Prepare a firewood business for winter

The rush is the one thing you can see coming.

In August the phone is quiet. Then the clocks go back, or the first frost lands, and it rings as if it had been saving up. To prepare a firewood business for winter, you do most of the work while it's still quiet.

This is a timeline for firewood business seasonal planning, from late summer to spring. There are no figures in it, because every yard's winter is different. It's what a sensible yard does, in the order it does it.

August: get the yard and the shop window ready.

August feels too early. That's the reason to do it.

Look at what is stacked, what is still drying or on its way in, and what sold out first last winter.
Settle your prices and write them in one place, so the website, the van and the phone all say the same thing.
Get the website and your Google listing ready, showing what you sell and where you deliver.
Write to last winter's regulars. A short note saying you're taking orders again is enough.
Decide your delivery areas and which days each one gets, so you aren't inventing them mid-call.

If you wonder when to start advertising firewood, late summer is a fair answer. The advertising guide has the how.

September: test it while nobody is waiting.

Place an order yourself from your phone, the way a customer would. Then ask a friend to do the same and tell you where they got stuck.

Test the ordering path from first click to confirmation, on a phone, on a wet afternoon.
Print what you'll need: run sheets, load sheets, blank order forms for the day the computer says no, and a decent supply of pens.
Line up helpers: who loads, who drives, who answers the phone, and who covers when someone is ill.

A test now is quick. Finding the broken form in the first cold week costs you customers.

The clocks change and the first frost arrives.

First frost orders don't trickle in. They arrive together, from people who were fine yesterday and are suddenly cold. Decide three things before it happens.

One place for orders. A call, a text and a web order all go on the same list, not in three notebooks.
A cut-off for each delivery day, so a call at five o'clock doesn't become tomorrow's emergency.
An honest wait. Work out how long the wait is, and say so.

People forgive a wait they were told about. They don't forgive silence. If you can't answer the phone while loading, let it go to voicemail with a message that gives the wait and says when you'll ring back.

The peak: the same day, over and over.

In the thick of it, the day settles into a rhythm. Keep it the same every day and it carries you.

Pool. Every order that has come in goes onto one list, grouped by area.
Run. Choose the area that gets the next delivery day and put its stops in a sensible order.
Load. The yard works from a sheet saying what goes on the wagon, product by product.
Drive. The driver goes with paper showing the stops, the access notes and what to collect.
Finish. When the driver is back, tick off what was delivered, note what wasn't and count the cash.

Keep customers told. A message the day before, saying roughly when you're coming, saves a lot of 'where are you' calls.

When a drop fails.

Nobody in, a locked gate, a lane too narrow for the wagon. It'll happen in the peak, so decide the rule now: ring, wait a moment, and leave the logs somewhere safe only if the customer agreed beforehand.

If you take them back, the order isn't lost. Put it at the front of its area for the next run, write down why it failed, and tell the customer the same day. 'Gate locked' and 'no answer' need different phone calls.

After the rush: write it down while you remember.

When it eases you'll want to forget the whole thing. Spend a quiet hour with a notebook first.

What ran out, and on which day.
Which areas were busiest, and which days they landed on.
Which customers need a note next year: the gate code, the dog, the 'ring first'.
What you'd change: the cut-off, the helper rota, the phone message.
Who to write to in August.

That page is next August's to-do list.

Where LogRun fits.

LogRun is built around that daily rhythm. Orders sit in the pool by area, a run is made from ticked orders, the yard gets a day sheet and a load sheet, and the driver gets a run sheet. Finishing a run sends anything not delivered back to the pool, and customers with an email are told their day while the rest go on a calls list.

It won't answer the phone, and customers don't choose their own delivery day. They say which weekdays they can't do and the office books the day.

Questions people ask.

How do I know how much stock to get in?

Nobody can give you a number that fits your yard. Look at what ran out first last winter and when, and write it down this time so next year is easier. Stock for the first cold weeks matters most.

Should I stop taking orders when I am full?

It's better to pause than to promise what you can't do. Either close the order book for a few days or tell people the real wait. A customer who knows the wait at the start is easier to look after than one who finds out on the day.

What do I say to someone who wants logs today?

Decide before the rush, so you aren't deciding with the phone in one hand. If you can't do same-day, say what you can do and when. A clear 'Thursday, and here is why' beats a vague 'we'll try'.

Do I need extra help for the rush?

Think in jobs rather than people: answering the phone, loading, driving and paperwork. The trouble comes when one person is doing all four. Even a friend on the phone for a couple of hours a day changes the week.

How do I stop every regular ordering in the same week?

You can't stop it, but you can soften it. Write to them while the weather is still mild. Some will order early because you asked, and every early order is one fewer call in the cold week.

How to prepare a firewood business for winter.