Forum

London Work

Morning, one of my clients has tasked me with finding someone to tank a lift shaft at a development in london. I know its not landscaping but i thought someone might know someone. As far as I'm aware it in wimbledon. The lift would be isolated for sa

Read more…

Know your rights with doorstep callers - Trading Standards campaign

Trading Standards are raising awareness of how to deal with Cold Callers by issuing bulletins, articles and door stickers.

Once such article from its TS Alerts ! bulletin  (aimed at Consumers) is show below & worth noting :

Know your rights with door

Read more…

How do self-employed get a mortgage?

From the Guardian:

"Changes in the mortgage market have made things even harder for freelancers whose income may well fluctuate month to month. In theory, self-employed workers should have access to the same mortgage deals as anyone else, provided th

Read more…

Marketing a landscaping or gardening business.

Hi Guys / Girls.

As some of you know, I'm a marketing consultant, and have been lurking here as I'm writing a book on the subject of marketing small service based businesses, and it's very useful for me to gauge the over-all level of marketing underst

Read more…

commercial contract tenders

Looking to add some commercial work next year.
Where do companies advertise their tenders?

Never known where to look.
Any help appreciated cheers Richard

Read more…

Painters...

We all talk for hours about doing quotes, pricing and all that other jazz...

I'm currently having some remedial work done to the outside of the house & have phoned/contacted 4 different painters, only one has turned up in the last 2 months and he woul

Read more…

Grit spreading and snow clearance

It's coming to winter thinking of ideas for work to do to gain income any other suggestions would be great

Read more…

NO JOB TOO SMALL ??

If you put this "No Job Too Small" in any of your advertising, you are really sending out the message that you will do anything for peanuts.

I would strongly advise that anyone that considers themselves to be a professional, never uses this term. It j

Read more…

Labourer/trainee

My business is growing well I'm getting busier and I could do with a hand clearing up and labouring. What's happening is my jobs are getting more involved hard scarping then impacting my maintenance work and being asked to do maintanace work.So I'm l

Read more…

Hello everyone: Introduction

Hi Everyone

Just thought I would introduce myself here on the forum.

To give you a bit of background, I have been working as a landscaper as part of a small team for the past eight years. I have now 'gone out alone' and am working just by myself.

What I

Read more…

Underpricing

I recently started working for myself following a 2 year college course, doing garden maintenance. I am developing a good name quite quickly, helped by my families popular nursery in the area I am working, but the course I completed never really taug

Read more…

Low price operators

Lowballers are people that charge customers low prices and try to copy everyone else in the business and think they can build up a good business charging competitive prices. The fact is that these people know nothing about business and how business f

Read more…

Impending Employee/Employer leglislation changes - key dates for 2014/2015

Useful table of Legal Updates from an HR Consultancy Company I subscribe to:

Proposed changes to employment law	Launch date
Flexible working The Government proposes to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees and remov

Read more…

cheaper than f.r jones & son

http://www.gmarb.co.uk/index.asp?function=CART&ECD=717&productid=

£15 cheaper on a 201t saw

will you match it Justin?

Read more…

National insurance tax break for firms employing under-21s

Many remember the Chancellor's announcement in last years budget of the 'Employment Allowance' which effectively saved £2000 in NI Contributions for small business employing staff  (discussed here on LJN), but how many remember the second announcemen

Read more…

Quoting work.. help!!

Hi all, after been made redundent from a private estate i have decided to take the lep and go on my own. I have my spraying tickets PA1, PA2 and PA6aw, i also have chainsaw crosscut and felling and NVQ level 2 in horticulture. I ran a large private g

Read more…

"what does the customer expect to pay to have this work done"?.

Adrian Noble started a post containing the above.

I have been doing this for 11 years !

and i consider myself a good? business person... :-/

ive always seen it from there point of view - not mine.

maybe it takes 'experience' and toughness to get over thi

Read more…

28% of estimates are below cost?

Yesterday I was researching profit margins in the "green industry" and was amazed to learn that the average landscaper/builder only makes one half of one percent profit, and that only 10% of people could understand a bank statement, and many less kne

Read more…

Public liability insurance

Hi need to renew my public liability and was wondering who most of you use, and also what you def make sure you get cover for, also it must cover my equipment not sure to have legal expense cover?? Any thoughts

Read more…

Top 6 Marketing Mistakes Landscapers Make

Great little article from GreenMark Consulting (who work with US landscapers, but from my read of their article absolutely applies over here):

As an owner, you probably know the importance of marketing your business. But what should you be doing — a

Read more…