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 a 'one man band' garden designer and landscape contractor. This is my advice based on my past experiences:
1 - Keep on doing garden maintenance, I don't do it myself but it should provide your 'bread and butter' income during the summer months.
2 - If not already done so, study for an BTEC National Diploma/Certificate in Horticulture at a dedicated Land College. You will probably learn a lot more practical skills than on an HND, but will also learn design skills. I can't vouch for Garden Design courses because they didn't really exist when I studied!
3 - Take the oportunity to get your chainsaw/spraying certificates whilst still at college.
4 - Do night classes at your local FE college and learn AutoCad, Photoshop and simple bricklaying!
5 - Teach yourself Google Sketchup using tutorials.
6 - Produce your own website using moonfruit.com or blogspot.com and include your c.v., photos and testimonials if you have any.
7 - Create an entry on Google Maps Local Business Centre. It will get you on the front page of Google for people searching in your local area.
8 - Do yourself some fancy flyers using photoshop, get a good volume printed off at printing.com and hand deliver them to new build homes in your area. Look on your Local Authorities Planning Public Access website for people in nice areas that are knocking 'the preverbial' out of their homes and send them your flyer (their gardens will no doubt be knackered after the building work).
9 - Don't bother placing an advert in your local Yellow Pages. It's a rip off!
10 - Don't give up if at first you don't seem to be getting anywhere. It's going to take a while for gardens to mature and 'word of mouth' to spread about your service.
Good Luck
David
I'd agree with most of David's points but as an observation it would be good for you to think about what aspects of landscaping you'd like to focus on as this will, to a certain extent, help you to channel your efforts for the coming weeks and months. You mention wanting to offer a design and landscape service but also wanting to do general maintenance to keep yourself afloat. They're not mutually exclusive but do require different skills and knowledge as well as some overlapping ones. They also have different physical demands which may or may not be a consideration for you. For example I really get my kicks from bringing designs and customer's ideas to life rather than doing the actual designing so I focus primarily on landscaping. Landscaping tends to be harder physically than designing or maintenance as I am lifting and carrying flags, concrete fence posts, etc. most days. If you have a garden maintenance round then you will need to be able to schedule in fortnightly visits. You may find it a challenge to fit this in around e.g. landscaping where customers want a job seen through & jobs can take anything from a couple of days to a number of weeks. My customers wouldn't be impressed if I left part way through to go and do a few days maintenance! Instead I blend my landscaping with general property maintenance which gives me a winter income stream too. I do have a small number of gardens that I maintain but this primarily because they have been with me for many years & I wouldn't let them down.
Before deciding where to invest your time first, I'd suggest that you find some local professionals who specialise (1 each) in garden design, landscaping and maintenance and ask if you can spend a day or two with them (suggest you offer yourself for free) to gain a better understanding of what's involved in each.
Learning properly is essential and I'd recommend that you work alongside professionals whilst studying to pick up the 'tricks of the trade' as well as gain valuable practice. I cannot stress enough how important this is as great though the qualifications are there is no way they can help you to deal with the practicalities you will face in real customer's gardens.
In terms of building up your business there are many different ways to go about this. For example, if you wanted to focus on garden maintenance then you could start to build up a small round by working weekends initially. Similarly if you want to focus on garden design then it is feasible to start this in evenings/weekends.
Hope this helps
Donny
Would suggest having a plan as to what you want to do. Designer? Landscaper? Landscape Architect? etc
I've studied Interior Design plus Garden Design and was employed as a Landscaper before going S/Emp so I'd like to think that I've got an eye for it plus know how to build it.
It's crucial that you obtain a knowledge of Plants/Hard/Soft Landscaping so if you don't have this already then you need to get studying.
Whichever course you take, be prepared for some serious hard work. Trying to combine work with study is tough and was a big shock for me at first. End of term ends around May which is when things will be most hectic with the business so consider whether you can take all this on or not!
Find out your nearest college and make an appointment to chat to a tutor, they will give you an idea of what to aim for and are enrolling at this time of year.
Also, try and gain some experience on the Landscaping front - even if it's labouring or knocking up cement, you will learn a lot and it's this sort of knowledge that students lack. Having a degree is lovely but if the design can't be built or will fall apart due to poor construction knowledge, you won't last long in the business anyway.
I agree with David - Do not give up your maintenance jobs, you will be glad of them in the winter when the phone stops ringing for landscaping.
Yellow Pages = Waste of time
Advertise in Local newsletters/magazines
Always ask for discounts
Image/1st impressions count
Good luck!
I also started up working part time in a cafe and building the customer base from there. You could maybe try to find garden maintenance companies around your area that may need part time help before you set up. Because this is the silly season (growing season) we're all very busy. If you're based around Derbyshire then let me know as we may need some help in the future. However, you could do with some practical experience as well as the theory.
When you need to set up that's when you do your business plan. Work out your living costs and your running costs and what profit you'll want to make. You might want to do a mixture of both garden maintenance and garden design. Then you have a regular income through the year and you can do garden design projects through the winter. You also need to work out what customer base you'll be targeting to and work out roughly when to take the plunge to leave your ft work to go pt. It can be pretty daunting but it is a great job. You will find though if you maintain a decent reputation that you will start getting referrals very quickly.
I hope it all works out for you and if you do live near Derbyshire then feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to help you out.
I think it’s great that you are considering the change and by sounds of it going about it the right way and gathering all the information etc.
Please forgive me if I am being a “damp squid” – I am not a designer (other than my own garden) and therefore probably not the best person to comment however I have to question how profitable landscape design is particularly at the start up stage?
I believe there are 10’s of thousand of people graduating every year from various schools and correspondence courses so the market place would be very competitive and without a few projects under your belt it would be hard to sell your services.
All the landscape designers I know around my area other than the wonderful ones on Landscape Juice (and they know who there are) don’t appear to be very busy and tend to undertake small building projects (brick retaining walls and such).
As others (including yourself) have commented, building a client base by undertaking garden maintenance will help keep the wolf from the door but more importantly allow you to hopefully sell a garden redesign to one or two of them with referrals to follow!
Again not being a designer I am not sure but if you had a particular niche such as wild life, water features etc. as being your speciality can only help you target your market.
It’s not an easy life and it takes time to become reasonably successful but rewarding in many other ways. Try offering yourself to landscape designers / builders and try it out you may then decide it is not quite what you expected or hopefully you will have such passion for it that it will drive you towards your goal and gain valuable experience at the same time.
Good luck.
colin said:
Well, I feel that posting my query on this website and gathering the fantastic and extended tips is a great way to start off on perusing my career shift. There are so many good tips and I have started to look into sketch-up, contacted my local college re courses and am hooking up with a friend who does hard landscaping to build up core skills. This thread will be a great starting point for other people hoping to start up.
My plan is long term and will only come to fruition in approx 3 years - unless I go a bit crazy! So I will keep you all updated on how I progress and any positives / negatives I face along the way. This website is a massive positive!
Thanks for the excellent support and happy gardening.
Kirk
if you've managed to find your eye for a level then progression should move in the right direction, with out this priceless "tool" life could be costly and fustrating, only you have the answers to your questions.
Rain, not good, impossible to lay anything . Winter too, not good, must be 3 degrees and rising and it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................and on and on and on .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................and on ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................and on . And just when you think your starting to get a grip another door opens and your brain is flooded with more info required. It never stops. Me, i love my life couldnt have it any other way
If your ever in Devon give us a buzz, you'd be more than welcome to try your hand, plus you'd get to realise all the equipment required for drawing, pricing, packages, all the different tools and plant needed for each job, kirk the list of basic requirements are endless,believe in yourself, work bloody hard, keep your body and mind in excellent shape, most importantly never let the burning internal passion fizzle out, good luck to you. And be very careful with friends and business too.