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
Yeah you have to be a premium member
I've never understood the need for this BOG section other than a means to get a subscription payment............. this seems fair enough as I'm sure the site needs some income but why not just make everyone pay a small subscription to join LJ which I'm sure people will be more than happy to pay? From what I've seen of the BOG posts titles listed under BOG, there really isn't anything that needs to be kept under wraps and by restricting access to "premium members", it significantly reduces what could be helpful/useful replies.
I understood nothing in life is free! I would also hate for Mavis (if she could use the internet) to see any useful/helpful discussions ive contributed to where I've gleaned to charge her £65 for a job but only charged her friend Doris down the road previously £20 for....
Thumbs up to the BOG from me...
The bog provides that place where more sensitive subjects can be discussed , i.e contracts , customer disputes ,payment issues , legal issues . or even if you were on the verge of a nervous breakdown .
There are times you dont want to show The visiting public / your customers / potential customers , your competitors even your neighbours your hand of cards .
I find it comforting to know the bog is there if i need it .
Thanks for the info everyone
I feel you have totally missed the point regarding The BOG, but It is disingenuous to suggest it is purely a means to get a subscription payment.
However, the beauty of LJN is that everyone is free to voice their opinions.....
I have been a member of the BOG for four years, having joined the forum in February 2017.
It is the quiet back room in the pub where you can sit and discuss business matters that you would not sit and discuss in the public bar. Well, that’s how pubs used to be before the brewery knocked all the walls out and turned them into one great big room without any quiet places for a quiet chat, though now there seems to be a trend for some pubs to have “private dining rooms”.
Now compare that to the internet, generally discussion forums are one great big room that anyone can wander into and join in or listen to other people’s conversations. There are times when discussing certain business and other matters you don’t actually want everyone in the room to know about it, indeed you may be discussing someone who is standing in the corner listening to your every word.
So people set up closed Facebook groups and the like which limits who takes part in the conversation, though the acceptance process can be a bit akin to joining some secret fraternity with some questions that have been set to test your suitability for admission, though you suspect that giving an appropriate answer isn’t enough to prevent you from being black balled by a member of the committee as happens at some clubs because of some prejudice.
Yes, you have to pay to be a member of the BOG and the cost my membership over the few years is about to top £200, but it is only around eighty pence a week and it’s worth that to have somewhere you can dive into to ask delicate question or have a bit of a rant without everyone being able to eavesdrop or find out what you are discussing simply by putting your name into an web browser search bar.
I don’t know if you think that’s a good presentation of reasons to pay for a forum membership, but I am not planning to cancel my membership in the near future.
A bloke I have known for over fifty years took a country pub over that had been knocked through to make one big room out of the bar, lounge and restaurant.
I was sat in the pub having a drink one night and he said to me I am going to have to put the bar wall back up to separate it from the rest of the pub. He said whoever took the wall down hadn’t thought it through, on a Friday evening there were farmers and others finishing work sat having a pint in work clothes, Young Farmers meeting up and having a pint before going on out elsewhere whilst other people were treating Granny to a birthday meal and it just wasn’t working.
Sometimes in life a little separation can be a good idea, even if it involves a small membership fee to gain access to the private area.
Perhaps oddly, with the BOG I suspect it actually a membership fee to get to sit with the guys and gals in work clothes and toe capped boots rather than the suited and booted brigade.
The document bank in the BOG is worth the money alone, there are calculation docs, safe systems of work, and many other documents that have benefited me greatly over the years. And yes technically once I have them I don't need to pay for the BOG anymore but the weath of info in there that can be discussed as needed in private setting is invaluable so I will keep supporting that particular resource. And I put it against by books as professional membership because that's what to me it is.