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Before the busy season, confirm your crew, service every truck and tool, clean up your customer records and routes, test the phones, booking and payments, refresh your Business Profile and website, contact past customers, and check insurance, cash and supplier lead times. Start eight to ten weeks ahead and give every task an owner and a date.
Key takeaways
- Start eight to ten weeks before your first busy week, since hiring, parts and supplier orders take time.
- Give each item one named owner and a due date, or it will not happen.
- Test every customer-facing system yourself: call your own number, submit your own form, pay your own invoice.
- Contact past customers and update your listings before the rush, when you still have time to answer.
- Check insurance, licenses and cash early, because those are the problems that stop a season.
Many busy-season problems start in the weeks before it. A truck is down on the first hot day, the new hire starts a week late, the booking form sends leads to a dead inbox, or the line of credit takes a month to open. This checklist groups the work into five areas: people, trucks and equipment, systems, marketing and money. For each task it names who usually does it, when to do it and the common way it gets skipped. Pick a start date about eight to ten weeks before your first full week, print it, and assign every line. If you want the wider plan around it, read how to plan your busy season. For the calendar of campaigns that goes with it, see the seasonal marketing calendar.
1. Confirm who is coming back
Who: the owner, by phone, not group text. When: eight to ten weeks out. Ask every seasonal or part-time worker for a yes or no, a start date and the days they can work. Skipped because: owners assume last year's crew will return, then learn in week one that two found other jobs. Write down each answer and count the gap against your expected volume. That count tells you how many people to hire, and how soon.
2. Post openings before you need the people
Who: the owner or office manager. When: as soon as the gap is known. A good hire can take weeks to find, check and train. Write the ad around the actual work, the hours and the pay, as in our guide to writing a job ad for technicians. Skipped because: the posting feels premature in the cold months. Ask your current crew for referrals first, since they know who works hard.
3. Run training and a safety refresher
Who: the crew lead, with the owner present. When: the week before the first jobs, paid. Cover the equipment, the routes, how to talk to customers, photo and notes habits, and the safety basics for your trade. Our job site safety guide is a starting point, and your insurer or the relevant federal or state agency can tell you what applies to your work. Skipped because: training gets squeezed out by the first rush of calls. Train on a quiet day, not on a customer's property.
4. Check pay rates, timesheets and overtime setup
Who: the owner with whoever runs payroll. When: before the first paycheck. Confirm pay rates, how time is recorded, how overtime is handled and how new hires get set up. Rules differ by state, so read our general guides on overtime for field crews and timesheets and payroll, and ask your accountant about the rest. Skipped because: payroll is "set up from last year", and a seasonal worker's paperwork was never finished.
5. Update the driver list with your insurer
Who: the owner, with your insurance agent. When: before anyone drives a company vehicle. Send the names of new drivers and confirm what your commercial auto policy requires for them. Our guide to commercial auto insurance explains the basics. Skipped because: a new hire starts driving on day one and nobody tells the agent. The gap shows up only when there is a claim.
6. Service every truck and trailer
Who: the crew lead or fleet owner. When: six weeks out, so a bad part can arrive in time. Check fluids, tires, brakes, lights, hitches, safety chains, trailer bearings and registration dates. Keep a one-page record for each vehicle. Skipped because: a truck that started in October is assumed to start in April. Do a full test with a loaded trailer, not just a turn of the key.
7. Inventory tools and wear parts
Who: each crew lead for their own truck. When: five to six weeks out. Lay everything out, test it and list what needs replacing: blades, line, filters, hoses, nozzles, straps, gloves, ladders and PPE. Order spares for the parts that always fail first. Skipped because: a tool works on the shop floor and fails under load. Test equipment under real use, then tag anything unreliable and fix it before it goes on a job.
8. Place supplier orders early
Who: the owner or purchasing lead. When: as soon as you know expected volume. Call your suppliers for materials, chemicals, fuel accounts and trailers, and ask about lead times and the pickup rules. Confirm any account is open and in good standing. Skipped because: supplies are always available in the offseason, and then a popular item sells out in the first warm week. Keep the order list in your files so next year takes ten minutes.
9. Refresh uniforms, truck lettering and signs
Who: the office manager. When: six weeks out, since printing takes time. Order shirts, hats, name tags and door magnets or lettering with the correct phone number and web address. Skipped because: it seems cosmetic. Check that the number on every truck matches the number on the website and Business Profile, since mismatches can confuse customers and make your listings harder to match.
10. Clean up customer records and routes
Who: the office, with crew leads. When: four to six weeks out. Fix wrong addresses, merge duplicates, mark customers who moved or cancelled, and update gate codes, pet notes and billing details. Rebuild route days by area. Skipped because: the old list "mostly works" until a crew drives to a house that was sold. A CRM built for your routes keeps this up to date through the year, and our route optimization guide covers the planning side.
11. Rebuild recurring schedules and renewals
Who: the office manager. When: four weeks out. Generate the season's recurring visits, reconfirm start dates with each customer and mark who has renewed. Send renewal notices to anyone who has not. Skipped because: last year's schedule gets copied forward without checking, so cancelled accounts stay on the route and new accounts are missing. Spot-check ten random customers against the real schedule.
12. Test payments and autopay
Who: the owner, with a real card. When: three to four weeks out. Send yourself an invoice and pay it by link, then charge a card on file. Check that receipts reach the right email, that fees are set the way you intend, and that failed-payment messages go out. Our guide to card on file and autopay explains what to set up. Skipped because: a processor change or an expired agreement quietly breaks billing. You learn about it from the bank, weeks late.
13. Call your own number and test after-hours
Who: the owner, from a phone the system does not know. When: three weeks out. Call during business hours and again at night. Confirm the greeting, the hours, who gets forwarded calls and what a caller hears on a busy day. Review your phone answering habits. Skipped because: the setup was done years ago and nobody tests it. Update the greeting for the season, and if calls overflow, consider an AI receptionist to catch the extra.
14. Submit your own quote request
Who: someone who does not run the website. When: three weeks out. Fill out the quote form on a phone, then check where it lands, how fast the confirmation arrives and who sees it. Do the same for online booking. Skipped because: forms break silently when a plugin updates or an inbox changes. Time how long it takes your team to respond to the test, and decide the target you want to hit in the busy weeks.
15. Review prices, quote templates and policies
Who: the owner. When: before the first quote of the season. Compare your costs with last season, check minimums and trip charges, and update templates, the terms on your estimates and your cancellation or rain policy. Our price increase guide shows how to roll out changes. Skipped because: old numbers feel safe. Costs for fuel, labor and materials move, and the first quotes of the year set your margin for months.
16. Update your Business Profile
Who: the owner or office manager. When: four weeks out. Check hours, service areas, categories, phone number, website link and photos, and add recent job photos. Our Business Profile guide explains each field. Skipped because: the profile feels finished once it is verified. Holiday and seasonal hours drift, and customers who find the wrong hours may not call back.
17. Refresh the website for the season
Who: whoever manages the site. When: four weeks out. Remove last year's dates and deals, update the seasonal services at the top, swap in current job photos and make sure the phone number and quote button show on a phone. Skipped because: nobody owns the site after launch. Visit it on your phone, on mobile data, and read it as a customer would. Our website service covers builds that stay current.
18. Contact past customers before the rush
Who: the owner, from the CRM list. When: three to four weeks out, so you still have time to answer. Send a short email to everyone who has used you before, with your open dates and one clear way to book. Our win-back email templates have wording, and email must follow CAN-SPAM rules. Skipped because: the owner is busy getting the crew ready. Past customers already know your crew, so they are a sensible first list to contact.
19. Set a weekly review routine
Who: the office manager. When: before the first job, so it starts on day one. Decide who sends review requests after each job, who replies to new reviews, and when. Use the same request for every customer. Skipped because: in the rush, nobody has time, and a month of finished jobs goes unasked. Automate the send from job status, and keep ten minutes a week for replies.
20. Check insurance, licenses and cash
Who: the owner, with the agent, accountant and bank. When: eight weeks out, since a credit line or a license renewal can take weeks. Confirm policy dates and coverage limits, certificates your commercial customers ask for, and any trade or business licenses your state or town requires. Look at expected cash needs for payroll, fuel and materials before the first invoices are paid, as in our guide to cash flow for seasonal businesses. This is general information, not legal advice. Skipped because: the renewal letter was buried in the mail.
Where to start
With limited time, do these three first:
- Item 1, confirm the crew. Everything else depends on how many people you really have.
- Item 20, insurance, licenses and cash. These problems stop work outright, and they take the longest to fix.
- Items 13 and 14, test the phone and the form. A broken intake path wastes every dollar spent on marketing.
After that, work down the list by date. A system that holds your customers, schedules and payments in one place makes items 10 through 12 a ten-minute check instead of a weekend, which is the kind of system our custom CRM service builds.
Frequently asked questions
How early should I start a pre-season checklist?
Eight to ten weeks before your first full week of work. Hiring, parts, supplier orders and credit lines can each take several weeks, so start with the items that depend on other people.
Who should own the checklist?
One person, usually the owner or the office manager, with a named owner and a due date on every line. Shared ownership usually means no ownership.
Does this work for a business with one truck?
Yes. Skip the items about crews and fleets, and keep the ones on equipment, records, phones, payments, marketing and money. The same failures hit small companies, sometimes harder.
Should I run the same checklist before a slow season?
The structure carries over. Swap in the tasks for what slows down, such as winter equipment storage or the cash plan, and use the same owners and dates.
General information for service-business owners, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules vary by state; check with a qualified professional for your situation.