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Industries That Are Not Affected By Seasonality

yyes

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Ive been reading a lot about the different industries that we could get into. Offline businesses seem to be a good idea since everyone is going after the sexy Online businesses.

However, there seems to be a big problem with Offline Businesses. That is the problem of Seasonality. I personally loved a lot of the ideas that were given out in the NOTABLE! - 100 Unsexy Business Ideas: Name as many as you can! thread.

However, I live in a State that gets heavy winters, so for 4 months of the year, I would be affected by this. Among the industries that caught my eye were :
  • Lawn Mowing/Landscaping
  • Exterior Painting
  • Tree Removal (This one I researched extensively in tree removal forums and they all say that margins are low. Dont know if I believe that lol)
  • Window Cleaning
  • Carpet Cleaning
  • Carpet Installation
The industries above all seem to be negatively affected by seasonality.

Are there any blue collar industries that are NOT affected by Seasonality? Or is that just the nature of blue collar work?
 
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YoungPadawan

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Ah, this is a battle I also struggle with (being a farmer). Just a super random idea: you could grow mushrooms (like Shiitake and Oyster) in a building year round, and sell to grocery stores and restaurants. Mushrooms are a high profit item ($6/lb wholesale $12lb retail, or so I read on the internet...), and you could grow them year round. And if you had wholesale accounts with restaurants and grocery stores, they will reorder over and over.

Also, I've seen where companies package lawnmowing/trimming services with winter snow removal service and people could pay per month or something.

Or you could import products that are used year round and supply them to businesses or consumers.
 

million$$$smile

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Home handyman services.

Especially if your demographic is an older population.

If I was't running a decent business already, I'd really have to consider starting a home handyman service.

I think the growth opportunities and scalability are good, providing one can find trustworthy, honest employees.

If I were to develop this biz, to hire employees, I think I would be looking for older, semi-retired individuals that needed to supplement their income themselves, able to be on call, and had a few tools, and 'lifetime repair/handyman experience'.

I'd likely pay them mileage, plus an hourly wage and if they needed replacement items for the repair, I'd have a local big box store account set up to acquire the parts.

Using older people lessens the chance of them wanting to strike out on their own and develop something similar. They just want to supplement their income and don't really have the desire to 'have the headache' of running something.

I think this is easily a year 'round business and could be quite profitable if run correctly.
 
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minivanman

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Most of the businesses that people say are 'seasonal' are only seasonal because people make them that way. I added carpet cleaning on to my house cleaning business for 3 years. I did my research and 100% were dead-set that January & February would be my dead months. People talked about taking vacations or not having work for their employees.... just any number of things. Keep in mind, I didn't market my carpet cleaning to my house cleaning customers. I do not like mixing businesses. Piss 1 person off with their carpet cleaning and there goes the every 2 week house cleaning. Anyway.... So I started marketing around the 1st of November.... guess what? 3 years in a row, January & February were my busiest months of the year. But how can that be so? The 'professionals' said I would be dead during those months. Yep, I'm not sure but I figure that's about the time I stopped listening to the 'professionals'.

I do agree that exterior painting probably would not be a great idea for winter.... so do exterior & interior. Window cleaning shouldn't slow down. Good window cleaners know how to clean windows in the cold. Tree removal.... maybe you mean stump removal? Yeah, the ground could be too frozen depending where you live.... plenty of limbs to cut during the winter. I don't understand.... why would carpet installation slow down? I'm not sure carpet installation is very big nowadays in any weather. Mowing/landscaping? The nature of the work might change but it would only slow down if the owner/marketer lets it. They always told me these certain times house cleaning will be slow... when kids get out of school, when kids go back to school, the first few weeks of the year, some holidays.... I don't remember a time we were ever slow unless I needed to slow things down to regroup.

I'll tell you one thing that I see money in and that is a moving company. On a normal basis, those guys talk and talk and talk about starting their own moving business, but come next year.... they are still working for someone else. Get a moving job, hire a couple of guys from Craigslist for the day, rent a truck and try it out. You might not make any money the first few days but you can see how it works. I see this as a very scalable business and it could be done FAST! Maybe I'm wrong.... I've never been involved with it...? Or, if done correctly, you can start a delivery type service. When someone buys something from a store or garage sale or flea market, you haul it for them. I'm in talks about doing this one right now but we can't come to an agreement on it. I'm not usually very flexible and he isn't either so it might be a long road.
 

yyes

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Most of the businesses that people say are 'seasonal' are only seasonal because people make them that way. I added carpet cleaning on to my house cleaning business for 3 years. I did my research and 100% were dead-set that January & February would be my dead months. People talked about taking vacations or not having work for their employees.... just any number of things. Keep in mind, I didn't market my carpet cleaning to my house cleaning customers. I do not like mixing businesses. Piss 1 person off with their carpet cleaning and there goes the every 2 week house cleaning. Anyway.... So I started marketing around the 1st of November.... guess what? 3 years in a row, January & February were my busiest months of the year. But how can that be so? The 'professionals' said I would be dead during those months. Yep, I'm not sure but I figure that's about the time I stopped listening to the 'professionals'.

I do agree that exterior painting probably would not be a great idea for winter.... so do exterior & interior. Window cleaning shouldn't slow down. Good window cleaners know how to clean windows in the cold. Tree removal.... maybe you mean stump removal? Yeah, the ground could be too frozen depending where you live.... plenty of limbs to cut during the winter. I don't understand.... why would carpet installation slow down? I'm not sure carpet installation is very big nowadays in any weather. Mowing/landscaping? The nature of the work might change but it would only slow down if the owner/marketer lets it. They always told me these certain times house cleaning will be slow... when kids get out of school, when kids go back to school, the first few weeks of the year, some holidays.... I don't remember a time we were ever slow unless I needed to slow things down to regroup.

I'll tell you one thing that I see money in and that is a moving company. On a normal basis, those guys talk and talk and talk about starting their own moving business, but come next year.... they are still working for someone else. Get a moving job, hire a couple of guys from Craigslist for the day, rent a truck and try it out. You might not make any money the first few days but you can see how it works. I see this as a very scalable business and it could be done FAST! Maybe I'm wrong.... I've never been involved with it...? Or, if done correctly, you can start a delivery type service. When someone buys something from a store or garage sale or flea market, you haul it for them. I'm in talks about doing this one right now but we can't come to an agreement on it. I'm not usually very flexible and he isn't either so it might be a long road.

Dang man, a lot of good information here. The moving business looks good but I am afraid that the margins are very low. I could start it off as a side hustle and see the results I get.
 

yyes

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Home handyman services.

Especially if your demographic is an older population.

If I was't running a decent business already, I'd really have to consider starting a home handyman service.

I think the growth opportunities and scalability are good, providing one can find trustworthy, honest employees.

If I were to develop this biz, to hire employees, I think I would be looking for older, semi-retired individuals that needed to supplement their income themselves, able to be on call, and had a few tools, and 'lifetime repair/handyman experience'.

I'd likely pay them mileage, plus an hourly wage and if they needed replacement items for the repair, I'd have a local big box store account set up to acquire the parts.

Using older people lessens the chance of them wanting to strike out on their own and develop something similar. They just want to supplement their income and don't really have the desire to 'have the headache' of running something.

I think this is easily a year 'round business and could be quite profitable if run correctly.

The only thing about a handyman business is that youre basically a jack of all trades, but master of none. So I can see this being very expensive because you either have to buy or rent tools depending on the job that needs to be done. But i can definitely see how older people might need a handyman.
 
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yyes

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Ah, this is a battle I also struggle with (being a farmer). Just a super random idea: you could grow mushrooms (like Shiitake and Oyster) in a building year round, and sell to grocery stores and restaurants. Mushrooms are a high profit item ($6/lb wholesale $12lb retail, or so I read on the internet...), and you could grow them year round. And if you had wholesale accounts with restaurants and grocery stores, they will reorder over and over.

Also, I've seen where companies package lawn-mowing/trimming services with winter snow removal service and people could pay per month or something.

Or you could import products that are used year round and supply them to businesses or consumers.
All great ideas. I especially like the lawn-mowing/trimming services but with a small twist.

Offering lawn-mowing services as a subscription model. Instead of charging per cut, I can charge a monthly fee of 160 dollars for a small yard (averages out to roughly $40 per cut), but I also provide free fertilizer, free sprinkler programming, and a guarantee that I will keep the lawn green or will replace dry spots with sod.

Or something along those lines.
 

ZCP

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childcare
trash collection
butcher
skating rink
baseball or basketball training (they go all year in this part of the country)
pizza joint
vending
 

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