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
Interesting website Gregory, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for that, where it says "Training, conferences and books - Yearly"
I inputted my machinery spend.. Great tool
This is a good wake up call.
I just did a quick 10 minute work out and found if I was charging by the hour to earn a clear salary of £17.5k after all costs I would need to charge £24.00 a hour.
Tonight I will work it out in more detail.
I charge by the job however I still need to know what I need to build in myself at
Thanks for this calculator.
Very interesting website; thank you! I have a spreadsheet up and from that I know what I need to make each week/month to survive. It is the most useful tool to have!
It's sobering, isn't it...? which is why this subject has had so so much exposure on landscape juice in the past.
Even if you don't go the whole hog, just look at what you currently charge and extrapolate it for a wake up call..
Number of hours worked per year (40hrs * 52 weeks) = 2080
Minus Holiday, sickness and weather - you'll be lucky to work 1950 hrs per year
If you currently charge £20 per hr, that's just under £40,000 t/over
Now take tax, vehicle, fuel, tools, insurance etc off ( ie your costs) and it probably ends up ...not a lot .......:-(
Now use the calculator like the link posted or an example perfectly explained and highlighted by Gary.
BUT now we use a different figure...
An example could be taken from "somebody travelling around a housing estate offering a cut for a fiver". We will also run this parallel with a £10 per hour charge rate.
Points to note. We have not include (please click)20% VAT
Would we all agree for this simple demonstration that £1800 would be an average FUEL cost for a seasons work? (remember this is all hypothetically speaking)
An estate car £1000 auto trader bargain basement
Agree on approx £600 vehicle insurance?
A B&Q lawn mower £200
Strimmer to include oil/ cutting cord £50 (flea bay)
A broom and bucket. £10
We will disregard uniform, ear defenders, anti vibration gloves, eye protection.
This little lot alone comes to £3660.
£3660 / £5 = 732 hours to recover outgoings.
£3660 / £10 = 366 hours to recover outgoings.
732hrs - 1950 hrs per year = 1218 profitable annual hrs.
366hrs - 1950 hrs per year = 1584 profitable annual hrs.
1218 * £5 = £6090
1584 * £10 = £15840
£6090 / 12months = £507.50 monthly take home
£15840 / 12months = £1320 monthly take home
£117.12 = Weekly salary
£304.62 = Weekly salary
£117.12 / 37.5 average working hrs per week = £3.12per hour.
£304.12 / 37.5 average working hrs per week = £8.11per hour.
£6.19 = National minimum wage
If we were to include VAT on a charge rate of £10 per hour then we would stand to earn £6.49 per hour.
If we were paying VAT it would be fair to say we are legitimate and that we would invest in health and safety equipment (eye protection, ear protection etc).
We would also consider public liability insurance.
Perhaps better tools?
Waste removal?
Training? This has to be carried out each year or proof of being in a professional organisation. (ie: evidence by magazine subscription that proves you are still running within modern day industrial parameters.)
One cannot operate 100% above the law on a charge out rate of £10 per hour.
Food for thought...
Here is another informative article from LJ's Blog with additional key information and guidance on working out your charging rates - whether you decide to charge per hour or by job :
http://www.landscapejuice.com/2007/02/what_should_i_c.html?cid=6a00...
It's hard to image how anyone can afford to charge less than £20 per hour these days, if they plan on doing it right.
Agreed.
Robbie @ PremierLawnsni said:
What a clever website this is! I'll be sure to share with my horticultural students. Many thanks for posting
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next