I might end up regretting this but it seems a good idea for the moment:)
Rowly Hill, you know, our current member of the year and man of many hats, suggested to me a while ago that there should be a thread where members can ask questions about the site...or just about anything else for that matter.
Many of you send me private emails asking questions, not just about the site but about contracts, pricing, commercial maintenance, garden design...in fact almost anything.
So unless you need to keep the question confidential, why not ask your questions here so others may benefit from my answers.
BTW, if you feel you can answer any questions I'm asked or you can add something to my answer(s) or you disagree with an answer I might give, feel free to wade in.
So....who's first:)
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Replies
Ill be next.
What happened to the fee paid part of LJN?
When completing a landscaping project on a new build house, landscaping is zero rated i presume, if so does the developer/architect/builder provide the form 708 that accompanies our paperwork, HMRC website goes on and on..advice welcome please.
There is a garden in my village that had a tree blown over in the recent winds, It's still there balanced on its 5 ft high splintered trunk.
I'd love to sort it out, but i've never knocked on a door before to get work. I don't need the work i just want to sort the tree out.
Should i knock? and how do i make sure they don't think i'm just a door to door pikey?
There isn't a single reason for moving to France John.
I'd fell into business at the age of nineteen after breaking my femur, twice, at the ages of 17 & 18, in a motorcycle accident and then knocked down by a car.
At the time of my first accident I was working on Blackmoor golf course (1979/80) and loving every second of it: the open space, the freedom, the solitude, the landscape, the wildlife (I could go on but I'm sure you get my drift:)
Blackmoor laid me off after the second accident because I couldn't walk (which is essential for an assistant greenkeeper:-))
I then went to work on Lower Roundhurst Farm, Haslemere, as an assistant gamekeeper, gardener and farm help. My boss had to sell the farm after getting in difficulties and when I had to have a steel rod removed from my leg I was made redundant. It was another job I absolutely loved.
To stay off of the dole I started to do odd jobs for people and went to work for my mate's dad. He helped me get started: I worked for him for 1-3 days a week and then built up a gardening round of my own.
In 1984 I went self employed (charging £25.00 a day). I carried my tools in a mini car (flymo on the back seat with handtools behind the seats and my sprinkbok beside the passenger seat (because it was so long).
I worked long hours without holiday and built up my business. I went on to employ 16 people at one time but then a few things happened.
My mum had two heart attacks at the age of 49 and died just 8 years later (her mum died at 52). I was working long hours and the business was expanding when I had my own health scare. I collapsed on my office floor in front of my wife and one of my managers.
It was just a year after mum had passed away so my wife Donna, knowing the family history, suggested I started to slow down. Then I had a second scare and was taken to hospital a few weeks later.
My heart was fine but racing too fast. It was stress related.
Three members of my staff left on the same day to form a landscaping business and I decided (almost there and then) I wanted to change direction. I tried to replace my team initially but for the next year my enthusiasm had gone and my turnover dropped by about 40%.
(I'm trying to keep this short:)
Anyway, Donna and I had holidayed in France since we were married and I loved it. Like so many people we thought about a holiday home initially but changing circumstances meant we decided to visit a few properties.
It happened so quickly in the end. In September 2003 we drove down to Loches and looked at a wonderful old converted barn. We didn't buy it but within weeks our cottage was on the market and so was our business.
A month later a friend, who I'd employed in the early nineties and who now had a successful landscaping business, agreed to buy my company. By February the following year I'd sold my company and by October 2004 We'd sold the house and moved to France.
We bought an old farm to renovate (www.perigordvacance.com). I put my construction experience to good use and spent the next 2 years building one house and renovating another.
Trouble is I ran out of money: savings all gone.
We originally thought we'd buy three holiday rentals (property was that cheap in France) and make a living that way. But because we ended up doing a renovation, this didn't happen the way we'd envisaged.
I love technology and I felt I could (naively) make money from the internet and live happily ever after, drinking wine by the pool and working just a few hours a week.
When we arrived in France I was introduced to Craig McGinty. Craig is a journalist and was an early adopter of the internet and had also moved to France.
Chatting with Craig I said I needed to earn a living and when I said I didn't want to return to landscaping/gardening, he said why waste all that Juice? Why not put it to good use.
I started writing Landscape Juice in 2005 initially to make money but it became a passion and a mission.
As a business owner I knew what it was like working on my own and I knew that there were many many people who would feel the same anxieties, suffer the same frustrations and have the need for shared knowledge and information so in 2008, LJN was born.
Money isn't now my motivation and I'm extremely proud of what the site's become (I still work long hours though:(
Hope that answers your question?
john pugh grass roots said:
Hi Rowly
I took the button off when Marshalls offered to sponsor the network. I didn't want to seem like a scrounger:)
I have been adding a link to the newsletter recently if anyone wishes to donate and happy to add a donate button again.
Rowly Hill said:
Wow sounds like a book should to follow Phil..
Type a quick note on headed paper and post it in their box...that way they are under no pressure with you at the door, they can see you are local and they have time to think about it and contact you.
andrew doughty said:
Hi Steve
The web is still developing and it is still not ready to accept paid communities.
LJN's strength is its openness, shared knowledge and the Google Juice it produces. restricting access will reduce LJN's effectiveness. I'll continue to monitor this.
Steve Sonic Grounds Maintenance said:
Phil why is the sky blue? Why not orange or purple?
Where to begin Alan:)
I wouldn't try to grow my business big and I would try to balance between between business and recreation. I always felt I had to be working but now I know - and a lot has been learnt from LJN members - that if the price is right on a job then you don't need to work Sundays?
Alan Hannah said:
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