Hey all, just completing my 3rd year as a gardener and have benefited from lots of great advice here in the forums so i've finally paid for premium to get full benefits of the forum!
I’ve just dropped 3 days private estate work a week year round due to personal circumstances but also because there was long travel distances to site and a ceiling on wages. So this leaves me with my domestic clients and some commercial client that i’ve built up over the last 3 years - with an urgent need to quickly build a larger client list in 2025. So before i take on new clients, I'd like to get my pricing dialled in so I can start strong.
I enjoy getting to learn about different plants and building a friendly relationship with clients that the domestic work offers, as well as the rogue recommendations that can lead to some interesting new jobs/clients. Learning as much as possible about techniques/plants is what i see as investing in myself for the future but I love the time flexibility and financial stability that commercial work offers, quoting yearly and billing monthly allows me to predict my year more accurately but also keeps my paperwork to a minimum until the end of the year when i have time to reassess everything.
I’d like to eventually make my business up of approx 70% commercial and 30% domestic work.
My first question relates more to domestic clients which I have regular maintenance schedule. Currently many of my domestic clients I picked up in my first year when I was telling everyone an hourly rate, and its become apparent the flaws with this system.
Some of these clients I really like but they will often dictate each time i go how many hours they think I should do that day, despite their gardens needing plenty of work year round and if an appropriate calendar was stuck to, we’d be pruning things, digging the soil, planting bulbs, spraying weeds all on the correct schedule that i’ve chosen each year. And it also gives me the predictability that means i can plan the calendar and know there is X income each month.
So my first question does anyone here use a system to quote yearly and bill monthly for regular domestic clients, spreading the yearly total across 12 months? What kind of problems am i setting myself up for by using this system? I’m sure there will be something i’ve overlooked.
Second question, in regards to commercial clients its obvious i'm undervaluing the work and not charging enough but i'm not sure why - i’ve seen quotes on the forum talking about £100 an hour for this kind of work, and i’m just wondering where this kind of valuation comes from? I’ve calculated all of my costs, pension, tax and my wages based on advice in the forum and the bare minimum i should ever charge for any job is £27 p/h. On commercial jobs I also charge for time & distance travelled to site. So heres my breakdown of pricing for commercial jobs:
Example:
Hours worked (Incl travel time): 3 Cost: £81
Mileage: 22 Cost: £19
Total: £100
So do these 4x valuations come from having a team and more expensive equipment? I’m on my own and my commercial sites are small so no ride-on needed but where do these valuations come from? Is it simply the going market rate and supply & demand?
Thanks for any help guys!
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Replies
Andrew been at it 40 plus years, we use the same system for both commercial and domestic. Price yearly pay monthly. Specification at outset for what is included and what is not, anythingnoutside spec is chargeable.
As to rates, yes £100 hr plus is achievable for commercial , we are 90% commercial and suppose we charge what the market will bear but remember it's not all profit ! The £100 hr is relatable to high fast you do the work and therefore the investment cost of the machinery. Why charge a little when you can charge a lot lol !
Thankyou for the insight Peter.
For your domestic clients, do you find it works better to inform the client you will be in their garden for x amount of time E.g. 4 hours fortnightly or do you organise the visits by task to allow more or less time dependent on the task?
Obviously the benefit of commercial is that you can be flexible when you go, but with domestic they will likely need to be present. I'm trying to avoid the pitfalls of hourly rates and i'm not sure if by giving the customer a monthly price, only to tell them i'll be there for X hours each month, i've created the same situation.
Thanks, something to think about, I think my pricing calcs are not far off, but perhaps has only considered the business costs as they currently stand and hasn't considered business growth and market rate.
Domestics are task and finish, no number of hours implied or given and they are generally not there when we visit. Yes specify weekly or fortnightly but once they start asking how long is a visit answer it will vary according to what work is nèeded, you need to walk if they push on time.
Assume when give a yearly price that you charge the same rate each month? This is the way to get your hourly rate up as once broken down into a 12 monthly cost which is what they focus on the cost per month seems reasonable to the customer. You need to emphasise the benefits of them knowing that they know in advance what the cost is going to be like them paying a set amount each month for their gas and electricity. Those are your terms of trade and if they don't like it walk away.
You need to earn £1 a minute as a minimum.
The task is weed the garden.... when does that finish?
I'm with Peter, we use the same for private and commercial, price for the year and divide by 12.
I always tried hard not to tell private customers how long we would be on site, but lots want to know, so our quotes now include eg '32 visits per year, 3 hours per visit'. I wish I could achieve Peter's rates, I can only assume that's including some expensive kit! we're nearer £40.00 plus VAT. At that we're not winning every tender on commercial work, and too expensive for a number of private enquiries.
Thanks Tim, its the system i'd like to use, but not 100% sure i'm good enough at estimating how long certain tasks take, Hedges or lawncutting is easy to calculate, digging, weeding or planting...not so easy to estimate time wise so Im still a bit torn on how to implement fixed rates.
Planting I would tend to price as a one-off. Weeding etc is just experience. I find a useful starting point is that the beds can often take about the same time as mowing, but obviously that can vary massively.
Andrew... I will answer another one of your queries... I always used to charge by the hour (I know not the cleverest, but it worked for me). If a client wanted me to come to them on a regular basis we agreed how many hours that would be before visit 1. If they gave me more than 3 days notice I would adjust it, otherwise it was that many hours. THis was written into the T&Cs and not hidden in a minute font.
I too often charge by the hour but that's partly because I want to know when I can leave, and when I can get to my next client. I really don't see a problem with it but I only work for private clients, only go to two clients a day, many of them elderly, and this suits them too. It means if I don't get to finish a particular task I'm not tied into staying for another hour to finish it, which would really wind me up and throw out all the timings for my day. As I balance family responsibilites such as cooking dinner with my working life I have to know where the days going to start and stop. I've also been lucky that I've only ever worked in my local area and don't have to travel more than about 20/25 minutes to any job. Many are only 10 mins away. Interesting that you had to write a T&C that stated they couldn't adjust the hours though at under 3 days notice. Very few of my regular clients try and change our hours. Some one off clients have tried to suggest that weeding a large area should take little more than an hour when it's obvious to me it'll take at least double or triple that time. I often walk away from clients who try and tell me how long something should take, especially if they say one hour! I have a two hour minimum now for that reason.
Absolutely agree Angela
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