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Hi James
I don't wish to avert attention away from your question or this thread, but take a look at this previous thread too: http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/can-anyone-earn-a...
Maybe if you did a celebrities garden. I cut the hedge for a guy he used the same designer as Nigella Lawson. I think she was £150 an hour plus a final design cost.
Personally I think it's very hard to make a living from garden design.
The reality is, I think, that many garden designers have to offer garden maintenance or design and build, in order to make a living.
I recently conducted a Twitter experiment whereby I went to the start of my Twitter followers' feed. Read my post here: http://www.landscapejuice.com/2014/06/using-twitter-to-gauge-busine...
Perhaps not surprisingly, I found that many of my followers had either abandoned Twitter or - when clicking through to their websites - had apparently stopped trading. A great deal of these people were garden designers.
I have experience of your dilemma. The key to earning a living solely from design is the supply of leads. Websites, word of mouth, advertising, etc is not going to provide enough work unless you become one of the county's leading designers. You must align yourself with enough contacts who through their own professions demand your services. Principally these will be landscapers, developers, architects and the like.
This in itself is not easy although it does depend on your current network of contacts. There are networking organisations that can help (BNI and the like) but it will still be a long slog. Hitting the phone and speaking to local landscapers is an obvious option. Whatever you do though, you must have a network of people who can provide regular leads. These will provide regular income and support your other marketing efforts (websites, word of mouth etc).
Becoming a member of the society of garden designers and being thoroughly professional in your appearance is also important as it will show that this is a proper design company and you know what you are doing.
I know a well respected, experienced designer who has regular leads but he still supplements his income with completely separate work (he sells utilities contracts).
Hope I haven't put you off, I just think Phil is right, it's very difficult. It's a question of how much you want to do it and the sacrifices you are prepared to live with until established.
Regards neil
I have dealt with this issue in the past. I have always offered maintenance and soft landscaping to clients but found that this wasn't producing enough work to make the business viable. The feedback I received from the public was that they preferred someone who could see the project through to the end. Most people like the easy option and having to find someone to create the vision seen by a designer is to much hassle.
I also like creating the design as I can make sure its exactly what I envisaged and I have far greater control over any changes that may need to be made due to unforeseen site conditions.
I am lucky in that I employ my father and my brother and I know they are as committed to the project as I am.
The move to design and build has had a noticeable impact on the business and I wouldn't consider just design again. I live in a rural area though I suspect there are designers that would disagree and I cannot comment on whether an urban setting like London has a different impact on a business.
Personally, the designers I know of that make a true 'living' are very specialist. Get yourself a good PR company, and the world is your oyster...but it ain't cheap. A 3 metre by 3 metre stand at Chelsea will cost about £1000 AND you have to go through a 'process' to be accepted. Capability Brown wasn't the best designer, but he knew how to market himself!
As with all businesses, cash flow is always a problem with design as you can't generate income whilst you are sitting in your studio researching or drawing. Most small jobs just ain't worth it unless you can make a profit on the materials - even your wage building the thing is not good profit...So either you work out the true cost of your time and charge accordingly or you generate cash flow by getting your hands dirty.
That said, I stepped away from landscaping because it is a pain the posterior...
Hi Jamie,I have a lot of empathy for your post and felt the same one year into my business. I have been practicing as a designer for 5 years. The first two years were really hard with a lot of ups and downs and many moments where I thought it was never going to happen and maybe I should think about plan B years 3 -4 things started looking up and this year I have turned the corner and will not look back. At the beginning I took on some small gardens to maintain to earn some bread and butter whilst I built a reputation as a designer. This has been valuable experience to watch how gardens grow over time making me a better designer, I think your idea of gaining experience with construction would have the same effect for you. Hang in there,it will happen if you put a lot of effort in and don't give up and bear in mind that it takes most business at least 3 years to get established. There's some good advice here already, do plenty of networking find some good contactors. Every day is a learning curve and sometimes you have to flexible with your approach as every client is different. It takes a while to work out how you can maximise your earning potential from each project ,I am happy to chat with you sometime if you need any advice. Lisa
I think it is a good idea that some designers have to do some maintenance. That way they might realise what makes a garden manageable.
Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance said:
We've been a garden design company for 7 years. For the first 3 we operated as 'design and build', as the majority of the profit is in the build – split by your mark-up on materials, and labour charges. As we had no experience in this area at all we formed a partnership with a local landscaper. This worked well until we encountered a customer who refused to pay, and that opened our eyes to the problems caused by a lack of cash flow when operating a 'design and build' business.
Once we finally got the money from our client, which took 7 months and a trip to the small claims court, we decided to stick to what we were best at and go 'design only'. We worked out how many jobs we would need to do to earn as much money as we had been as a 'design and build' business, and set about making it happen. For us, we worked out we'd need 20 design jobs in the first year.
It worked - through a combination of word of mouth, advertising, social media and networking we hit our target in the first year. In the second year we exceeded our targets, and we are continuing in the same vein this year. Through networking we have made contact with a local architect, and we now get involved with designing gardens alongside the architect, working with the client.
BUT – to go back to the original question, we don't just make money on design. We make more money on installing the planting schemes, and also on regular maintenance of jobs we've put in. I think you have to – there is a lot of profit to be made in the buying and selling of plants, and to exploit this we set up our own nursery last year.
I wish the original poster good luck.
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