Forum

files and paperwork

I have spent the day blitzing my office, about time too! There is nearly ten years of files/folders and paperwork relating to projects undertaken, bursting out of cupboards, falling off shelves and piled up on the floor.How long do you keep this stuf

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Late payers & how to lose a client without causing upset

I have two clients who I do weekly maintenance for and invoice them monthly. They have increasingly become late payers and I end uo doing over a months work without having been paid for the last. Should I continue to work there if not been paid, alth

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Insurance for Trailers, Mini Diggers etc

Evening all.Can anyone recomend any insurance co's for insuring my Trailer and Mini Digger? Im not sure if my Ifor is covered whilst not being towed, so im looking for a policy that insures it against theft, damage etc - same with the digger.Thanks i

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When to make the step from sole trader to a limited company

Any advice would be great

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Getting rid of garden waste

How do you guys get rid of your waste from a job? Typically I use my customer's recyle bin, however recently I've been invloved in a number of quite big jobs where I've had 3 or 4 large bags of waste.Basically guys I'm looking for an environmentally

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How Many Clients

How many customers do you need for a profitable gardening round thanks

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Coping with legislation

i was wondering how people are coping with the ever changing legislation,or if people are even aware of certain legislation.

some of these new rules/laws will only affect companies that have more than a certain amount of employees,other legislation a

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wages

We would like to know what companies are paying their full time staff, for both labouring and supervising. We are a small landscaping/maintenance business with 2 full time employees who act as supervisors and 2 part time labourers.

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Do you have a cancellation clause?

Hi All,

Hope your all enjoying the good weather.

Im just tidying up my T&Cs and noticed i didnt have a cancellation clause. I would be interested to know if/how you others deal with cancellations?

Thanks

David

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EU to tighten pesticide controls

More aimed at the use of pesticides by farmers, but in light of recent comments about manure being contaminated, thought it might interest a few. BBC: EU to tighten pesticide controls "EU agriculture ministers have approved stricter controls on the u

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Finding Good Staff

Just wondering how you all find staff. We are down to my husband and 2 guys at the moment as our senior guy has just announced he is leaving tomorrow!!! aghhh. Oh well, maybe life wants us to slow down a bit....but I was thinking of advertising again

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Voluntary customer charter

I have created the first draft customer charter that can be downloaded. I am sure it is not exhaustive but never the less, it gives us the basis to move this forward. Because it has been produced with you in mind, it is important that you are complet

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Fixed quotes?

Hi All.

I always tended to try and offer the client a fixed price quote so they could budget ok.

However, i keep overrunning and incurring extra costs which im currently absorbing, but im wondering whether i need to actually offer fixed price jobs.

For

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Using associates/subs

I've been running my garden maintenance business for a year and am getting to the stage where I need additional help, any tips for approaching and using associates/subs 'v' employing help?

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Gardening chargeout rates and mindset management

You are all adding some great stuff and I can tell you that the feed back from members about the site, and members on other members, is so positive and I am delighted it is going so well. I would like to draw attention to this post from Phil Luscombe

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Small business advice - free downloads

I hope that you are find the resources here of great use. I intend to add to these resources over time as when I find the right one to promote. I do not have all the answers to the potential problems that your business my encounter, either as a start

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Get shot of under performing contracts

Let us assume that you have five separate contracts each week and that four of them are accurate when it comes to the charge out rate.

The fifth one however only covers one fifth (20%) of your yearly cost (assuming it is a day a week for the year).

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Try this simple hourly rate test

Establishing what is the right rate to charge yourself out at is the tricky bit and nobody will get it 100% correct -but how do you know where to start?

Below is an example of how a one man band should approach setting a charge out rate.

My first con

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Treating your travel as a cost of landscape sales

Imagine quoting for two separate jobs? One job is located just 2 miles from your operating base and the other job is located 30 miles away.

For the sake of this exercise, let's say that both landscaping projects are exactly the same specification.

H

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It is never too early to seek advice

This is probably the hardest time for garden companies since the early 90's when a bleak recession gripped the United Kingdom. Many businesses ceased trading as work dried up and competition cut margins to negative figures. We are now very close to e

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