Even if you love winter, there’s one thing about it everyone hates: potholes.

We can all relate to the teeth-chattering earthquake you experience if you accidentally drive over one of these things. This time of year, potholes are everywhere, thanks to the wet, freezing weather that also has us dressing in Eskimo suits.

The thing about potholes is you’ve just got to fix them.

In winter, potholes are so prevalent there’s no time to dwell on them. Road crews just have to patch the pothole and move on to the next, before the roads turn into completely unmanageable Swiss cheese. That’s how fast they’re opening up!

Patching isn’t a permanent fix, but that’s okay.

Once winter is over, and the onslaught of potholes lets up, PennDOT takes time for deeper analysis.

Come April, we’ll see road crews out mapping the roads that suffered the most damage and trying to determine what made those roads so vulnerable.

The crews didn’t have time for this deeper analysis when the potholes were opening up left and right, but now that it’s the off-season, they can scrape off that top layer of asphalt and assess the problem.

Then they can lay a new, better foundation.

During the next busy season, that road should experience fewer potholes.

Real estate agents and other professionals in seasonal industries can learn a lot from this.

Now through August, we agents are at our busiest. It’s pothole season, and when problems spring up, we’ve just got patch them and move on. Our businesses are at full tilt and demand our attention elsewhere.

But once pothole season is over, it’ll be time to assess the roads you had to patch the most.

Maybe your settlement process was rocky, because you experienced an upsurge in volume and suddenly your old system didn’t work anymore.

Maybe you got hit with a massive tax bill because you didn’t withhold enough of your grosses.

When these problems sprang up, you just had to fix them and move on. You were too busy to do anything else!

But don’t neglect to scrape off that top layer of asphalt once everything slows down.

During the slow season, it can be tempting just to take a deep breath and enjoy the rest.

But it’s essential to perform that deeper analysis. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for another rocky pothole season instead of implementing new systems that will work better.

Making the most of your off-season is how you can cruise, not crawl, through your busy season.

Repair the root issue so that when it matters most, you can fly down those busy roads at 70mph instead of rattling around with your flashers on.

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Matt Mittman and Eric Rehling are the owners of RE/MAX Ready in Conshohocken, PA. See articles from them about magic wands, perfecting your customers’ experience, good training, measuring profitability, routines, taking the right kinds of risks, real experience of being a real estate agent, communication styles, building an audience, and more.