Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
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There is a lot in that, but 'crowd mentality' has always been dangerous throughout history! With regard to LJN, I think we gardeners are a pretty independent lot and like to make our own decisions - and not always for the best.
I have noticed though that when the old chestnut of pricing crops up, there is a theme of advising guys to 'keep their prices up' etc, often seemingly forgetting that there will be some who are desperate for work and the logical answer for them should be 'be flexible - any work is good work' - but that is my opinion and I am not often followed by a big crowd!
I find that one minute people ask for advice, then two seconds later they are now the experts and are preaching rather than advising (in some cases) to anyone that asks even a similar question to what they themselves asked days earlier, it makes me chuckle....
I've never been one to follow the crowds, I do what works for me, the fact that people may or may not like it is rather insignificant, unfortunately in life you will get those that preach one thing and do very differently in their own environment when no one is watching, it's as though they are trying to prove something to their peers, Just my opinion though.
Yep. Some oversell I guess - me i have an x Reg van and scruffy clothing. Model myself on Columbo. Nothing to prove to anyone apart from the kids!
Mmmmm...........velly interlestink!
There is a lot of misinformation on the internet. But I think there is also a lot of good info out there. One just has to look with open and critical eyes and mind.
As for the pricing discussions. I massively undercharged, because I live in a lower class area, at least I thought that because we keep being told that. There are maps and statistics tools on the internet telling me this. But its plain wrong. People here have money, just need to look whats parked in their drives, shiny new cars. Lots of services being offered and taken up, like monthly window cleaning (£20 for the front, £40 for the whole house, outside only), cleaning services, laundry services, dog walking, wheelie bin cleaning, drives power washing, an endless list, etc.
This site and its members opened my eyes, I raised my prices a couple of times, I changed my pricing structure to a mix depending on the customer and if I really want to take that customer/garden on or not. I WILL raise my prices again this year. I learned some hard lessons. Not everything that glitters is gold. ;-)