[mrusk]

What do you guys feel is a acceptable back log? I am starting to learn how long it acctually takes to get a large project off the ground. In most cases it seems to take a minimum of 3 months.

Right now i am booked out for atleast 2 months. People that are interested in small jobs do not want to wait.

But it seems like for the larger jobs you need to be out atleast 1 Quater or you could run into proablems.

What amount of backlog do you guys feel 'safe' with?

[Matt Kulp]

I guess it all depends on what you consider "larger jobs" to answer that question. If you are defining large jobs between 100-200k then I guess if you are out 4 or even 6 months then people are willing to wait. We are consistent at about 4-6 weeks for all of our crews, if we go over that then we either look at the possibility of expanding the crews or we start becoming a little more particular as to what we take on. I think it also depends on where your work is coming from. If you are getting your work from referrals, then the potential customer will be willing to wait until your schedule allows, if you are up against other contractors for the work your schedule may affect the decision to move forward with you.

[Lawn Lad]

For larger installations we may be several months out so we can free up our schedules to do it. Smaller installations we run about 4 to 6 week back log. For enhancement type work I try to run no more than about 2 weeks, people don't want to wait for the little stuff. For maintenance work bringing new customers in, we try to get them into the schedule in less than a week. We might have to address larger maintenance projects in several passes as we work it into the schedule, but we don't want them to wait or they will go elsewhere.