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Charging structure

Morning all,

My wife has been running a gardening business (planting/maintenance with a bit of design) for just under 2 years and I will be joining her from Autumn.  We plan to build the business up over the next couple of years and will be building up some qualifications as well as working.

I'm sure this will have been covered before but is anyone able to share their charging structure, i.e. minimum charge, hourly rate, cost for waste removal etc. 

We are based on the north west.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers

Chris

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Replies

  • Hi Chris,

    Plenty of debates on whether to charge hourly or fixed. Ultimately, it depends on the clients you can pick up and what they want.

    There is a very good hourly rate calculator on here, although not sure where though. PM me and I can send over the .xls if you want.

    I would suggest around £20 per man hour and £3-5 per bag of green waste (£25-30 for ton sacs). Obviously the more complex the garden the more you should charge.

    [Think there will be many here who disagree and would advocate only fixed pricing per booking, or suggest charging double that per hour. All I can say is that we can all charge what we want - this is just my suggestion as you asked].

    Cheers,

    Mike

  • Oh minimum of 2 man hours, or 1 hour weekly.

  • if you register as pro and then go to the B.O.G section of the website you'll find a lot more useful info.

    I started last year, charging hourly. A few months ago I switched to fixed price and I am now earning better money, with the potential to earn a lot more as I grow my customer base further.

  • PRO

    The 'What & How to charge' debate is an emotive topic.

    The 'What to' is very specific - no one can answer that except yourself after having sat down with some key personal financial figures and worked it thru'. As Mike alludes to there is a great free spreadsheet on the LJN front page.

    The 'How to' is often market or sector driven. You often see people stating they are struggling to earn and that is partly due to the 'What tot' above but sometimes because they are charging by the hour. By doing it hourly you straight away limit your earnings - simple maths determines that whereas fixed price opens up your earnings, focuses you, makes you look for solutions and makes the day go faster ;)

    The BOG has many discussions where other practitioners have shared their experiences and sometimes share their financials.

    Ultimately the choice is personal and what you want to do with your business.....

  • All - thanks for the really helpful replies. Will look at signing up for pro to get access to BOG - sounds like it might be with it. Much appreciated. Chris
    • Hi Chris, just to further endorse the above advice to join for pro membership for access to the BOG. The small cost is worth it many times over and you will be able to search for and place new posts for a wealth of information to aid your business.
      • Good advice. Will join up this weekend. Again, your experience and advice is much appreciated
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