Slow and steady wins the race, right? While that may be true for the tortoise, drain cleaners more frequently work like the hare, racing from appointment to appointment.

However, when work does slow down, there’s no need to worry. In fact, it’s a great time to focus on maintenance and other tasks around the shop that often get put off. For many companies, having technicians work on maintenance or other shop cleanup may be preferable to offering unpaid days off.

Ti Sutherland owns Sutherland Plumbing in Aloha, Oregon, just outside Portland. He started the business on his own in 2013 and now has two employees.

“I entered the market at a steep incline in the economy and work,” Sutherland says. “For about nine months, I’ve been booking about a week out.”

But that does not mean he hasn’t seen slow days in previous positions. Sutherland’s been involved in the industry for 20 years.

“I’ve been doing this a lot of years, so I have perspective in a lot of economic climates,” he says, recalling that in 2009 — when he worked for a busy company with 10 technicians — business was slower. “Sometimes plumbers will complain when it’s busy, and sometimes they’ll complain that it’s slow.”

Sutherland recommends business owners plan ahead for the lean times. He also suggests that companies put techs to work on in-house projects that are often put off when customers are calling.

“There are always miscellaneous things that have to be done around the shop,” he says.

For Bill Howe Plumbing, a large plumbing, HVAC and restoration company in San Diego, slowdowns are rare.

“There’s no such thing as a slow day,” says Amber Baynard, human resources manager for Bill Howe, who claims a slow day is six hours on the road for each tech (they have about 60 on staff).

But Bill Howe cross-trains all its technicians, so if one of its divisions slows down, they can send a tech to a different division to help out. It’s a tactic the company has employed to help get work done across the board.

No matter what the economic climate, however, Sutherland recommends that companies and even techs individually plan ahead. Work hard when you can, and save for the unexpected down the road.

“I would tell any tradesman that the pendulum swings. It’s kind of human nature for one’s expenditures to meet one’s income,” he says.