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.
Replies
I am in the same position with employing someone, i think it depend on the volume of work you can do by yourself without burning out, if the volume exede's what you can complete on time then you only have one option that is, employ someone but on what basis depends on how much extra work you have, i am currently waiting on a new contract to come through meaning i would be full 8-5 5 days a week garden maintenance jobs, weekends of for family and evenings for paperwork, meaning i have no time for one off's or hard landscaping jobs which i get regularly, my only idea for the landscaping is to either employ someone full time just to carry out the landscaping jobs and simply gather and organize his jobs in the evening or sub contract the work out and gain a % of profit for me ? as for more maintenance jobs i will continue to grow as i cant resist an opportunity for more work which would take in one of two directions, employ a second worker, he would work with me doubling the work output so taking on more jobs or employ another team to cover the exess jobs plus 1/3 of my jobs then build up both job list for both me and the 2nd team.
So, I got some help already this year, even if I don't earn a lot more initially, at least I'll be doing less hours.
It's a hard one to call, who would have thought spring would have been so late this year?
Darren
its a very difficult call. took on an extra guy for the summer and kept him on too long during teh winter a few years ago, bad mistake.
had a bad illness two years ago and took on two extra guys to covr, but didnt work out too well.
last year kept it to just teh three of us and we did ok.
this year ive taken on a lot more work and ive already gone past saturation point, but ive got things set up differently. My two guys are more able and willing to do more overtime, and ive taken a guy on, on a rolling contract during the summer and i will know when to stop it this time round.
It really is a balancing act, as said its easy to become a busy fool, running around making no money and paying others wages. Theres always teh extra expenses to take on board as well, such as employers ni, insurance cover, uniform, tools etc. STill looking for teh answer i suppose!
What month would you say end of season is Nov ?
Thermo said:
I did a days garden tidy including cutting the lawn for a brand new customer on 23rd December last year!
If you are working 60+ hours a week & you are still falling behind with work, phone is still ringing with work and you are letting clients down,invoicing late, paper work all over the place start assessing were you are heading?
Heart attack?
Divorce courts?
Unreliable tradesman category?
Or the time to find a helping hand department
I was running at full capacity, took on an apprentice, life is so much better, with the work I have picked up this year I would have been in Dickie's meadow without help .
Lawn lover said:
I've never heard of Dickie's meadow but I'm guessing I wouldn't want to be there? : )
The first question you really need to ask yourself is "do you want to work in or on the business?"
What could or would you do if you had another pair of hands?
As we all know, the silly season is about to start if it hasn't already, and we all need to have resources in place to handle the volume of work. Only you can gauge how this season will pan out, if you want to error on the side of caution then start with someone for 2 to 3 days a week with a view of going full time.
Regardless of their hours worked, its the quality of your staff that will make or break you.
One thing I did when I was at the same point as you are in now, was to quote slightly higher on contracts to factor in "management time". This way you have a little bit of a cushion to cover your additional back office expenses without hitting the bottom line too much.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next