Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
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Emily,
I can’t speak for BALI but I can offer some words on both the APL and Marshalls.
The material benefits that you’ll get from the APL are:
• Access to some very comprehensive material to help you run your business. This includes a huge document on ‘Employing people’ that I used to set up all my systems 6 years ago, plus everything from post contract survey templates through Best Practice Guides, a complaints and resolution procedure, health and safety updates, contract templates and inspection criteria. A quick count shows over 80 separate items in the members resources area on the website (although some are newsletters, logo templates and the like.)
• A set of criteria to show your prospective clients. ALL APL members go through a fairly rigorous annual vetting process that makes sure they have everything in place that makes them both legal and professional. This process is often good for members to brush up on areas that have lapsed. I failed this year’s inspection because my first aider had left the company and I’d forgotten to get somebody else on a course. I was given a short period of time to rectify and prove the fact and only then did I get my certificate.
• Opportunity to enter the annual awards – if your work is good enough this is another opportunity to win something and market yourself afterwards. We’ve won 3 APL awards in the past and have received good publicity locally for all of them.
• Access to the cluster groups. This is one of the most valuable benefits in my mind. The opportunity to socialise with fellow landscapers can bring huge benefits. Like LJN, some members are willing to impart hard won wisdom that can’t be bought. Unlike LJN you get the chance to regularly sit down with these guys and really go into the issues that are facing your business. And in turn it’s hoped that you will also offer help and advice where and when you can. I’ve made some good friends through the cluster group in the last year and I travel 1 ½ hours to get to mine!
• As an APL member you are an automatic member of Trademark. ‘Whoopie-dooh’s ‘ I hear you say but actually the power of saying to a client that their your work is covered by the Governments trademark scheme which includes insuring the deposit (so giving the client confidence to hand over one in the first place.) I never used to push trademark in my marketing but I certainly do now.
• On the APL website you’ll get a company profile which can lead to enquiries (I average a couple a year). The website has been a cause for complaint amongst members and this is currently being actively looked at.
• There are networking and professional development opportunities throughout the year.
• You get a free legal advice line. This I have used several times mainly on employment issues but once when a client was slow in paying. Reassuring to know it’s there.
There will be more but it’s gone 9pm and I can’t think of them. In my experience if you join the APL and then sit back and do nothing you’ll end up frustrated and calling it a waste of money. If you get off your arse and actually use everything that’s on offer its phenomenal value for money and will move your business forwards.
Marshalls.
I’ve been on the scheme for a year after talking at length to Mick Gammage about it. Mick was glowing in his praise for the scheme and when somebody as good as him gives you the green light then you take notice. Trust me.
With Marshalls you’ll get the following and more (in no order):
• More sales literature than you can shake a stick at.
• Installation guides.
• Free courses on installation and sales and marketing.
• Back up from the field teams who will want to drop in on your work regularly to make sure you’re keeping up to scratch. If you want a s ample they’ll get one to you, if you want Advice on a specific installation they’ll visit your site to help out.
• A points for cash system when you purchase Marshalls products. I know a landscaper who redeems more than his membership fee this way.
• A national awards scheme that gives a brand new pick-up as first prize!!
• You get on their website as an approved installer – I had 8 enquiries from this in 2012.
And the list goes on. The mistake that people often make is confusing the APL and Marshalls and saying ‘one or the other’. In truth Marshalls is one of the biggest players in the hard landscaping products sector and sees the installers as their best salesmen. And they’re right. The average spend per installer last year was truly astonishing and shows why Marshalls put so much time, effort and money into the scheme. At the end of the day you are a way for them to make money. By creaming off the best installers their products get showcased in the best light and by encouraging and helping the installers they get to sell product. By the bucket load.
The APL on the other hand are not really there to make you money, although that is an inevitable consequence of ‘upping your game’. As much as anything they are a helping hand with all aspects of your business. They give you the tools you need to operate successfully while staying within the law and latest regulations, they give you the opportunity to market yourself as somebody who has passed a rigorous inspection test, they give you the opportunity to network with and be inspired by people who are proven winners in the landscaping sector. They are about being as professional as possible and take pride in promoting the industry.
Finally I should disclose that I am an APL committee member. However the above thoughts are based on 6 years of membership not 2 minutes on the committee so they are objective.
Hope this helps!
All best,
Dave
"As an APL member you are an automatic member of Trademark."
I think you mean Trustmark Dave?
It's not clear, from the wording on the APL website, whether every APL member is Trustmark accredited. I was under the impression that this was an extra at a contractor's discretion?
In the Google search results cache it says this "The majority of our members [APL] are TrustMark registered"
On the current version of the APL website it says:
"When you employ an APL member displaying the TrustMark logo you know that they have been independently inspected and have met the required Government endorsed criteria outlined above."
Perhaps you can clarify this Dave?
Yes happy to. I apologise for the typo - it was rather late last night when I banged that response out.
Here's what the APL website actually says:
Trustmark accreditation is awarded, at no extra cost, to all APL members meeting the strict criteria. The APL is the only landscape organisation approved as a scheme operator for the Trustmark scheme.
So if you want to offer a Trustmark backed guarantee you can. This isn't free - a cost is incurred as in any insurance scheme and you can choose whether to put this into your quote or offer it as a seperate add on to your client. I usually include it in the quote (averages about £40 so nothing onorous.)
Marshalls also offer a guarantee on their product and service which is well worth looking at. Again it aint free but the cost is again put onto the client.
"Trustmark accreditation is awarded, at no extra cost, to all APL members meeting the strict criteria."
I've always been perplexed by the wording of this. Surely all APL members meet the criteria?
It says (to me at least) that some members meet the APL standards but might not reach Trustmark's higher standards?
Well it doesn't say that to me so we'll have to beg to differ on that one! Anyway it's not my intention to open another nit-picking session of the APL. Let's stick with the thread shall we?
I'd prefer to keep the conversation on a professional basis. My questioning is important and I believe falls well within the spirit of the thread and the questions Emily asked.
I've spent the last 20 mins clicking through members' sites on the APL website and a very high proportion are not displaying the Trustmark logo.
Dave Sewell said:
Thank you both for your comments, and Dave your insight is useful information to us.
I think our main aim as a business is to build credibility and a professional profile so that we get more business, and build a name in the industry.
We looked into BALI membership a few years back , but I think we felt for that what we had to pay it was essentially just a logo on the website & letterheads etc..
We weren't overly convinced that potential customers paid a great deal of attention or that it is that widely recognised.
We were asked to quote up for a drainage job last year where the customer had plans drawn up by a landscape architect, the customer inadvertently sent me a list of recommended firms the landscape architect had put together, drawing attention to if they had any accreditations etc..
This I guess got us thinking about if it was something we should think about.
I think the trust mark scheme looks professional and is widely recognised - depends how well vetted they are, I know about plenty of cowboy builders who have "Federation of master builders" on their signs etc.. Some are not worth the paper their written on
I'd be interested to hear how other landscaping firms have found accreditations to help their business, I know sometimes its hard to quantify
Emily,
It's true that some architects do use the accredited lists to draw up their suggested contractors lists. This is because it's a very quick way of doing due diligence. They already know that the suggested firms tick all the boxes as regards legal , health and safety, insurance etc requirements.
You can't use the Trustmark scheme without going through significant hoops which is a good reason for embracing it and pushing it if you're an APL member. It's certainly more rigourous than the FMB.
Phil,
That's their choice whether they display the logo or not. The fact is that as APL members they have the automatic right to use the scheme IF THEY WANT TO. Non-APL members don't. Hopefully that clears that up
Dave
The two words 'Due Dilligence' says a lot when selecting who to employ OR who to work with.
Kevin
Several further options:
Further to David's good response, many commercial contracts specify use of SafeContractor, Exor etc approved Contractors. These schemes are also a means of performing extreme due diligence in the areas David notes below. All aspects are reviewed yearly without fail and if you fail you are removed from the scheme.
Many Council's Trading Standards departments also strongly recommend Domestic clients use the Buy With Confidence (BWC) Schemes which also check your trading history, trading entity, insurances T&Cs etc
Dave Sewell said:
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