy” operations. Keep non-job site expenses minimal. Optimize advertising—don’t pay flat fees for poor results. Only work with performance-based vendors. For websites, find the best value—not the cheapest, not the flashiest. Every dollar must earn its place.

Conclusion

Dealing with seasonality is tough, but manageable. If your trades business earns over $400,000 a year and you’d like help implementing this strategy, we can help. We only get paid based on the results we find—once that money is in your bank.