Hi all,
I'm looking for a bit of advice really if anyone has any thoughts. I'm a mum to a young toddler so work part time and fit hours into nursery runs so for me it works well to have set regular hours at customers' gardens. Eg x2/3 hours a fortnight. The driving in between is a pain but okay and I enjoy my job. BUT, I charge £26 per hour and by the time I've taken off 35% to cover tools, PPE, holidays, weather, illness, insurance etc, and then 15% for a private pension I'm left on almost minimum wage. I then spend the equivalent of a decent amount of money a month unpaid on responding to messages from customers etc, so from a financial point of view it's not worth it. I have recently taken someone on which I sub contract some work and earn a little extra which is great, and is the only way I can see this all working. Any thoughts, has anyone been in this position ?
I have a level 2 RHS diploma, strimning/brushercutter and tractor with trailer certificates and 7 years experience over estates and now working for myself. Many thanks.
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Replies
Try and price per visit instead of hourly rate. 2-3 hour slots say to custumer £90-£100 per visit.
This will be half your day if you add travel to and from the job. Or have a minimum fee of x amount per visit. If a customer wants an hour or 2 it will be £50 - £70 minimum charge.
You are a skilled gardener and you should advertise that and charge accordingly. The work will come your way, you might just have to wait for the right work to come in. It takes time and you should always keep an eye out for better/more profitable jobs.
Most unskilled gardeners will charge £25 per hour you should be around £35 per hour mark.
If you are spending your time answering questions and working in your own time this needs to be added to the invoice as this is your expertise.
Think about fixed price package schemes for any planting/design plans for customers. Your time for designing and planning also any plants brought is your time and you should charge for it plus mark up between 5 an 10%.
Yet more good advice, charging an hourly rate is an illness which seems to be prevalent in "our" trade all it does is to devalue our skills,experience and investment in our businesses along with pandering to customers expectations for a low cost solution.
James you make a good point on the fixed price issue all our work, with the odd exception is on this basis. I.E commercial and domestic maintenance ( which is 90% of our work) is on a fixed annual cost spread over 12 months and paid in 12 equal monthly instalments regardless of the work undertaken in any particular month. Customers who don't wish to pay this way are politely told to look elsewhere for a contractor, it has advantages for both us and them, giving us a positive cashflow all year round and for the customer the reassurance of knowing exactly what their costs will be for a year.
Solicitors generally charge an hourly rate, I do not see that devaluing their profession.
If I was a customer and someone said to me I will come and sort your garden for £2500 per annum I would want to know how long they would be there and what exactly I get for it... we'll mow your lawn, cut the hedge and do some weeding as and when we feel like it, I would say on your bike.
After 40 years, never been asked for how long we would be on site for, yes we give a spec on what is included and what is not along with frequency of visits in each month . Just gained six new clients on this basis who are very happy that they know exactly what their costs will be for 12 months.
As it happens a family member is a corporate lawyer and the legal profession is moving away from hourly rates to fixed price per case.
I have been a professional gardener for 40 years. I work for all manner of clients, including Chatsworth Estate, local Councils and businesses etc. All work is price per task. So for example, a given mowing job is £120 per visit/cut. How long it takes is irrelevant to the client. What the client wants is for the grass to be mowed to a very high standard. I say it will be £120 and they say excellent, go ahead. What the client wants is a specific service, a specific finish. How long it takes me is not relevant. I have two ride on mowers. One is four wheel drive, one in use is faster than the other. It should not and does not matter which machine I use on this job given that the finish is identical. But one is quicker.
Charging per hour only means being on site for that length of time. It does not guarantee any standard of finish, nor does it guarantee that a given quantity of work will be completed in that time.
The £60p/h man who works twice as fast and much more efficiently than the £45p/h man is in reality cheaper to employ, but on paper he looks to be more expensive.
Which is better for the client – task completed to the required standard for £60 [one hour on site] or task completed to the required standard for £90 [two hours on site]?
Well said
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