Hi all,
I am thinking about changing the way I work next year and doing away with 'regular' customers all together. By this I mean customers on a weekly or fought nightly basis who are billed on an hourly rate.
This would then leave me completely free to do one off jobs and obviously not so regular returns to these jobs.
My current position is 2-3 days of regular customer which don't really earn me enough and one off jobs on the other days which make the money. In addition to this I get sporadic work from a couple of letting agents and have a small monthly round of small gardens that take an hour or so each and are well worth keeping.
At this time of year I only use free advertising when I need a few more jobs and rarely keep the ad up for more than a couple of days as cant handle all the calls and resulting quotes.
My questions are; Does anybody else work just on 'one off' jobs? and is this a feasible way to work when looking at the year as a whole? ie. regular work is appreciated over the quieter months but does the increased income of one off work over the growing season outweigh this?
Does anyone have a separate business or sideline that takes forefront for the winter. eg Fencing?
Does anyone step up the advertising over the quiet times, or is it a waste of time?
Thanks
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Replies
Hi Joe,
Have you thought about raising your hourly rate ? If you're thinking of terminating your contracts, might be an idea to put your rates up first and you might kill two birds with one stone. You might keep your clients and raise your income.
Nick
Thanks Nick I will definitely think about it. My only problem however is maybe being too friendly with my clients to be able to raise it enough to get anything close to the earning potential of one off jobs. I fear someone telling you they are raising their rates by the best part of a tenner an hour might sound like a kick in the teeth and may not only mean loosing their custom but also their respect.
Joe
Why would you do this? It's asking someone providing a service that needs regular visits to avoid regular visits?
How long have you been in business?
Well Try it like this -
If your looking at a £10 per hour raise to your main rate - Split it in 2 or 3 bits - £5 an hour Starting sept the 1st, then £2,50 or £5 next spring - Overnight your looking at a huge jump in profitability, even if you loose a few - you get the same money for less toruble - and any customers who won't pay a fair rate are not worth keeping on the bvooks.
i don't have any regular jobs (repeat customers yes, but no regular jobs)
if you are essentially packing in the maintenance, barring your small monthly round, then you will find once you get a nice bit of work booked up, that any regular maintenance just becomes an inconvenience (or i did at least) up until 5 years ago, monday was maintenance day for me, felt so good when i binned it.
just make sure you have a book of work buiit up and that it is coming in regularly - you can be doing one or two quotes a night in the spring/summer, then sometimes when it goes quiet you start to wonder if the world has forgotten you - at least with maintenance your only concern is telling people you don't have any available slots for new customers.
I think the hourly rate is the problem. I sell garden maintenance, not time. Obviously I assess time needed as well as cost in ferts, killers etc. I set out what is to be done or not done and an annual price divided by twelve (sometimes there is a summer and winter price).
My clients pay to have thier gardens maintained and I am judged on how good the garden looks not how much time I spend doing it.
Leave the hourly rates to handymen and oddjobbers.
How does your hourly rate compare to other gardeners in your area ? If you're offering the same service (or better) and are considerably cheaper, then you need to talk to your clients. Hopefully your clients will understand. You're better off without the ones that don't.
It depends on the area you work in. Not every gardener on the forum offer a service that can command those prices.
Hi Stuart,
That is exactly how I feel. Mondays, Wednesdays are always maintenance days and just dont do it for me. Also never have any problems filling up time and generally try to keep it at about 2 weeks so people dont have to wait too long.
Only worry is the slow down over the winter
...
Cesare I also completely agree with you that the issue is working on an hourly rate. I dont however see how to do set price maintenance with a lot of gardens as there is always so many different things to be done - what do you include???
This may however be an issue to do with the type or garden/customer I am currently working with. As it is straightforward with the monthly work but they are a different type of customer/property.
Stuart Diprose Land-Scape.co.uk said:
I look after gardens and bill them the same each month, every month. Try and break down what you do in each garden and price it together including feeds etc. I find most clients prefer to know what they're going to be paying and can spread it over the 12 months of the year.
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