Good morning, I'm looking for some advise/help.
I run a family fencing and landscaping business with my dad. He runs the landscaping side and myself the fencing.
Up until about 2 years ago all of our employees were PAYE. But after 1 fencing supervisor retired and another 2 handed in their notice I decided to have guys self employed on price work for the fencing department. My dad had reservations but I convinced him to let me try it for 6 months and see how it goes. To say its been a revelation is an understatement.
My dad is looking to now step back/retire and I want to incorporate the same thing on the landscaping side but I am struggling to find anyone self employed and wanting to do it on price work. I.e they would earn £15/tree planted etc.
Is there anyone on here who a) runs their business this way and b) would be willing to offer an insight into what rates they pay?
I realise that rates would vary depending on location and ground conditions etc but just to have a rough idea from someone would be really helpful.
Thank you
JV
Views: 478
Replies
Josh, yes we only use self employed, stopped direct employment many years ago as got fed up of unrealiable , having a laugh, I've got a headache need to go home staff.
We are mainly commercial grounds maintenance and tree work with some soft landscaping one off planting jobs, no hard landscaping.
I suppose you could class our chaps as sub contractors really with their own machinery so work on a price to do the job rate but work for us on a very regular basis so it's difficult to put an hourly rate they are paid as every job is different, you don't say what landscaping sector you are working in?
How I work it is to price a job in my head, then ask for a price from the sub contractor and then quote accordingly to the customer, some jobs I get involved in some I don't.
Ball park - Labourers £120 to £140 day depending on the job. Stuff like strimming and planting.
Ride on mowing - £250 to £300 day.Hedgecutting £250 day. All with their kit.
Suspect none of this is going to help if you are looking for a day rate for someone doing hard landscaping !
Hi Peter,
Thanks for getting back to me.
We work for new build Developments so it's all building site work.
So on the fencing for example, I pay £13 for every meter of close board that's installed.
I want to be able to pay a landscaper so much per m2 for preparing the soil and laying turf for instance.
But I agree regarding getting sick of the excuses and having to pay sick pay.
Cheers
Jv
If it's any help our turf subbie charges £5 sq mt plus vat sq mt supply turf, rake and lay, and when I say rake the ground it's reasonably level to start with
OK that is a great help thank you.
How many hours in a day rate?
Only labourers on day rate 7hrs, rest of work is price per job, tried to break it down for Josh as an average which is not easy and is very much an average
OK. I ask cos sometimes have the problem with people when you say the job will cost X, and then they say can you do it on a day rate. Everything you read says never give people an hourly rate and Im thinking if I give day rates, well you have to knwo how long a day is, so not rocket science then to say what the hourly rate is... so I might aswell give them that... which everyone says dont do. So never quite worked out what to say to people.
Yes. Never give an hourly rate to the client, we only give a price for the job regardless of how we pay our sub contractors. We don't do day rates for the reasons you point out.