Just lately i have been doing more and more gardens for people, not charging a lot just £10 per hour, but i am thinking of giving up my day job and setting up in business but what do i have to charge to get a decent living out of it. In my present job i earn over £500 per week. Would i charge per job or per hour. i have one commercial contract that takes me 4hrs to do and i charge them £250 but a domestic customer would balk at that hourly rate. So what would i have to charge to keep customers and keep a roof over my head.
I am self-employed gardener too...
Charging is always bit of trial and error thing..and often you just have to negotiate. Sometimes it means 'one off' or 'just now and then repeat jobs' have to pay more and do 'regulars' slightly cheaper as they will be those that pay your bills.
Then again...it could be other way round...and you end of lot of 'one offs'.
But truth is..just basic garden maintenance work don't pay huge amount..not unless you start specialize and get yourself bit of 'name'. Being 'wanted' man will allow you increase the charges.
Closest you get to your present job's wages is with commercial contracts..like you already mentioned..domestic households won't part with money..rarely so, and particularly this last year I have notice that even with lower end hourly pay, some cheeky buggers try to bargain even from that!
You just have to stick to your 'guns' or do negotiations, each and every customer individually. Richer they are less they are willing to part with money...!
Good luck in trying to more income than your expenditure.
I think that you may need to do a little marketing research in your area. You may need to see whether the service you can offer is needed/wanted and that sufficient customers will be able to pay the rate you need.
next see how much you need to live and how much you want to live (they should be different amounts). Then see how many hours you would have to work to attain those weekly/monthly needs/wants. You might need to consider delays in payment and non-payment by your customers as well as large expenses for replacement or new equipment. Don't forget to take into account expenses like travel, tax, NIC, insurance, private pension and waste disposal costs. There may be other potential costs. Also consider what will happen if you are sick.
best wishes
Bill
I do some gardens on a part time basis but also advertise my main business which is completely different. The gardens make up the shortfall of income but I could not live off it by any means. Personally I don't think there is much income from it and I am looking forward to the day when I can drop the gardens but for now they keep me afloat. Very hard work for little return in my opinion. I know one gardener who charges £30 per hour but hardly has any work. Others charge as little as £7. By the time you factor in tools, fuel for petrol powered equipment, travelling time, pricing the job in the first place and pricing the ones you don't get, the cost sharp rises before you even earn a penny.
Hard work and long hours. I was lucky I got into a niche market where I could name a price and they could take it or leave it. But most of my money came from supplying plants. Growing from scratch originally, then as I made contacts in the nursery trade, buying cheap and selling them on to customers. A poly tunnel and a lump of the garden was all that was needed. Then on wet or quiet days I could work in the nursery and 'store' up wages for another day. Talking to some old customers one day, they told me that they felt it was me interviewing them to see if I wanted to work for them instead of the other way around, and they used to go around the garden making sure everything was as it should be when they knew I was calling.
Pass on tips and experience to your customers, they will treat you as a friend and pass your name on.
Not self-employed gardener but used to earn extra money through at-home computer tuition. The two business types are similar in that many clients would start with a one-hour lesson to find out if you were any good and they felt comfortable with you and then book regular slots after that. Again hourly rates for this type varied hugely, as with gardening. I decided to aim at the top of the market as that was the only one that seemed to pay its way for me, taking into account travelling plus planning time before hand (which I imagine would be the same for you) - so a 1hr slot would easily take 3 - 4 hrs when adding in travel and this.
Another thing I found was many clients, who were mainly the 70yr-old+ widows, just wanted to talk with occasional odd jobs like changing light bulbs. Probably same with gardening - so social skills and maintenance need to be emphasised.
hi 5 rod here
kept the day job because your find little work in the winter, in the south grass cutters charges 15 pounds per hour.
but cutting stops in oct and only starts march, so long break if you get no other work and then you have the great British's weather rain rain and more rain. use the gardening work as a bonus .
I am not a self employed gardener but I do like to cover my costs where I can.
I have found a little niche market in our village where I can give my surplus plants to the village general store where he does the selling then we split the receipts.
Years ago I recall when you could call at the garden centres ( when they were garden centres and only sold stuff for gardens) or the village shop where you could go in and buy a score (20) of brassicas for around a couple of bob (10p) and you would take them home wrapped up in a piece of newspaper!
This facility does not seem to be around anymore, although you can buy them 'mail order' at a price!
This year demand was greater than supply and I could have easily sold twice as many as I had spare.
This morning I have just sown my winter greens ( Spring cabbage,Caulis and Purple sprouting etc) so I sowed a few extra this year with a view to trying to sell a few.
I would suggest if you have the facilities to grow your own plants( during slack periods) and plant them out for your customers, this might turn out to be a good selling point to get you started/ noticed!
I hope this gives you a few more ideas!
Best of luck in your venture....Tg
Look at the more prosperous households in your locality. Many will use a grounds maintenance company but also have need for a dependable person to assist with driving/security/facilities management cum man friday. This combined with what they currently are likely to pay for grounds would give you the income package you are used to. The practical man will always be in demand, especially with so many "high fliers "barely able to tie their own boot laces.
Cheers for the input folks, many things to consider, looks like i need to have a few commercials to see me through the lean times, i can put my hand to many things such as fencing and pond maintenance and the like so i will have to mull it over a wee bit more and let you all know what i have decided.
Quote from: hippydave on June 29, 2014, 22:30:19
Cheers for the input folks, many things to consider, looks like i need to have a few commercials to see me through the lean times, i can put my hand to many things such as fencing and pond maintenance and the like so i will have to mull it over a wee bit more and let you all know what i have decided.
Yep...if you going to do it ...you need to keep your 'net' wide open and be 'tinker of all trades'. My 'gardening services' umbrella in past have included pond maintenance, property maintenance, window cleaning, drive way maintenance, growing plants indoors and outdoors (that include veg and ornamentals), lawns, dry stone laying (can't call it exactly dry stone walls..but something that sort), tree planting and pruning, being 'plant doctor', house cleaner, putting up xmas décor for elderly, hanging baskets and other display containers, growing plants for sale/order, holiday care for gardens....etc...etc..
It is hard life being gardener.. winters particularly and none of us is getting any younger. Most important is....LOOK AFTER YOUR BODY!
Trust me...there is some totally 'bonkers' clients out there and they expect you to do miracles in all weathers..there is one 'rule' that I have always kept ..' I do my jobs as weather allows it!'. As long as you explain yourself explain all 'W's' ...why, when, etc.. most customers will understand you point of view..but there is always some that have no idea or understanding in them... :drunken_smilie:
Good luck and may gardening gods be with you.... :icon_thumleft:
Perhaps the new ruling coming out on flexi working can work to your advantage. Work at your regular job longer in the winter and less hours in the summer to get your garden firm established. Don't leave it to late in life, I worked for 30 years, mostly as a foreman gardener on the local authority, I paid the mortgage and raised the family and there was a regular wage going in my pocket. I always thought I would enjoy working for myself but was too comfortable to bother.
Then I got a kick up the backside when I was deemed unfit for work because of my knees and they chucked me out on the scrapheap and registered me as disabled. Sod that for a game of marbles! although I struggled, I got a few jobs gardening to keep me busy and it mushroomed from there. A chance meeting with a garden designer looking for help and next thing I knew I was working on all sorts of projects and earning telephone numbers. How I wished I had done this years ago.
Got new knees now and am sort of retired. But when somebody comes along waving pound notes in my face I still do a bit to keep fit.
Get out there and do it. Look for grants for small business's, tax breaks etc. You will never look back.
I have to agree about the plants. We have a guy who comes once a week to the local market. Very nice plants. Excellent quality. He is sold out by lunch time and disappears. But best of all he gives out advice on how to best grow them.
Garden Centre, what is a garden centre? Is it is a shopping arcade and cafe with a few seeds and overpriced plants out the back?
Well my resignation is written and from the end of next week i will be self employed, its quite daunting but im happier already, i have gained 2 great self employed gardeners to learn from so from tomorrow there is no going back.
Hello Hippydave.
Good luck with your new venture. If you hadn't made this choice you would always be thinking 'what if I had gone self employed'.
Regards
Bluecar
Best of luck in your new career :icon_cheers:
Quote from: hippydave on July 01, 2014, 20:43:50
Well my resignation is written and from the end of next week i will be self employed, its quite daunting but im happier already, i have gained 2 great self employed gardeners to learn from so from tomorrow there is no going back.
Talk about jumping in at the deep end! Wish you the very best of luck.
A good time to start, because people are getting ready for garden parties etc and want a bit of help getting their gardens looking good. Maybe have advertising cards displayed in the relevant shops? Most shops do a community noticeboard or similar. The local advertiser newspaper is another low cost way of letting people know what you can do for them. We get a lot of leaflets through the door too. No doubt you have lots of ideas of your own.
Well i have now finished, after working in a factory for 20 years i am now officially a self employed landscape gardener.
Good luck.