Hi All,
Im after some advice from the wealth of experience on these forums.
I've been contacted by someone wanting maintenance in their large garden. The site is only 3 miles from my home but its humongous compared to anything i do. I only started self employed this year.
It must be a couple of acres or so. Consists of a lot of grass, which the client currently mows himself, and a huge pond congested with rushes, many shrub beds, lots of trees some of which he wants out over time. Initially he wants some to help bring all the beds and borders up to scratch, they are currently infested with weed/grass, need edging. It will take a a very long time just to work through the beds. Every time i thought id seen it all he would show me more! Ive attached a screen shot of the google earth view to give an idea of scale. Roughly 80% of this image is the garden.
Screenshot%202015-09-10%20at%2020.05.07.png
Thing is, how on earth do I price it? I try to avoid hourly rates, thanks to all the advice ive read on here, but i can only see this method as being the best way, at least initially. There is work here for at least a day per week for months! and then keeping on top of it will take lots of regular work.
Im interested to see how someone who maintains large gardens might go about pricing this?
Thanks
Matt.
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Replies
Hi matt,
This is that similar to something i took on this year I've been staring at the image for an eternity to check its not mine!
The trouble with fixed price on this is you will probably write a contract that states things like 'all lawn edges to be maintained to a neat standard' or ' all beds to be weed free'. However this is never going to happen in the first few months so you are almost obliged/forced to go down the hourly charge route. This means you can plod away at it, section by section until you get it to contractable standard, at which point you can introduce your contract with your measurable service standards. It might take 18 months or 2 years. The key though is to set your hourly rate high enough to cover the efficiencies you make in better equipment purchases etc.
Do the graft for 18 months, charge by the hour, invoice it monthly, itemise things like herbicide and any other materials but charge them as separate and on top of your labour. You'll know when the time is right to go to a fixed price but by that time you will be mega confident of how long it all takes and what the right price is.
Finally communicate from the start that you will begin on an hourly rate with a view to moving to a fixed price.
There are alternative methods to the above, i.e. get them on a fixed price from the beginning but lower or make the service criteria less specific, i.e, all beds to be weed free by end of year one. Each year you up the service criteria and adjust the price accordingly and in conjunction with the client. However some gardens are unquantifiable (particularly if neglected) and hourly rate fits best but don't let that rate back fire on you in 2 years time.
Hope it helps. Neil
With a large garden like that I would only go hourly. Large trees, hedges and pond would be charged at a higher rate.
Thanks for your replies Neil and Daniela.
Im happy you guys have suggested along the lines i was thinking, an hourly rate to begin with while making the client aware that down the line large jobs/ jobs with more skill will be priced in thier own right.
Neil... i hope it isn't your site either!
Thanks
Matt.
Another approach to this is treat it as loads of small jobs
Something I did years back with sites like this was to draw up a very basic plan, list all boarders 1 – 10 etc same with lawn areas if more than one and same with hedge rows and any other areas or items that appear in multiples on site
This will be your maintenance plan back bone.
Once you have this you can then write up a more itimised quote listing areas you know can be sorted in 1,2 or 3 day visits and put a fixed price on this.
You can then quote the customer for the first 12 months each section as a separate job leading to a review after 12 months or more where it would then be given a fixed monthly charge stating a weekly visit plan using the ground work above to itemise what will be planned for each visit.
This worked out well every time I did this and the customer was able to see the area slowly being claimed back from an over grown mess, only thing you need to remember is that once an area is cleared you will need to also keep ontop of it so again using the drawn plan you can start to work in a general maintenance plan around the big clearing jobs.
I would charge a one off price ( work out prices individually ) maybe try to do it over the winter period when works a bit more slack? Therefore getting it ready for next season. When any new weeds can sprayed off in the beds.
Also check for TPOs before any tree works is taken out.
My core business is made up of customers who have large gardens (several have gardens over 3 acres). My view is that the owner is looking for someone to manage the garden. The first thing is to establish is will this be a weekly job or fortnightly. Personally I would go for a day rate for general gardening work. I suspect at some point the owner might want you to mow the lawn using his mower (and fuel). Anything extra like tree felling and hedge cutting I would add on the cost if fuel and the use of your kit on top of your daily rate. I start at 8 and finish at 4 and I charge between £145 to £160 for the day plus any extra. To me a day in one gardening is a lot better financially as you are not rushing from one garden to the next. Also, crucially you are paid for your lunch break as well in the price (30 mins for lunch).