The Slow Season Payroll Bridge: The Crew You Lay Off Costs More Than the Crew You Carry

The reflex math looks obvious: two techs × three months × $4,200 saved. But 40% of laid-off crew don't come back — each replacement costs $23,450 to recruit and ramp — and the ones who return restart rusty. The layoff quietly spends $21,160. Carrying the crew costs $8,200 net after their winter work and a full-speed spring opening. Carrying wins by $12,960, before counting what the crew remembers about how January was handled.

How it works

• The Trough Map — twelve months against your fixed-cost line. Five BURN months totaling $38,000, known in April — against $97,000 of fat-month surplus. The year affords its own winter; the question is whether anyone set the money aside on purpose
• The Carry-or-Layoff Math — both paths with everything on the invoice, plus the flip point: at $17,200 of winter margin, carrying the crew is FREE. That's about eleven maintenance contracts, sold in October
• The Bridge — the fat-month set-aside (automatic, starting with the FIRST fat month), the winter revenue menu, cut hours before people (a four-day winter keeps crews; a layoff keeps resumes circulating), the rehire-minded layoff if you must, and the LOC test: a line that funds every winter is a set-aside you're renting at 12% instead of owning at 0%

Built for

Landscapers · pool services · roofers · resort-town shops · every business whose year has a trough with your crew's name on it. Pairs with The Busy Season War Plan — this is the other half of the year.

What you get

One .xlsx file, four tabs, instant download. Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, LibreOffice. No macros, no subscription.