I know there is a similar thread about moving clients to a fixed price rather than hourly rate (and yep, I still charge hourly!), but I thought it worth saying about what you do for 'maintenance clients'.
I have a number of maintenance clients and basically I do whatever tasks are a priority in their gardens when I get there, or what ahs been asked of me in advance by the clients. It got me thinking the other day when I was at a regular clients and spent my 3 hours visit doing a large hedge cut for her. My hourly maintenance rate is lower than I charge for a one off job - which is what most of my hedge cutting jobs are - so this client was getting a really good deal off me by asking me to do this during a regular visit!
It got me thinking that even if you do charge hourly on maintenance, there should still be some form of written confirmation of what is included for the money and what is not. I think I need to do some serious looking at my operation to ensure I'm not just being used because I work out cheaper than the competition!
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This does prove the point about hourly rates: how can the customer expect you to be doing hedge work for the same price as hand weeding?
Even with my hourly-rate work I will charge more for work that requires expensive machinery, large quantities of waste etc. You have to be making the same money after your costs, and those costs vary a lot.
Putting it in writing makes a lot of sense. You could add it to the terms you already send new clients, just a simple clause that you have quoted them XXX price per hour, but will charge XXX per hour for the following work, eg hedges, tree work.
Alternatively, when first quoting you could be specific about what you would treat as a one-off fixed-price job, excluded from your hourly rate.
Ultimately, it does get complicated, and if the client sees your pricing as difficult to understand then that's not good. "I charge £22.50 per hour for maintenance, £28.50 per hour for hedges, £48.00 per full load of waste, £3.00 for roundup to spray your drive for weeds" sounds like "I'm going to charge you a lot more than you think"! £120 per month to include absolutely everything over an entire year, set up a standing order and forget about it" is so much better for busy clients.
We throw it all in, anything that would be needed during a 12month period to keep the garden up to scratch. That way you can include the one off hedges, pruning, jet washing, scrifying etc at your rate for the job and the customer would pay over 12 months all inclusive. You also get the flexibility of knowing the job needs doing and fitting it into your schedule, with no nasty "Ooo, while you are her can you just...........!!!" to put your schedules out.
sounds good! I think I need to work on a 'pro-forma' sheet to fill out when I first look at gardens to help me stay on track with what needs to be done...
Reckon its a bit like "swings and roundabouts" as they say.............. sometimes you'll have an easy time with your 3 hours, sometimes its harder when you do loads of hedgecutting.... it all balances out. One-offs are different...... it's all hard work with the hedgecutting.
Agreed, some people are fixated on the hourly rate/contract situation. I have several hourly rate jobs that are worth 2-3k a year.
Interesting thread. I'd never thought of charging differently for different jobs. If a hedge, say, takes longer, than on an hourly rate you end up getting up more money. I have one client for whom I only do grass normally, but every so often she asks me to do extra. I just pay for the extra time it takes me to do those jobs. I have to cut two circles of box in her front garden every year. Thank goodness for box growing slowly that's all I can say. They're so close together you can hardly get a hedgecutter in there but it would be too knackering to do it with shears. I also think hand weeding is harder work than hedgecutting, but I guess it depends on the type of weeds and perhaps more importantly the type of soil you're trying to get them out of and what size of hedge you're talking about! There are so many variables that's why I only charge hourly.