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A good question i think it affects many of us .
I can only imagine we need to generate enough income and keep enquiries coming in to sustain growth .
Do you get the work lined up before taking on employees or get employees in place who we can support from capital held in the business or overdraft until more work comes in ?
What has become apparent in current climate is just how many different businesses have gone under or struggling when their cash flow has been cut off or reduced due to lockdown in a relatively short time .
Many on here have built up good businesses and successfully traded through previous recessions they can possibly provide some useful and interesting feedback to your question and how they made that initial leap from sole trader to employer .
prob not the best time to think about it with alot people at home and possible recession.
As I have said many times before, it’s all about having either the right, or the wrong, sort of clients. The right sort of clients are not only a pleasure to work for and supply long term and reliable work, but also generate more work opportunities along the way. This is truer with commercial work than with domestic, so PCC’s [churchyards], local councils, local Businesses/Firms and large Country House estates etc.
These type of clients will periodically ask you to take on new jobs. For example, I mow and trim shrubs for a large [international] company on a trading estate. They are about to expand [they are bucking the trend and doing really well] and take on adjacent offices/warehousing and I will be required to do the grounds maintenance there also. So there will be new, good and profitable work supplied to me without any advertising, because they are the right sort of client.
I have never advertised. This is the wrong approach for me. As I have also said before, you need to target potential clients and go and see them, talk to them and make them aware of your services. It is this friendly and professional personal contact that makes the good impression and gains the work. Eventually you have built up such a large network of contacts and clients that it takes on its own momentum.
I also do regular work for a large country estate. It is a matter of course that they will constantly ask me to do additional extra jobs for them. When tenants leave they will ask me to mow and cut hedges for a few weeks or months until a new tenant is found. There will also be some winter work to do for them too. This again is the right sort of client. They would never take on a contractor from an advert. In fact they have approached me to ask me to recommend a dry stone wall builder and to also recommend a tree surgeon.
So go and target these ‘right’ sort of clients rather than advertising and hoping that they will see the ad. What actually happens is that the advert is more often seen and answered by the sort of clients you don’t want. The sort that ask you ‘how much do you charge to cut grass/ trim a hedge? What a stupid question! That one always frustrates me. It never occurs to them that it’s not one size fits all.
I personally would never ask any tradesman to do anything for me just from an advert. It is always someone I know personally and trust, someone I have built a relationship with over many years, or at least someone who is recommended to me by someone I trust.
yea kind of how my work has grown from referalls, i did end up having too much from the same company once and that caused problems as all income in one basket and did eventually lose a couple but gained better work elsewere. I take your comments on board thks
I suppose for every decent enquiry I get - as in a garden measured in acres, or large bit of commercial work I get 50 of the garden tidy and "what is your rate" enquiries, if there is space in the diary we always make sure we make time for them.
The first couple of calls we always make sure we are there exactly on time, kill them with kindness and I would say 50% of those ask us back for another visit(s), and 50% of those turn into regular clients. That is how we grow the business. We have never advertised, though we have a small FB group and a very simple website. One new client that we took on last year has this year introduced us to 3 new clients, all friends of theirs, all with far larger gardens than the original client. If we had said no to them, we would be missing out on 3 large half acre gardens.
Working with someone is (imo) tricky, its got to be the right person - for me they have got to know their plants, pruning etc etc etc., and want to do gardening I dont want someone that needs to be plugged into headphones or have the radio on the whole time, and they have got to be ready to start work at around 8 every morning - finding that person took me a while... and even now it has its issues.
Before this I worked for large companies and had upwards of 200 people working for me - that was far far easier to manage.
As for how you grow to the point that you need a 2nd person, I just took on more clients (use Bark or similar to grow it quicker) - when I was 110% full, I took on someone who I had already interviewed and said "yes" to, but not given them a start date.... then, when I was sure I had the right person, we had capacity to take on another load of clients - back to Bark and the like.
That said I wouldnt do that in December :)
Good luck... oh and why not join here as a Pro, there's lots of useful help in the form of downloads and advice then.
Hi Ian
I've got a few lads who help me out
Basically I find that having another member makes the job easier if your cutting a hedge and they are cleaning or if your mowing and they can edge and help in and out with the tools you can get a lot more production in a day
However on jobs where I have left the lads to there own devices
I find nobody works as hard as the owner
Its your reputation at stake
Are you willing to let them loose on an existing customer? Or create new custom for them?
I was worried about them potentially taking the customer at first
But I guess that's business for you.
We encourage our staff to take "ownership" of the gardens we maintain and have found this has the best results as they are then fully motivated to carry out work to a high standard.
For me the answer was simple. Sub-Contractors. I have no desire to employ someone. To be having to find enough work for them, to have to find their wages every week despite clients not paying me as quickly, to have to give them holiday pay [I don’t get holiday pay], sick pay [I don’t get sick pay] and PAYE and NI to deal with.
I do not want to be tied to all the legal responsibilities and financial obligations. Life and running a successful business is hard enough. The reason to employ someone is to make your business bigger, to take on more work and to have your employee generate income for you. To increase turnover so as to increase profits.
The sub-contractor also means you can grow the business taking on more work than you could cope with on your own. They too will generate income for you. One of the two that I use mows my very large areas of grass, because they have the very large, fast and efficient machinery. The other one does the more prolonged and difficult strimming that I simply don’t want to do myself. Whilst he is doing that I am somewhere else working on a job that is easier and much more enjoyable. One of them has worked for me for many years.
Employing someone is a very big commitment and to me the reason to employ someone can much more simply be accomplished with sub-contractors.
I have often wondered how garden contractors with employees go on when there is two feet of snow [which has at times gone on for weeks] or torrential rain and prolonged winds. Can you still find something for the employees to do? And if they can’t work at these times, do you still pay them a wage?
Yes agree that prob best route for me too. I've been there myself many years ago. They had us washing vans. Tidying the yards even painting and carpet cleaning when I was once employed and a bad winter for months.
great to hear how others approach it, this year has been my busiest ever, most jobs I take on, I am able to do solo. I know other local gardeners who take a helper with them, however they often charge as little for 2 people what I do for just me working on my own. Cutting a hedge, and clearing up the mess too can be soul destroying. But not too bad if catching the clippings on a sheet as you go along. The big hedges I have sometimes gone and done the side or part of it, then gone elsewhere to cut lawns in the afternoon for example. This stops me getting bored. Having a helper is all well and good but sometimes they would be standing idle whilst I am cutting enough hedge for example for them to clear up. It is not surprising how slowly some people actually work when they need to drag it out all day
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