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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It is difficult to give an answer regarding charges, as everyone's area/living requirements/outgoings are different. I would say that £17.50 is at the lower end of what you need to charge and you will get some here recommending you charge £30 and upward. However I would recommend that you consider offering annual contract pricing for regular maintenance and one off pricing for other jobs. What you charge per hour is then your business and not the customers, who can get very twitchy over rates.
Be realistic about your potential earnings over what you earn now. I would assume that a 'Head Gardener' would be on £20 - £25K. At £17.50 per hour, you would need to work solidly for 8 hours a day 220 days(which is a good guide, taking off weekends, bank holidays, holidays and 'wet days')per year to earn £30,800 and that is before any outgoings - just a thought.
I would try and avoid giving hourly rates out to customers.You need to use one internally to price up work but i would try and give fixed prices right from the outset. You will make much more money. You also should be using a higher hourly rate than £17.50 - you have been a head gardener at an estate for 20 years which makes you more qualified than most.
Good morning Tim.
I am in the same boat as you regarding taking on a new venture after working for others for 30 odd years, and am relishing the steep learning curve.
There is no set answer to hourly rates/priced jobs as there are so many variants ie. distances travelled/accessibility/waste left/carried away etc etc. but if I was only allowed one bit of advice to give, that would be to price any job on what YOU need from the it financially & not what the customer needs.
It is so tempting as a new business to under charge on a regular basis for cash flow purposes, but in effect all you are doing is, as my granddad would say, making a rod for your own back.
You want to be making a good reputation right from the get go, but not on the back of being one of the "cheapest in town" whilst providing the "best service in town".
I was also amazed at the overheads (not including taxes, NI & PLI) which quickly eat into what may be viewed as a good hourly rate.
I am sure there is not one member of LJN that hasn't taken a hit regarding under charging, me more than most, normally the job is done on a wet dreary day when the thought "why did I take this job on?" runs over and over in the mind, but this all adds to the learning curve and I am sure you will get the hang of it quickly.
I wish you all the very best in your new venture.
ps. I only have a small Astra van, which will be upgraded in time, but does the trick for now.
Firstly I would never charge by the hour always charge per visit for garden maintenance,I have a rough figure indeed to pull in per day to cover everything,try and avoid working wkends but have had to do a lot of Saturday's just to keep on top of the mad busy period
I would buy a van as getting a mower on and off a pick up 20 times a day will destroy your back,I can load 2 mowers in my citroen dispatch with a wooden ramp,got a tow bar fitted to pull a 10x5 trailer for those garden clearance jobs and the occasional turfing/decking/paving jobs
I wouldn't change my setup personally
But yeah go for it if it works out you won't ever look back
Great to hear you're taking the plunge and starting your own business! Good luck Tim!
I'm into my 3rd year now - before this I was a green keeper for 20 odd years, I love working for myself, every day is a school day and there is so much to learn and do.
It's hard starting out as projected figures on a spreadsheet seem meaningless... However if you don't know it's worth learning how to do a business plan
Your costs will probably end up a lot higher than you probably imagine. I try and do my costs as often as I can as it keeps me focused on how much money it actually takes to run my business... It's scary how fast they all add up.
These are only ball park figures....
And exclude a 100 different variables
Insurances i.e. - Public liability / van / tools £1000 per yearFuel
(Petrol / diesel ) = £1500
PPE - £500
Communications - mobile / internet / landline - £800
Advertising / web - £400
Accountant = £300
Then there is van / tools / servicing ect...
The costs are not long mounting up and £17.50 per hour isn't enough, you would be better off working in Tesco's in the dry than for that money after you take out the expenses.
£20 plus is now probably considered a standard, you have lots of experience there to sell, use that as your main focus point, aim for the silver surfers (over 50's).
There is a ton of threads on hour vs price per job, it's a general consensus that for the vast majority of cases priced jobs are the way to go. It lets you invest in buying the best tools to get the job done faster and better & the jobs get done to a higher standard. If you're on that hourly rate why would you invest in tools to get it done faster. That being said I can't remember any client asking me to do a job on an hourly rate...
I have a set price for jobs that take up to or around and hour and they are nearly twice the rate of my internal hourly rate as you can only do X amount of these in a day.
If you have build up a bit of a round as a side line to your 9-5; those clients will be hard to shift to the new rate and I would advise a soft approach until you have a full diary then increase the prices and if you lose a few it won't take that long to fill the diary with new higher paying clients.
I consider quoting and invoicing software an absolute must, it makes you look and feel professional and gives people the confidence in you, it also helps you keep on top of the costs. After my fist year I realised I wasn't charging enough and put my prices up 30%, lost a few clients but kept growing and haven't looked back.
Don't be afraid to charge plenty or the going rate (depending on your view point), if you have the skills and know how to back it up. There are plenty of clients out there that do not buy on price and there are definitely clients that will not buy from someone who is not charging enough.
Lastly, facebook is great to tell your family and friends that you are out on your own, however the leads that come from it are usually at the wrong end of the scale so don't waste to much time marketing yourself on there.
Some great advice about hourly rates here. Whenever costs are discussed there's never been anyone with expenses less that £5 or £6 per hour absolute minimum, and realistically usually more than that.
You need to include replacement costs as well as purchase price for tools, vehicle etc., which are often forgotten.
The vehicle depends on the work you do. As a one-man maintenance business I find a small van too compromised: I don't want the trailer on all the time for parking and theft reasons. Similarly, a open-back is insecure and hard to load a mower in and out of on your own. Most are too large as well.
My Hiace has just passed the MOT with only wiper blades and a bulb needed, at 170K miles and 13 years old. Tempting fate here, but that reliability is tough to find in anything else mid-sized and they are pretty cheap to buy. The LWB is nice to have: takes 2 mowers, all the tools and still room for a day's rubbish.
I fill the trailer each day until I need a dump trip, usually once a week at this time of year. That's another significant cost both in time and money, so worth calculating carefully and building in to rates.
I would strongly recommend this book:
Start and Run a Gardening Business by Paul Power
As a new member here I have found the forums invaluable for advice on all aspects of our profession, and especially the old chestnut about what we should be charging. I can only offer my advice which has been hard won over the last ten years in working in this industry, and I can't point out strongly enough that getting your charges right is probably the most important aspect of your business. I have found that on the whole the hourly rate is a death-knell of a gardening business and there are two avenues worth looking at; a good day rate for regulars, or priced jobs which tend to be one-offs. Looking at your experience you are in a very good position to get the plum regular day jobs which I call the bread and butter of the business and the one-offs which you can charge more for and make a bit extra.
Actual charges will always be discussed and where I live in Sussex the basic hourly rate is £15.00 an hour for most jobbing gardeners but an experienced, established landscaper charges anything up to £250.00 a day and upwards. If anyone questions my charges I point out I've got a good van full of quality machinery and tools, and access to more specialised tools if needed and fully insured; if they want to pay less there are enough guys around who will turn up on a bicycle. But a good rule of thumb which I learnt from my father is to work out your expenses and what you need to earn, and then add a third on, the same applies to all the one-jobs and it has always been a great piece of advice.