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• PRO

  Richard Gadsby June 29, 2017 at 8:02am

  I've found it a hard sell! Got a couple but would not take anymore. The ones I have were asked for as well!
  Loads on here do so it works for some.
  I'd rather have the money in my hands not waiting for Christmas and after to get paid for June!
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  Scott H June 29, 2017 at 9:15am

  Was busy until early Feb last winter, was my first so didn't know what to expect.

  Lots of border work, shrub pruning, bits of small tree pruning, veg plot preparation, couple of pre Christmas tidy ups etc.

  Most work came from exsting summer clients, very little new work until early March this year. 

  By March I was sick of the sight of borders and couldn't wait to get the mower out!
• PRO

  Andrew Watts June 29, 2017 at 9:31am

  Almost 40% of our customers pay monthly dd (lawn care) using gocardless. We find an easy option, plus many (25%) also pre-pay for a discount (4%).

  We take 2 weeks off at Xmas, and are now fully busy late autumn / winter with aerations and moss controls.When I was starting out, we also filled the gaps with ad-hoc work such as leaf clears, gutter tidy, patio cleans, small fencing jobs, border tidies. So lots to do over winter if you want to AND make the customer aware you're providing services.

  I would send out an email around October to all customers and the winter diary would be full within a couple of weeks quoting. Strong demand, as it was for small jobs that would be hard to find someone else to come and quote for and you are trusted.
  • 

    Lee Davis > Andrew Watts June 29, 2017 at 11:32am

    Some useful tips there Andrew. Sounds like you've got a good thing going there. So you're only off for two weeks over winter doing lawns then?
  • PRO

    Green Girl Garden Care > Andrew Watts June 30, 2017 at 7:27am

    What do you say in this email? I need to do something similar to get some winter work in the diary for my 2 employees. Thanks, Helen.
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  Lee Davis June 29, 2017 at 10:48am

  So do you guys still charge the same each visit even though the amount of work varies or charge by the hour? I was thinking if you have the schedule all set out to show what you will be doing each month and include short visits even in the middle of winter then it might not be such a hard sell. Especially if you add extra visits in the peak periods, say extra mows of the lawns in summer so they still get 52 or 26 visits in the year. A standing order makes it easy for them and means they aren't paying more in the busy periods. I could see younger people preferring that.
• PRO Supplier

  Progreen Weed Control June 29, 2017 at 10:56am

  Gritting for commercial customers can be a very good earner  - If you are not busy its great as automated call -out texts get sent at zero degrees celsius and if you have 4 or 5 sites you can be done pretty quickly....stick to walkways and pedestrian access and your kit requirements will be minimal...
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  Lee Davis June 29, 2017 at 11:29am

  Someone has just pointed out that she at least would never sign up for a standing order until a certain level of trust had been reached so looks like I'll be charging by the hour initially.
  • PRO

    Harry@VWGS > Lee Davis June 29, 2017 at 12:22pm

    Charge by the hour initially is fine, just make sure your hourly rate is a good one ... don't fall into the £20 per hour camp, start as you mean to go on with pricing..
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      Graham Taylor > Harry@VWGS June 29, 2017 at 7:25pm

      You seem a bit derogatory about £20 an hour!!  I make a comfortable living on that though admit I'll never be rich. I'm in quite an affluent area but round here, £20 is really the top anyone pays........... Its above the national average so can't complain.